26 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



to keep a night fire. To this end he sleeps in the open 

 alongside his blaze. Periodically he arises, buckles on 

 a cartridge belt, seizes his gun, puts a stick on the fire, 

 lays dowTi the gun, takes off the cartridge belt, and 

 stretches himself out to sleep. Great is habit! It is 

 very amusing. 



Five hours; 14 miles; elevation, 4,500; 5:00 a. m., 60; 

 noon, 84; 8:30 p. M., 65. 



July 12. — Start at 6:40 through a rocky volcanic pass 

 out on to a long scrub slope, miles and miles wide, at 

 the foot of which was the N'gouramani River* and 

 the Mau escarpment. Beyond and above the latter we 

 could see the Narossara Mountains. 



The men knew this was to be a long, hard march, and 

 they were aU improvising songs the burden of which 

 was "Campi m'bale, campi m^bale sana." {'' Camp is far, 

 camp is very far.") 



We saw little game until within four or five miles of 

 the river. Then appeared Robertsi, zebra, kongoni, 

 one herd oryx, ostrich, many warthog, and six giraffe. 

 Brilliant bul-buls, horn-bills, mori, and many grouse 

 represented the bird family. Near the river were 

 hundreds of parrots. 



The river which we reached at last about two o'clock 

 proved to be in flood and running fast. A rotten old 

 rope spanned it. Four Kikuyus were drowned here 



* Otherwise the Southern Gwaso Nyero. I prefer the other name to 

 distinguish it from the Northern Gwaso Nyero, from which it is separated 

 by some hundreds of nules. 



