CHAP. XI 
FROM EL BO GO I TO LAKE RUDOLPH 
235 
Bogoi) which we soon came to, in whose clear cold water my 
thirsty men were glad to slake their thirst. 
I soon pushed on, and reached the camping-ground Baithai 
recommended soon after 2 P.M. ; but most of the porters had 
stopped behind and lost our trail, and were not brought in by 
the Ndorobo sent in search till near sundown. It was a 
picturesque spot by a little, open, grassy glade, below which in 
a hollow, the head of a ravine, was a spring whose water 
flowed westward. The whole of the tops and western slopes 
of this range are clothed with forest, cold and damp and 
gloomy, the trees (which in some parts are of considerable size, 
attaining occasionally to perhaps even 100 feet in height) 
festooned with mosses, and every hollow with its swampy 
stream. It is a dismal and depressing place, and strange 
creatures emit weird and melancholy cries all night; sounds 
which puzzle one as to whether they are produced by bird, 
beast or reptile. 
Squareface and Baithai had gone on ahead in the afternoon 
to look for spoor, and found some quite fresh not far off, and 
also heard the elephants, so in the morning we went to look for 
these. The night had been fine, without even a mountain 
mist, but there was a heavy dew and the still air of the early 
morning was chilly. It is needless to recount all our tedious 
windings on this day, as it proved another blank. We followed 
fresh spoor, which we picked up near where the elephants had 
been heard the afternoon before; but they had wound about 
and separated, and must afterwards have got our wind, for 
though we persevered assiduously till well on in the afternoon, 
through many steep and slippery kloofs, and even once heard 
them, we could never come within sight. Then the tracks 
became involved and difficult to puzzle out ; it was thundering 
and beginning to rain, and our guides said that if we followed 
farther they would not be able to find the way back to camp, 
so I turned back heavy-hearted and empty-handed once 
more. 
