304 , 
IN AFRICA 
tic spot I have ever seen. Even the religious 
grandeur of Nikko’s cryptomeria aisles was in¬ 
comparable to this. 
One afternoon our column found itself hope¬ 
lessly lost in a jungle growth so dense that one 
could penetrate it only by cutting a tunnel through, 
and for hours we hacked and hacked and made 
microscopic progress. At last the head of the col¬ 
umn came to an abrupt drop of a couple of hundred 
feet which seemed an effectual bar to all further 
progress. The cliff fell off at an angle of sixty 
degrees, with the slope densely matted with heavy 
scrub and underbrush. It was necessary either to 
retrace our steps through that long and heart-break¬ 
ing jungle or else find a way down the cliff. The 
water was gone and the horses must be got to water 
before night. 
Then followed the most dramatic episode of our 
trip. We simply fell over the cliff, plunging, 
caroming, and ricocheting down through the masses 
of vegetation. How the horses got down I shall 
never know and shall always consider as a miracle. 
And how the burden-bearing porters managed to 
get their loads down is even more of a mystery. 
Somewhere down below we heard the cry of a 
baby! 
That meant that there must be human habitation 
near and, of course, a mountain stream, and per¬ 
haps guides to lead us out of the mountain fastness. 
A few moments more of falling and sliding and 
plunging, and the advance guard came into a tiny 
