The Land of the Lion 



CHAPTER I 

 MOMBASSA TO LION LAND 



scenery on the Uganda railroad, between the sea 

 A and Nairobi, is often picturesque and interesting. 

 I shall not, however, dwell on its features, as these have 

 been described time without number. But one view 

 there is of Mount Kilimanjaro which with good fortune 

 may be seen, and of it I want to speak. 



The through express train from Mombassa to the 

 lake, if it is on time, passes near enough to the mountain 

 to afford that view. Just before sunrise I had been told 

 to look out of the left hand carriage window, at about 

 five o'clock in the morning, and see what I could see 

 and what I saw that clear morning three years ago, I 

 shall never forget. 



All around was the dark plain illumined only by the 

 stars, for there was no moon. It was about quarter-past 

 five, when to southward I saw a vast pink column, flat- 

 tened on the top, that rose distinctly against the dusky 

 purple sky. Redder and redder it grew, as the first sun- 

 beam touched its snows, and then at its base, the fringe 

 of wooded mountains showed in the earliest light of the 

 coming dawn. Kilimanjaro is more than nineteen thousand 

 feet high, and that morning it seemed to have all the won- 

 derful sunrise glory to itself for quite a long time, while still 

 the veldt at its feet lay in the darkness. Just that column 

 of pink, changing to scarlet and nothing else to tell 



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