64 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



open country, which, as already explained, characterises the 

 whole of the northern slopes, as far as I could see (including a 

 high ridge running far out on the north side), keeping just 

 outside the extensive jungles and forests which lay on our left 

 as we ascended from the north-east. The crater itself is just 

 within the forest, but we had little to go through in reaching it. 

 Coming over the lower edge, which here has depressions with 

 game roads worn by hundreds of generations of elephants, 

 rhinoceroses, and buffaloes, the view is most enchanting. It is 

 perfectly circular and surrounded by high, steep forest-clad 

 walls ; below lies the placid lake occupying the whole of the 

 wide interior, while from the high edge Kenia's jagged, snowy 

 peaks are visible across, showing up sharply above the dark 

 forest which clothes the opposite wall. Great beds of water- 

 lilies with blue and lilac flowers and banks of water-grass or 

 rushes cut up the glassy, clear water, which may be reached by 

 the steep, stony paths above mentioned ; numbers of ducks, 

 coots, geese, divers, etc., swim, fly, or flap about on the surface ; 

 little water-hens with long toes run about on the lily leaves all 

 the same as on a Japanese screen. Hippopotami, too, inhabit 

 it (one wonders what instinct enabled them to find out so 

 secluded a retreat;, floundering clumsily about and eating roads 

 through the beds of lilies with machine-like movement of their 

 huge jaws, exposing the red interior of the mouth each time 

 they are opened wide. A cow and calf came near the edge, 

 while I watched, and stood in shoal water ; wild fowl gathered 

 round them, perhaps getting food stirred up by the hippos. I 

 watched the scene with delight ; and though my larder was 

 empty I could not disturb this peaceful sanctuary even by the 

 murder of a duck, so refrained from firing a single shot there. 



I hid my camp away in a nook in the forest up on the 

 edge, to avoid alarming elephants should any come down the 

 path to water during the night, and made a circuit of the 

 crater to look for spoor, but found none. Above it juniper 

 forest begins, and I passed through some fine groves of tall, 



