104 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
hand-rails of palm-branches alongside to steady the 
people in the act of crossing. 
In about an hour’s time we emerged from the forest; 
a march of about fifteen miles, in a north-west direction, 
first led us across a slightly sloping plain, and after¬ 
wards up the lower slopes of Kilima-njaro, which are 
freely intersected by watercourses discharging their 
contents, during the rainy season, into the river Lurni. 
One of these still contained some water, which about 
half-a-mile below the track disappears from view in an 
underground passage, and we were unable to ascertain 
where it reappeared again : it must have been a very 
long distance off, as, although I afterwards shot all over 
the plain below, I never came across any signs of it. 
During the early part of the march we saw zebra, 
hartebeest, and numerous game-birds ; later on we met 
a few of Mandara’s men who were coming to see 
Martin, and hearing a letter for him, dictated by their 
chief and written by Mr. Fitch, a resident missionary 
at Moci. This letter stated that Mandara had heard 
we were going to pay a visit to Sina, chief of Kiboso, 
his sworn foe, and that he was much hurt at an old 
friend like Martin not having come to see him first. 
These messengers, on hearing we were actually on our 
way to Mandara, joined our caravan. 
We halted for the night in a little hollow near 
a small mountain stream called Mto-abarri, and the 
camp, which was well shaded by magnificent trees, was 
pitched in the dry portion of the bed of this stream. 
Martin informed me that, often in the rainy season, 
