56 THE LAND OF THE LION 
One mile from the ravine boma the trail toward Guash’- 
ngishu plateau, whither Iam bound, plunges across the Mau 
forest. There its belt is about fourteen miles wide, but 
the sinuosities of the path make it a hard day’s tramping. 
If there has been much rain, you slide down hill and slip up, 
till you feel you are working out the old problem of the snail 
that crawled up six feet of wall at night and slipped back 
five feet eleven inches during the day. ‘The miles seem 
very long indeed, as you plod along in the semi darkness. 
Mighty trees, rising some of them a hundred feet without 
knot or branch, mostly junipers, tower above you, and dense 
green tangle, thick and high as a woody wall, shuts you in; 
progress, unless along the narrow well worn path, is out of 
the question. 
The great Mau forest, which the path crosses at a narrow 
point, is well worth studying. Here and round Mount 
Kenia are the future lumber regions of the East. I fear I 
run the risk of wearying some by such lengthy reference 
to the great woodland region. But to me it seemed, not 
from the traveller’s or hunter’s point of view only, but from 
the point of view of one wishing that all good things may 
come to the dear old land where he was born, a possession so 
important, an asset so valuable, that every Englishman 
should be interested in its safeguarding. 
One immense advantage the African lumber regions have, 
over those of Canada and the United States. ‘They are 
practically fireproof. Let the high grass fire come rolling 
down, in as fierce a flood as it may. Let even a furious 
wind drive iton. It sinks, baffled and beaten down, at the 
very foot of those great, green walls. The dense and 
dank herbage, like a vast, wet, enfolding blanket, almost 
instantaneously smothers it. 
Here, there is a great lumber region insured against fire 
and as yet absolutely untouched by man. No local demand 
for its timber could possibly exhaust even a small fraction 
