80 
THE KILIM A-NJAR 0 EXREDITIOK. 
and was polished and extremely slippery with the 
constant passage of naked feet, it offered anything but 
a secure foothold, and as a fall from any part of the 
bridge would be rather dangerous, I preferred fording 
the stream on a man’s back to risking the transit of 
the tree-trunk, although all my men, with heavy burdens 
on their heads, crossed it without mishap. 
Leaving the river, we walked for about two miles 
through very magnificent forest, where Raphia palms 
reached a great development; next we emerged 
abruptly on an unattractive wilderness of low thorny 
shrubs and coarse grass. The land rose gently before 
us towards the huge mass of Kilima-njaro, which was 
at present screened with louring clouds. In the 
middle distance, were broken chains of jagged hills, 
interspersed with isolated hillocks and mounds of 
conical shape, suggesting the idea that when the great 
discharge of eruptive matter from the two huge 
volcanoes of Kibo and Ivimawenzi was temporarily or 
permanently checked, the sick earth broke out all 
over the irritated surface with minor pustules and 
pimples through which the disturbing matter was 
discharged, the present aspect of the mountain and 
its vicinity being the result of the scars and hardened 
scabs of these now healed-up earth-boils. We walked 
for some ten miles over an unattractive country de¬ 
void of water, and little better than desert. The hills 
were sparsely overgrown with sad, grey-looking trees, 
almost leafless or else sprinkled with scanty foliage of 
an olive-green. In the rolling plains at their base 
there was little to break the monotonous yellow of 
the withered grass. Now and then was seen a Bauhinia 
shrub or stunted tree, with its bifid leaves that afforded 
as little shade as the poor foliage of the eucalyptus, 
