274 THE LAND OF THE LION 



On the one hand are the forest-clothed slopes of Kinan Kop, 

 no insignificant mountain, but dwarfed by the solitary 

 giant opposite it, whose summit rises rocky and snow- 

 crowned to 18,600 feet. There are many beautiful things 

 to see in this wild land, but the one thing unsurpassably 

 beautiful is the brief pageant of the African sunrise. To 

 tell the truth, getting up before the morning is not at first 

 an easy or pleasant thing to do, but to make good marching 

 or to enjoy good sport it should be done, and done reg- 

 ularly; and soon you find that these first and freshest 

 hours, nay moments, of the day are well worth the effort 

 they cost. 



From Mt. Kenia's broad base there stretches to the 

 east, north and northwest one of the most impressive plains 

 to be seen anywhere. A large part of it is Massai Reserve 

 but sportsmen can obtain permission to hunt on it from 

 Lieutenant Governor Jackson, at Nairobi, who issues 

 all hunting permits. Many visit the country, but few 

 do more than camp at the junction of the Guasi Nyiro and 

 Guasi Narok. The river should be followed up to its 

 very sources, on the slopes of Kenia for here is some 

 of the finest hunting country in the world. 



We found ourselves at this central camp on the Guasi 

 Nyiro, in the very middle of an unusually severe wet season, 

 but though rain in these parts has some disadvantages, 

 there are certain solid compensations which it brings with 

 it. Chief among these must be reckoned the fact that, 

 though we were in the Massai country, z. *., the cattle 

 country, the very original source and breeding place, I 

 am certain whence must have come Pharaoh's famous 

 plague of flies, we were only bothered, and not as I had 

 been on other occasions, driven to desperation by them. 

 When Massai flies are really bad you have but one place 

 where you can enjoy any rest at all; that is under the 

 mosquito nets. They literally blacken the table, float, 



