82 
THE KILIMA-NJAR 0 EXPEDITION, 
see no details. Then I made out a clear limpid stream 
slipping along over small stones, or forming still, 
quiet, mirror-like pools be¬ 
tween grey walls of smooth, 
massive tree trunks, which 
resembled stone in their 
colour and polish. Often 
the severity of these broad 
wooden bulwarks would 
be tempered with rich 
masses of foliage depending 
from the smaller boughs 
above, and breaking up 
with graceful and fanciful 
detail the somewhat formal 
outlines of the vista. The 
tree trunks that bordered 
the stream were many 
of them singularly broad 
in girth. In one or two cases they were grap¬ 
pled with by parasitic figs that wound them¬ 
selves round their stout victim like vegetable boa- 
constrictors, or, as in the example illustrated, like 
some huge, long-bodied lizard. In the shade of this 
green tunnel, where the little river—which the Swa¬ 
hili traders call the Mto wa Habari, or “ River of 
News ”—bored its way through the forest belt, we 
cast down our burdens and prepared to rest and eat 
our midday meal. Succeeding the white glare of the 
shadeless open country this sweet and cool retreat 
beneath a dense over-arching canopy of foliage was 
inexpressibly soothing after our weary walk from 
Taveita. The men went off to the other side of the 
stream, and were lost to sight iu the woodland; I only 
Fig. 23.—The Strange Creeper. 
