Evidently one of the labourers from Buea, named Xenia,
g? ° £,man' -Equally evidently some of my other men
are oniy fit to carry sandwich-boards for Day and Martin’s
l l « 7 7 - luxurious]y off tinned fat pork and hot
F ’ " ^ , ° feeling still hungry go on to tinned herring.
Excellent thing tinned herring, but I have to hurry because
°W UP through the edge of the forest on to
tht / and See how the c°untry is made during
Pf ] ° d o f clearness that almost always comes just
ronrvt -^° *eav*n£ my k°y s comfortably seated
re aving their evening chop, I pass up through
inno-l6^ "'tasselled fringe of the forest-belt into deep
b e_§Tass> and up a steep and slippery mound
2 5 f r - t the. mountain-face rises like a wall from behind
fa ° f ! l n Similar to the one 1 am at present on. The
if CG Th C r •- 5 r' ^ t anc* frfr bas two dark clefts in
L h - ^ ltSdf iS n0t Visible from where I am ; it rises
and11) I*1' f ey° nd tbe Walb 1 stay taking compass bearings
and look for an easy way up for to-morrow. My men, by
an T f ed tHeir “ ma ” and are yellin^ for her dismally,
d the night comes down with great rapidity for we are in
camn a a7 ° f f 6 ^ mountain mass, so I go back into
p. Alas . how vam are often our most energetic efforts
o remove our fellow creatures from temptation. I knew
a bunday down among the soldiers would be bad for my
men, and so came up here, and now, if you please, these men
have been at the rum, because Bum, the head man, has been
too done up to d° anything but lie in his blanket and feed.
efalla is laying down the law with great detail and unction
Cook who has been very low in his mind all day, is now
weirdly cheerful, and sings incoherently. The other boys
who want to go to sleep, threaten to “ burst him” if he “ no
rush. It s no good— cook carols on, and soon succumbing
to the irresistible charm of music, the other men have to join
in the choruses. The performance goes on for an hour
fleepmg W and woollier in tone, and then dying out in
\ u r'uej hyu h? Hght ° f an insect-haunted lantern, sitting
on the bed, which is tucked in among the trees some twenty
yards away from the boys’ fire. There is a bird whistling
in a deep rich note that I have never heard before.
September 23rd.— Morning gloriously fine. Rout the boys
out, and start at seven, with Sasu, Head man, Xenia, Black
boy, Kefalla and Cook.
The great south-east wall of the mountain in front of us
is quite unflecked by cloud, and in the forest are thousands
o f bees. We notice that the tongues of forest go up the
mountain in some places a hundred yards or more above the
true line of the belt. These tongues of forest get more
and more heavily hung with lichen, and the trees thinner
and more stunted, towards their ends. I think that these
tongues are always in places where the wind does not
get full play. All those near our camping place on this
south-east face are so. It is evidently not a matter of soil, for
there is ample soil on this side above where the trees are,
and then again on the western side of the mountain the side
facing the sea— the timber line is far higher up than on this.
Nor, again, is it a matter of angle that makes the timber line
here so low, for those forests on the Sierra del Cristal were
growing luxuriantly over far steeper grades. There is some
peculiar local condition just here evidently, or the forest
would be up to the bottom of the wall of the crater. I am
not unreasonable enough to expect it to grow on that, but its
conduct in staying where it does requires explanation.
We clamber up into the long jungle grass region and go
on our way across a series of steep-sided, rounded grass
hillocks, each of which is separated from the others by dry,
rocky watercourses. The effects produced by the seed-ears
of the long grass round us are very beautiful ; they look a
golden brown, and each ear and leaf is gemmed with dew-
drops, and those of the grass on the sides of the hillocks at a
little distance off show a soft brown-pink.
After half an hour’s climb, when we are close at the base
o f the wall, I observe the men ahead halting, and coming up
with them find Monrovia Boy down a hole ; a little deep
blow-hole, in which, I am informed, water is supposed to be.
But Monrovia soon reports “ No live.”
I now find we have not a drop of water, either , with us or in