VII SECOND EXPEDITION 163 



by one. " My beautiful ' pundas ' ^ are looking so well too," I 

 wrote, " sleek and fat, and not one touched on the back ! It is 

 too cruel to lose them like this, after all my care." However, 

 I did not lose many more, and, when they once stopped dying, 

 I felt hopeful, as I knew all that had not become inoculated 

 with the " fly " poison were now safe. 



This time I went down into the crater, already mentioned 

 in connection with the previous journey as being one of the 

 camping-places on this route. We pitched our camp in the 

 wide road — like an artificial cutting through its edge — by 

 which it is entered, and I descended into the great cup-like 

 interior. The pool had plenty of water in it now, and, by 

 digging out a little spring in the mud close to its edge, a good 

 supply of fresh water could be obtained. On our return 

 journey, though, after a long dry spell, the pool was nearly 

 dry, and what water was left in it was red, as if mixed with 

 blood. The spring then gave out but a feeble trickle, and 

 would, I should suspect, fail altogether if the drought continued. 

 There is always a gale blowing here, and as pegs cannot be 

 driven, one's tent ropes have to be weighted with many heavy 

 boulders to make it stand securely. Even at the bottom of 

 the deep circular crater, where one would think no breath of 

 wind could reach, tremendous gusts and eddies sweep round, 

 now one way and now another, carrying away one's clothes if 

 you should have undressed for your bath there in order to save 

 the men the toil of carrying so much water up the long, steep 

 ascent. Baboons seem the only creatures that inhabit the basin, 

 though I saw what I took to be a klipspringer on the top of the 

 high rim. 



I again, after crossing the Gwaso Nyiro, took the route 

 through the pass under the mountain called Gwargess (at the 

 southern end of the Mathews range) in the hope of getting 

 news of elephants in that district. But they had already left 

 the neighbourhood, which they only frequent during the rains ; 



' tjwahili for donkey. 



