CHAPTER XIX 



SNOW-BLIND ON MOUNT KENIA 



WHILE it is true that I knew nothing 

 of forestry, the government was also 

 aware of the fact, so I felt that I had 

 not accepted, under false pretences, the position 

 of forester," said a former occupant of the West 

 Kenia Forest Station. 



"My superior at Nairobi had told me that 

 my chief duty would be to watch for forest fires 

 and to extinguish any that occurred. He also 

 instructed me to hire a gang of Kikuyu natives 

 and cut a trail up the south side of Mount 

 Kenia to timber-line. I was working on this 

 trail when my friend Brown, whom I had 

 asked to come up and visit me, arrived, and we 

 planned to go high up on the mountain and 

 do some exploring after the trail was finished 

 and the men had been discharged. 



"We two * trekked' to an altitude of thirteen 

 thousand seven hundred feet and pitched our 

 tent. On the morning of the third day at our 



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