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THE KILIMA-NJAR 0 EXPEDITION. 
CHAPTER VII. 
“ HALCYON DAYS.” 
About a month was spent in the calm and contem¬ 
plative occupations described in the last chapter. 
This period seemed in one way to pass all too quickly, 
for the days slipped by one after the other, and no 
date stood marked out prominently by extraordinary 
events; and yet for the amount of Avork performed 
and for the changes in our environment, that first 
short term of our residence on Kilima-njaro was an 
age, a cycle of history, especially for the natives. 
While two-thirds of my men were tramping to Taita 
and back to fetch the rest of my goods, I, with the re¬ 
maining third, Avas hard at Avork during every twelve 
hours of daylight. Not only did Ave build the tem¬ 
porary houses and plant the kitchen-gardens I have 
already described, but Ave installed our coavs and goats 
in a spacious stable, constructed with sufficient strength 
to resist a night attack from leopards; Ave set going a 
poultry-run of eighty fowls; and Ave established a 
primitive dairy, wherein the milk from our animals 
was laid out in large flat wooden dishes (bought from 
the natives), and produced such a liberal quantity of 
cream that when enough had been taken to churn into 
butter (this operation Avas really performed by shaking 
in a large bottle), the remainder served to enrich my 
