76 



FROM THE COAST TO KILIMANJARO 



basin of the Pangani, which resembled a wide-stretching ocean, 

 dotted here and there with isolated island-like blue mountains ; 

 whilst in the west rose the Lasiti mountains, the outlying 

 spurs of the Pare range, on which I stood, shutting out the 

 horizon. 



After a short march along the bank of the Pangani, we 

 halted in a very picturesque bend of the river. To our sur- 

 prise, we saw clouds of smoke issuing from a thicket not far 

 off, which it turned out proceeded from Count Teleki's camp. 

 He had had a good day's start of us, but he had sent some men 

 to buy food in a village near, and they had not yet returned. 

 It was not until the afternoon that the dawdlers turned up 

 and he was able to resume his march. 



The Count's camping-place was called Mabirioni, a very 

 usual name, signifying boundary, and in this case appropriate, as 

 it is here that the caravan route branches off from the river for 

 the Pare range. The next day we started in the same direc- 

 tion, and reached Pare Maboga, also known as Massangu. The 

 farther we got from the river the more sterile became the 

 country, till we reached the base of the mountains, when we 

 were again amongst green thickets and marshes. We camped 

 by a clear brook, which we reached at last. A troop of apes, 

 which fled terrified at our approach, enticed me into the thicket, 

 and I pressed on and on, in spite of being dreadfully scratched 

 and torn, till I could get no farther. 1 



1 East Africa abounds in a kind of Sanseviera, which grows at the edge of thorn 

 thickets, springing up between the bushes, and making it all but impossible to get 

 through them. The stems of these plants are about one and a half inch in 

 diameter, and grow to a height of from two feet to five feet. They are very 

 stiff and upright, cylindrical in form, of a greyish-green colour, and end in a sharp, 

 hard point, which inflicts a severe wound. We frequently met with two kinds of 

 Sanseviera in our travels, but seldom saw one bearing flowers or fruit. Both kinds 

 have very strong fibres, which, after being beaten and dried, are used by the people 

 of caravans for making fishing-lines, &c. If possible, the thin, almost thread-like 

 creepers are even greater impediments to progress. Belonging mostly to the 

 Smilace*, they too bear thorns, and though they look innocent enough, and you 



