274 THE LAND OF THE LION 
On the one hand are the forest-clothed slopes of Kinan Kop, 
no insignificant mountain, but dwarfed by the solitary 
giant opposite it, whose summit rises rocky and snow- 
crowned to 18,600 feet. There are many beautiful things 
to see in this wild land, but the one thing unsurpassably 
beautiful is the brief pageant of the African sunrise. To 
tell the truth, getting up before the morning is not at first 
an easy or pleasant thing to do, but to make good marching 
or to enjoy good sport it should be done, and done reg- 
ularly; and soon you find that these first and freshest 
hours, nay moments, of the day are well worth the effort 
they cost. 
From Mt. Kenia’s broad base there stretches to the 
east, north and northwest one of the most impressive plains 
to be seen anywhere. A large part of it is Massai Reserve 
but sportsmen can obtain permission to hunt on it from 
Lieutenant Governor Jackson, at Nairobi, who issues 
all hunting permits. Many visit the country, but few 
do more than camp at the junction of the Guasi Nyiro and 
Guasi Narok. The river should be followed up to its 
very sources, on the slopes of Kenia — for here is some 
of the finest hunting country in the world. 
We found ourselves at this central camp on the Guasi 
Nyiro, in the very middle of an unusually severe wet season, 
but though rain in these parts has some disadvantages, 
there are certain solid compensations which it brings with 
it. Chief among these must be reckoned the fact that, 
though we were in the Massai country, 7. e., the cattle 
country, the very original source and breeding place, I 
am certain whence must have come Pharaoh’s famous 
plague of flies, we were only bothered, and not as I had 
been on other occasions, driven to desperation by them. 
When Massai flies are really bad you have but one place 
where you can enjoy any rest at all; that is under the 
mosquito nets. They literally blacken the table, float, 
