LAI£E BAEINGO IN SIGHT 



281 



against the shots with whicli they were greeted, and soon 

 turned tail Not one of the numerous arrows fired at our men 

 told home, but a porter was severely wounded in the heat of 

 combat by a shot from one of our own guns. The men 

 got back to their camp unhindered, and Qualla, expecting that 

 the natives would attack him again in greater force, remained 

 where he was till the next day, thinking he could fight better 

 there than on the road. But he was left unmolested, the Suk 

 not venturing to appear again. 



Our present position was very unfavourable for resisting an 

 attack, so we shifted camp the next morning, two and a half 

 hours further to the south-east. Here we rested for a day, 

 and allowed our men to enjoy the superfluity we had succeeded 

 in obtaining. But for many of them relief had come too late, 

 and they gradually sank, although they were never again with- 

 out plenty of meat. 



We were now on the eastern side of the range in a wild 

 mountain district of volcanic origin, cut across by valleys 

 running in a south-westerly direction. Exactly to the north of 

 our camp rose the loftiest peak of the range, the Doenye Silali 

 of Thomson, some 6,000 feet high, the name of which we 

 were not in a position to verify. On the east this range falls 

 in perpendicular walls, and is flanked by rugged mountain 

 masses separated from the main system by deep fissures running 

 in a southerly direction, which appear to bear witness to great 

 volcanic convulsions. 



Pushing southward through a valley running parallel with 

 the Kerio, we reached the next day a little stream, which rises 

 in Kamasia and terminates in the salt steppe of Sukuta. 



The following march led us over a mountain ridge to the 

 northern base of the Erre mountains, and during it we got our 

 first glimpse of the gleaming surface of Lake Baringo. Our 

 hearts and those of our men bounded with delight, as if we 



