192 TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERIT 



saddle by way of a low wall of rock, and, arrived there, we 

 bore more to the left so as to approach Kibo more closely. 

 Although we were now marching over level ground, we were 

 obliged to halt at two o'clock on account of our black 

 companions, who already showed signs of exhaustion. We 

 made them just put up our two little tents and collect some 

 brushwood ; then we sent them back to the lower camp, with 

 orders to return here at the same time the next day. 



This, our highest camping-place on Kilimanjaro, was about 

 equidistant from Kibo and Kimawenzi, not exactly on the ridge 

 of the plateau, but a little lower down on the southern slope. 

 The saddle plateau looked like a level plain with an almost 

 imperceptible upward slope on the north, and a slight inclina- 

 tion towards the two peaks. Our horizon was bounded on the 

 north by three red hills of ashes of a relative height of about 

 490 feet, which extended from the north-east side of Kibo to the 

 south-west side of Kimawenzi. The plateau was disagreeably 

 encumbered with quantities of large and small sharp-edged 

 blocks of rock. Between these boulders grew a yellowish- 

 brown dried-up plant which would serve at need as fuel, though 

 it burnt as rapidly as straw. Here and there at wide intervals 

 were red everlasting flowers and a kind of thistle, the prickly 

 leaves of which were thickly covered with hair and coiled over 

 near the middle, so as to give the whole plant a spherical 

 form. We saw no more heaths at this altitude. 



After a hasty meal of preserved ham, cocoa, and ship's 

 biscuit, washed down by a draught of wine, we took some 

 observations with the boiling-point thermometer, the water 

 boilinc at + 86*71° Centigrade, which, with the temperature of 

 the air at +3-6° Centigrade, gave a height of 13,818 feet above 

 the sea-level. Then Count Teleki, armed with his mountain 

 stock, started in the direction of Kibo, whilst I set to work to 

 take some photographs. The conditions were, however, very 



