140 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHA)'. 



appearance of a lake ; and it is possible that after con- 

 tinued and heavy rains there is an outflow in an easterly 

 direction. The altitude of the bed of the swamp is 

 about 500 feet above sea-level; but for all intents and 

 purposes Lorian Swamp can be called the end and limit 

 of the Guaso Nyiro River. 



Nine days of severe marching brought us once more 

 to the Christmas camping-place. Shortly after we left 

 the environment of Lorian Swamp, the Soudanese who 

 was ill with fever, and the porter who had been suffering 

 from dysentery, died and were buried by the banks of 

 the muddy stream. 



It was with feelings of the greatest relief that we 

 found ourselves once more in open country. Those six 

 days spent in that tall grass were, indeed, terrible. The 

 river, dark, muddy, and listlessly flowing between clay 

 banks, was filled with large crocodiles ; and occasionally 

 from its waters there would rise some hideously shaped 

 water-bird. These lent a gloomy air to what we were 

 permitted by the tall grass to see. The charging rhi- 

 noceroses and fierce hippopotamuses added an element 

 of danger. All this, with the atmosphere heavily laden 

 with malaria, increased our feelings of bitter disappoint- 

 ment at our failure to discover either a o-reat lake or the 

 Rendile. 



Upon reaching the open desert Lieutenant ^^on 

 Hohnel and I recovered our spirits once more; and, de- 

 spite the fact that for more than a month our diet had 

 consisted of beans, corn, and what game we had been 

 able to shoot (not the best food for a convalescent), we 

 were able to march eight or nine hours each day with- 

 out excessive fatigue. 



