230 
THE KILIMA-NJABO EXPEDITION. 
along tlie sides of the narrow lane, backing, with 
much giggling, into the fern-fronds and brambles as 
I approached, and saluting my followers with many 
outspoken remarks as to their personal appearance 
and the errand on which they were bound. In the 
rear of the small company came the six soldiers of 
Mandara, wearing conspicuously the white cloths I 
had given them, and loaded with their shields, arms, 
and water-gourds. They urged along the upward 
path the three docile and unsuspecting sheep, which 
were to serve as their stock of provisions during our 
residence above the clouds. At about 5400 feet we 
quitted the last signs of cultivation, and consequently 
missed the familiar runnels of water which in the 
inhabited country intersect the land every few yards. 
The surrounding scenery was now charmingly soft 
and pretty, so exactly like Devonshire hills and coombes 
in general aspect that I need not give it a more de¬ 
tailed description. At 6000 feet we halted for a brief 
rest. The ascent had been very gradual. Here, where 
we first rested, there were grassy downs of short 
springy turf scattered over with magnificent clumps 
of forest; but higher up the woodland scenery, though 
very pretty and “ English ” in look, did not offer 
remarkably fine timber, the trees being short and 
twisted with dense undergrowth. The wild flowers 
were beautiful. Parasitic begonias trailed their lovely 
pink bells in long festoons ; magenta-coloured balsams 
gleamed from among the fern-fronds, and every now 
and then we would come across clumps of crimson 
and salmon-tinted gladioli that provoked expressions 
of admiration even from my followers, whose eyes 
were caught with the rich displays of colour. The 
tree-trunks, even to the minor branches, were densely 
