Kumba to the Lake 



ing the Kuesca river to Bukartsu, and then to the 

 lake, as I had previously done, we struck straight 

 across to the head of the lake from Kumba. We 

 started off with an enormous climb, and then suddenly 

 the path led straight over a precipitous escarpment. 

 I have never seen anything so steep in the shape of 

 paths in my life, and two porters, one carrying my 

 bath, fell over and did not stop until pulled up by 

 a tree or root. The latter fell with his head right 

 under the bath, so why he was not killed I do not 

 know, except that the bath was softer than his head — 

 a very likely possibility. After a great delay we 

 reached the bottom, where I had to halt to enable 

 the exhausted porters to rest for half an hour. We 

 then followed a stream to the lake. I had some 

 difficulty in getting them away from this river, as 

 they made a rush for it en masse, throwing down 

 their loads hap-hazard, and creating great disorder 

 and delay. It only wanted another half hour's 

 march to bring them to the camp on the lake, where 

 they could obtain as much water as they liked. 



On our arrival in camp I found a letter nailed to 

 a tree from the man who was in charge of the civil 

 affairs of the expedition, to say that they had gone 

 nine miles farther on, Shordy afterwards, when the 

 whole camp had been pitched, two hurriedly written 

 letters arrived from the commanding officer of the 

 escort to the expedition, ordering us to hasten 

 forward. Nothing for it but to push on, and our 

 wretched, under-fed porters moved forward once 

 more. See the scene depicted as " Packing up in 



167 



