TO LAKE NAIVASHA 



247 



had two Masai guides, tireless runners, as graceful and 

 sinewy as panthers; they helped us; but Cuninghame 

 had to do most of the pathfinding himself. It was a diffi- 

 cult country, passable only at certain points, which it was 

 hard to place with exactness. We had seen that each porter 

 had his water bottle full before starting; but, though will- 

 ing, good-humored fellows, 

 strong as bulls, in fore- 

 thought they are of the 

 grasshopper type; and all 

 but a few exhausted their 

 supply by mid-afternoon. 

 At this time we were 

 among bold mountain 

 ridges, and here we struck 

 the kraal of some Masai, 

 who watered their 

 cattle at some spring 

 pools, three miles to 

 one side, up a valley. 

 It was too far for the 

 heavily laden 

 porters; but we 

 cantered our 

 horses thither 

 and let them 

 drink their fill ; 

 and then can- 

 tered along the trail left by the safari until we overtook 

 the rear men just as they were going over the brink of the 

 Mau escarpment. The scenery was wild and beautiful; in 

 the open places the ground was starred with flowers of 

 many colors; we rode under vine-tangled archways through 

 forests of strange trees. 



Down the steep mountain side went the safari, and at 

 its foot struck off nearly parallel to the high ridge. On our 

 left the tree-clad mountain side hung above us; ravines, 



A sick Masai boy and his father 



The sheep is a present to Dr. Mearns for services 



From a photograph by J. Alden Luring 



