CH. VIII. ASCENT OF THE VALLEY. 195 



Ambak, whose superior intelligence was conspicuous, had 

 picked up enough of English to make the constant 

 presence of a regular interpreter less necessary than it 

 had been at first, though occasions were pretty frequent 

 when the attempts at mutual understanding between us 

 and the Shelluhs were evidently unsuccessful. 



Immediately above our camp the valley narrows 

 rapidly, and for some miles the torrent flows through a 

 mere cleft with steeply sloping precipitous sides. To 

 avoid this, the upward track ascends steeply for several 

 hundred feet, and is then carried along the slope at a con- 

 siderable height above the torrent. After suffering from 

 the usual delays, we commenced the ascent about eight 

 o'clock. The morning was bright, and the temperature 

 delightful. The thermometer had fallen to 50° about 

 sunrise, but during the day it stood some ten degrees 

 higher in the shade in the middle part of the valley. To 

 a party of naturalists it was tantalising work to ride along 

 the rocky track, passing at every step objects of the 

 greatest interest, yet unable to do more than snatch a 

 fragment, or hastily drag up an imperfect specimen. The 

 pace over the broken ground was necessarily slow, and it 

 was easy for a man on foot to keep up with the horses ; 

 but then the temptation to linger by the way became 

 irresistible. What botanist could be expected to pass by 

 new and hitherto unseen forms of vegetable life without 

 at least securing two or three specimens ? As one or other 

 of us yielded to the impulse, he was called to order by the 

 cry of his companions, ' We must lose no time — we must 

 keep together ' — and so reluctantly remounting, he was 

 forced to keep time with our sheik guide, who led the way. 

 At a point about four miles above our camp the vallev 

 opened a little, and near a village (Ouanzerout?) our track 

 lay through a grove of large olive trees and then de- 

 scended a little to cross the stream. We now found this an 

 impetuous torrent, with a much greater body of water than 

 it had showed where we crossed it the day before many 



