8 THE LAND OF THE LION 



from them and sold. The discipline was severe, but it 

 seems to have been most necessary. So far as the natives 

 are concerned these plateaus are now as safe as Central 

 Park, and there are probably more lions there than in any 

 other part of Africa. 



One hundred and forty miles from Kilimanjaro, and some 

 thirty from Nairobi, another view of surpassing interest 

 suddenly bursts on you. It is the first peep into the very 

 heart of a bit of primeval African forest and it, too, 

 to be had, from the cushioned seat of the railway carriage. 



Shortly before reaching Escarpment station (Es- 

 carpment in British East Africa means a steep line of 

 sharply defined mountainous country) the road begins 

 to plunge downward. The zigzags are very sharp, and 

 the torrent beds are far below. Here a dense belt of 

 forest country, stretching many miles to north and west, 

 has to be traversed, and, as I said, you can have your first 

 glance into the impenetrable, inextricably interwoven 

 masses of all kinds of greenery that, matted and twisted 

 together, make up the living wall of the African wood. 



In such cover man's progress is only to be achieved 

 by the hardest sort of work. The ponderous elephant 

 alone moves there at will, breaking and bending as he 

 pleases everything in his way. And when the wild man 

 passes he passes only by the paths the elephant has made. 



You may travel or hunt for a long time in the country 

 and yet never really get such a good idea of the quality 

 of the forest as you can from the train. On foot or on 

 horseback such jungle is always avoidable. It is most 

 dangerous to hunt in, and the noise that even a naked 

 N'dorobo (wild man) must make is enough to disturb the 

 game. Look, now, right down into its labyrinth of tree 

 stems and creeper. Into its cool damp glades, into chasms 

 cloven by yearly torrents whose rocky sides are clothed 

 many yards deep with densest hangings of tropic tangle. 



