64 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
open country, which, as already explained, characterises the 
whole of the northern slopes, as far as I could see (including a 
high ridge running far out on the north side), keeping just 
outside the extensive jungles and forests which lay on our left 
as we ascended from the north-east. The crater itself is just 
within the forest, but we had little to go through in reaching it. 
Coming over the lower edge, which here has depressions with 
game roads worn by hundreds of generations of elephants, 
rhinoceroses, and buffaloes, the view is most enchanting. It is 
perfectly circular and surrounded by high, steep forest-clad 
walls ; below lies the placid lake occupying the whole of the 
wide interior, while from the high edge Kenia’s jagged, snowy 
peaks are visible across, showing up sharply above the dark 
forest which clothes the opposite wall. Great beds of water- 
lilies with blue and lilac flowers and banks of water-grass or 
rushes cut up the glassy, clear water, which may be reached by 
the steep, stony paths above mentioned ; numbers of ducks, 
coots, geese, divers, etc., swim, fly, or flap about on the surface ; 
little water-hens with long toes run about on the lily leaves all 
the same as on a Japanese screen. Hippopotami, too, inhabit 
it (one wonders what instinct enabled them to find out so 
secluded a retreat), floundering clumsily about and eating roads 
through the beds of lilies with machine-like movement of their 
huge jaws, exposing the red interior of the mouth each time 
they are opened wide. A cow and calf came near the edge, 
while I watched, and stood in shoal water; wild fowl gathered 
round them, perhaps getting food stirred up by the hippos. I 
watched the scene with delight; and though my larder was 
empty I could not disturb this peaceful sanctuary even by the 
murder of a duck, so refrained from firing a single shot there. 
I hid my camp away in a nook in the forest up on the 
edge, to avoid alarming elephants should any come down the 
path to water during the night, and made a circuit of the 
crater to look for spoor, but found none. Above it juniper 
forest begins, and I passed through some fine groves of tall, 
