THROUGH THE BAMBOO THICKET 



' The next morning our path led through more bamboo 

 thickets and it poured with rain all the time. The higher we got 

 the thicker grew the stems, and the more arduous was the work 

 of forcing a passage. Not until the last hour did little clear- 

 ings here and there facilitate our progress. At the beginning of 

 this tramp we had to 

 cross a stream more 

 than 18 feet wide, and 

 towards noon we came 

 to another little brook 

 and camped by it for 

 the night. We were 

 now at an altitude of 

 about 10,000 feet at 

 the upper edge of 

 the belt of bamboo, 

 beyond which various 

 trees appear, chiefly 

 of the coniferous va- 

 riety frequently met 

 with on Kilimanjaro, 

 with willow-like but 

 stiff foliage. We did 

 not again notice bamboos and trees 

 growing together. The fog and rain 

 had thus far made it quite impossible 

 to take our bearings, and I had to 

 depend entirely on my compass. 



' On the 20th the ascent became noticeably steeper. At a 

 height of about 10,170 feet we left the bamboo thicket behind ; 

 at 10,500 feet trees became much less numerous, and beyond 

 that only a few isolated specimens occurred. A kind of swamp 

 grass growing in little clumps, various Lobeliaceas, one of 



BAMBOO THICKET ON KENIA. 



