THROUGH A RUGGED ROCKY PASS 



429 



I stopped here for the same reason probably as the Count 

 had done before me, namely, because I could not get a guide 

 and shrank from pressing on into the unknown with a heavily 

 laden caravan. There were no natives about now, but two 

 large deserted moran kraals proved the valley to have been at 

 one time an important frontier district. I sent Juma Mussa 

 and some of Jumbe Kimemeta's men on to explore, and they 

 came back in the evening with the news that they had reached 

 the Count's second camp. Juma Mussa was in such wonder- 

 fully good spirits that one would have thought he had been 

 indulging in too much pombe. He declared that his delight 

 was merely at having caught sight of the gleaming surface of 

 Lake Baringo, and, though I did not believe him, I could not 

 help looking eagerly westward throughout our next day's 

 march, in vain, of course, as the sides of the valley completely 

 obstructed the view. 



The hills, which at first appeared to us mere inequalities of 

 the plain, often rose suddenly to a height of from 650 to 1,000 

 feet, with almost perpendicular precipices overhanging deep 

 ravines. Our way now led through a rugged rocky pass with 

 only a narrow outlet on the north, and deep down below us in 

 the midst of a wood the remains of Count Teleki's camp were 

 pointed out to me. It seemed simply impossible to get to it, 

 but presently we discovered quite a good, if rough, zig-zag 

 path, and the descent was made without accident. The ravine 

 was thickly wooded, and in it rose a little brook which escaped 

 through the pass on the north. The spot was most romantically 

 beautiful, the walls of rock all but meeting overhead, so that 

 only a strip of the sky could be seen, and we were tempted to 

 wonder at anyone choosing this almost subterranean passage. 

 In the afternoon the breaking of a storm above us added yet 

 more to the charm of our camping-place, the thunder echoing 

 like a salvo of artillery from rock to rock. 



