62 THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE RUDOLF 



did we come to a dry open spot where it was possible to camp. 

 We were now at a height of 6,178 feet above the sea-level on 

 the northern side of the Loroghi chain. 



Although we had been travelling for months on high-lying 

 and exceptionally healthy regions, Hamis Djundja, one of our 

 strongest porters, died here from fever after only thirty hours' 

 illness. 



The next day we went on through the same valley, finding 

 that as long as gneiss formed the subsoil it was well watered 

 and wooded, but that as soon as volcanic rock cropped up 

 water became scarcer and vegetation alike sparser and more 

 uniform. About noon Count Teleki brought down an unusually 

 large and fat rhinoceros, and as we had just reached a difficult 

 bit of road, we decided to camp then and there. The narrow 

 valley before us was almost blocked up with huge masses of 

 rock, whilst the slopes on either side were almost perpendi- 

 cular. The next morning we were compelled on this account 

 to retrace our steps for a short distance, and then a steep path 

 led us to the top of the right side of the valley, where to our 

 astonishment we found ourselves once more at the edge of a 

 volcanic plateau which embraces the northern base of the 

 Loroghi chain, just as that above described does the southern 

 and western portions. The mountain mass was now behind us, 

 and before us stretched a wide landscajDC altogether new to us. 

 The plateau on which we stood was of small extent, and we 

 could see that it must end abruptly a little distance off. 

 Opposite to us, at a distance of some twenty to twenty-five 

 miles on the other side of a broad strip of land several hundred 

 feet below us, rose a lofty range of mountains beginning on the 

 north with Mount Nyiro, for which we were bound, and stretch- 

 ing away in the south as far as the eye could reach. And to 

 my delight I was able to identify in the latter direction various 

 mountain masses which had been opposite to us on the last 



