things), owing to
their lack of a tail, of which indeed they possess not even a vestige.

Our route lay by the always interesting Tsavo River. Along the banks
everything within reach of its moisture is delightfully fresh and
green. Palms and other trees, festooned with brilliant flowering
creepers, flourish along its course; all kinds of monkeys chatter and
jabber in the shade overhead as they swing themselves from branch to
branch, while birds of the most gorgeous plumage flutter about, giving
a very tropical aspect to the scene. On the other hand, if one is
tempted to stray away from the river, be it only for a few yards, one
comes immediately into the parched, thorny wilderness of stunted,
leafless trees. Here the sun beats down pitilessly, and makes the nyika
of the Tsavo valley almost intolerable. The river has its source at the
foot of snow-crowned Kilima N'jaro, whence it flows for about eighty
miles in a northerly direction until it joins the Athi River, about
seven miles below Tsavo Station. From this point the united streams
take the name of Sabaki and flow more or less eastwards until they
reach the Indian Ocean at Malindi, some seventy miles north of Mombasa.

A narrow and tortuous Masai warpath winds along its whole length, but
although we followed this trail our journey was nevertheless a very
slow one, owing to the overhanging branches and creepers, from which we
had constantly to be disengaged. The march was full of interest,
however, for it was not long before we came upon fresh tracks both of
hippo and rhino. Every now and again, also, we caught glimpses of
startled bush-buck and water-buck, while occasionally the sound of a
splash in the water told of a wary crocodile. We had gone about half
the distance to the Sabaki when we came upon an unexpected obstacle in
the shape of a great ridge of barren, rugged rock, about a hundred feet
high, which extended for about a mile or so on both banks of the river.
The sides of this gorge went sheer down into the water, and were quite
impossible to scale. I therefore determined to make a detour round it,
but Mahina was confident that he could walk along in the river itself.
I hinted mildly at the possibility of there being crocodiles under the
rocky ledges. Mahina declared, however, that there was no danger, and
making a bundle of his lower garments, he tied it to his back and
stepped into the water. For a few minutes all went well. Then, in an
instant, he was l