MOMBASA TO KIKUYU. 13 



was very valuable and that he was to be very 

 careful, he ran away with it, to be, I expect, 

 extremely disgusted when he found what the con- 

 tents were. One of these runaways I found had 

 been, according to the natives, attacked, when 

 sleeping, by a hyena and very nearly killed. I told 

 this to the others with great effect. 



Masongoleni and Kibwezi are the first places on 

 the road where one meets true forest and a fairly 

 well-peopled district ; there is also a little tsetse 

 fly on this part of the journey. It struck me that 

 Kibwezi was not well placed for a mission station, 

 as the population is not nearly so dense as in 

 Ukambani proper. There is a pleasant little river 

 and a good amount of cultivation about the 

 station. 



The country begins to improve as one reaches 

 the hilly districts of Ukambani, until at Nzowi 

 one leaves finally behind the useless thorn-tree 

 desert. 



This difference in the fertility of the soil is 

 largely due to a difference in height. The winds 

 from the sea deposit much of their moisture on 

 the hills immediately bordering the coast. They 

 blow freely over the thorn- tree desert, and are 

 again checked by the highlands of Ukambani, 

 where they leave a good deal of rain and (as is 

 perhaps more important for vegetation) keep the 

 flanks of the hills and the branching valleys in 

 a moist and humid condition. The fertility is 



