MOMBASSA TO LION LAND 17 



better use to put it to. But why in the name of all that is 

 reasonable give away the splendid reaches of rich down 

 and blossoming prairie, watered by clear mountain streams, 

 that by thousands of acres lies between the ridges and 

 horns of this many branching forest. 



It seems, too, to be adding insult to injury, when the 

 tired would-be settler is obliged to trudge behind his 

 oxen or his laden donkey, these seventy long miles, through 

 just the sort of land he has heard about, and has come so 

 far to seek, while he is forbidden to take up one acre. He 

 would be well contented to leave the forest alone. It is 

 much too big a job for him. If all the settlers in East Africa 

 cut their fence poles within its great borders, no one would 

 miss an acre of it. But the rich lands, watered by the 

 many streams born in its depths, and husbanded by its 

 shade, are just the lands he wants. They lie open to the 

 temperate sun of that upland region. There is never 

 any severe heat by day, and the nights are cool. Frost is 

 not known. 



Here is surely one of the garden spots of East Africa, 

 and if I mistake not one of its most valuable sanatoria. 



But I must bottle up my wrath, and go on my way, 

 for I am on sefari. The hot day is over, it is warmer 

 down near the line than on the higher uplands of the Mau; 

 and the deliciously cool evening time has come, a tender 

 light falls softly on everything. It is impossible to exag- 

 gerate the exquisite quality of that last glow, before the 

 brief twilight falls. Golden shadows pass slowly over 

 the yellow slopes, and softly outlined against the distant 

 horizon, the wooded hills are a dreamy blue. The sun- 

 setting is often splendid. The last glow light seems to 

 fall across the world in bars of actual colour. In these 

 the waving grass heads seem living gold. The trees are 

 bathed afresh in a greenery so vivid, that it is as though 

 their leafage had burst from the bud but a few hours 



