CHAPTER XVI. 
THE TAITA PLAINS AND LAKE JIPE. 
ON the 25th of July we left Kisigau at six a.m. 
Making our way through the cultivated belt at 
the mountain s base, we entered the wilderness once 
more. The plantations on this side looked much 
poorer than those of the east and south sides, as if 
less rain had fallen here, and this the Wataita said 
had been the case. Pursuing a course directly to- 
wards Bura till two p.m., we then turned to the west, 
continuing our march till 5.30 p.m. The country 
was a level tract, the soil red and sprinkled with 
a coarse silicious sand. The grass was spare and 
withered, and the trees were all as bare as an English 
orchard in mid-winter ; all looked dead, but the obe 
was pretty frequently seen in the early part of the 
way. Game was scarce, but at noon we startled a 
herd of antelopes, in colour as red as the soil. 
The path we followed next morning led it* a direct 
line towards Bura. In three hours we descended into 
the Matate valley, at the bottom of which we found a 
deep watercourse, apparently without water, but after 
digging small holes in the sand the fluid oozed 
through in great abundance. It ^was very cold. I 
