72 



THE DISCOVEEY OF LAKE RUDOLF 



seek it, no single indication of its possible presence escaping 

 them. Once when the cattle all seemed anxious to be off in 

 one direction, Qualla, who said they scented either water or 

 lions, let them follow their instincts, and went with them ; but 

 they found neither the one nor the other. 



We estimated that we had marched thirty miles in forty 

 hours, and were pretty confident that we should now very soon 

 come to water. Before daybreak the caravan was in motion 

 again. All went well at first, the long line rapidly following 

 the vanguard hastening on in front, but every hour there were 

 fresh signs of exhaustion, first one and then another man drop- 

 ping by the way. Those who could, pressed on still towards 

 Mount Nyiro, rising up as we approached it more nearly, like a 

 rugged dark wall. The country became more, undulating and 

 hilly ; but was almost barren until, close to the base of the 

 mountain, after seven hours of forced marching, we found 

 ourselves in a well-wooded valley in which was a half dried-up 

 swamp containing a little thick, green, slimy fluid, with which 

 at last we were able to wet our lips. We camped rather 

 higher up the valley, beneath beautiful and lofty trees, by a 

 little stream overgrown with bush and containing scarcely any 

 water, which flowed into the swamp below. Our first care 

 was to send some men back with water to their exhausted 

 comrades left by the way, and singly or in couples most of 

 them got into camp in the course of the day, but two had 

 succumbed before help reached them, and two more, though 

 they had revived at first, died in the night. 



We had marched some nineteen miles to-day, so that we 

 could estimate the extent of waterless steppe between Barasaloy 

 and Mount ISTyiro as about fifty miles. 



Our first impression of Mount Nyiro was somewhat mis- 

 leading. Neither in the valley in which we camped, nor on 

 the steep slopes of the mountain opposite to us were any signs 



