Ill CAMPING AT MOUNT KEN I A 63 



nothing is visible, though the elephants may be close by. It is 

 not to be wondered, then, that I got disheartened and came to 

 the conclusion that I was wasting my time and strength, and 

 after a thorough trial of the district gave up such a hopeless 

 task. 



The forest on the lower slopes of the mountain (I did not 

 try the higher parts) is not all of the same nature as above 

 described ; but in the comparatively open tree forest, where the 

 undergrowth is scant, the elephants never harbour. The relief, 

 after toiling through the jungle where their haunts are, to enter 

 the pleasant shades of these cool woods, where one can walk 

 with some comfort, is inexpressible. In parts of these, 

 particularly near springs, the wealth of butterflies is wonderful ; 

 sometimes I have seen the air filled with clouds of them of 

 several beautiful and magnificent species. Birds of course 

 there are ; but of mammals these forests seem almost destitute. 

 Barring an occasional rhino and once in a way the spoor of an 

 odd bushbuck, one finds no traces of game other than the 

 elephants, which roam through them but are by no means 

 always easy to locate. The mountain is very grand, with its 

 almost perpendicular peak of black rock shown off by a setting 

 of dazzling snow ; but its near vicinity is not without its draw- 

 backs. The cold comes down at night and chills an old African 

 uncomfortably ; while the heavy, almost frosty, dew on the long 

 grass is disagreeable to plod through at dawn, saturating one's 

 lower half with icy wet. It may be worth while, though, 

 before leaving the foot of the great mountain, to give an 

 account of a typical day or two's hunting on its lower slopes, 

 including a visit to a lovely crater lake which I discovered there, 

 called " Ngunga " by the natives.^ 



I took with me a blanket, etc., and a little food, so as to be 

 prepared for sleeping out. We travelled along the edge of the 



' I afterwards called this Lake Kolh, after Dr. George Kolb, who was with me 

 there on a subsequent occasion and afterwards made an ascent of Mount Kenia, and 

 mapped the district. 



