With Flashlight and Rifle * 



are stained with green oxide ot copper. A herd of 

 elephants would barely be visible in their neighbourhood. 

 How small and helpless does man appear in the midst of 

 such stupendous manifestations of nature ! 



Never have I known a peace more deep and sacred, 

 never have I telt so intimately the beauty and the essential 

 harmony oi nature, as on the mountain-heights of the 

 Masai-Xyika solitudes. Certainly I did not see in these 

 forests the gorgeous violet-coloured beds of flowers which 

 I found in the woods that girdle Kilimanjaro ; but, 

 on the other hand, the trees, all overgrown and huncr 



O o 



as they were, with lerns (Hymenophyllacece] % mosses, 

 and garlands, presented a spectacle quite as remarkable. 

 Next to the impenetrable bamboo-forests of another part 

 of Africa, I have not been so impressed by anything as 

 by these groves of trees, with their garlands of whitish, 

 spectre-like lichens. Yolkens declares that these parasites 

 in many cases kill the supporting tree. . . . 



But we may not long indulge in reflection. We are 

 now on the ridge of the foremost mountains, and our next 

 business is to penetrate into the actual gloomy mountain- 

 tracts more practicable from here on account of the 

 elephant and rhinoceros tracks of the Donje-Erok, which 

 is two thousand feet high. So it is a question of straining 

 every muscle. Streams of sweat must flow before the 

 goal is reached. No other European has sought these 

 silent mountain-forests before me ; only Count Teleki 

 and von Hohnel, long years ago, encamped at the foot 

 of the mountain on their memorable journey to the 

 Rudolf and Stephanie Lakes. Doubly attractive, there- 



608 



