BRUSH AND FOUEST 



This method of travelling, so long as it is in a 

 bush or forest country, does not prevent one from 

 carrying out a prismatic compass traverse. At fre- 

 quent intervals I took both forward and back bearings 

 of the direction of the trail, and read my aneroid, or 

 noted the temperature at which water boiled, in order 

 to get the variations in altitude. This method of 

 surveying sounds extremely rough, but it is the 

 usual, and, in fact, the only practicable one in dense 

 jungle, and when checked by proper astronomical 

 observations yields surprisingly accurate results. 



At first the country consisted of the usual bush, 

 but gradually this gave place to forest equally dense 

 but more interesting. Huge yak trees with weirdly 

 gnarled trunks, and tall, slender mimosas took the 

 place of the withered scrub of which I had grown 

 so tired ; and the undergrowth of thorn and aloes 

 changed into green shrubs with beautifully coloured 

 flowers, some red, others mauve, but the majority 

 white. Fluttering from bush to bush were a multi- 

 tude of white moths, and so numerous were they, 

 that they became almost as annoying as the flies. 

 Except on this one occasion I saw not a single 

 other specimen of this particular moth in Jubaland. 

 The road wound in and out among the trees in a 

 most bewildering fashion, until, some four hours 

 later, we emerged into a little glade where two 

 gigantic yak trees stood sentry over a little pool 

 of rain-water. Here I decided to camp, and, after 

 a welcome cup of cocoa, lay down and dozed until 

 the camels arrived about noon. As I moved to 

 allow them to pitch my tent in the shade beneath 

 the tree, a francolin rose at my very feet with a 

 tremendous whirr, leaving her nest with six eggs 



79 



