138 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



I thought my best chance of getting up the 

 mountain would be to return by this path with 

 a few men and a small supply of food, and try 

 to establish a camp at about 10,000 feet, and 

 afterwards another at about 13,000, from which 

 I might possibly reach the snow. I therefore 

 started with ten men, but was unfortunate from 

 the beginning. The first day, after toiling up 

 the valley in pouring rain, we were obliged to 

 camp at 7,000 feet, amongst some miserable huts, 

 with a very suspicious and unfriendly set of 

 natives. Next day we got up through the forest 

 and bamboos to 9,800 feet, where we camped on 

 a peatmoss, compared to which my old friend 

 Lochar moss was a pleasant and convenient 

 situation. 



We had no water till I thought of squeezing 

 the damp Sphagnum, but the tea made from this 

 peat extract had a horrible taste and colour. 

 Next day I picked out three strong men and 

 started, full of enthusiasm, under the guidance of 

 two naked Wawamba. 



It was an awful ascent. Sometimes over 

 deep moss, where jagged root-ends of heather 

 seemed to spring out and stab ankles and knees 

 at every step : sometimes through a dense w r ood 

 of gnarled and twisted heather-trees, fifteen to 

 twenty feet high, and covered with grey lichens, 

 then down a steep little ravine and dense jungle ; 

 and things soon became very hopeless. Every- 



