ROCKY HILLS.
"The country here is very pretty, not heavily wooded and not a level plain; there are hills in the distance, both on the east and west, and in the south is a chain of mountains that seem to threaten to stop our march. Sometimes we cross open areas of a mile or more, with a few trees scattered here and there, and again we come to stretches of forest of a density that would require a path to be cut if one did not already exist.
"There are a good many brooks and tiny rivers running through the region, so that it is well watered, and the traveller is in no danger of suffering from thirst. Some of the streams are sluggish and run through marshy ground, but the most of them remind you of an American brook gliding over sand and pebble, and occasionally rippling merrily down a rapid descent. I never supposed there was such a temperate region in Africa; but when I remember that we are four thousand feet above the level of the sea, and on the great plateau of Central Africa, my surprise ceases.
GREAT ROCK NEAR THE CAMP.
"One of our camps was made under the shelter of a great rock, which had a deep pool on the surface. We could hardly believe the story till we climbed the rock and saw for ourselves, and there, sure enough, was the pool.
"'There is a rock just like this on the route to Zanzibar,' said Abdul, 'and it was visited by Cameron in his journey across Africa.'
"'Yes,' said the captain, 'and there is the same story about that rock as there is of the one we are on.'
"'What is that?' I asked.