and so difficult to climb through that it became clear
to us that certainly this was not the path by which the White Kendah
approached their sanctuary.

Scrambling out of this aperture with thankfulness, we found ourselves
upon the slope of a kind of huge ditch of lava which ran first downwards
for about eighty paces, then up again to the base of the great cone of
the inner mountain which was covered with dense forest.

I presume that the whole formation of this peculiar hill was the result
of a violent volcanic action in the early ages of the earth. But as I do
not understand such matters I will not dilate upon them further than to
say that, although comparatively small, it bore a certain resemblance
to other extinct volcanoes which I had met with in different parts of
Africa.

We climbed down to the bottom of the ditch that from its general
appearance might have been dug out by some giant race as a protection to
their stronghold, and up its farther side to where the forest began on
deep and fertile soil. Why there should have been rich earth here and
none in the ditch is more than we could guess, but perhaps the presence
of springs of water in this part of the mount may have been a cause. At
any rate it was so.

The trees in this forest were huge and of a variety of cedar, but did
not grow closely together; also there was practically no undergrowth,
perhaps for the reason that their dense, spreading tops shut out the
light. As I saw afterwards both trunks and boughs were clothed with
long grey moss, which even at midday gave the place a very ghostly
appearance. The darkness beneath those trees was intense, literally we
could not see an inch before our faces. Yet rather than stand still we
struggled on, Hans leading the way, for his instincts were quicker than
ours. The steep rise of the ground beneath our feet told us that we were
going uphill, as we wished to do, and from time to time I consulted a
pocket compass I carried by the light of a match, knowing from previous
observations that the top of the Holy Mount lay due north.

Thus for hour after hour we crept up and on, occasionally butting into
the trunk of a tree or stumbling over a fallen bough, but meeting with
no other adventures or obstacles of a physical kind. Of moral, or rather
mental, obstacles there were many, since to all of us the atmosphere
of this forest was as that of a haunted house. It may have been the
embracing darkness, or the sough of th