FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND ACRES 171 



we proceeded, other natives attached themselves to 

 us as guides, so that by the time we were out half an 

 hour there were four or five savages in the van. 



No words can convey to the imagination the 

 density of that first strip of bush. It was like walk- 

 ing between solid walls of vegetation, matted and 

 tangled and bright with half -ripened blackberries. 

 The walls were too high to see over except as occa- 

 sionally we could catch glimpses of tree-tops some- 

 where ahead. We wound in and out along the 

 tortuous path, and it was also torture-ous, for the 

 thorn bushes scratched our hands and faces and 

 even sent their stickers through the cloth into our 

 knees. The effect on the barelegged porters was 

 doubtless much worse. 



After a couple of hours of marching in those 

 canons of vegetation we entered the lower edge of 

 the forest and left the underbrush behind. We 

 soon struck a fairly fresh elephant trail and for an 

 hour wound in and out among the trees, stumbling 

 over "monkey ropes" and gingerly avoiding old 

 elephant pits. There were dozens of these, and if 

 it had not been for the fact that our old guide care- 

 fully piloted us past them I'm certain more than 

 one of us would have plunged down on to the sharp- 

 ened stakes at the bottom. Some of the traps were 

 so cleverly concealed that only a Wanderobo could 

 detect them. In places the forest was like the 

 stately aisles of a great shadowy cathedral, with 

 giant cedars and camphor-wood trees rising in tow- 

 ering columns high above where the graceful fes- 



