XLII 

 SCOUTING IN THE ELEPHANT FOREST 



HERE we were finally off at dawn. It was a very 

 chilly, wet dawn, with the fog so thick that we 

 could see not over ten feet ahead. We had four 

 porters carrying about twenty-five pounds apiece of 

 the bare necessities, Kongoni, and Leyeye. The 

 Masai struck confidently enough through the mist. 

 We crossed neck-deep grass flats — where we were 

 thoroughly soaked — climbed hills through a forest, 

 skirted apparently for miles an immense reed 

 swamp. As usual when travelling strange coun- 

 try in a fog, we experienced that queer feeling of 

 remaining in the same spot while fragments of 

 nearby things are slowly paraded by. When at 

 length the sun's power cleared the mists, we found 

 ourselves in the middle of a forest country of high 

 hills. 



Into this forest we now plunged, threading our 

 way here and there where the animal trails would 

 take us, looking always for fresh elephant spoor. 

 It would have been quite impossible to have moved 



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