230 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



These small hillocks which lay at the foot of 

 Suswa were separated from one another by deep 

 bush-clad ravines. In places trees and tangled 

 creepers met overhead, and we soon realized 

 that the lion with his usual wiliness had in all 

 probability slunk away down one of these semi- 

 subterranean channels, and by now was in all 

 probability safely concealed and a mile or two 

 away. And so it proved. We beat these ravines. 

 Webb and a gun-bearer walked down them, 

 and Stern and I patrolled the sides, but Leo 

 had made good his escape, and after an hour 

 and a half of fruitless search we returned to our 

 disturbed lunches. 



That afternoon I was busy making up loads 

 of trophies to be sent by porters into Nairobi. 

 The next morning the wagon started off on the 

 last lap of its homeward journey, and at evening 

 we were again below the towering form of Kijabe 

 mountain, and preparing to ascend it the next 

 day after that singularly beautiful animal the 

 colobus monkey. The ascent was no easy task. 

 Indeed, I have seldom undertaken harder work. 

 At first we had easy slopes to walk up. Then 

 steep banks where the soft earth crumbled under- 

 foot had to be scaled. After an hour's arduous 

 toil we halted rather more than half-way up the 

 mountain side. Our breath was coming in deep 

 halting gasps, and we sat down in the shadow 

 of the great primeval forest that robes Kijabe 

 mountain and peered around for signs of the 

 highly prized monkeys for which we had laboured 

 so hard. We had just commenced to ascend 

 again when the keen eyes of Elmi, ever on the 

 alert, descried away to our right a colobus. 

 Hastily we followed him, slipping down the 

 treacherous earth banks, now and then grasping 



