208 IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA CHAP. 



east, and the distance to the Guaso Nyiro was too 

 great to be covered in one march. As the country 

 was entirely unknown to me, I did not feel justi- 

 fied in striking out a path for myself with only a 

 limited supply of water in leaky tins, so I felt bound 

 to follow the advice of the guides, which is not 

 always disinterested. Accordingly, northward we 

 started, more or less following the bend of the 

 Turah river until it joined the Rumathe a couple 

 of miles further on, and then continuing our journey 

 along the latter. The path was exceedingly pre- 

 cipitous and bad, for we were shut in on both sides 

 by high rocky mountains, and the beds of both 

 rivers, and the sides of their banks, were composed 

 of great masses of gneissic rock. My aneroid in- 

 formed me that in a march of about four miles we 

 made a descent of almost 1,000 feet. In some places 

 there was a perpendicular drop of from fifty to sixty 

 feet in the river-bed, and the waterfalls must be 

 magnificent when the river is in flood. The highest 

 we saw was in the bed of the Rumathe, and as it 

 possessed no native name, I called it after Mrs. B., 

 as she was undoubtedly the first European lady who 

 had ever been in these parts. 



On this march I happened to be following the 

 safari, instead of leading it as usual, and was sur- 

 prised to find, strewn all along the path traversed 



