282 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
age; though what there was of this foliage, now brilliant 
green, was exquisite in hue and form, the sprays of delicate 
little leaves being as fine as the daintiest lace. On the 
foot-hills all these thorn-trees vanished. We did not go as 
high as the forest belt proper (here narrow, while above 
it the bamboos covered the mountain side), but tongues of 
juniper forest stretched down along the valleys which we 
crossed, and there were large patches of coarse deer fern, 
while among many unknown flowers we saw blue lupins, 
ox-eye daisies, and clover. That night we camped so high 
that it was really cold, and we welcomed the roaring fires 
of juniper logs. 
We rose at sunrise. It was a glorious morning, clear 
and cool, and as we sat at breakfast, the table spread in 
the open on the dew-drenched grass, we saw in the south¬ 
east the peak of Kenia, and through the high, transparent 
air the snow-fields seemed so close as almost to dazzle our 
eyes. To the north and west we looked far out over the 
wide, rolling plains to a wilderness of mountain ranges, 
barren and jagged. All that day and the next we journeyed 
eastward, almost on the equator. At noon the overhead 
sun burned with torrid heat; but with the twilight—short 
compared to the long northern twilights, but not nearly as 
short as tropical twilights are often depicted—^came the cold, 
and each night the frost was heavy. The country was un¬ 
tenanted by man. In the afternoon of the third day we 
began to go downhill, and hour by hour the flora changed. 
At last we came to a broad belt of woodland, where the 
strange trees of many kinds grew tall and thick. Among 
them were camphor-trees, and trees with gouty branch 
tips, bearing leaves like those of the black walnut, and 
