270 
IN AFRICA 
madding crowd. Thomas Cook and Son have not 
yet penetrated that district with schedules and time 
cards and luggage labels; so if your purpose in 
traveling is to get a grand assortment of stickers 
on your trunks and hand-bags, it is useless to in¬ 
clude Mount Elgon in your itinerary. 
There will be days of marching through high 
grass, often so deep as almost to bury yourself and 
your horse; hours of delay at marshy rivers densely 
choked with a tangle of riotous vegetation, and 
much groping about in a trackless waste for a suit¬ 
able course to follow. 
Owing to intertribal warfare the Elgon district 
has been closed for some time and it has only been 
during the last year or so that hunting parties have 
again been allowed to enter. Since that time a num¬ 
ber of parties have been in, the Duke of Alba 
among the first, and later Doctor Rainsford, Fred¬ 
erick Selous and Mr. McMillan, Captain Ashton, 
the Duke of Penaranda, Mr. Roosevelt, and a few 
others. Colonel Roosevelt went only as far as the 
Nzoia River, but most of the others crossed and 
swung up along the northeastern slopes of the 
mountain where elephants are most frequently 
found. 
Our party decided to take the southern slope, 
notwithstanding we were warned that we might 
find the natives troublesome and treacherous. We 
were also warned that we should be going through 
an untraveled district where there were no trails 
and where native guides could not be secured. 
