8 THE LAND OF THE LION 
from them and sold. The discipline was severe, but it 
seems to have been most necessary. So far as the natives 
are concerned these plateaus are now as safe as Central 
Park, and there are probably more lions there than in any 
other part of Africa. 
One hundred and forty miles from Kilimanjaro, and some 
thirty from Nairobi, another view of surpassing interest 
suddenly bursts on you. It is the first peep into the very 
heart of a bit of primeval African forest — and it, too, 
to be had, from the cushioned seat of the railway carriage. 
Shortly before reaching Escarpment station (Es- 
carpment in British East Africa means a steep line of 
sharply defined mountainous country) the road begins 
to plunge downward. ‘The zigzags are very sharp, and 
the torrent beds are far below. Here a dense belt of 
forest country, stretching many miles to north and west, 
has to be traversed, and, as I said, you can have your first 
glance into the impenetrable, inextricably interwoven 
masses of all kinds of greenery that, matted and twisted 
together, make up the living wall of the African wood. 
In such cover man’s progress is only to be achieved 
by the hardest sort of work. The ponderous elephant 
alone moves there at will, breaking and bending as he 
pleases everything in his way. And when the wild man 
passes he passes only by the paths the elephant has made. 
You may travel or hunt for a long time in the country 
and yet never really get such a good idea of the quality 
of the forest as you can from the train. On foot or on 
horseback such jungle is always avoidable. It is most 
dangerous to hunt in, and the noise that even a naked 
N’dorobo (wild man) must make is enough to disturb the 
game. Look, now, right down into its labyrinth of tree 
stems and creeper. Into its cool damp glades, into chasms 
cloven by yearly torrents whose rocky sides are clothed 
many yards deep with densest hangings of tropic tangle. 
