32 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch. ii 
in similar parts of our own West, can do well in East 
Africa, while a man with money can undoubtedly do 
very well indeed; and incidentally both men will be 
leading their lives under conditions peculiarly attractive 
to a certain kind of spirit. It means hard work, of 
course ; but success generally does imply hard work. 
The plains were generally covered only with the 
thick grass on which the great herds of game fed ; here 
and there small thorn-trees grew upon them, but usually 
so small and scattered as to give no shelter or cover. 
By the occasional watercourses the trees grew more 
thickly, and also on the hills and in the valleys between. 
Most of the trees were mimosas, or of similar kind, 
usually thorny; but there were giant cactus - like 
euphorbias, shaped like candelabra, and named accord¬ 
ingly ; and on the higher hills fig-trees, wild olives, and 
many others whose names I do not know, but some 
of which were stately and beautiful. Many of the 
mimosas were in bloom, and covered with sweet¬ 
smelling yellow blossoms. There were many flowers. 
On the dry plains there were bushes of the colour and 
size of our own sagebrush, covered with flowers like 
morning glories. There were also wild sweet-peas, on 
which the ostriches fed, as they did on another plant 
with a lilac flower of a faint heliotrope fragrance. 
Among the hills there were masses of singularly 
fragrant flowers like pink jessamines, growing on 
bushes sometimes fifteen feet high or over. There 
were white flowers that smelt like narcissus, blue 
flowers, red lilies, orange tiger-lilies, and many others 
of many kinds and colours, while here and there in the 
pools of the rare rivers grew the sweet-scented purple 
lotus-lily. 
There was an infinite variety of birds, small and large, 
