284 
THE KILIMA-NJABO EXPEDITION. 
dense tangle of six or seven feet in height rose the 
straight smooth trunks of superb trees; indeed, the 
timber I saw here was exceptionally fine. 
The gloom of the forest was intensified by the 
enormous masses of orchilla-weed which grew thickly 
on the upper branches of the trees, in such a manner 
as to suggest a grey-green cloth being thrown over 
the foliage. The density of the woodland growth was 
almost appalling; we felt like insects creeping and 
twining through the interstices of the mighty trunks. 
As we preferred to go whither the elephants had forced 
a way, our course was naturally an erratic one, and 
several times the men lay down in despair to pant 
and rest, declaring that night would still find us grop¬ 
ing in the forest maze—nay, that should the guides 
maliciously desert us, we might wander for ever in 
this leafy labyrinth till we either perished at the hands 
of skulking robbers or fell an easy prey to angry ele¬ 
phants or hungry leopards. In vain I pointed to my 
compass and said that should the guides fail us, that 
was an unerring pathfinder; the men shook their 
heads despondently and said it might be in “ Ulaya ”— 
my country—but in the land of the savages—“Usenzi” 
—it availed nothing. I must confess the dull green 
gloom of the forest was very oppressive. The mists 
of the mountain permeated the foliage and a continual 
moisture dripped down on us. We were all wetted 
through every covering. Our clothes were ponderous 
with absorbed water—it was fatiguing to stagger 
under their weight. Disagreeable noises—all very easy 
to account for, but full of vague terror to my super¬ 
stitious following—broke the stillness of the rank depths 
of vegetation wherein we stumbled and crept along. 
The hyraxes uttered their thrilling, half-human, wailing 
