252 IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA CHAP. 



zebra. They were so little alarmed at our approach 

 that we rode to within some fifty yards of them and 

 took several snap-shots. Their confidence in us 

 was justified, as we did not molest them in any way. 

 During the latter part of the march and while 

 we were making our way over some very rough 

 and scrub-covered country, great amusement was 

 created in the safari by a member of it running 

 behind Mrs. B. to take refuge from a rhino which 

 suddenly appeared out of the bush. Fortunately 

 no damage was done, and the beast bolted away 

 again from the shouting porters and disappeared 

 into the scrub with great activity. 



Eventually we reached Laishamunye, which proved 

 to be an intensely hot and most dreary and inhospi- 

 table place, with great sun-blistered boulders flung 

 about everywhere. Even the~ river itself is gripped 

 and throttled by vast masses of volcanic rock until it 

 is merely a ribbon of water running through a 

 melancholy gorge, shrouded by a few desolate and 

 depressing doum palms which droop listlessly as if 

 mourning that they were chained for life to this 

 dismal spot. 



The mountain of Laishamunye, which silently 

 overshadows all, is a barren upheaval of rock, some 

 two thousand feet from base to summit, and roughly 

 12 square miles in area. It is tipped on its southern 

 crest with pinnacles, on the summit of which most 



