noon
Our road ran across the level , fertile plain but a small portion of which was cultivated , though I could see that at some time or other , when its population was greater , every inch of it had been under crop . Now it was largely covered by trees , many of them fruit-bearing , between which meandered streams of water which once , I think , had been irrigation channels . About ten o'clock we reached the foot of the encircling cliffs and began the climb of the escarpment , which was steep , tortuous and difficult . By noon we reached its crest and here found all our little army encamped and , except for the sentries , sleeping , as seemed to be the invariable custom of these people in the daytime . I caused the chief captains to be awakened and with them made a circuit of the camp , reckoning the numbers of the men which came to about 3,250 and learning what I could concerning them and their way of fighting . Then , accompanied by Umslopogaas and Hans with the Zulus as a guard , also by three of the head-captains of the Amahagger , I walked forward to study the lie of the land . Coming to the further edge of the escarpment , I found that at this place two broad-based ridges , shaped like those that spring from the boles of certain tropical forest trees , ran from its crest to the plain beneath at a gentle slope .