56 THE LAND OF THE LION 



One mile from the ravine boma the trail toward Guash'- 

 ngishu plateau, whither I am bound, plunges across the Mau 

 forest. There its belt is about fourteen miles wide, but 

 the sinuosities of the path make it a hard day's tramping. 

 If there has been much rain, you slide down hill and slip up, 

 till you feel you are working out the old problem of the snail 

 that crawled up six feet of wall at night and slipped back 

 five feet eleven inches during the day. The miles seem 

 very long indeed, as you plod along in the semi darkness. 

 Mighty trees, rising some of them a hundred feet without 

 knot or branch, mostly junipers, tower above you, and dense 

 green tangle, thick and high as a woody wall, shuts you in; 

 progress, unless along the narrow well worn path, is out of 

 the question. 



The great Mau forest, which the path crosses at a narrow 

 point, is well worth studying. Here and round Mount 

 Kenia are the future lumber regions of the East. I fear I 

 run the risk of wearying some by such lengthy reference 

 to the great woodland region. But to me it seemed, not 

 from the traveller's or hunter's point of view only, but from 

 the point of view of one wishing that all good things may 

 come to the dear old land where he was born, a possession so 

 important, an asset so valuable, that every Englishman 

 should be interested in its safeguarding. 



One immense advantage the African lumber regions have, 

 over those of Canada and the United States. They are 

 practically fireproof. Let the high grass fire come rolling 

 down, in as fierce a flood as it may. Let even a furious 

 wind drive it on. It sinks, baffled and beaten down, at the 

 very foot of those great, green walls. The dense and 

 dank herbage, like a vast, wet, enfolding blanket, almost 

 instantaneously smothers it. 



Here, there is a great lumber region insured against fire 

 and as yet absolutely untouched by man. No local demand 

 for its timber could possibly exhaust even a small fraction 



