272 
THE KILIMA NJARO EXPEDITION. 
spirit—or, at least, they did to my men’s imagina¬ 
tions, for I myself, never having heard an angry spirit 
murmur, was not in a position to discriminate. How¬ 
ever, I resolved not to try their powers of endurance 
much longer, so, on arriving at the place where I 
stopped to lunch—a protected hollow surrounded by 
huge flattened boulders—I determined to fix on this 
as our sleeping-place for the night, and accordingly 
directed the men to collect the dry roots of the heaths 
and other fair-sized shrubs as firewood. They were 
further instructed to proceed to the small stream 
which rose hard by and fill our gourds there with 
water, and afterwards to stretch out a macintosh in 
guise of a tent, so that we might have some shelter 
against possible rain and wind. Other directions for 
rendering our instalment as comfortable as the 
unfavourable circumstances would permit were also 
given; and having left the men in seemingly better 
spirits, I hastened to continue my ascent while the 
weather would permit. 
Climbing up a few hundred feet higher than the 
last stopping-place, and rounding an unsuspected and 
deep ravine, I arrived close to the base of a small peak 
which had been a continual and useful point to aim at 
during the whole journey from my station. I was 
now at an elevation of 15,150 feet, and on the central 
connecting ridge of Kilima-njaro, and could see a little 
on both sides, though the misty state of the atmo¬ 
sphere prevented my getting any good view of the 
country. This ridge, which from below looks so 
simple and straight, is in reality dotted with several 
small monticules and cut up into many minor ridges, 
the general direction of which is, on the southern side, 
from north-east to south-west. To the eastward I 
