AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



come, and should reach our camping place about 

 noon of the next day. 



We ourselves stopped about four o'clock. In a 

 few hours we had come a hard three days' march. 

 Over the side went our goods. We bade the German 

 a very affectionate farewell; for he was still to fill 

 our drums from one of the streams out of Kiliman- 

 jaro and deliver them to us on his return trip next 

 day. We then all turned to and made camp. The 

 scrub desert here was exactly like the scrub desert 

 for the last sixty miles. 



The next morning we were up and off before 

 sunrise. In this job, time was a very large element 

 of the contract. We must find our fringe-eared 

 oryx before our water supply gave out. Therefore 

 we had resolved not to lose a moment. 



The sunrise was most remarkable lacework, 

 flat clouds, with burnished copper-coloured clouds 

 behind glowing through the lace. We admired it 

 for some few moments. Then one of us happened 

 to look higher. There, above the sky of the horizon, 

 apparently suspended in midair halfway to the 

 zenith, hung like delicate bubbles the double snow- 

 clad peaks of Kilimanjaro. Between them and the 

 earth we could apparently see clear sky. It was in 

 reality, of course, the blue heat haze that rarely 

 leaves these torrid plains. I have seen many moun- 



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