We camped at some water-pools which the rain had left in a depression in the rocky surface. The men informed us that they had heard in M’thara that there was no water beyond these pools for ten days’ march; but though there were no rivers marked on my map, we felt convinced that there must be some rivers on the north side. Joseph Thompson says, “A very few streams, and those of the smallest, rise on the east and north side” (of Kenia). On the contrary, we had found the east of Kenia exceedingly well watered, though there were certainly no very large rivers, and as events proved, Thompson was equally at fault as regards the north side. But then he never visited north or east Kenia, his knowledge of those parts having been derived from native sources. However, we felt certain that we should find water, so we pursued the uneven tenor of our way in spite of the maps. We were still ascending, and the air began to get very cold at night; though the sun’s rays, when it was not raining, beat down during the day with undiminished vigour. Owing to the formation of the country, walking was by no means an unmixed pleasure, sand, gravel, and loose blocks of lava, and fragments of white quartz, making travelling both tiresome and fatiguing. There was no game, and even the vegetation was very scanty; a few stunted thorn trees, and a species of aloe with red flowers, and some isolated Euphorbias forming the sole representatives of the vegetable world. The giant-branched Euphorbias (_Nyikæ pax_), presented a peculiar appearance with their huge cactus-like stem and vertical branches, which gave them the appearance of an immense candelabra. Some of them were thirty feet in height, with a stem six or eight feet in diameter. Great ravines, similar to those of east Kenia, but without their luxuriant vegetation, traverse the country from south to north. They required careful negotiation. Some of them had to be followed for miles along the edge before a suitable crossing-place was discovered. They all have considerable streams of water in the bottom, which flow north, and eventually join the Waso Nyiro. We saw another lion, and stalked him for awhile, but he retreated into a patch of bush near one of the ravines and could not be found, nor could we waste much time in looking for him. Late in the afternoon, on October 27th, we crossed a large ravine, and on climbing the opposite slope we emerged into open green country. As far as the eye could see the grass-grown surface rolled away in undulating ridges, without a tree or a bush to relieve the eye. It reminded me very much of portions of the Downs in Sussex, from which the trees had been removed. A herd of zebra disported themselves on the plain, and after a careful stalk I secured one of them for the men, who were already growing short of food. We camped that night on the grass, the air being very much colder, the temperature being certainly not more than 55° Fahrenheit. CHAPTER XX.