78 
IN AFRICA 
lished when we arrived. At other times we arrived 
early and picked out a spot, where ticks and malaria 
were not likely to be bothersome. 
We usually camped near a river. Our first camp 
was on the Athi Plains, near Nairobi; our second at 
Nairobi Falls, where the river plunges down a 
sixty-foot drop in a spot of great beauty. Our 
third camp was on the Induruga River, in a beauti¬ 
ful but malarious spot; our fifth was on the Thika 
Thika River, where it was so cold in the morning 
that the vapor of our breathing was visible; and our 
sixth on a wind-blown hill where a whirlwind blew 
down our mess tent and scattered the cook’s fire 
until the whole grass veldt was in furious flames. 
It took a hundred men an hour to put out the 
flames. 
Our next camp was at Fort Hall, where a poison¬ 
ous snake came into my tent while I was working. 
It crawled under my chair and was by my feet when 
I saw it. It was chased out and killed in the grass 
near my tent, and a porter cut out the fangs to 
show me. For a day or two I looked before put¬ 
ting on my shoes, but after that I ceased to think 
of it. 
After that time our camps were along the Tana 
River, in a beautiful country thronged with game, 
but, unhappily, a district into which comparatively 
few hunters come on account of the fever that is 
said to prevail there. We were obliged to leave our 
mules at Fort Hall because it was considered cer¬ 
tain death to them if we took them into this fly belt. 
