KIRI TO LABORE. 7 



wide, moist patches covered with Cyperus grass, and inter- 

 vening breaks of sward, where Pentstemon (?) and red Ipomaeas 

 bloom, and reddish and white sandy patches form the favourite 

 habitats of balanites and long-thorned mimosas. After a three 

 hours' march we rested a while near a stream of clear, cool 

 water. As the road nears the extensive chain of the Kuku 

 mountains, the hills begin to rise, and gradually form a kind 

 of barrier, behind which the well-wooded mountains, rising in 

 two high terraces, almost vanish out of sight. From this point 

 the footpath leads along half-way up between the hill-tops and 

 the river, which is here narrow and foaming, and more like 

 a mountain torrent than like the Nile as seen at either Lado 

 or Dufile. It sinks down into deep gullies formed by the 

 rain, only to rise again suddenly, and then to lead us past 

 magnificent clusters of trees (tamarinds, Butyrospermmri) to 

 the station of Lahore, situated on an almost isolated hill (1700 

 feet) and therefore visible from a long distance. The scenery 

 of the country just traversed reminds one by its grandeur 

 of certain districts in the Balkans. 



On the way we had heard a good deal about the elephants, 

 which, being very numerous here, break into the stations and 

 unroof the huts. I saw at this place a soldier who had been 

 wounded by an elephant. The animal, which had no doubt 

 been previously wounded, and therefore become separated from 

 its companions, had hidden itself in the bush at a bend in the 

 road, and lifted with its tusks the foremost of the soldiers who 

 were returning from Dufile into the air. When, however, the 

 soldier thrust his arm into its mouth, it dropped him, and trans- 

 fixed the upper part of his right thigh. Then, molested by 

 shots, it relinquished its victim and retired. The wound was of 

 no great importance, as fortunately the tusk passed between the 

 muscles without injuring any vessel. 



Lahore is strategically an important position. The same 

 evening about two hundred porters had collected in order to 

 place themselves at our service for the next long march of 

 forty miles to Dufile, and after they had abundantly supped, 

 and danced and sung for half the night, a start was made 

 early the next morning. The scenery along the road is 

 magnificent, and teems with life. The blue river foams in a 



