As this process has been going on for generations, the condition of the shore can be better imagined than described.

I have smelt many evil odours in the course of my life, but the concentrated essence of stench which arose from that beach at Lamu as we sat in the moonlit night -- not under, but _on_ our friend the Consul's hospitable roof -- and sniffed it, makes the remembrance of them very poor and faint.

No wonder people get fever at Lamu.

And yet the place was not without a certain quaintness and charm of its own, though possibly -- indeed probably -- it was one which would quickly pall.
'Well, where are you gentlemen steering for ?' asked our friend the hospitable Consul, as we smoked our pipes after dinner.
'We propose to go to Mt Kenia and then on to Mt Lekakisera,' answered Sir Henry.

'Quatermain has got hold of some yarn about there being a white race up in the unknown territories beyond.' The Consul looked interested, and answered that he had heard something of that, too.
'What have you heard ?' I asked.
'Oh, not much.