CHA PF Pit Ree 
A DAY ON THE ATHI RIVER 
In spite of all our difficulties, rapid progress con- 
tinued to be made with the line. Each day railhead 
crept a mile or so further across the Plains, and on 
April 24 we reached the Stony Athi River, where our 
great camp was pitched for a few days while the 
temporary bridge was being thrown across the dry 
bed of the stream. Still another temporary bridge 
had to be arranged for the Athi itself, which was 
some eight miles further on, so I had to make 
one or two expeditions to this river in order to 
select a suitable place for the crossing and to make 
various other arrangements. On one of these 
occasions I was busy attending to the pitching of my 
tent after arriving at the Athi late in the evening, 
when on looking round I was very much surprised 
to see two European ladies sitting under the shade 
of some trees on the river bank. As IJ knew 
that this was anything but a safe place in which 
