Trail and Camp-Fire 



such good sport, and which, besides, was so 

 well fitted for a camping place that we felt 

 quite at home there. 



The green belt — one and a half miles long 

 and half a mile wide — is a broken combina- 

 tion of bunches of mimosa and small mea- 

 dows, and our camp, pitched at one end 

 against a little forest, looked out on a small 

 green field of grass. Our tents being pitched 

 side by side, we took our meals together, 

 and we spent many pleasant hours after din- 

 ner, smoking our evening pipes, making plans 

 for the morrow, and listening to the chattering 

 of the men, their forms dimly seen about the 

 camp-fires against the barrier of the zareba, 

 as they discussed their sahibs, their voices 

 mingled with the cries of the camels, sounds 

 which one gets to like, and would give much 

 to hear once more. But move away we must, 

 and a few marches brought us again to the 

 water holes, which supply the country for 

 miles about. Drilled through the solid rock 

 at some earlier period, by means unknown, 

 these wells are about forty feet deep to the 

 water level. A chain of six or eight men is 

 kept busy all day long, as, standing one above 

 the other on small ledges, which occur at in- 



I20 



