58 THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE RUDOLF 



years ago, and all he could remember was that the further 

 route was over the highlands, the steep slopes of which shut 

 us in on the east and south. He now went off with Sokoni to 

 hunt for the path. 



So far our ascent from Lake Baringo had been very gradual ; 

 we had reached a height of about 5,502 feet above the sea-level, 

 but the next day the path became very much steeper. First 

 we cut across the valley, and then climbed a less abrupt portion 

 of the slope, dotted with cypress-like leaved coniferous trees 

 and isolated morio trees. For two hours we struggled along a 

 path apparently sometimes used by men — there were trees in 

 the wood surrounded with circles of stones — till we reached 

 the top of a hill where a cold damp east wind was blowing. 

 Thus far we had always been shut in in ravines and valleys, 

 so that we had not been able to get anything of a view, and we 

 could not tell whether the heights with which we were sur- 

 rounded were separate hills or portions of the plateau. We 

 imagined the latter, and our surprise was now the greater when 

 we suddenly found ourselves at the edge of a far -stretching 

 undulating tableland with an all but imperceptible slope 

 from south to east ; one mountain mass alone, that of the 

 Loroghi chain, the slopes dark with forest trees, rising up to a 

 height of some 1,300 feet, and shutting in the horizon on the 

 north. The ground was overgrown with short steppe grass 

 and dotted with groups of freshly green young acacias or 

 isolated morio trees. A soft rain was falling, which further 

 cooled the air ; and, refreshed and cheered, we hastened on, 

 camping in the afternoon in a cypress wood by a swampy 

 gorge at a place called Lare Lolera, some 6,800 feet above the 

 sea-level. 



The surrounding scenery was picturesque but scarcely 

 tropical, and reminded us of the upper regions of Kilimanjaro. 

 Here, as there, were blackish-green tree-heaths and dark 



