282 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



age; though what there was of this foliage, now brilliant 

 green, was exquisite in hue and form, the sprays of delicate 

 little leaves being as fine as the daintiest lace. On the 

 foot-hills all these thorn-trees vanished. We did not go as 

 high as the forest belt proper (here narrow, while above 

 it the bamboos covered the mountain side), but tongues of 

 juniper forest stretched down along the valleys which we 

 crossed, and there were large patches of coarse deer fern, 

 while among many unknown flowers we saw blue lupins, 

 ox-eye daisies, and clover. That night we camped so high 

 that it was really cold, and we welcomed the roaring fires 

 of juniper logs. 



We rose at sunrise. It was a glorious morning, clear 

 and cool, and as we sat at breakfast, the table spread in 

 the open on the dew-drenched grass, we saw in the south- 

 east the peak of Kenia, and through the high, transparent 

 air the snow-fields seemed so close as almost to dazzle our 

 eyes. To the north and west we looked far out over the 

 wide, rolling plains to a wilderness of mountain ranges, 

 barren and jagged. All that day and the next we journeyed 

 eastward, almost on the equator. At noon the overhead 

 sun burned with torrid heat; but with the twilight short 

 compared to the long northern twilights, but not nearly as 

 short as tropical twilights are often depicted came the cold, 

 and each night the frost was heavy. The country was un- 

 tenanted by man. In the afternoon of the third day we 

 began to go downhill, and hour by hour the flora changed. 

 At last we came to a broad belt of woodland, where the 

 strange trees of many kinds grew tall and thick. Among 

 them were camphor-trees, and trees with gouty branch 

 tips, bearing leaves like those of the black walnut, and 



