338 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



another pass we had discovered when looking 

 for kudu, to the Third Bench again. Here we 

 camped in the valley of Lengeetoto. 



This valley is one of the most beautiful and 

 secluded in this part of Africa. It is shaped like 

 an ellipse, five or six miles long by about three 

 miles wide, and is completely surrounded by 

 mountains. The ramparts of the western side 

 those forming the walls of the Fourth Bench 

 rise in sheer rock cliffs, forest crowned. To the 

 east, from which direction we had just come, 

 were high, rounded mountains. At sunrise they 

 cut clear in an outline of milky slate against the 

 sky. 



The floor of this ellipse was surfaced in gentle 

 undulations, like the low swells of a summer sea. 

 Between each swell a singing, clear-watered 

 brook leapt and dashed or loitered through its 

 jungle. Into the mountains ran broad upward- 

 flung valleys of green grass ; and groves of great 

 forest trees marched down canons and out a 

 short distance into the plains. Everything was 

 fresh and green and cool. We needed blankets 

 at night, and each morning the dew was cool and 

 sparkling, and the sky very blue. Underneath 

 the forest trees of the stream beds and the 

 canon were leafy rooms as small as a closet, or 



