38 SAFARI 



borders of the lake; all worn down and baked hard 

 from centuries of travel, not by men, but by gener- 

 ations of elephant, buffalo, and rhino. 



Then, all around the lake, stretched miles of forest 

 aisles of splendid African timber. The trees were 

 festooned with pendant mosses and alive with voices, 

 the trumpeting and crashing of elephants, whine of 

 hyenas, gossip of baboons. The very passes, too, 

 were filled with wild flowers after the rainy season, 

 masses of blossoms where elephants trod, scarlet ones 

 like pompoms around which butterflies flitted. And 

 for fonts in this natural cathedral there were little 

 waterholes and many waterfalls whose lacy veils were 

 as fine and white as a bride's. 



Place all this, then, on the roof of the world over- 

 looking the great desert, as if you lived in a tower 

 never before dwelt in or assaulted by man; then 

 reflect on the fact that game came here to drink 

 when Cleopatra sailed up the Nile, even when Noah 

 stood by his ark's sail and laughed with his sons, one 

 of whom fathered these black men that range for- 

 lornly with their cattle far below ; and you can guess 

 at part of the thrill we felt and something perhaps 

 of the inspiration. 



Percival had an interesting theory about how the 

 water came into Lake Paradise and I think he was 

 correct. He brought the subject up one night as we 

 sat smoking. 



