268 THE LAND OF THE LION 
as Longfellow very accurately wrote in his New England 
study; and very completely here does the swamp swallow 
and hide the strong stream. Here too the Grant, the 
Tommy and the impala come down to drink, and here 
nightly the lion’s deep hunting call sounds. About once 
a year elephants appear on its borders. Most probably 
these come from blue Mount Kinan Kop some fifty miles 
away, for Kinan Kop still shelters many bands of elephant 
among its bamboo forests and, were it not set over against 
Kenia, would be a mountain worth coming far to see. 
I have written elsewhere of Mr. Stauffacher’s mission 
work. His little mission house stands on a rocky knoll 
by the swamp border, and his garden occupies a little 
corner of its green fringe. He has well tested the valuable 
properties of this hard damp, rich soil, as its roses and 
vegetables prove, and here with the help, most readily 
given, of the civil officer, Mr. H. B. Partington, he intends 
to carry out a modest scheme of irrigation which should be 
both easy and inexpensive to accomplish, and would give 
some practical evidence to the wandering Massai of the 
productiveness of their land. One irrigation ditch, taking 
the water from the river, just before it enters the swamp, 
would irrigate hundreds of acres of as rich land as can be 
found anywhere. And since the Guasi Narok is fed 
almost entirely by mountain springs its flow can be counted 
on. Mr. Stauffacher also mentioned to me another 
scheme which this mission cherishes. ‘That is to establish 
a sanatorium on the shoulder of Kinan Kop. The 
mountain is very accessible, and many spacious plateau 
and slopes are to be found situated well above the frost 
line. Water will sometimes freeze as much as an inch 
at night. The country below is (for Africa) densely 
inhabited and well cultivated. Food supplies are abundant 
and the mountain springs are clear and cold as mountan 
springs should be. I cannot fancy any place that would 
