260 
THE KILIM A -NJA E 0 EXPEDITION. 
water, finally encamping for the night beside a lovely 
fern-choked brook at 6500 feet, the whole ascent 
having proved very gradual. 
The following day we quitted our camping-place at 
about half-past seven, and walked on, with occasional 
rests, for about two hours, when we found ourselves 
in dense forest, at an elevation of 7000 feet. Here 
we stopped and breakfasted. The scenery was pretty 
much the same as on the Mosi road, which was 
described in Chapter XI. Short, gnarled trees, 
uplands thickly covered with moss and ferns, and 
teeming with parasitic begonias, bearing sweet-scented 
white flowers; many tree-ferns and few signs of 
animal life, save occasional tracks of elephants or 
the scattered feathers of a touraco—dark blue with 
red pinions. At half-past eleven we started again, 
and journeyed on till nearly three. We had then 
reached an elevation of 9000 feet, and had passed for 
some distance through a region clear of forest, and 
merely covered with open grass. At our camping- 
place, however, we entered the woodland again, and 
here, fortunately, found a little stream of water. 
Indeed, on the road between the mountain and Maraiiu 
water was much more abundant than on the Mosi 
track. I caught a small chameleon and several beetles 
in this place. The next day we left this camp at 
eight o’clock, and journeyed eastward for about two 
hours, searching for a good site whereon to make my 
settlement, which mast be close to water, and not too 
high up, so that my shivering followers might not 
suffer unreasonably from cold. I selected an ad¬ 
mirable spot on a grassy knoll rising above the river 
of Kilema, which takes its source near the east of 
Kimawenzi. The altitude of this site was nearly 
