382 TiMEHRI. 



Sokoking respe6lively. Three days were spent in 

 reconnoitring the path and in building a half-way 

 house at a height of 6,400 ft., and on the 7th the ascent 

 was made to the summit along the path discovered by 

 Mr. I.M Thurn, which we found to present no difficulty 

 whatever as regards climbing, though the walking was 

 intensely arduous and tiring. The general aspect of the 

 plateau on the summit fully bore out the description as 

 given by Mr. IM Thurn, though our more extended exam- 

 ination during the two nights and three days spent there 

 enables us to add to it considerably. The extent of the 

 summit should be described as presenting not the aspeft 

 of a hollow basin, but of a plateau which has been 

 worked by aerial denudation into altogether irregular 

 and broken series of deep valleys and precipitous ridges, 

 the total difference between the lowest and highest 

 points being more than 400 ft. The ridges are frequently 

 broken into isolated peaks, the highest being 8,740 

 above the sea level, presenting the aspe6l of piles and 

 terraces of irregular boulders and masses. The valleys 

 wind about in almost an endless maze, lake-like shallow 

 pools, more or less obscured by an abundant dwarf vege- 

 tation of more than fifty species of Xyris^ Pcepalanthus 

 Abolboda, Heliamphora, Stegilepis, Brocchinia, Bon- 

 netia, Epidendron, Lisianthus, Befaria^ etc., and 

 various ferns, lycopods and mosses, succeeding each 

 other at close intervals. After the slightest rains the 

 surplus water is carried off along these valleys as an 

 overflow to the ravines on the edge, descending to 

 the slopes below as waterfalls to swell the various 

 surrounding streams. Many small trees are spread over 

 the valleys, and climb up in a [densely packed bushy 



