A FIRST ASCENT. 
233 
nothing more alarming than the occasional trumpeting 
of elephants or the mocking cry of the blue-green 
touraco. 
Owing to the absence of any drinking-water on our 
road ever since the last streamlet we had crossed in 
Mosi, we scarcely stopped anywhere to rest until 
reaching our camping-place, at a height of 8600 feet. 
Here we found a little rivulet flowing silently over 
mossy rocks, and forming clear, deep pools every few 
yards. The water was icy cold. Above the stream 
the path led us to a slight clearing in the forest, where 
we saw a few rotting huts and wind shelters. 44 These,” 
said Mandara’s men, 44 we made when we came to 
fight against Useri. We slept here, half-way.’ ’ My 
men were enjoined by the Wa-caga not to make any 
noise that might attract the attention of enemies in 
the vicinity; they even objected to’ our lighting big 
fires, in case the curling smoke might betray our pre¬ 
sence ; but at this I became impatient, preferring to 
risk the chance of a scuffle with the Wa-kiboso to 
suffering from cold. Already,, as the sun was setting, 
the temperature rapidly sank, and the air became very 
chilly, while a white rime settled on the grass. The 
forest and the surrounding vegetation were weirdly 
strange. Griant heaths of the familiar genus Erica 
grew unfamiliarly as tallish trees. An extraordinary 
composite plant (since named from my specimens 
Senecio Jolmstoni ) flourished in the marshy ground 
near the rivulet and rose to twenty feet in height. 
From a distance it appeared something like a banana, 
with huge broad leaves at the summit of a slim, bare, 
black trunk, but with yellow flowers like a groundsel 
—a humble plant, to which indeed, it is not distantly 
allied. 44 Everlasting flowers,” of tender rosy pink or 
