WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



animals the dassy has two mortal enemies, the leopard 

 and the eagle, but the wary dassy is not easily caught 

 napping. 



Our way leads us higher up into the mountains, over 

 open ground and through thorny bushes, in the heat and 

 glare of the sun. until we reach the crest of the outlying 

 chain of hills. From there we command a fine view, 

 far and wide, into the steppe. At our feet we notice a 

 greenish line. It is the brook near which my camp is 

 made, the tents of which stand out from the yellowish- 

 brown ground. Farther away the brook disappears in 

 the marshes which are covered for miles with reed 

 thickets, and beyond these the steppe expands into 

 apparently endless space. 



The air, quivering with heat, casts a bluish hazy veil 

 over the landscape, deceiving the eye as to the true 

 distance and size of things. Had I the power to ex- 

 press the varied emotions and thoughts of the human 

 mind at the sight of grand, pure, undefiled nature in 

 its harmony of steppe, hills, mountains, and sky! But 

 though they are inexpressible, they are indelibly in- 

 scribed in the mind, and often in the complexity of 

 civilized life the memory of those sacred hours of com- 

 munion with nature fills the heart with deep longing for 

 an hour's solitude in the mountains of the endless Masai- 

 Nyika ! 



But we must not tarry longer if we want to accom- 

 plish our object, to penetrate to the higher forest region 



356 



