3 o 4 THE LAND OF THE LION 



spiney following are all left behind and beneath me. The 

 pretty cedar-like thorn trees still grow along the river bank, 

 but mingling among them are others that tell of the mountain 

 near by. The juniper, perhaps the best timber tree in 

 East Africa, begins here to show itself, not yet grown into 

 the stately tree with straight stem rising one hundred feet 

 and more, free of knot or branch, which we left amid the 

 dark woodland beyond Eldama Ravine. But stunted 

 thought it way be, for the ravine land is too hot, sandy and 

 dry for it to flourish in, it is good to see. 



Here and there you notice a graceful rounded mass of 

 rich lilac flowers, one of the most beautiful sights the forest 

 has to show. I cannot find anyone who knows its name; 

 it is commonly called the chestnut tree* but I can see no 

 resemblance whatever to the chestnut about it, unless it be 

 a prickly burr which protects the seed. 



Seen at a few feet's distance the flowers look ragged, but 

 from the ground the effect it presents of masses and bunches 

 of fresh lilac colour is very striking indeed. It grows as high 

 as sixty feet. The stem is smooth and graceful, the crown 

 spreads wide and is one mass of bloom. I have not seen it 

 growing anywhere at a height of less than seven hundred feet. 



As I mount higher still, the wild olive crowns the river 

 banks and in single trees and small groves is scattered over 

 the steep stony slopes of bordering hills. The colour and 

 height of the African wild olive (a common tree) is very 

 much the same as its Italian cousin. And I could almost 

 fancy I was riding beneath a neglected olive slope in those 

 parts of Tuscany where the poor land scarcely repays the 

 toil of the peasant and the terraces have been allowed to 

 crumble away. Now I turn my mule's head for an hour or 

 two away from the river and, scrambling up the stony slope 

 that leads to the level country at my left, I come face to face 

 with a totally different scene. 



* Calidendron. I have since learned that it it well known in other parts of Africa. 



