WE OEOSS THE EQUATOR 



391 



slopes of tlie Aberdare mountains to the pastures of Ndoro. 

 Their herds of cattle were especially picturesque as they 

 streamed down in different groups from the highlands, preceded 

 and, followed by the men and women who had charge of them, 

 the former carrying the baby calves in their arms, whilst the 

 latter were encumbered with all manner of odds and ends, 

 and had, moreover, to look after the oxen and donkeys laden 

 with hides, milk cans, the materials of the huts, &c. 



A march of many hours brought us the next day to the 

 northern limit of the Aberdare range, which is divided from, 

 or rather connected with the Marmanett range by a lofty 

 tableland inhabited almost ]3ei'iTianently by the Masai, and 

 frequently by the Wandorobbo, on account of its good 

 pastures. The Masai call this tableland Angata Bus. 



We proceeded at a height varying from about 6,500 to 

 7,000 above the sea-level, the vegetation on tlie slopes and in 

 the ravines increasing as we advanced, the northern portion 

 of the Aberdare range being much better wooded than the 

 southern. The principal trees resembled the cypress, with 

 numerous examples of the willow-like leaved conifers, with a 

 few acacias, branched euphorbias, and isolated specimens of the 

 morio tree and leleshwa shrub. ^ 



We halted by the almost dried-up bed of a brook, and a 

 careful observation taken at mid-day gave N. lat. 0°0'11", so 

 that for the first time on our travels we had passed the 

 equator. We therefore called our camp here Equator Camp. 

 We had now passed through Lashau, which with Page, Ndoro, 

 Nairotia, &c., make up the province of Leikipia. 



On November 9 we camped in a pretty clearing overgrown 

 with soft sward on the left bank of the Guaso Narok, which is 



* We met with this plant, one of the Compositte {TarchonantJms camplwratus,'L.), 

 so characteristic of certain districts of East Africa, for tire first time between tlie 

 northern frontier of Kikuyiiland and Ndoro, but we had not seen it again until now. 



