FROM EL BOGOI TO LAKE RUDOLPH 



Bogoi) which we soon came to, in whose clear cold water my 

 thirsty men were glad to slake their thirst. 



I soon pushed on, and reached the camping-ground Baithai 

 recommended soon after 2 P.M. ; but most of the porters had 

 stopped behind and lost our trail, and were not brought in by 

 the Ndorobo sent in search till near sundown. It was a 

 picturesque spot by a little, open, grassy glade, below which in 

 a hollow, the head of a ravine, was a spring whose water 

 flowed westward. The whole of the tops and western slopes 

 of this range are clothed with forest, cold and damp and 

 gloomy, the trees (which in some parts are of considerable size, 

 attaining occasionally to perhaps even 100 feet in height) 

 festooned with mosses, and every hollow with its swampy 

 stream. It is a dismal and depressing place, and strange 

 creatures emit weird and melancholy cries all night ; sounds 

 which puzzle one as to whether they are produced by bird, 

 beast or reptile. 



Squareface and Baithai had gone on ahead in the afternoon 

 to look for spoor, and found some quite fresh not far off, and 

 also heard the elephants, so in the morning we went to look for 

 these. The night had been fine, without even a mountain 

 mist, but there was a heavy dew and the still air of the early 

 morning was chilly. It is needless to recount all our tedious 

 windings on this day, as it proved another blank. We followed 

 fresh spoor, which we picked up near where the elephants had 

 been heard the afternoon before ; but they had wound about 

 and separated, and must afterwards have got our wind, for 

 though we persevered assiduously till well on in the afternoon, 

 through many steep and slippery kloofs, and even once heard 

 them, we could never come within sight. Then the tracks 

 became involved and difficult to puzzle out ; it was thundering 

 and beginning to rain, and our guides said that if we followed 

 farther they would not be able to find the way back to camp, 

 so I turned back heavy-hearted and empty-handed once 

 more. 



