of the higher mountains.  Then he sent after us a swift Masai runner bearing to us a bottle of whisky and a message to the effect that V. was afraid we would find it very cold up there!  Think of what that meant; turn it well over in your mind, with all the circumstances of distance from supplies, difficulty of transportation and all!  We none of us used whisky in the tropics, so we later returned it with a suitable explanation and thanks as being too good to waste.

Next morning, under guidance of our friend’s boy, we set out for the Lower Benches, leaving N’gombe Brown and his outfit to camp indefinitely until we needed him for the return journey.

The whole lie of the land hereabout is, roughly speaking, in a series of shelves.  Behind us were the high mountains—­the Fourth Bench; we had been travelling on the plateau of the Loieta—­the Third Bench; now we were to penetrate some apparently low hills down an unexpected thousand feet to the Second Bench.  This was smaller, perhaps only five miles at its widest.  Its outer rim consisted also of low hills concealing a drop of precipitous cliffs.  There were no passes nor canons here—­the streams dropped over in waterfalls—­and precarious game trails offered the only chance for descent.  The First Bench was a mere ledge, a mile or so wide.  From it one looked down into the deep gorge of the Southern Guaso Nyero, and across to a tangle of eroded mountains and malpais that filled the eye.  Only far off in an incredible distance were other blue mountains that marked the other side of the great Rift Valley.

Our present task was to drop from the Third Bench to the Second.  For some distance we followed the Narossara; then, when it began to drop into its tremendous gorge, we continued along the hillsides above it until, by means of various “hogs’ backs” and tributary canons, we were able to regain its level far below.  The going was rough and stony, and hard on the porters, but the scenery was very wild and fine.  We met the river bottom again in the pleasantest oval meadow with fine big trees.  The mountains quite surrounded us, towering imminent above our heads.  Ahead of us the stream broke through between portals that rose the full height of the ranges.  We followed it, and found ourselves on the Second Bench.

Here was grass, high grass in which the boys were almost lost to sight.  Behind us the ramparts rose sheer and high, and over across the way were some low fifty-foot cliffs that marked a plateau land.  Between the plateau and the ranges from which we had descended was a sort of slight flat valley through which meandered the forest trees that marked the stream.

We turned to the right and marched an hour.  The river gradually approached the plateau, thus leaving between it and the ramparts a considerable plain, and some low foothills.  These latter were reported to be one of the feeding grounds of the greater kudu.