188 TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERU 



thermometer gave a reading of + 1° Centigrade as the minimum 

 night temperature. The fog was still thick, but there was every 

 promise of a fine day. So far, the path had led steadily upwards 

 towards Kimawenzi, but now it bore north-west through the 

 wood on the edge of which we had camped. This wood con- 

 sisted chiefly of tree heaths and coniferous trees, one of the 

 latter greatly resembling the cypress of Europe, whilst another 

 had willow-like foliage. The trees were not quite so close to- 

 gether here, and the plants covering the ground between them 

 were proportionately more luxuriant. We reached a brook on 

 the borders of the wood in about half an hour. The fog had 

 now lifted a little and revealed a grand landscape ; the dense 

 forest was at an end now, only the ravines and fissures being 

 still overgrown with trees, the dark-green (almost black) foliage 

 contrasting forcibly with the yellow steppe-like slopes. Far 

 above them, but not directly connected with these slopes, rose 

 Kibo and Kimawenzi. We gazed long at the two peaks of 

 Kilimanjaro bathed in the glorious sunbeams, and then pressed 

 on in a north-westerly direction over many grass-grown de- 

 clivities and across deep ravines, down which tumbled little 

 streams, arriving at ten o'clock at the edge of a brook where 

 one of our guides told us Mr. H. H. Johnston had made his 

 head-quarters. There could be no doubt of the truth of this 

 assertion as the huts of some of his men still remained standing 

 almost uninjured, as well as the outer and inner fences, the 

 latter intended to form a harbour of final refuge in case of 

 attack, all described in Johnston's own account of his travels in 

 East Africa, published in London in 1886. Our people were 

 ordered to build carefully covered-in huts, for the days as 

 well as the nights were sure to be cold in spite of the 

 present heat of the sun, which the huts were to be so con- 

 structed that a fire could be lit inside. To begin with, the 

 whole place was cleared and the hedges were taken away as 



