ON SAFARI ON SAFARI BIG-GAME HUNTING IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA WITH STUDIES IN BIRD-LIFE BY ABEL CHAPMAN AUTHOR OF BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS ON MOORLAND AND SEA ' (TWO EDITIONS) ' WILD NORWAY ' AND ' WILD SPAIN ' WITH 170 ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR AND E. CALDWELL SKETCH-MAPS AND PHOTOGRAPHS LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD 1908 [All Righis Reserved} PREFACE SHOULD the title of this work convey no significance, the fact would show that there yet remains " Something new from Africa." That Arabic term "Safari" has no precise equivalent in our British tongue, yet is in daily use throughout British territories six times larger than the home islands. Hence I venture to introduce it to our common language. Its interpretation will presently become clear to those who read this book. British East Africa forms no inconsiderable asset of the Empire. It has involved the investment of several millions of our national funds, and it possesses a future that should be described as potential rather than assured none the worse for that. At the moment, this Colony of yesterday consists chiefly of virgin hunting-grounds, as yet largely unknown and unexplored save by a handful of pioneers and big-game hunters. Any sound and carefully-prepared work whatever its point of view that brings this new outlet more clearly under the public eye, is therefore doing a service. Compare these respective British areas SQUARE MILES. WHITE POPULATION. Canada . . 3,750,000 . 6,500,000 Australia . British South Africa British East Africa British Islands . 3,290,000 . 4,120,000 1,239,000 . 1,130,000 750,000 . 3,000 121,000 . 44,000,000 The present work treats exclusively of the Faunal aspects of British Equatoria, and especially of its Big Game. Suffice it as evidencing the wealth of the Colony in the latter respect, to say that the author and his brother in two expeditions obtained specimens of thirty-four different species or, including South Africa, vi PREFACE a total of upwards of fifty distinct varieties of big game in three trips. This compares with fourteen species, the net result of many years' strenuous hunting in Europe. And, quite recently, three Spanish friends have returned from British East Africa with a total of thirty-five species secured in a single season. The antelope-tribe alone counts upwards of forty members from elands of 2000 Ibs. to dikdiks of under ten ; then there are the beasts of prey, the three great pachyderms, giraffes and zebras, buffaloes, and a mixed multitude besides. Beyond all stand out on the hunter's horizon the elephant and the lion. These two constitute his supreme triumph, being not only the most difficult to encounter, but the most dangerous to attack. Then these equatorial forests shelter two great wild animals, to the full as interesting as the much-discussed okapi, yet practically unknown, to wit : that splendid bovine antelope the Bongo, a bull of which has never yet fallen by white hunter's hand ; and the Giant Forest-hog (Hylochcerus), a first example of which has, I hear, been obtained while these sheets are in Press. The author's companion throughout nearly the whole of his East- African wanderings was his brother, Walter Ingram Chapman, with whom he had previously com- pleted many hunting-trips, chiefly in Northern Europe, Newfoundland, etc. The illustrations are drawn almost exclusively from rough sketches made by the author in Africa some on the actual scene, others in camp immediately thereafter while impression remained vivid on the mental retina. To ensure a higher level of artistic excellence in re- production, the aid was invoked of Mr. E. Caldwell, himself fresh from a year spent among African game. His skilled and patient collaboration, extending over several months, has evolved this series of drawings, that faithfully depict in life many of the most magnificent wild beasts that to-day remain existent. That none more true have ever before appeared on paper is the PREFACE vii author's honest conviction, and that opinion he has backed by illustrating this work on a scale which, he is told, is not warranted in books of this description. A number of the author's own sketches have also been inserted especially of birds. These are naturally rougher, being merely amateur work. In attempting a rude sketch of the bird-life of this little-known Ethiopian region, the author may perhaps have been too bold. The splendid assistance rendered him, both in Africa and at home, by friends who represent the first authority on the subject, to wit, Mr. F. J. Jackson, C.B., Lieut. -Governor of British East Africa, and Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, has encouraged this inclusion of his rough ornithological notes. They are, at least, the first that have hitherto been attempted in a popular sense. As such, they may prove useful to travellers, sportsmen and colonists as well as to the lay bird-loving public to all of whom the purely scientific works on this subject (though they represent altogether admirable labour and research) are utterly incomprehensible. In conclusion : British East Africa affords to-day probably the most glorious hunting-field extant, certainly the most accessible, and this book may suggest to some an expedition thereto. They will not be disappointed. No very special personal qualifications are required. Neither the author nor his brother were skilled in African hunting, and the former, it may per- tinently be added, had already long passed the half- century before first setting foot in Equatoria. Naturally an insight into the rudiments of hunting-craft, together with reasonable rifie-practice (since ranges in Africa average double those customary elsewhere), are among the essentials. ABEL CHAPMAN. Houxty, Wark, XortltH inberlaiid. AUGUST 1908. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. AFRICA SOUTH AND EAST : INTRODUCTORY . . 1 II. THE EQUATORIAL TRENCH (l) HUNTING IN THE RIFT VALLEY (EBURU TO THE ENDERIT RIVER) . . 9 III. THE EQUATORIAL TRENCH (ll) ON THE ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU . . . . .18 IV. A LION-DRIVE ON LAKE NAKURU . . .40 V. A TWELFTH ON THE EQUATOR NAKURU TO BARINGO . 48 VI. AFTER ELEPHANT AT BARINGO . . . .62 VII. BEYOND BARINGO (l) AFTER ORYX AND ELAND . 73 VIII. (ll) TWO RHINOS . . .91 IX. (ill) ORYX, ELAND, IMPALA, JACK- SON's HARTEBEEST, DIKDIK, ETC. . . .97 X. ON SAFARI A SKETCH OF CAMP-LIFE IX BRITISH EAST AFRICA . . . . . .110 XI. ELMENTEITA (l) IN SEPTEMBER . . .121 XII. (ll) IN FEBRUARY . . .133 XIII. ELEPHANTS . . . . . .151 XIV. HUNTING ON LAKE SOLAI (l) CHANCE OR SKILL? . 165 XV. ,. (ll) WATERBUCK, WILD-DOGS, WART-HOG AND RHINOS (RETURN TO NAKURU) . 175 XVI. THE MAU FOREST AFTER BUFFALO AT KISHOBO . 186 XVII. THE ATHI PLAINS (l) FLYING VISIT IN SEPTEMBER 1904 201 XVIII. A MONTH ON THE ATHI RIVER (ll) IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 1906 208 CONTENTS PAGE XIX. OX THE STONY ATHI (JANUARY FEBRUARY 1906) . 2l'-J \\. HUXTIXG OX THE SIMBA RIVER . . . 237 XXI. THE UNSEEN WORLD . . 258 XXII. BIO GAME AND ITS BIRD-PROTECTORS . . 266 XXIII. FASCICULA (l) RETROSPECTIVE . . .277 (ll) DANGER .... 278 (ill) SNAKES .... 280 (IV) THE SAFARI .... 283 XXIV. STRAY NOTES ON EAST-AFRICAN GAME . . . 287 XXV. PROTECTION OF BIG GAME (fcPECIALLY IN RELATION TO BRITISH EAST AFRICA) .... 295 APPENDIX ROUGH VELD-NOTES ON BIRD-LIFE IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA ....... 303 INDEX . 337 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE OVERLOOKED . . . (Photogravure) Frontispiece SING-SING WATERBUCK BULL . ... 8 GREY PHANTOMS OF THE ROCKS (CHANLER's REEDBUCKs) . 11 SUNBIRDS . . . . . . .12 MASAI WARRIORS .... To face p. 12 SKETCH-MAP OF COUNTRY FROM EBURU TO NAKURU . .14 SPOTTED HYENA . . . . . .15 HEAD OF HELMETED GUINEA-FOWL . . . .16 CROWNED HORNBILL (Lophoceros melanoleucits) . . .17 DRONGO . . . . . . .18 ASSEMBLING OF THE CAUNIVORA . . To face p. 20- "GAZING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION" (WATERBUCK) . . 22 WOUNDED WATERBUCK . . . . . .23 NOONTIDE ON ENDERIT RIVER LAKE NAKURU AND CRATER OF MENINGAI IN BACKGROUND . . To face p. 24 GRANT'S GAZELLES . . . . . .25 "WHILE i HELD AN EMPTY GUN" (LEOPARD) . . .27 MASAI CATTLE-BELL PICKED UP ON ENDERIT . . .28 WART-HOG . . . . . . .30 GREY LOURY . . . . . . .31 1MPALA . . . . . . . .32 HUNTING-KNIFE SHEATHED IN SKIN FROM AN IMPALA's PASTERN 35 HEADS OF NEUMANN'S HARTEBEEST . . . .36 GOLIATH HERON . . . . . .37 AFRICAN JABIRU, OR SADDLE-BILL . . . .39 FIRST GLIMPSE OF A LION . . . . .41 LIONESSES RIGHT AND LEFT . . . . .45 SAVAGES DANCING AROUND DEAD LIONESSES . . .46 DEAD LIONESS . . . . . . .47 xi xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PACE KING WHYDAH-FINCHES . JACKSON'S HARTEBEEST, BULL . OSTRICHES HEAD OF EAST-AFRICAN REEDBUCK . 55 SOCIAL WEAVER-FIXCH . 58 COUCAL, OR BUSH-CUCKOO 59 AARD-VAARK XAMAQUA DOVE (CEna capensis) BARBET. A MOUSE-GREY COLY (Colius) AT NJEMPS . . 65 WEAVER-FIXCH ES* XESTS ... .67 NEARLY CAUGHT .... To face p. 68 SKETCH-MAP OF BARIXGO . . . . .75 LAKE BARIXGO FROM NORTH-EAST . . TofdCep. 76 KORI BUSTARD . . . . . . .77 GIANT FOREST-HOG (Hylochcerus meinertzhageni) . . 80 GIRAFFE BULL AT BARINGO .... " BEYOXD THE LOW ALOES " (ORYX) . . . .83 HORNS OF GAZELLES . . . . . .87 IMPALA ....... ORYX . . . . . . - .89 GAZELLES . . . . . . .90 TURK ANA ..... To face p. 92 KERIO RIVER RUNNING TOWARDS LAKE RUDOLPH To./OCe p. 92 A TROOP OF ORYX, MIGRATING BARINGO, AUGUST 31, 1904 To face p. 98 DIAGRAM SHOWING CONFIGURATION OF THE BARINGO PLAINS . 100 SOURCES OF THE SUGOTA RIVER . . To face p. 100- SUK WARRIORS IN THE FORT AT BARINGO . To face p. 102 IN THE SUK COUNTRY .... Tofacep. 102 ELANDS. ..... Tofacep. 104 EAST- AFRICAN BUSH-PIGS . . . . .106 JACKSON'S HARTEBEESTS ON THE MOLO RIVER . Tofacep. 108 PURPLE-CROWNED coucAL (Centropus monachus) . .109 A SAFARI ON THE MARCH . . . To face p. 110 WHITE-BROWED COUCAL, OR BUSH-CUCKOO (Centropus super- ciliosus) . . . . . . .112 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii PAGE AARD-WOLF . . . . . . .113 SAVAGES LOOTING "HIGH" RHINO . . . .116 SOMALI HUNTERS IN MIDDAY UNDRESS . . Tofacep. 118 SAFARI AWAITING THE ORDER TO START NAIROBI To face p. 118 HEAD OF WHITE-BEARDED GNU . . . . .120 BEYOND BARINGO TURKANA CAMELS GRAZING UNTENDED Tofacep. 120 NEUMANN'S HARTEBEESTS . . . . .123 STRIPED HYENA . . . . . .125 TAWNY EAGLE . . . . . . .130 A CORNER OF THE CROWD MASSED GAME NEAR ELMENTEITA (SEPT. 1904) .... Tofacep. 130' SING-SING WATERBUCK . . . . . .132 LAKE ELMENTEITA FROM THE NORTH-EAST LOOKING DOWN KARRIENDOOS VALLEY TOWARDS EBURU . To face p. 134 CHANLER'S REEDBUCK (FEMALE) . . . .136 HIPPOS IN LAKE ELMENTEITA . . . . .138 "FACED ROUND IN THE MOONLIGHT" (RHINO) . . . 140 RHINO BULL AS HE FELL . . . To face p. 140 THE THREE-HORNED RHINO'S HEAD . . To face p. 140 SACRED IBIS . . . . . . .142 AN AFRICAN LARK, OR " LONG-CLAW " (MoCTOnyX CTOCeUS) . 145 DAY-DAWN ON LAKE ELMENTEITA . . . .147 FLAMINGOES FLIGHTING. . . . . .148 EXECUTORS . . . (Photogravure) Tofacep. 149 STERNUM OF OSTRICH . . . . . 150 PUFF-ADDER . . . . . . .153 SKETCH-MAP OF SOLAI, ILLUSTRATING OPERATION WITH ELEPHANTS 156 ENVELOPED ..... To face p. 158 "TURNED ON us WITH COCKED EARS AND UPRAISED TRUNK" . 159 "COLLAPSED STERN-FIRST" ..... 160 FURTHER ADVANCE DANGEROUS PRIZE ABANDONED TO ENEMY To face p. 160 ; DEAD ELEPHANT BULL . . . . . .161 BULL ELEPHANT EIGHT YARDS LONG . . To face p. 1&2 WALTER'S BIG BULL .... Tofacep. 162 ADIEU!. 164 XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS \v- AND BEAD ELEPHANT ELEPHANT 8 EAR .... WATERBUCK BULL ELAND BULL A CHARGE OF THE HEAVIES " SPOILING FOR A FIGHT " (RHINO) BUSH-SHRIKE (Dryoscopus nandensis) . A PACK OF WILD-DOGS .... WILD-DOG WITH TWO SPOTTED HYENAS . RHINO FROM LIFE .... SLEEPING BEAUTIES .... " THOROUGHLY NASTY " . BRINGING HOME THE IVORY WHYDAH-FINCHES (Penthetria ardens) . HEAD OF BUFFALO .... A HORNBILL OF THE MAU FOREST TRUMPETER HORNBILL .... A HORNBILL OF SOTIK . A TOURACO OF SOTIK (Gallirex chlorochlamys] . A TINY WOODPECKER .... GREAT GROUND-HORNBILLS, ALARMED BY A PASSING EAGLE ANOTHER HORNBILL (Lophoceros) HORNBILLS ON WING .... THE SENTRY WHITE-BEARDED GNUS {i CLEARED OUT " DO. PENNANT-WINGED NIGHTJAR LOST BY A LENGTH HAWK-EAGLE AND GUINEA-FOWL VIS-A-VIS ..... SCOPS CAPENSIS .... BOLTING LIONS ..... THE AUTHOR ON "GOLDFINCH" DAYBREAK ON THE ATHI RIVER GAME COMING DOWN TO DRINK ..... A TROPICAL POOL ON ATHI RIVER HAMMER-HEAD (Scopus umbretta) THE DACE (LeudsCUS) OF ATHI GIRAFFES To face p. To face p. 166 166 167 . 168 To face p. 170 171 . 174 . . 176 To face p. To face p. 178 178 179 . 180 182 . 185 187 . 190 . 192 193 194 196 AGLE 197 199 200 . 203 205 211 212 . 213 213 To face p. 214 To face p. 214 DOWN TO To face p. 216 218 220 222 223 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv PAGE EAGLES STOOPING ...... 224 HARTEBEEST PILOTING BRINDLED GNUS TO WATER TofdCe p. 228 ' HOODED COBRA (Ndja hdje) . 229 SPOTTED HYENA .... To face p. 232 BRINDLED GNU, BULL STONY ATHI . . To/OCep. 232 SECRETARY (Secretdrius serpentarius) .... 234 HOODED COBRA ..... To face p. 236 ZEBRA ON STONY ATHI .... TofdCep. 236 TWO WEAVER-FINCHES IN BLACK AND GOLD (Hyphantomis textor, Pyromelana taha) ..... 242 WOOD-HOOPOE (Irrisor erythrorhynchus) . . . 243 PORTERS BRINGING IN RHINO HEAD ... . . 245 SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE LOW-RISING SUN (LION) . . 247 LILAC-BREASTED ROLLER (Corddds cduddtus) . . . 248 A PAIR OF BISHOP-BIRDS (Pyromelana sundevalli) . . 249 NESTS OF WEAVER-FINCHES ON THE SIMBA RIVER . .250 A HORNBILL ON SIMBA RIVER (PROBABLY LophocerOS fdScidtus) 251 GIRAFFES ON ATHI RIVER . . . To/deep. 252 HEADS OF COKE'S HARTEBEEST (MALES) . . . 254 AARD-VAARK SKETCHED IN BERGEN MUSEUM . . . 261 CIVET . . . . . . . .262 RATEL . . . . . . . .263 WHITE-BEARDED GNU ...... 265 HONEY-GUIDE ....... 267 HEAD OF NESTLING Indicator variegatus (SCALY-THROATED HONEY-GUIDE) SHOWING THE " FORCEPS " ON MANDIBLES . 270 "GO-'WAY BIRDS" (Turacus corythaix) . . . 271 TURACUS CONCOLOR ...... 272 SOCIABLE SHRIKE (Urolestes melanoleucus) . . . 273 SABLE ANTELOPE ALARMED BY BIRD-WARNING . . . 274 TURACUS CORYTHAIX ...... 276 TROPHIES AT BARINGO SHOT BY G. F. ARCHER TofdCe p. 278 GREEN MAMBAS ....... 282 " GOLDFINCH " AND HIS NEW OWNER . . To face p. 284 OUR HEADMAN (ON EXTREME RIGHT), ELMI TO AUTHOR'S LEFT, ENOCH BEHIND HIM, DEAD LIONESS IN FRONT ESCAPED CAMERA ..... To face p. 284 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE MY FIRST VIEW OF A SABLE BULL, "JUMPED UP WITH A SXORT " 291 LESSER KOODOO .... To face p. 292 AN 18 FT. PYTHON WITH WATERBUCK CALF IT HAD KILLED To face p. 292 CROWNED CRANE . . . . . .312 KING LEOPOLD'S TOURACO (Gymnosc.hizorhis leopoldi) . . 326 EMIN'S BABBLER (Crateropus emini, ? ) . . . 328 DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING FLIGHT OF Mirofra fischeri . . 333 A WEAVER . . 334 ON SAFARI CHAPTER I AFRICA SOUTH AND EAST INTRODUCTORY SOUTH AFRICA when the world was young that is, when we were young represented to those who had inherited an adventurous spirit, and in whose breast a love of the wild was innate, something that approached the acme of terrestrial joys. Thereaway, our earlier lessons had taught that, co-existent with the humdrum monotony of a work-a-day world, there yet survived a vast continent still absolutely unknown and unsub- dued by man, and across whose vacant space there sprawled, inscribed in burning letters on the map, that vocal word, "Unexplored." To no subsequent generation, as this world is geologically constituted, can a similar condition ever recur. To such temperaments as indicated the rough, free intangible life on an unknown veld, surrounded by savage Nature, and with its concomitants of self-reliance and self-resource, of difficulty, and sometimes of danger, appealed to the verge of and, in some cases, beyond the limits of self-restraint. The contemporary writings of Cornwallis Harris, of Baldwin and of Gordon Gum- ming were read and re-read till almost known by heart. They fired boyish imagination ; but in my case circum- stances forbade such realisation, since success comes more surely to the plodder than to the adventurer. 2 ON SAFARI A book that fascinated in only less degree was HAWKER, and for five-and-twenty years I followed " the Colonel" in what certainly represents the hardest and most strenuous form of wild sport that is attainable within our British Isles that of wildfowling afloat. Then, after a quarter of a century, when there came at length opportunity to visit the far-away veld of South Africa, already its long-dreamt charm had faded. During the second half of the nineteenth century the erewhiles wondrous fauna of the sub-continent had steadily, incredibly melted away before Boer breech- loaders. 1 It was in May 1899 that the author first landed in South Africa in those days of deep anxiety and unrest that soon afterwards culminated in war. There still roamed then on the broad bush-veld that lies towards the Limpopo the superb sable and roan antelopes, the koodoo, tsesseby and brindled gnu, waterbuck and many more. The elephant, it is true, had finally disap- peared ; so had the rhino, buffalo, giraffe and eland all of these abundant but a generation before. The first-named, however, all survived in some numbers, together with smaller antelopes which, if less imposing, are no less graceful. To have seen these magnificent wild beasts in their haunts, and to have secured specimens of most that, at least, was something effected. It was, nevertheless, with a certain undefined sense of disappointment or, at any rate, of aspirations not fully realised that, after four months on the veld, I turned homewards. The circumstance and condition of wild-life had perceptibly changed. These were no longer purely pristine. They had lost that ineffable original charm of which I had read, and which it had been 1 Though the Boers, being the most numerous, were the chief instruments of slaughter, yet other settlers were only less to blame in the proportion of their numbers. The Boers, moreover, never permitted the aboriginal natives to possess firearms ; and this, in other territories (especially Portuguese), has been a deadly source of destruction. AFKICA SOUTH AND EAST 3 my hope to sec for myself. I voyaged homewards- forced by the war to the long sea route by Mozambique and Madagascar oppressed by a brooding sentiment that I had lived too late, that those glorious scenes described by old-time pioneers had vanished for ever from the face of the earth. These gloomy forebodings have fortunately proved baseless have been scattered to the four winds by events that followed. South Africa as a virgin hunting-field exists no longer ; yet such spectacles of wild-life as fifty years ago adorned its veld and karoo, with all the glory of a pristine fauna every whit as rich, may yet be enjoyed elsewhere in that vast continent. It is no longer to the regions beyond the Zambesi that the hunter must turn attention those regions where Mr. Selous in my own time (since we were at Rugby together in the 'sixties) has earned pre-eminence among naturalist- hunters of all ages. No, the centre of attraction has shifted northwards, far northward to the British terri- tories that lie around the equator. There some of Nature's wildest scenes, practically unchanged since the days of creation, may yet be enjoyed. More than that. These new regions are accessible as South Africa never was at its zenith ; for these new hunting-grounds are reached by steam all the way, on land and sea a simple three- weeks' journey by ocean liner and corridor train. That this renewal of virgin conditions which, it seemed, had disappeared for ever, should, after all, have been renewed to another century, followed on the opening-up of the Uganda railway. That narrow ribbon of steel (though it never reaches Uganda) pierces for 600 miles the heart of Equatorial Africa. After leaving behind the coastal belt of forest and swamp, it sur- mounts a 6,000-foot mountain-range and traverses all the vast tablelands beyond, affording a tropical pano- rama that must be seen to be believed. Never before, nor ever again (it is safe to say) will there be pre- sented to the view of casual passenger such spectacles as to-day attend each train on that Uganda railway. 4 ON SAFARI Countless herds of big wild beasts feed within sight of carriage windows brindled gnu and zebra, hartcbeests and gazelles, with other antelopes great and small, giraffes and ostriches, even, by chance, a glimpse of rhino, buffalo or lion. But all that is a thrice-told tale. It is that unique railway, and the guiding star that led me thereto, that are the fons et origo of this book. Far-seeing and inspired was the genius that devised that line and (with the courage of conviction) carried out the scheme in face of the cheap rhetoric and narrow horizons of the hour, bounded to thousands by the corner of the street. Although, for the present, that wild fauna is actually a chief asset of our East- African colony, and the big-game hunter is to-day its most profitable customer, it is nevertheless no mere fantastic dream that pictures the equatorial highlands settled-up within measurable period by British farmers and graziers, the game displaced by flocks and herds, and Mombasa competing with Argentina and the Antipodes for the meat-supply of the Mother-land. Save incidentally, such matters do not here concern us. A feature that gratifies sportsman and nature-lover alike is the treatment of the game in the British Pro- tectorate. The Game-ordinances may not be ideal, nor their execution all we could wish, but they are essen- tially practical, and evince both a wise foresight and a policy that has raised the whole plane of sport, as practised in British territories, to a level that has never elsewhere obtained in the Dark Continent. Throughout South Africa hardly even the elementary significance of our British term " sport" was ever under- stood or thought of. With some notable exceptions, the mounted rifleman of the south, with his after-rider and repeating Mauser, was merely a butcher, a hunter of hides and meat. I served an apprenticeship there before coming here, and remember with loathing such expres- sions as " wiping the floor " or " cutting stripes through them" applied to some of the finest of animal forms. No sense of respect for game, no admiration of its grace AFRICA SOUTH AND EAST 5 or beauty, ever penetrated minds debased by decades of slaughter. Game was nothing more than a target ; after that, biltong, reims, and so on. In the south no remedy will now avail. Over vast areas, formerly abounding in game, it is too late, though in the Transvaal a praiseworthy effort is being made by the establishment of a " Game Reserve" in the Lebombo bush- veld. 1 In British East Africa the contrast is striking and welcome. The game, though wild and alert as the desert-born will ever be, here retains its pristine nobility and self-possession ; it is not merely the harassed and terror-stricken remnant of devastated herds. Our own initial experience in East Africa was un- fortunate ; for within three days of reaching Nairobi the author succumbed to malarial fever. With reluctance is so purely personal a matter here mentioned, and only because it is essential to the narrative and besides, the incident may serve to save others from a like ill, so simply contracted, so easily avoided. Landing at Mombasa twenty days after leaving London, one may reckon on at least a day or two's delay at the terminal port while arranging the final equipment of the expedition. Now Mombasa, lying under the equator, is distinctly hot. There are hotter places Aden, for example ; but at both sea-breezes temper the sun, or are said to do so. However that may be, at any rate when the up-country train finally steams out of the station, the very last thing on earth one is likely to think of as a necessary and hundreds of articles are necessary for a three-mouths' sojourn under canvas at that melting moment, as suggested, the very last desiderata one thinks of are warm wraps, ulsters and blankets. The mere idea is repugnant. 1 This is a region expressly adapted by nature for such a pur- pose, and practically useless for any other. Owing to its low-lying situation, reeking with malaria, it is uninhabitable by hximan kind, white or black, except only during the dry winter months June to October. Thirty or forty years ago it abounded with big game of every kind, from elephants downwards. 6 ON SAFARI Yet it was precisely the lack of these necessaries (in the carriage beside me) that proved my undoing. The Uganda railway, after traversing the 100-mile coast-belt the low-lying, malarial Taru desert at once ascends to the highland plateaux beyond. During that first night's journey the traveller is carried up to nearly 4,000 ft. above sea-level, and into a temperature that, by comparison, chills with a marrow-piercing cold. At sundown you are melting ; before midnight, frozen. When darkness closes in the scene is truly tropical : there are palms, bananas, papyrus and the rest. When daylight dawns it reveals bramble and bracken, sometimes even hoar-frost. This night-cold cuts to the bone unless one is provided with the simple necessary wraps, in my case overlooked. The result was an internal chill, followed by colic, terminating in fever. Cruel was the disappointment. Already, while traversing the Athi Plains, we had witnessed the abund- ance of wild game, and keenness to get among them passed all bounds ; yet now, for a weary fortnight, I was held up with fever and a temperature anywhere around 106 degrees. Lucky, indeed, that this occurred at Nairobi, where there was a medico of sorts, rough though kindly, and where prescriptions were (in those days) dispensed in empty beer-bottles. Nairobi's single wood-built hotel of that epoch (since burnt out), run on the usual free-and-easy colonial lines, compares not with the palatial structures of the modern capital (things move fast thereaway), yet was thoroughly comfortable. More than that, at the hands of the two Miss Raynes busy as they were with a thousand more important things I received during this illness a care and attention that will ever remain a grateful memory. Meanwhile, within an afternoon's walk of the town, my brother Walter had found abundant game harte- beests and zebra, gazelles, ostrich, cranes and bustard and had already opened our score. But, so soon as the crisis of the fever had passed, he left me and went on AFRICA SOUTH AND EAST 7 alone with the " Safari " as a mobilised hunting ex- pedition is called ; for it was obviously inadvisable to keep a crowd of between forty and fifty " boys " idle among the many temptations of Nairobi. In Equatoria, it should be explained, there is none of that monotonous " trekking- in " by ox-waggon that characterised South-African hunting trekking that often occupied wearisome weeks ere a game-country was reached. Here the terror of the tsetse-fly has eliminated all that, and transport, away from the railway, is entirely effected upon the heads of native porters. Thence springs the genesis of the " Safari." A feature in this fever was the rapid recovery. On the day when the doctor told me I might start on the morrow I found myself too weak to stand upright unaided, and next morning required support on both sides to limp as far as the station, though barely two hundred yards away. It seemed madness to go ; yet I obeyed and went, with the result that within forty-eight hours I could do a twelve-hours' march and after that was as fit as ever, and remained so during three months' hunting. The experience seems eloquent of the superb climate of these highlands and of its recuperative qualities. Possibly there may exist, in that combination of equatorial sun-power tempered by high altitude, some health-giving property, an elixir, that yet remains to be defined by medical science. I feel it nothing less than East Africa's due to mention that after each of my expeditions therein (despite the accidental ill-luck of get- ting malarial fever) I have personally felt reinvigorated and about five years younger ! Permanent residence there may, of course, be quite a different matter. On reaching my destination at Eburu that evening, after seven hours' railway journey, it was both surprising and grateful to notice the evident pleasure shown by our retinue of " savages " at my recovery, though I was, so far, almost a total stranger to them all. They crowded round the carriage, and on seeing that I had 8 ON SAFARI difficulty in descending there are no platforms in the wilds lifted me down and almost carried me to our camp, which was pitched on a rugged hillside above. Next morning a smiling Swahili presented me with a stout staff of M'piqui wood that I have since carried over thousands of miles in Africa, and which I still use at home. This slight tribute to the savage Swahili shall not be omitted. .SING-SING WATERBUCK abnormal head. THE EQUATORIAL TRENCH HUNTING IN THE RIFT VALLEY (EBURU TO THE ENDERIT RIVER) THE Equatorial Trench is an old-time geological fissure that bisects British East Africa from north to south. It is stated that the course of the Trench is traceable northwards across the Red Sea into the Jordan Valley in Palestine. However that may be, at least the Trench is visible enough in these latitudes, where it is known as the Rift Valley. Every passenger on the Uganda railway must realise its existence when, shortly after passing Limoru (400 miles from the coast), the train suddenly dips away beneath him, plunging down- wards in what appears a mad descent through tropical forest, to a station yclept " Escarpment." Within a mile or two he has been hurled into an abyss, dropping from 7,500 ft. elevation at Limoru to 5,800 ft. on the Enderit River. Those are the engineers' figures; though mere cold numerals convey but little idea of its sense of vastness. And on the opposite side the phenomenon is equally conspicuous. For, after traversing the floor of the Trench (some 40 miles across), the line rises again in gradients hardly less abrupt, reaching an altitude of 8,000 ft. on the Mau Plateau. The width of the Trench varies from 40 to 60 miles, its floor averaging 2,000 ft. below the flanking mountain- walls that enclose it Laikipia on the east, Kamasea on the west. Within this depression lies the great chain of lakes, 9 10 ON SAFARI including those few that fall within my own narrow limits, to wit Nakuru, Elmenteita, Naivasha and Baringo. Eburu was the spot whereat we had decided to commence our operations. It is merely the name of a rugged volcanic range lying at the verge of the Rift at a point where the hills open out upon rolling prairie and the basin of the Enderit River. Eburu proved an awkward place to encamp, there being absolutely neither wood nor water ; for both of which prime necessaries we were dependent on the good- will of the baboo station-master. Since then the station has been abandoned, and Eburu has reverted to primaeval desolation. That first morning in camp, as the grey light strengthened to the dawn, we perceived, high overhead on the mountain-side, what appeared to be columns of smoke. These, for one unhappy moment, suggested that other camp-fires desecrated our vale. "We were reassured on learning that these were geysers jets of steam issuing from fissures in the plutonic rock. No other inhabitants, indeed save baboons, which barked and chattered from the rocks above, and others of savage nature abused our solitude. The name Eburu, we were told, in the Masai tongue signifies " steam." Our object in making Eburu our starting-point was to obtain here specimens of Chanler's reedbuck, an elusive little antelope that, belying its name and abandoning the marshy habitat of its congeners (save one), elects to live, chamois-like, on rocks and rugged mountain-faces. That one exception is the so-called Rhooi rhebok (Cervicapra fulvorufula) of South Africa, which, although a true reedbuck, is also, like the present', of mountain-loving habit. Chanler's reedbuck is only a small species, weighing some 70 Ibs., and was quite abundant on the rocks of Eburu ; we found it, nevertheless, a most troublesome trophy to secure. Its head and neck are tawny yellow, yet so precisely does the body-colour assimilate with HUNTING IN THE RIFT .VALLEY 11 its grey-rock environment as to be practically invisible at any considerable distance. The creature, moreover, is the very incarnation of watchful alertness : the GREY PHANTOMS OF THE HOCKS (CHANLER'S REEDBUCKS). immense ears and full, prominent eyes set high on an elevated forehead bespeak such qualities. Graceful in the extreme and most interesting to watch were these little rock-skippers as they sprang from crag to crag or filed up precipitous ledges, whistling, and flirting their 12 ON SAFARI white-fringed tails; but they proved "too much" for us. They were in little groups of three or four up to a dozen, and all day the bucks kept beyond my reach, though on several occasions the hornless does were within shot. Being still weak from fever, I found this hill- climbing rather heavy work, and thought to organise a "drive." This, however, proved a system hard to in- stil into the savage mind, and though I got one shot, it scored a miss. This was a nice buck, about 100 yards below ; but the aggravating bullet splintered the rock some six inches too high. Chanler's reedbuck beat us both here and on other occasions ; for we met with it again on the crater of Meningai, at Baringo and elsewhere. It is common, we found, on every rocky range or series of detached koppies, yet it was not till our second East-African venture that we at length secured a first example. Another rock-jumper, of which we did secure specimens among the Eburu hills, is the klipspringer an even smaller antelope, the bucks only weighing 25 Ibs. The upright hoofs resemble those of ibex rather than antelope, and the spoor, when crossing soft ground, gives an impression that the animal walks on tiptoe ; but among rocks the klipspringer equals the chamois in bouncing agility. Klipspringers, probably from having been but little disturbed at this spot, were less wild than the other rock-antelopes. They seemed to SUNBIRDS HUNTING IN THE KIFT VALLEY 13 rely on a mistaken confidence that mere altitude in the crag-faces lent security against a rifle-ball. It was, nevertheless, difficult enough to distinguish precisely their small grey forms, 300 ft. above, from the broken rocks that surrounded them. Next morning, while watching a group of reedbucks on the crags, in hopes of securing an opportunity to stalk, suddenly three impala (one good buck) appeared on the hill above. Then, to our disgust, six Masai walked right across our front, taking not the slightest notice till we hailed them with a request that they would be good enough to go somewhere else. Each of these savages carried the usual double-edged spear and customary ornaments (such as quarter-pound 'baccy tins) stuck in their ears, being otherwise stark naked. Later on we discovered that these were the advance- guard of a migrating tribe, a body of which had spent the night in one of the huge volcanic chasms, where they might have enjoyed warm baths free. It is doubtful, however, whether nomad Masai appreciate such luxuries. This intrusion was most unwelcome when we needed a whole country to ourselves. Nairobi, moreover, when we left it a week before (July 1904) had been seething with rumours of native unrest, Masai risings, and the like. These, we knew, were quite unfounded, resting on a reported decision of the authorities to move the aborigines back from the railway so as to make room for settlers. Then, as it were lending grounds for such fears, a detachment of 400 " Yaos " (King's African Rifles), arriving in three train-loads the troopship Clive from Berbera had entered Mombasa with us created quite a small panic. But these good black troops were, after all, only returning from chasing the Mad Mullah ! Those who select savage lands for a home should not give way to fears of " excursions and alarms." The removal of the Masai into the Laikipia " Reserve " was eventually carried out without the slightest disturbance of the peace. 14 ON SAFARI Owing, however, to this untimely Masai intrusion, we shifted our camp a dozen miles from Eburu into the valley of the Enderit River, enjoying during that march some memorable spectacles of wild animal-life. SKETCH-MAP OF COUNTRY FROM EBURU TO NAKURU. Beyond the rugged foothills of Eburu stretches a region of open forest which, at this date, literally teemed with game. Herd upon herd of zebras, Neu- mann's hartebeest, impala and the large Grant's gazelle HUNTING IN THE RIFT VALLEY 15 filled the view. Further on, where forest gave place to open grassy prairie, all these were literally in thousands, though the impala always frequent the fringe of the covert. We saw no elands at this date, but the plains were alive with herds of the smaller gazelle (Thomsoni) darting about and chasing each other in sprightly exuberance. Besides these were wart-hogs, ostriches and SPOTTED HYENA. great kori bustards, while crowned cranes in threes and fours stalked sedately through the throng. Jackals loped hither and thither, and, further away, a gaunt hyena, looking big as a lioness, shambled across the plain, its long neck held stiffly forward at an upward angle and tail carried low between the legs. At one point we counted thirty-one ostriches close together thirteen in the nearer pack, two of which were big old cocks, and eighteen more a little beyond. Hard by them a herd of zebra were feeding, and in the foreground a group of marabou storks held an inquest over some bones. Strikingly handsome objects were the crowned cranes just mentioned, big birds of boldly-marked plumage velvety-black, with rich chestnut wings and 16 ON SAFARI snow-white undersides that showed up in strong contrast as they rose in flight. The curious wood-ibis (Pseudo- tantalus ibis) was also conspicuous among the trees that fringe the Enderit a big stork-like species with heavy curved beak, naked head and neck of bright orange hue, and of black-and-white plumage, but displaying rosy glints, somewhat like a flamingo, when flying. By a shallow water-splash sat Egyptian geese, some preen- ing, others asleep strangely unsuspicious for that watchful tribe. Hard by, however, \vere a dozen of the noisy spur- winged plovers (Hoplopterus), and these, as their habit is, speedily set the rest on the alert. From each patch of covert sprang or ran great packs of helmeted guinea-fowl, francolins, quail, and "jumping hares," the latter bouncing a yard in air at intervals as they sped away. There were quaint hornbills (Lo2)hoceros) , bee-eaters and bush-cuckoos, while gorgeous little sunbirds fluttered over each flowering shrub. A fantastic bird-form, of which we saw a pair to-day, is the mop-headed touraco (Turacus), with a ringing voice that sounds almost human. On the thorny mimosas by the riverside sat white-headed eagles (Haliaetus vocifer) that rose as we passed, startling the echoes with strident cries. All day long the spy-glass was kept employed, examining some new thing. We were here, zoologically speaking, in a new world the " Ethiopian Region " and its wealth of wild-life was bewildering. Intense interest kept us going without desire to kill ; indeed, for several marches we shot little beyond what was actually necessary to feed our caravan. HEAD OF HELMETED GUINEA-FOWL. HUNTING IN THE KIFT VALLEY 17 The sun was nearly dipping when, after a twelve- hours' march, we reached our camp, already pitched in a lovely grove by the Euderit here merely a muddy creek dawdling in the depths of a bush-clad donga. While we dined that happy evening under a spreading mimosa, the evening's peace was broken by our friends the crowned cranes filing overhead in noisy skeins to roost in the tall fever-trees beyond. Ducks were flighting in the gloom up the river, and, ere we turned in, lions commenced to " call " in the woods below. CROWNED HORNBILL Lophoceros melanoleucus. CHAPTER III THE EQUATORIAL TRENCH (Continued} ON THE ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU OUR camp on the Enderit River was surrounded by park-like country, alternating between bush and broad, open prairie, with part forest and glades of infinite beauty, while everywhere the landscape was bounded by the peaks and scaurs of distant mountains. Lovely as. was our prospect, yet scarce a sign of its tropical site obtruded on the view, or proclaimed the fact that we sat practically astride the equator. In these up- lands, the absence of such evidence is con- spicuous. Neither groves of graceful palms, with their troops of monkeys and nights of shrieking parrots, nor tree-ferns with feathery frondage, or other fantastic forms of foliage and plant-life such as one associates DRONGO. as one with the torrid zone, here arrest one's gaze. On the contrary, the landscape of Enderit, as viewed afar, might well-nigh pass for a British scene not, it is true, in the crowded south or the tame cultivation of the midlands, but rather amid those wilder regions of my own northern home, where Nature yet reigns unsubdued, unfenced, " unimproved." There, as here, a shaggy fringe of self-sown scrub or bush marks the course of winding burns ; natural woods 18 ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 19 cling to the steeps above or straggle irregular across the plain, while crag and mountain-ridge fill in the back- ground. Species differ, but form remains not dissimilar. This morning, ere yet the dawn was fully established, a weird melody caught my ear, and, looking from the tent, I saw its author on the topmost bough of an acacia a glossy starling-like bird with deeply-forked tail. This was a drongo (Dict^urus musicus), one of the shrike family, and a warrior to boot, albeit a songster ; for never a kite or crow, not even an eagle, venturing near our camp, was immune from its furious onslaught. 1 While sipping the matutinal coffee I could actually see herds of wild animals peacefully grazing within view from my camp-bed ! On putting the glass on to these, I found they included zebras and Thomson's gazelles ; while further away the ruddy pelts of hartebeests were distinguishable. The latter, in this district, are the rather scarce Neumann's hartebeest (Bubalis neumanni), and to secure specimens of these formed our first and main objective on the Enderit. The first animal actually shot on the Enderit, how- ever, was a zebra, and, while skinning proceeded, 1 enjoyed watching that ever- wondrous spectacle of wild African life, the assembling of the carnivora. Life was hardly extinct ere dark shadows passed and repassed on the sere grass hard by. Looking upwards, the heavens were flecked with circling hordes. Soon the smaller vultures (dark-brown neophrons with livid pink faces) descended with collapsed wings, alighting with resonant rush all around us, many within thirty yards. Then the huge carrion- vultures (the African griffon, Pseudo- gyps africanus, deep brown with conspicuous white patches on lower body, and the still blacker Eared vulture, Lophogyps auricularis, with red ear-lobes) 1 A drongo will remain perched by the hour on a bough, watching for passing insects. Presently he darts down, catches one, sometimes two or three in rapid succession, then returns to his post, exactly as our flycatchers do at home. 20 ON SAFARI settled in groups further away, forming an outer circle, and amidst these I saw over the grass the sharp cocked ears of jackals. Some crowned cranes also stalked through the group, but these were merely locust- catching, and had no interest in our procedure. The case was different with their congeners, the adjutants or marabou, several of which, dropping from the sky, fell into line with the outer circle of vultures, while others continued sailing overhead. The policy of these latter seemed to be to make sure that the feast would "go round." They wanted to see how much zebra we intended to leave behind. Sailing aloft is no trouble to them, and they did not mean to descend till sure of at least a few mouthfuls apiece. Within half-an-hour the nearer vultures had disappeared. They had not gone, but, being tired of waiting, had squatted down to sleep in the grass. Some jackals had done the same, but others stood sentry. Elmi Hassan (my Somali hunter) now pointed out a new arrival three hyenas. These, however, kept at safe distance. On other occasions, vultures have continued circling overhead during the entire process of off-skinning. But ere one has retired fifty yards down sweeps the whole crowd with mighty rush of wing, assembling around the carcase in a surging, seething, tearing mass. This zebra (Equus burchelli-granti) was a stallion in his prime, apparently eight to ten years old, and ex- hibited (what is unusual in East Africa) the paler, shadow-like stripes interposed between the main black bands. The striping, broad and boldly contrasted, as in all East- African examples, extended completely over the whole body, including the tail, and down the entire leg to the fetlocks. This is the form once differentiated as E. chapmani. 1 The further south it is found the less complete becomes the striping of the zebra. In the typical Equus burchelli of Cape Colony (now probably extinct) this striping was confined to the body only, the 1 I notice that Mr. F. C. Selous refers to this East-African form (in lit,) as E. grant i. ENDERIT E1VER AND LAKE NAKURU 21 legs being plain white ; and of the legs of two pairs of zebra that 1 shot in the Transvaal and happened to keep, one is almost pure white from the knee downwards, the second pair being striped to the pasterns. In A Breath . from the Veld Mr. J. G. Millais shows all his zebra, shot in Mashonaland, with plain white legs. Again, in the true quagga (E. qiif.iyya long since exterminated) the striping, half obsolete at best, was confined to the head, neck and shoulders only. This was the southernmost form of all. It seems obvious that in this case systematists have had the bad luck to begin at the wrong end of the range, since it is from the north that the true aboriginal type of zebra has come, dispersing thence southwards. The largest and handsomest zebra of all a trulv dis- ./ tinct species E. yrevyi, is still restricted to the north of the equator ; while the southernmost form, typified as true Burchell's, is really a mere degenerate variation of the original, heavily-striped type, E. chapmani. Personally I am no advocate for splitting species merely on such grounds as colour- variation, and am not even prejudiced by the claims of a namesake ! During our first week's shooting at this charming spot we obtained good specimens of most of the local game, and the pile of horned heads and pegged-out skins behind our tents made an imposing show. The harte- beests, however, had so far defied our efforts; they were in fair numbers, but excessively wild, and the open plain lent no assistance. Rarely do these large and handsome antelopes trust themselves within forest or bush, and, even if found therein, keep constantly on the move, as though ever conscious of the dangers lurking within covert. One evening (July 27), when my brother and I had gone out together, we descried a dozen kongoni feeding by the rushy foreshores of Lake Nakuru, between the water and the forest-belt that fringes it. While engaged on this stalk, I espied beneath the trees on my right an animal that com- pletely puzzled me. It was a great shaggy beast, very 22 ON SAFARI dark, and with horns of a span which, in the gloom of the forest and waning light, almost suggested buffalo. To this I transferred my attention ; but the first shot, at about 300 yards, missed, and it looked any odds on a total loss when the unknown beast disappeared, gallop- ing among the timber. We followed fast, and luckily "GAZING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION" (WATERBUCK). picked up view as he left the woods, and, changing his course, came cantering back across an open prairie towards our rear. Then, by fortunate chance, he spied my brother, who, with the " boys," had remained behind. The game pulled up sharp, his magnificent car- riage and contour recalling a colossal red stag in Land- seer's bravest type. The intervening plain was dotted with isolated forest-trees, each springing from a bushy ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 23 base, and while this splendid animal stood fixedly gazing in the wrong direction, I succeeded, by creeping and running from tree to tree, in gaining a range of just under 300 yards. Then, in happy moment, I dropped him clean with a *303 bullet in the base of the neck. My prize proved to be a Sing- sing waterbuck bull (defassa), carrying horns of 28| ins. What had deceived me was the abnormal breadth of horn. These, not being set regularly, reached the extraordinary span of 30 ins. between tips a measurement exceeding any given in Rowland Ward's Records. I killed another sing-sing bull a few days later, but in that animal, though the horns reached 27^ ins., the span between tips was under a foot. In his dark, shaggy coat, with which the white collar and facial markings so strongly contrast, the sing- sing is an altogether handsomer animal than the common waterbuck. Both species 24 ON SAFAEI are iron-grey in colour, the sing-sing perhaps slightly browner than Cobus ellipsiprymnus ; but the colour shown in the plate of C. defassa in the Book of Antelopes (vol. ii, plate xxxvi) is wrong, unless the seasonal range of colour is very great. A white band surrounds each fetlock immediately above the hoof, and is conspicuous at a considerable distance. The dead- weight of this animal would be about 500 Ibs. Waterbuck do not show up by day in anything like the same degree as the other large game mentioned, their habit being to lie hidden in thick covert till towards evening, when they emerge upon the lovely parks and open pastures that fringe the river. One of these spots in particular, adjoining the confluence of the two Enderit Rivers with Lake Nakuru, was indeed a charming picture perhaps 500 acres in extent, dotted with forest-trees singly or in clumps, and entirely inset among woodland and thick jungle, which fringed the banks of either river. It literally teemed with herds of varied game, and forms the subject of Mr. Caldwell's drawing opposite. My first sing-sing gave me a lesson of caution in handling these heavy horned beasts. Elmi, finding himself unable alone to administer the coup de grdce, asked me to " stand on the horn." This I did, grasping the upper horn with both hands, while Elmi stood on the tip, outside me. Such, however, was the tremendous power developed by the big bull in a final struggle that both of us were thrown yards through the air. I also received a blow in the ribs from the other horn, and, as Elmi then fell on top of me, I got a shaking that I did not forget for a day or two. The incident, however, ap- parently caused merriment to my brother and the "boys," who came up at that moment. Leaving the latter to bring in the meat, we two walked campwards, and on the way ran into a prowling tiger-cat, which managed to bounce through bush without offering a shot. During the subsequent hunt we lost our bearings, and, as it was now dark, passed a bad half-hour ere we descried ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 25 the camp-fires, what time lions were beginning to call. Next morning I secured my first pair of Grant's gazelle, the buck by a shot in base of neck at over 250 yards. He formed one of a group of thirty or forty GRANT S GAZELLES. animals widely scattered among sparse bush, but his was the only good head. He carried massive annulated horns of 23 ins., by seven in basal circumference, and with the wide span of 16 ins. between tips. The doe I got by a little impromptu drive, killing her with a Paradox ball as she flew past at eighty yards a lovely creature with horns of 15f ins. My brother also brought in a Grant buck,- the horns being identical in length with mine, but narrower, the span being only 11 ins. Next day I got a good impala ram after a nerve-trying stalk through open rush-clad straths. These were, however, traversed 26 ON SAFARI in all directions by the curious double spoor of hippo- potamiregular roads, by which these huge amphibians came out to graze at night, and along which we could creep unseen. This impala was lord of a harem of no less than thirty-two does, and I thought him the best in our valley ; but my brother later on got a solitary ram that beat him by half-an-inch. These two antelopes, the impala and Grant's gazelle, carry as fine trophies as any game on earth, having regard to their proportionate size. Both species average from 10 to 12 stones in weight say the size of a red deer hind yet their horns, massive and beautiful in sweeping curves,' run to 26 and 28 ins. in length ; " record " specimens reaching nearly 30 ins. That afternoon, during the midday rest in camp, we were visited by a deputation of Masai. These stalwart savages absolutely naked save for some ornaments suspended from their ears (I took these things to be ornaments) each carried a murderous double-bladed spear, long enough to impale three enemies at once. (The blades of some I brought home exceed 3 ft. in length.) After much palaver, we understood our friends' message to be as follows : That morning a lion had attacked their herds. They had driven him off, and he had taken shelter in some bush, where they had left men to watch till we could arrive to shoot the depredator. We set off at once, and on reaching the place (an hour's walk) found the country quite open, with some thin bush. There was much running hither and thither, and much gesticulation by crowds of excited Masai. This at length resolved itself into general concentration upon one patch of low brushwood barely an acre in extent, Towards this scores of spears now eagerly pointed, but both the Masai and our own " boys " hung severely back. Consequently W- and I reached the bush alone, each attended only by his gun-bearer. For a moment, I must admit, I hesitated to walk into that bush with a live lion inside it ; but, as our whole line stood halted dead to windward, and within ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 27 forty yards of the patch, and nothing moved, I signalled to W and we went in. Hardly had we advanced ten steps when I saw a long cat-like form crouching off through the thin tail of the bush some seventy yards ahead. It seemed small for a lion, but I put in both barrels of the Paradox, Elmi, with my second gun, dashing right past me. This was utterly wrong on his "WHILE i HELD AN EMITY GUN" (LEOPARD). part, and a breach of al] rules. At that moment, while I held an empty gun, a truly magnificent leopard leaped from the bush within thirty yards, and I was left absolutely helpless, to admire her infinite grace as she silently bounded past my front. What an unending catastrophe was that business of Babel ! Had we only understood at the beginning, amid the polyglot jumble of tongues, that it was two leopards we were after, instead of one lion, as we had gathered, then surely both would not have escaped 28 ON SAFARI possibly neither. Elmi's impetuosity in any case lost me the second. Both shots at the first had missed. I was unlucky with leopards this trip. A few days later I lost another good chance through the same linguistic curse. There were some waterbuck on a rocky ridge. Whilst stalking these, Elmi spied a leopard and explained something which I did not understand, but he was keen, and I followed. We reached a bare grass-opening. A single thorn-tree stood in its centre, and beneath that one tree lay the leopard, in shortish grass, scarce fifty yards away. ie Shoot," whispered Elmi ; adding, " In the bushes, lying down." Still imagining we were after the waterbuck, which I presumed had moved, I scanned every bush on that koppie beyond thrice as far away as lay the leopard. At last I saw, but too late. Ere I got my sights the leopard jumped. I waited in hopes he might stand ; and stand he did, but not till close on the ridge of the koppie, 200 yards off. My ball splintered the rock a hand's-breadth over his shoulder a near thing, but a miss. Had Elmi only said, " Under the tree," that beast could hardly have escaped ; what he did say was misleading in the last degree. Although describing this last animal as a leopard, I have since satisfied myself that it was in reality a cheetah, which habitually lies out thus in the open, whereas the leopard never does so. It is a noteworthy circumstance that the cheetah, though in general appearance closely resembling a leopard, and certainly allied to the Felidce, yet possesses a dog-foot that is, its claws are blunt and hardly, if at all, retractile. MASAI CATTLE-BELL -A- charming feature of the shooting PICKED UP ON ENDERIT. i n East Africa is the bush-stalking. Now, stalking in bush may appear a simple problem, and so, no doubt, with a single animal, when stationary, it sometimes is. Such chances, however, ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 29 seldom occur, for the game here, such as zebra, eland, hartebeest, impala, waterbuck, gazelles, wart-hog and grass-antelopes of sorts, are nearly always in herds, and those herds, while among bush, are moving about on the feed. Hence the problem is not simple. Firstly, the stalker must get forward at a fair speed or he will lose touch. Then in a herd, say, of a dozen, there will probably be only one really good head. The other eleven are only so many nuisances and sources of danger. All the eleven must, nevertheless, be held under accurate observation, or else some insignificant little beastie, appearing at an unexpected spot, will ruin the whole operation. Bush-stalking, in short, is an art in itself, affording difficult, but withal very pretty, manoeuvring. The hunter who has singled out the master-buck, held him in all his vagaries, avoided the keen view of the other eleven, and finally secured the prize, has done good work. More often, instead of eleven, there will be forty, fifty or sixty undesired individuals whose gaze it is necessary to shun. Two difficulties deserve mention. First, the ever- shifting wind, which changes, both in force and direction, with the changing hours of the day. This trouble is common to all tropical Africa, but is specially pronounced in this great Rift Valley, which, though its floor averages 6,000 ft. elevation, is yet shut in by loftier mountain- ranges of 10,000 to 14,000 ft. in altitude, and distant some thirty to fifty miles apart. Hence the light airs move in puffs and eddies, wafting scent one knows not whither. When, after infinite care, one has gained the deadly range, and is scrutinising each horn in the herd to make sure of killing the best, suddenly, with- out a moment's warning, up goes every head. Some treacherous back-set breeze has betrayed us, and in an instant the game is gone, swift and silent as a thought. The second danger lies in the presence of so many creatures that lie hidden. I pass over the francolins and guinea-fowl, since they are no worse than the cockling 30 ON SAFARI grouse that scares a Highland stag. Here more serious obstacles confront the stalker, in particular the " grass- antelopes," duikers and steinbucks, dik-diks and such-like, that often start from underfoot precisely at the critical moment, and, by bouncing away, leaping over bush and branch, disturb everything else within sight. Then a great wart-hog, twenty stone in weight, may spring from his lair, grunting and snorting, with all bristles WART-HOG. erect and tail upright as a flagstaff, as he crashes through brushwood and thorn. In each case the stalker's labour is lost. But at least in East Africa I have never been thwarted by birds that is, by the honey-guides (Indicator), the louries and social shrikes, that in the Transvaal so often gave a note of warning to otherwise unsuspecting game. Charming examples of animal-instinct approximat- ing to reason constantly occur to the silent stalker. Thus the savage wart-hog aforesaid may dash, snorting and tail erect, through herds of grazing gazelles. Up ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 31 in a moment goes every head ; but never a glance is vouchsafed at the immediate disturber of their peace, nor in his ultimate direction. Their united gaze is con- centrated towards the point whence he had come, and precisely where there now lies a mind-tormented hun- ter. Again, in advancing on one group of game, the stalker may elect to take what appears a safe risk by exposing himself maybe but for a few yards to the view of other game far more dis- tant, possibly half - a - mile away. But should these latter detect his movement, they will at once by stand- ing at gaze signal to all within view the presence of danger. The nearer game the objects of pursuit though absolutely out of sight of the stalker lying prone in the grass, at once cease grazing or resting, and assume the alert. Their gaze is directed not to- wards an invisible foe, but towards the watching sentinels beyond, which had given the alarm, and on whose acute senses they are content to rely for their own protection. Should, however, that distant group, relying partly on their own remoteness, but more largely on the fact that since that one alarming glimpse they have seen nothing more for during the subsequent half-hour the detected stalker has lain motionless, careless alike of biting ants, spiky thorns and sunstroke should they either recom- mence feeding or begin slowly to move away, then the nearer game will also forget their fears and the stalk is resumed. Following are notes copied from diary August 1. Far away on the verge of distant bush, GREY LOURY. 32 ON SAFARI my eye caught on some reddish object that might, I thought, be an impala. This, on bringing the glass to bear, proved to be correct; but that impala was then seen to be standing in the midst of a troop of zebras, completely surrounded by them ! Yet these latter had entirely escaped notice by the unaided eye. The apparently conspicuous zebra is, in practice, often very difficult to distinguish at any considerable distance among bush. Beyond, say, 500 yards (more or less, according to the light) the broad black-and- white stripes blend into a grey monotone almost invisible. In the open, of course, they are visible enough. Naturally, when viewed against the sun zebras appear dark, while in sunlight they look white. I recollect a single zebra at sunrise resembling a figure of fretted silver as he stood among green bushes in the early horizontal rays. Giraffes also, seen in ordinary light, assume a monotone when beyond some 700 or 800 yards' distance. That quality of colour-protection has, however, a strictly limited value, otherwise the red impala would stand in bad case. ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 33 August 3. While stalking a group of three harte- beests, iii creeping across a belt of tall grass I detected, through interlacing stalks, a small antelope close in front. Its head was held pressed flat on the ground, its full dark eyes fixed on mine, not six feet apart. By the short upright horns and dark blaze on the face I judged it to be an oribi ; but being all anxiety to secure the coveted Neumann bull in front, I declined the chance to add what would also have been a new and interesting species to our game-list, and eventually got neither. Lions were numerous on the Enderit. We came to regard their opening notes, usually heard at our various camps about 10 p.m., as the signal for turning-in. There is heavy bush along the riverside, and we never saw a lion here by day, though we twice fell in with tiger-cats, and once with a brownish lynx that was pro- bably a caracal. A dark-looking beast that I had thought was also of the felines Elmi assured me was a "Yea," a name which in the Somali tongue signifies a hunting- dog (Lycaon pictus). It was alone, slowly pottering along, and presently lay down in long grass where I got near enough, but made a bad miss, running, with the carbine. Another animal identified through its Somali name of " Shook-shook " was of the Herpestes genus, a big brown mongoose. When first observed it was lying under a thick laurel-like shrub by the riverside, devour- ing a francolin ; but a bullet from the Paradox caused it to emit so overpowering an odour that further interest in the specimen was impossible. It was as large as an otter, with a conspicuous bushy tuft projecting above and beyond the tail. We frequently saw smaller mongoose, especially in the early mornings, inquisitive little beasties, though never observed to run in a string as they do in Spain. Other pretty creatures are the ground-squirrels, ruddy-brown in colour, that remind one of marmots as they sit upright for a moment, watching, before dis- appearing down their holes. Besides all these, other beautiful antelopes abounded in our happy hunting-grounds amidst profusion it is 34 ON SAFARI difficult to do justice to all. Bushbuck inhabited the dense "lion-scrub" that fringed the east river. These, like the waterbuck. are nocturnal. We saw them at dawn ; and, shortly before sundown, they again showed up outside the jungle, feeding among the scattered trees. One special buck attracted my attention coal-black he appeared in his glossy pile. Next evening, punctual to a minute, he appeared with his three does. The river here, to our great vexation, we found impassable owing to the thorny jungle that fringed it. Presently Elmi discovered a sort of tunnel about 3 ft. high pre- sumably the property of a hippo and down this we had crawled nearly to the water's edge, when, from our side, something (we could not see what) plunged with sounding splash into the pool. " Big croc," whispered Elmi. It was very tantalising, but the result was that, after ascertaining the depth to exceed a yard, our coveted bushbuck ram was left to feed in peace on the other bank. An intense aversion to reptiles especially great subaquatic reptiles possesses most of us, and a recol- lection of that picture in Arthur Neumann's Elephant Hunting, p. 309, does not allay it. Then there were the " grass-antelopes." Every day as we traversed the bush in search of bigger things, the ubiquitous duiker and steinbuck kept bouncing out from long grass or thin scrub at thirty or forty yards' distance Both these little antelopes move very high by the stern, and being fat to boot, convey an idea of exaggerated footballs as they dive away through the bush. Smaller still are the dikdiks, also numerous, and all hereabouts of the "Cavendish" species (Madoqua cavendishi). A male shot here weighed only 11 Ibs., yet was a thorough- bred little antelope at that, with annulated horns a trifle over 3 ins. in length, and tiny hoofs on the end of long legs no thicker than a pencil a perfect miniature. One morning on the Enderit, coming round a bend, I "jumped" close by a heavy, thick-set beast that, with horns laid back flat along the withers, crashed away through the brushwood. Not knowing what it was, I ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 35 did not fire. Elmi asserted positively that this was an oryx ; but now (after seeing both species) I am satisfied that it was a young eland. A fortnight's hunting had yielded thirty-four selected specimens, comprising eleven different species of big game. But hitherto the intense wildness of our most coveted object, the Neumann's hartebeest, had defied our utmost efforts. Stalking on the open prairie frequented by these ante- lopes had proved impossible. A carefully-organised " drive " had failed I will not say through the stupidity of the drivers, but simply because savages could not comprehend the scope of the operation. On our last day but one we adopted a modified scheme of simply "moving" a herd, and this so far succeeded that we each secured a specimen at extreme ranges. Both, unluckily, proved to be females, mine being a fine adult, carrying a head of 15f ins., and my brother's a smaller cow. The latter, having only a broken shoulder, led us a long chase, and eventually, after receiving two more bullets (one in the head), entered a patch of thick wood. Happening to be the nearest, I followed in and finished her with the Paradox ; but the shot was instantly echoed by a succession of such roars as caused me to regain the open with quite unseemly haste so, at least, it appeared to W , who was some distance away. On reconnoitring from a safer point, we found that the cause of alarm was a herd of hippopotami. HUNTING-KNIFE SHEATHED IN SKIN FROM AN IMPALA'S PASTERN. 36 ON SAFARI This little wood, unknown to me, bordered a creek of Lake Nakuru, and a score of these pachyderms had been lying asleep within a few yards of where I had fired that final shot. Thus the bull of Neumann's hartebeest, for the present, remained wanting. I had, however, secured an immature example, and the annexed drawing shows the earlier, upright growth in the horns of this species. They belonged to a nearly full-grown calf (female), and HEADS OF NEUMANN'S HARTEBEEST. Bull, 18 ins. (shot later) ; cow, 15| ins. ; immature, lOj ins. measured lOf ins. in length along the front curve. How I came to kill this small beast I never quite knew. Possibly the bullet, missing its mark, had struck another ; more probably (the distance being great and the grass long) the luckless youngster had been standing in front of a larger animal, which masked the separate outline. Anyway, it lay there dead ; and, after all, its horns exhibit an interesting phase of growth. That evening, close to camp, I saw another leopard. He retreated into heavy bush overhanging the banks of a stream a favourable place to hustle him out. I had fifteen " boys " with me, Svvahilis, but to my surprise not one of them would face the job, and the leopard ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 37 escaped through an irrational care for their precious black skins. For a mob of noisy beaters there was no danger whatever. The nomad Masai were moving towards the lake, and this evening (August 5) we saw in many directions the - GOLIATH HERON Biggest of his tribe. smoke of grass-fires where they were burning-off the dead herbage. We next morning walked down together to examine the marvellous bird-life that swarms around the shores of Lake Nakuru. Never have I seen greater aggregations or such variety of water-fowl. These be- longed to forms and genera all familiar, yet specifically almost every bird was an entire stranger to me. The 38 ON SAFARI special character that arrested attention was the immense size of many species. There were colossal cranes, storks and herons, perfect giants of the bird- world. There were pelicans in droves ; these, of course, are always big. Geese, ducks and flamingoes in thousands filled air and w r ater. Darters (Plotus) with snake-like necks and small cormorants perched on half-submerged trees. There were herons and egrets in their many varieties ; ibises of both kinds, with plovers and sandpipers, gulls great and small, grebes, and many more. Though I have been an ornithologist all my life, I hardly dare further attempt to describe or define those exotic multitudes. The assemblage, however, certainly included the Goliath heron, tall and grey, standing bolt upright as a Guards- man ; another conspicuous monster being the huge jabiru or saddle-bill, with its heavy, up-tilted, murderous beak, red, with a broad black band in centre, both of which birds I have endeavoured to portray. Besides these, there are entered in my notebook though with due doubtfulness, both on this and other occasions around Nakuru's shore the whale-billed stork (Balceniceps) and the great wattled crane (G'rus carunculata] , a species I had met with in South Africa ; but neither bird has yet been proved to occur here in Equatoria. Two flamingoes that I killed with the rifle were of the European species (Phcenicopterus roseus), but we saw others that were red all over (Ph. minor], Many hippo lay in the shallows off-shore ; one, an immense bull with pink cheeks and neck, showed splendid curved ivory as he opened a cavernous mouth to yawn. He offered a good target, and W put in a bullet that told well. The hippo disappeared, and we saw him no more, though we waited all day (watching the birds also) and sent down "boys" next morning. Neither of us fired at hippo again. That evening we marched into Nakuru and encamped alongside the railway. There is a Dak bungalow at the station, and, without being Sybarites, we enjoyed an excellent dinner and a bottle of Pontet Canet a grateful change from the rough fare of the veld. AFRICAN JABIRU, OR SADDLE-BILL. CHAPTER IV A LION-DRIVE ON LAKE NAKURU LIONS were not specially included in our programme or our ambitions when we first landed in British East Africa ; for much time expended in vain and many uncomfortable hours endured during my previous expe- dition (in South Africa) in the effort to bag a lion had driven home the conclusion that to secure the king of beasts was beyond my powers. But dis aliter visum. Lions, it may here be remarked, are still sufficiently numerous in British East Africa, especially in those regions where antelopes, zebra and other game so greatly abound, such as the Athi Plains and parts of the great Rift Valley. During our three months' sojourn in East Africa in 1904 we had several camps at which we heard lions calling almost every night, yet never, that year, did we personally see one alive, except on the single occasion which I here propose to relate. In South Africa I enjoyed one glimpse of a lion, and the rough sketch made in my note-book of that sight, which, cursory as it was, must always remaiu a notable memory, is here translated by Mr. Caldwell. It is, perhaps, needless to remark that lions do not roar when hunting at night. It would be a very foolish beast that did so. Their note at night is better de- scribed as a call a sort of deep, crescendo, resonant cough and one hears a second, often a third, cough, each further away than the other, showing that the beasts are hunting in concert in a wide wing, and thus they maintain touch with each other. When lions do roar is on returning homewards full, towards daylight, at 40 A LION-DRIVE 41 which hour hunters are generally too fast asleep to hear it. The only occasions when I have heard a real roar were when waiting-out at night over a kill. On these ventures one has to spend the long, dark hours on a cartel, or framework, fixed up in the branches of a tree ; and, under such conditions, is never so sound asleep but that the magnificent reverberating roar of a lion will speedily restore one to full consciousness. The herdsman-prophet of Tekoa understood the FIRST GLIMPSE OF A LION. habits of lions in this respect thousands of years ago, when he wrote (Amos iii. 4) : " Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey ? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?" Well, on August 7, 1904, we were encamped along- side the railway at Nakuru, intending to start at dawn next morning on the long march to Lake Baringo, distant some seventy-five miles due north. A message, however, was conveyed to us during the evening that H.M.'s Commissioner (the late Sir Donald Stewart) was expected by train during the night, and it was proposed to organise a lion-drive on the morrow. We had with 42 ON SAFARI us a fair- sized crowd of natives between forty and fifty human beings, Swahili porters, askaris armed with Sniders, hunters, tent-boys, and the usual components of what is called a " safari," or caravan. These we thought would make a useful troop of beaters ; but they hardly viewed the undertaking with the same enthu- siasm. A Swahili has his good points, but he is not a born sportsman, nor is he any longer a true savage. He wears clothes of sorts, drinks when he has a chance, and can reckon up how many rupees go to a sovereign. The true savage, such as the Masai, does none of these things. Any reluctance to act as beaters was, however, soon dispelled by the forceful suasion of our " headman," Maguiar, the huge Soudanese, whose word, backed by the obvious power to enforce it, was law beyond debate ; and after breakfast we set forth amidst deafening din. The regular musical instruments indigenous to Central Africa, such as drums and tom-toms, were supplemented by empty biscuit-tins, gourds filled with pebbles, and other ear-splitting devices quite calculated to alarm even a lion. The scene of our proposed operations, less than an hour's walk away, was a series of forest- patches which lay nestling along the northern shores of Lake Nakuru, a sheet of water some fifteen miles in length. These woods were of no great width, merely belts of a few hundred yards across, and conveniently divided from each other by natural opens at intervals of a mile or two. Inland from the forest-belt was open, grassy land, sloping upwards to low, rocky koppies, clad with what looked like bracken and brambles. The first two beats proved blank, nothing bigger than " grass- antelopes " or dikdiks being seen. In the third beat I was the penultimate gun on the left of the line, facing the lake, the last gun being posted to command the extreme end of that patch of forest on the lake- shore. I had selected for this work my 12-bore Paradox and an old '450 Express, to which I was long accustomed, as being better adapted for quick-moving shots at moderate A LION-DRIVE 43 distance than the far-ranging cordite '303. I was lying hidden in long grass about one hundred yards from the covert, and the noisy line of beaters had already approached within half-a-mile, when my Somali gun- bearer, Elmi Hassan, who was lying beside me, pointed into the wood, saying, " See ! two lions ! You no see ? " I certainly did not see. For some time I could distinguish nothing moving whatever ; but at length, as the lions came exactly opposite my position, where the wood was rapidly thinning out, I saw them. They were not easy to detect, so low and stealthy was their advance, crouch- ing along under covert of brushwood and rushes. As the lions were completely enclosed, I would not risk the uncertain shot they now offered ; in fact, it seemed to me clear that, short of breaking-back, the lions had hardly any choice but to pass out between me and my one left-hand neighbour. They did neither. At a point exactly on my front the two beasts lay down in two green bushes that grew within a dozen yards of each other beneath the last straggling trees. Hardly had this incident occurred than we became aware, by a chorus of discordant yells from the beaters (some of whom we could see rushing out of the wood), that they had come across something inside that was not quite to their taste. Amidst the din, the word " simba" (lion) predominated, and at once the three guns on my right, including my brother W , dashed oft' towards the point indicated. Having my two marked lions in front of me, I remained quietly where I was, and so soon as the coast was clear, beckoned to my left- hand neighbour, told him what I had seen, and arranged that he should advance from the left, while I went straight in to the lions in front. Naturally, under such circumstances one went in with every sense on full stretch, anticipating and prepared for any contingency ; but on drawing nearer and nearer to those two bushes without seeing a sign of movement within, the tension began to slacken. At twenty yards' distance it seemed impossible that so large a beast as a 44 ON SAFARI lion could still be lying in so small a bush without my seeing it. They must, I thought, have slipped away unobserved, and I was walking on almost carelessly until within ten yards of the right-hand bush, when Elmi suddenly seized my arm, pointing the rifle he carried into the base of the bush, and hissed, " See ! see ! the lion ! Shoot him spring ! " Once more I must admit that I could see nothing. Strain my eyes as I would, I could distinguish nothing like a lion in that bush- nothing beyond a very small patch of monotone in the further corner. Yet Elmi was so positive, and the bush so small and so near, that I decided, rather recklessly and perhaps from some sense of shame that a black man should be so superior in eyesight to fire. There was no mistaking the response a growl more savage than ever I had heard in my life before. I also saw, through the thick smoke from the Paradox, the electric con- vulsion with which the beast pulled itself together for a spring. That movement disclosed the position of the head and shoulder, and before there was any time for mischief I got the second bullet well in behind the shoulder. That knocked out any idea of fight, and the beast, still growling but mortally sick, crawled out beyond. I now saw it was a lioness. Elmi handed me the '450, and a third ballet, raking forward from the stern, stretched her among the grass. My first ball was in the ribs amidships, the second high on shoulder. While rushing forward to examine the beast, and in the excitement of the moment utterly forgetting the second lion in the other bush, now behind us, 1 was promptly reminded by shouts and two rapidly-fired shots in that direction. Turning round, I was just in time to see this second beast, also a lioness, bound out, a yellow streak, from the thick covert, growling as the first had done. On seeing me she stopped dead, standing with head erect among the green rushes by the lake-shore, and looking over her shoulder towards us. I remember seeing her white teeth as she commenced another growl she was only twenty yards away but that movement A LION-DRIVE 45 was her last. A Paradox ball on the shoulder dropped her from our sight. When this second lioness first bounced within sight I had thrown up the Paradox for a snapshot, thinking she was coming straight on ; but on her hesitating as described, by an inspiration I glanced along the sights to assure myself that the aim was correct. The gun was then pointing a clear inch above her shoulder ! LIONESSES RIGHT AND LEFT. (By artistic licence grouped nearer than they actually fell.) Both animals lay quite dead within thirty yards of each other; yet my companion, Elmi, who, while they were yet living, had been as bold and collected as though we had merely been engaged with antelopes, now de- veloped a curious degree of caution. Probably he was right and acting on experience, but he would not allow me to approach till he had collected sundry sticks and stones and thrown several at either carcase. While Elmi and I were thus occupied, we had heard several rifle-shots away on our right. It now tran- spired that a third lioness had also been secured by the 46 ON SAFARI guns who (as above mentioned) had gone off in that direction. The first shot was put in by the Sub- Commissioner, Mr. C. W. Hobley. All three lionesses were dragged out of the covert by our " boys," and laid in a row on the grass outside, where a scene of inde- scribable excitement ensued, the niggers dancing and jumping around the dead beasts to an accompaniment of shrieks, beating of tom-toms and other fearsome instruments, including biscuit-tins. I measured the two lionesses with which I was personally concerned. The first and larger of the two SAVAGES DANCING AROUND DEAD LIONESSES. taped 8 ft. all but an inch ; the second was a trifle under 7 ft. All three had fed the night before on zebra, readily distinguishable by the masses of yellow fat. After skinning the lions, we tried two or three more beats of similar woods along the lake-shore, but with- out further success so far as lions were concerned. One incident, however, is deserving of mention. My position was in a small open surrounded by dense jungle a sort of green-room, twenty yards square, walled-in by masses of viewless shrubs, lianas and creepers. One could see literally nothing beyond these narrow limits. There was one gun outside me, by the lake, and to him I had indicated my position. Where precisely the rest were A LION-DRIVE 47 placed I knew not, nor could they tell where we two were. While the beat progressed I heard some large animal approaching, heard it arrive in the thicket immediately on my front, and stop there. In vain I looked around for a convenient tree to ascend, not so much from fear of a lion as from the risk of promiscuous bullets. Trees there were in plenty, but not one could be climbed by reason of the pendent masses of parasitic plants and prehensile thorny creepers with which each trunk was clad. As the beaters came in the beast broke. It was only a bushbuck ; no one fired. But with careless guns there would have been more danger from stray bullets than from the most savage beast that roams the African forest. The evening ended in backsheesh. The " boys " asked for twopence each. I served out thrice that sum, and posed as a benefactor. Next morning we started on the long march to Lake Baringo. A curious incident deserves record. At the station at Nakuru was posted a written notice that (presumably by reason of some small trouble with the natives) sportsmen were forbidden to proceed " north of the equator," which, the notice added, " might be taken as passing over Molo bridge." Now to me the equator had always been a sort of abstraction not a concrete thing capable of passing over a bridge, like a donkey or a telegraph-wire. Hence I had mistaken the notice for some tropical joke ! Fortunately for us, being that night in the august company of the Government, the error was discovered in time and the necessary permit issued. CHAPTER V A TWELFTH ON THE EQUATOR NAKURU TO BARINGO i THE four days preceding the Twelfth of August we had been steadily marching through grassy uplands, skirting the vast crater of Meningai. There was but little game here in August; but, in those days, many Masai with their flocks and herds. Eighteen months later (February 1906) the Masai had been "removed" into their Reserve on Laikipia, and game abounded. This is not the regular route to Baringo, whither we were bound, but we had selected the longer way round in order to avoid the heavy march of twenty-three waterless miles between Nakuru and the Molo River. The deviation involved a lot of " path-finding," picking up landmarks and bearings, coupled with no slight anxiety as to whether we were really holding the right course. We had the company on the first day of Mr. F. R. N. Finlay, the South- African hunter, who kindly undertook to set us our course. The first evening we had encamped on a tiny rivulet, name unknown ; the second on the Ungusori River. On the eve of the Twelfth we had reached the Alabanyata, a rapid muddy stream six yards in width and a yard deep. At midday, hardly had we " outspanned " on its banks, after six hours' marching under an unspeakable sun, when shouts of " Simba " (lion) aroused us from a hard-earned rest. Our men, scattering to collect firewood, had come on the beast close by ; but though we turned out at once, hunted a mile down-stream, and then "drove" all the thickets and likely "holts" on 48 A TWELFTH ON THE EQUATOR 49 our way, nothing more was seen. The grilling we endured in that noontide-hour's hunt ! Vertical rocks reflected an accumulated heat in that deep gorge that was well-nigh suffocating. Thermometers are useless. The point reached that night we named Equator Camp, believing that that geographical symbol passed between our two tents. Perhaps it did certainly it ran within a few yards. These four days we had shot no game, and a gazelle (granti, doe) killed this evening came as a perfect godsend to the commissariat. Note that a certain proportion of tinned meat should always be carried for occasions such as these. Strict supervision, moreover, must be exercised over the black cook, otherwise he will recklessly use up these emergency reserves on days when there is plenty of fresh meat at hand. In most camps game is superabundant ; but there are long marches and gameless stretches for which a reserve of tinned stuff, such as "army rations," should always be provided. To-night, the diary records, we " dined sumptuously." The local Masai, friendly yet finely independent, had refused to trade us a single sheep, or to hire out some of their sturdy donkeys, that would have served us well for transport. Their reasons are intelligible enough. The habits of these naked savages, living solely on meat, milk and blood, needing neither cloth, beads, wire nor anything we could give them, left no medium of exchange. True, they came daily into our camps for medicine and medical advice, but that they expected for nothing which, it is probable, was about the par value of any such advice we could give. We visited one of their kraals, strongly stockaded, to inquire the way to the Molo. A score of Masai came out to meet us, each carrying his spear. The chief, an old man, grizzled, reserved and self-possessed, was a splendid savage, standing some seven feet high. In reply to our questions he knelt down, and, by patting the ground with his hand, indicated the direction we should follow. In August flights of Egyptian geese and pelicans are E 50 OX SAFARI here constantly winging their way southward no doubt from Lakes Bariugo and Rudolph to those of Naivasha and Nakuru. The curious " Kaffir-finch," or King whydah-bird (Chera delamerei), with its ridiculously- exaggerated tail, is also characteristic of this veld, as well as the Florican, or Wato bustard (Trachelotis canicollis), numberless larks, pipits, doves and ravens. The distant horizon on this, as on most grassy down- lands, was frequently ornamented by the gaunt, upright KING WHYDAHS. Males entirely black except the band of crimson and buff on fore-wing. figures of ostriches feeding about, usually in pairs. On one occasion we witnessed a struthian love-scene. So far as one could distinguish at the distance, the cock ostrich, running in circles in spasmodic, jerky style, with neck dilated and extended in front, executed a sort of wild dance. The beautiful white plumes of wings and tail, expanded like a fan, showed up conspicuously against his jet-black body. The scene reminded one of the performance of an old blackcock in April, or (more appropriate, though less accurately) of the great bustard in Spain. The hen ostrich appeared to be busy feeding all the time. I also remember seeing once a triangular fight between A TWELFTH ON THE EQUATOR 51 three cock ostriches. Despite much brave show and widespread plumes, not one of the three would close. The fight degenerated into a mere demonstration in three acts defiance, charge (not carried home), flight and this was repeated again and again. Here, on the Alabauyata, we decided to spend our Twelfth, and made an early start. Down the riverside at dawn were numerous wart-hogs in troops of five to a dozen, besides ostriches, gazelles, small antelope and jackal. Three miles below, the Alabauyata utterly dis- appears lost in a great green vlei, or marsh, of a league in extent, all choked with tall flags. On the grassy fore- shore lay a herd of large animals that, in the distance and early sunlight, certainly looked like eland. On approach they proved to be waterbuck (defassd), but all apparently females, lying down. " No horn," was Elmi's verdict ; but being confident that such a herd would hold at least one fair male, I crept back and presently gained another point of view. From here we were rewarded by discovering a grand bull lying between two groups of cows and half hidden thereby. His horns, laid back along the withers, were also inconspicuous. The utmost point of cover was still distant just 270 yards from the game the intervening foreshore being bare short grass, flat as a cricket-pitch, and dotted with enormous wild geese of the spur-winged species (P. gambensis). Buff-backed herons also marched about among the sing-sing, relieving the animals of parasites. The cows and calves kept up a low chorus of bleating cries. 1 half thought of " whistling-up " the bull, but the obvious risk of his form being then covered by the atten- dant cows was too great, and nothing remained but to take the long, lying shot. A sloping ant-hill afforded a perfect " rest." and the shot was followed by an answer- ing thud. Hither and thither ran cows in confusion, but beyond them lay one big prostrate form. The bullet had struck the neck. The horns of this bull taped 28 ins., by 8|- ins. around the base. One was slightly splintered at the point, and 52 ON SAFARI one ear was bitten through the result, no doubt, of the fights that had gained him his numerous harem. Dead- weight, as he lay, estimated at near 500 Ibs. While off-skinning proceeded I strolled to some low ridges beyond to survey the country. At first only zebras and ostriches were in sight; but presently the glasses rested on an animal that was quite new to me a great dark-red hartebeest standing beneath a shady mimosa a mile away. He was a lone bull, bigger, redder and with finer horn than any of his kind hitherto seen. This was my first view of Bubalis jacksoni. Him we at once proceeded to stalk. Again the range was long sighted for 300 yards ; yet so severe was the hit that for a full half-hour we never doubted that this also was " our meat." Slowly he moved, with frequent halts, but on, on ... into the low hills that closed the plain, taking ridge after ridge, apparently recovering strength as time went on. Then, on topping a crest, we "jumped" a second lone bull of the same species, and by a bit of superb field- craft gained an advantage that within twenty minutes proved fatal to the game. This hartebeest had dashed away, circling round the rim of a saucer-shaped depression. Elmi, inspired, plunged into this dip, directing our four " boys " to remain standing in full view on the ridge behind. Presently, as anticipated, our horned friend pulled up and stood fixedly regarding those four harmless Swahili, 53 while we, being in the hollow below his sight, were free to continue our advance. At little over 100 yards the tips of those thick-set back-bent horns showed up above intervening bush, and, firing low through the foliage, judging where the chest would be, a dull echoing response told that another grand beast lay dead. Jackson's hartebeest is the finest of the genus found in East Africa, and closely related to the red hartebeest (Bubal is caamct) of the Cape. It is probably the northern form of one species, for in some specimens a trace of the black facial "blaze" characteristic of B. caama is found retained in B.jacksoni in this example it extended from above the nostrils half-way to the base of the horn-pedicles. Other specimens obtained later showed no sign of this, and even the dark-red pelt is not an invariable distinction, for one bull shot later was quite pale in body-colour lighter, indeed, than B. cokei. The dead-weight of this animal we estimated at full 400 Ibs., against little over 300 Ibs. in B. cokei; and the horns taped 22 ins., by 10j ins. in basal circumference, with a span of 1\ ins. between tips. Irides yellow. Meanwhile, our previously- wounded bull had dis- appeared. We made every possible effort to recover him, following for miles and sending out scouts to watch the vultures, but never again was he seen. Camp was now five miles distant, the white tents mere specks across a shimmering plain, and it was two o'clock ere we reached them. Numerous ostriches on this plain seemed to challenge an attempt to stalk ; but this is an undertaking of no small difficulty. The immense height of these giant birds they stand about 8 ft. enables them to see over any ordinary covert. They walk, moreover, when feeding along, faster than one can run run, that is, all doubled up and obstructed by strong grass and intercept- ing creepers. My brother, nevertheless, secured here a cock ostrich under the following circumstances. Afar on the plain two ostriches were rolling on a bare patch among the grass taking a dust-bath. Neither W 54 ON SAFARI nor his gun-bearer were able to distinguish what that i lark rolling object w r as, and had half concluded it must be a rhino. On their arrival within 200 yards the cock ostrich stood up, and promptly received a bullet through his body. He provided plumes and feathers enough to supply an average family, but, as regards meat, was a complete fraud. There is little or nothing eatable on OSTRICHES. an ostrich. Needing no wing- muscles, the sternum has not even the rudiment of a keel, nor is there any flesh whatever on his breast, while the legs are all sinews. As we had both during the morning "jumped" several small antelope or dikdik of kinds unknown to us, we took Paradox guns that evening with the idea of forming line to walk-up these small buck, or whatever might befall. A very hot day, however, was now suc- ceeded by rain, and, probably owing to the grass being wet, several small animals were seen to break away wild before our advancing line. With a view to cut these A TWELFTH ON THE EQUATOR 55 out, I pushed forward on the right, but only succeeded in heading some jackals and small pig, besides seeing a tawny-brown cat or lynx ; and, the country becoming wooded, we got separated. Holding on alone, I presently found myself on the same marsh where we had shot the sing-sing that morning. Old spoor of three elephants led along the edge of the vlei it was the first I had seen, and I was horrified by its size ! and several waterbuck cows still awaited their lost lord. The hour being late, I resolved to remain awhile on the chance of some strange animal emerging from the great reedy fastness at sunset. The idea was vague, but it had a concrete reward. Presently something did appear, and the glass showed this to be a tawny-hued antelope with strong recurved horns a new beast for the second time this day ! At 200 yards he stood, nothing more than a yellow head and neck showing amidst contrasting green flags. I fired three shots with the '303 carbine, each aimed at an unseen shoulder somewhere, I knew not precisely where, beneath. All this time the buck stood statuesque as it were, hypnotised. The fourth shot, directed at the head itself, went true, striking below the eye with instantly fatal result. Elmi carried our prize ashore from a foot of water a lovely creature, the East-African reedbuck (Cervicapra ivardi], quite new to me, and the only specimen we obtained that year. 1 This is a smaller animal than the common reedbuck (which is not found in East Africa), its live-weight probably not exceeding 80 or 90 Ibs. ; the pelt is rougher and more tawny than that of the larger species, and the horns more abruptly hooked forwards. They measured in this specimen 9 ins., by 6 ins. around the base. This antelope has the broad, fan-like, flirting tail with 1 We have since found them quite numerously in suitable localities, as is mentioned later in this book. The valley of the Alabanyata, indeed down which we had just travelled without seeing a single reedbuck abounded with these antelopes on our next visit, eighteen months later. 56 ON SAFARI white edge, and the bare spot beneath the ear, that are characteristic of its genus. Irides dark. Darkness was gathering ere we started campwards with our burden, and we suffered a bad half-hour or two, path-finding in the dark through heavy scrub, till we met two askaris with lanterns, whom W had HEAD OF EAST-AFRICAN IlEEDBUCK. sent to pilot us in. He had shot a Grant's gazelle, and both of us had struck fresh rhino spoor. Thus ended our Twelfth on the equator. We had brought in five head of as many different species, and three of them new to us. Plenty reigned once more we had half-a-ton of meat, on which our men fed like wolves. Presently weird music chant and song ac- A TWELFTH ON THE EQUATOR 57 companied by reed-pipe and rude guitar, not wanting in its own appropriate melody startled the stillness of the tropical night, The final pipe was enjoyed amid wondrous serenade of nightjars and cicadas, ground- crickets and bull-frogs, with a backing of laughing hyenas beyond. From Equator Camp we resumed our march north- wards towards Baringo. One day's travel across low rocky ridges, clad with scattered mimosas, brought us to the Molo River at Ya-Nabanda a spot where later on we enjoyed some memorable sport. Thence following the river till it diverged to the west at a point known as Maguiohni, we struck due north, three days' hard travelling, entangled all the time in intricate passes through rocky mountains cruel volcanic lava, hidden boulders overgrown with wiry grass and trailers, horrid with bush and thorn bad going for the heavily-laden safari, especially when rhinos filled their breasts with frequent alarm. It was our object to explore Lake Haunington, lying among the rocky hills to the eastward, and with that idea we had left the track ; but the deviation, with loaded men, proved impracticable. We struck one corner of the lake, nestling amid forest-clad heights, all reflected on the still surface, that recalled the scenery of Norway. The shallows and mud-flats at the head of the lake were brilliant with innumerable herds of rosy flamingoes that hid the water from view. We were the less disappointed by this failure as the rugged volcanic hills and thorny jungle that surround Lake Hannington did not appear at all likely ground for eland, which we had been told frequented the shores of that lake, and to secure which had been our object in trying to reach it. That rocky country appeared more suitable for koodoo than for eland. At all these camps, being in the Masai cattle-country, plagues of flies (like ordinary house-flies) tormented beyond bearing. In the morning, luckily, we were away before the demons awoke. At that hour they 58 ON SAFARI formed a solid black mass, inches deep, along the ridge- poles of our tents and in the angles of the roof. But at midday there was no escape. They crawled over hands, face and food alike ; swam in shoals in milk or coffee ; buzzed in one's ears and down one's neck one long buzz, buzz, buzz, bite and sting from dawn till dark. Thence another day's travel took us on to the Baringo Plain. In four marches we had descended from 8,000 ft. at the Ungusori camp to 3,500 ft. here ; and SOCIAL WEAVER-FINCH, with its 100-roomed nest. the reduced elevation was marked by corresponding changes in the heat, the vegetation and the bird-life, all three here assuming a tropical character. We had descended from regions of bracken and bramble to palm and tree-fern. Birds there were that we had never seen before birds strange of form, of plumage and of flight ; all then utterly unknown to me. There were gorgeous tropical types, as sunbirds and barbets, bulbuls with glorious flute-like note, heard both by day and last thing at night, and weaver-finches that filled whole trees with nests some containing eggs, others young, in A TWELFTH ON THE EQUATOR 59 August. Bee-eaters, of vivid greens and red, flashed in the sunlight ; but a yet more brilliant hue was displayed by an azure kingfisher. There were quaint hornbills, rollers and bubbling bush-cuckoos the latter not heard since leaving Mombasa eagle-owls, buzzards and hawks of many kinds. A conspicuous genus was that of doves, thousands in numbers, and in every size down to the tiny CEna capensis. Insects here became a burden mosquitoes in particular. At our last camp, COUCAL, OR BUSH-CUCKOO. Known as " Water-bottle bird" at Mombasa. by a pestilent swamp on the Molo, we were doubting whether death itself might not be welcome when a merciful squall blew up and dispersed them. Another march across a torrid plain where great red ant-hills towered up in hundreds, tall and thin, looking at a distance like factory chimneys, and amidst which we discovered traces of the mysterious aard-vaark, brought us ba.ck to the Molo. There yet remained a mountain-spur to cross, and here troops of baboons, some looking as big as human beings, watched and barked from the crags above. (An " old-man " baboon, by the 60 ON SAFARI way, when actually measured, taped 5 ft. 6j ins. from nose to outstretched hind-feet or 5 ft, 2 ins. to the tip AARD-VAAKK of his tail. 1 ) A pair of Bateleur eagles soared overhead. 1 Since writing the above, I find that the baboons of British East Africa are of different species from the common dog-faced Chacma baboon (Papio cJiacma) of South Africa. This Equatorial form has received the title of P. ibeanus. The measurements above given were taken from a Chacma baboon. A TWELFTH OX THE EQUATOR 61 and we observed in this gorge birds of the rock- sparrow kind (Petronia), as well as numberless guinea-fowl of a new species, with a tuft of curious horny bristles set around the gape. These were the Abyssinian helmeted guinea-fowl (Numida ptilorkyncha), which swarmed in the thorn} 7 " scrub, some packs apparently running to fifty or a hundred and upwards. Beyond that spur we at length descried the fort of Baringo furthest outpost, in this direction, of British Empire. At midday on August 17 w r e encamped on the little plain below the Boma, having spent nine days on the march from Nakuru. Here we presently received a most hospitable welcome from the District-Commissioner (and sole white inhabitant), Mr. Geoffrey Archer. NAMAQVA DOVE ((End capewis). A pigeon no bigger than a Wagtail. CHAPTER VI AFTER ELEPHANT AT BARINGO Two bull-elephants having been reported in the neighbourhood, we rested a couple of days at Baringo awaiting further news ; but the native trackers sent out to locate the elephants having failed to do so, we resumed our march northwards. On the night of August 20 we were encamped beneath the conical mass of Njoro-Ilimalo (or Koodoo-Kop, as .we called it, owing to the stony mountains around being frequented by these superb antelopes), when at 9 p.m. three " askaris," or native soldiers, came into camp with a letter from Mr. Archer at Baringo, saying that an Njemusi hunter had brought in news of a huge old solitary bull-elephant which had taken up his quarters near Njemps, on the further side of the lake. Archer added that, as he was then proceeding on duty to Njemps, he would be glad to accompany me thither, provided I returned to Baringo at once. 1 This necessitated an entire recasting of plans, but arrangements were soon made, and an hour before daylight on the morrow, under a waning moon, I left my brother to continue his solitary journey northwards to the Mugitani Eiver, while I set out on return for Baringo. Arriving there (four hours' march) in time for breakfast, Archer and I at once started for Njemps, re-crossing first the mountain-spur, and then the flat plains towards the Molo River. This river, we were told, was only waist-deep, so we proceeded to walk through, sending some natives in advance to shift 1 See sketch-map at p. 75, infra. 62 AFTER ELEPHANT AT BARINGO 63 possible crocodiles. With some dismay, however, we found, on reaching what had appeared to be the opposite bank, that we had merely crossed a shallow by- stream, that the apparent bank was an island, and that the main river still ran, broad and deep, before us. There was nothing for it but to swim, and this we proceeded to do, again sending an advance-guard of blacks as a precautionary measure. Our rifles and ammunition came through all right ; but, in spite of every care, our clothes (carried aloft in one hand) got hopelessly wet. Even on the equator one does not care to dress in soaking garments, and we therefore both marched into Njemps, three miles beyond, arrayed each in a wet shirt, a sun-helmet and a pair of boots. Here we found the local chiefs all assembled to meet H.M.'s representa- tive, but since no one of them wore anything at all, our scanty attire created no scandal. Njemps is a strongly- stockaded village, with many rows of grass-built huts inside its rampart of growing thorns and surrounding moat, and we encamped beneath the historic sycamores where, less than twenty years previous, Joseph Thomson, the first explorer of Masailand, had rested after his adventurous journey. Here, again, the resonant flute-like song of the bulbul struck me as certainly the most effective bird-melody I ever heard. Specially noticeable was it just before sundown. That afternoon, while Archer held " shauri " with the chiefs and collected revenue, I went to look for the elephant under the guidance of the local hunters, and soon found his mighty spoor of the night before. This we followed for miles, in and out, always through comparatively open ground and loose forest, highly favourable for our attack had the elephant been there, but he was not. It became evident that, although he might come hither every night to feed, he had some other stronghold to which he retired by day. We saw many waterbuck in these forests, though no really good heads, and a superb pair of white-headed fish-eagles (Haliaetus vocifer) kept screaming and circling overhead. 64 ON SAFARI Both the woods of Njemps and the marshes of the Molo that adjoined them swarmed with strange birds and unknown water-fowl. Gladly would I have spent more time in investigating these, but the major quest forbade. There were squawking bronze -green parrots I took these to be parrots an elusive cuckoo with ruddy breast that betrayed his genus by a muffled note, but avoided all save a fugitive glance. There were wood- peckers great and small some no bigger than creepers ; BARBET. Colours gold, lemon and crimson, black and white. barbets thick-set, " dumpy " birds, in coloration akin to the last, though so different in habit ; bush-shrikes and babblers; tiny warbler-like "white-eyes" (Zosterops), cousins of the sun-birds ; colies in little parties, and glossy starlings (Lamprocolius), the latter nesting in hollow trees as starlings do at home. In the marshes we noticed various herons and egrets, spur-wing plovers, common and other sandpipers, kingfishers azure and pied, rails and chestnut-red jacanas. Next morning our scouts were away before dawn, but I was glad to be told that an early start was not necessary, since, having tramped over thirty miles the previous day, I wanted an " easy." At ten o'clock a little wizened savage (the same who had brought the first news to Baringo) came in and reported he had actually seen the elephant at dawn, that he was an AFTER ELEPHANT AT BARINGO 65 enormous old tusker with heavy ivory, and that he had marked him into his resting-place for the day. Enthusiasm rose to fever pitch, and in five minutes we were off, Archer, having now completed his "shauris" (palaver) with the Njemusi chiefs, being able to accompany me. I was glad of this, for I was totally unequipped as regards weapons for such heavy and dangerous game, my most powerful rifle being a double 303. That the '303 is quite capable of killing the African elephant I am well aware ; Mr. F. C. Selous has A MOUSE-GREY COLY (Colitis) AT NJEMPS. proved that, and for many years my late friend Arthur Neumann " used no other." But these are exceptionally practised hunters, of lifelong experience, and in choosing this small bore they relied also upon choosing their shots. It is a very different matter for an amateur for the first (and perhaps the only) time in his life to withstand the onset of an enraged elephant with so tiny ft tool. 1 speak from knowledge, for I did it, and owe it merely (under Providence) to a flaw in a fickle, shifty wind that I am here to write the experience. Archer, however, had a single '400, a far more powerful weapon. 66 ON SAFARI After proceeding some miles in a northerly direction, I began to perceive a change in the character of the country, forest and scrub giving place to " elephant- grass." Grass ? Well, when stuff grows to a height of ten or twelve feet in masses so solid and strong that one cannot force a way through it, such plants should have another name than that of the humble greenery of a lawn. For a time I did not realise the full import of the change, but imagined that these giant clumps through which we were seeking a path were merely a casual local phenomenon, and that we should presently get past them. I soon was undeceived. This was "elephant-grass"; it extended for untold leagues, encircling the southern shores of Lake Baringo, and it was right in the midst of such a fastness that our friend the elephant had selected his stronghold. This grass- forest, full ten feet in height, with tasselled flowering tops towering above that, was absolutely impenetrable to human-kind, save only by following the old tracks of elephant or buffalo, and these in places w r ere almost obliterated. One's progress, moreover, was constantly intercepted by broken-down thorn-trees. How they got there 1 could not surmise, but one had to climb over or squeeze under them, and not a yard could one see in any direction, save only a narrow crevice of sky above, with the broiling sun right overhead. Naturally the naked, agile savages got through this awful stuff far quicker than we could follow ; yet it was absolutely necessary to keep in touch with them or be lost. At length the elephant was reported to be within sight, and by climbing a dead tree (infested by biting ants) I indistinctly descried portions of a vast grey bulk beneath some flat- topped thorns, distant 400 yards. Even that last short space gave trouble, for in the depths of that grass-forest we suddenly came on the river Tigerish, a deep, muddy stream, with perpendicular banks like a canal. This, though barely ten yards broad, we had to swim. In the over- hanging bushes colonies of weaver-finches had nests, some AFTER ELEPHANT AT BARINGO 67 of which contained eggs resembling those of our sparrow, but speckled with a violet tinge ; in others the young were hatched. The next view of our elephant was from a thorn- tree at seventy yards. He stood quiescent, his enormous ears flapping to keep off the flies. Omitting details of detours necessitated or suggested by varying airs, at last I found myself watching this giant beast (from a tree) within thirty yards. Only the ridge of his back and huge ears were visible above the tall grass, all in deep shade, and I was debating within myself what was AVEAVER-FINCHES NESTS. the right course to pursue, enjoying the novel sight and trying to recollect all that the great elephant-hunters had advised. Already Archer, very rightly, had raised a question of the wisdom of " taking on " a solitary old bull under such conditions ; but I only reflected on the forty miles we had come, the rivers swum, the game in view, and had not realised the full import of his remark nor the danger of this venture. The perception was not long de- layed. A distinct and continued puff of wind on the back of my neck brought it home. One moment later that ere- whiles somnolent elephant was all alert. Up in air full twenty feet towered the great trunk, its point deflected hither and thither to pick up those grains of scent in the 68 ON SAFARI traitor breeze. The next moment he was gone as by magic, vanishing from sight as silently as a rabbit. I feared he had gone for ever, but instinctively climbed down a branch or two, remaining in a position whence I could still see over the grass, yet could jump to the ground at once. What really passed through the elephant's mind during the succeeding moments I would clearly like to know. If at first (as certainly seemed to me) he had, for a second, resorted to precipitate flight, that plan was almost instantly rejected, for immediately thereafter the crashing of the jungle told us he was coming, and then the great square forehead appeared, towering above the jungle, as he rushed directly upon us. I had jumped down from the tree ; Archer was five yards to my left, with the elephant almost straight above him, when the charge stopped. We presumed the great beast had lost the wind. What now confronted us, some ten yards away, resembled the hoary grey tower of a village church. Under a midday, equatorial sun (almost vertical) there is no shade to define angles and thus indicate the vital spots, nor was there any time to consider. I placed my tiny '303 bullet on the temple as near as I could judge at the point given in the " rules," i.e. " half-way between eye and orifice of ear " (though I could neither see eye nor orifice, and the ear was as big as a barn-door). Archer, being directly in front, tried the forehead shot, aiming at base of trunk. These stunning blows at least turned him -off us, for the elephant swerved to the left and disappeared. In a way, this was a relief, but it was also disappointing. Hardly, however, had I got the empty cartridge replaced than the beast was on us again. This time he crashed across us from left to right; luckily he had (very slightly) misjudged his point, and thus passed us a few paces in front of our actual positions. We each put our bullets into the side of his head, almost at the muzzle of our rifles, Archer his single '400 ball, and I my two '303's, followed up by two " solids" from the NEARLY CAUGHT. AFTER ELEPHANT AT BARINGO 69 '450 (an old black-powder rifle) before losing sight. I had thus placed one ball in the left, four in the right side of his head, Archer one in the latter part and one in the forehead seven in all. No effect whatever was produced, so far as we saw. But our men, who now climbed into trees, at once reported that the beast was going very sick, and, a minute later, that he had stopped altogether. This we soon verified for ourselves, seeing him at a standstill among the long grass some 300 yards distant. What should we do now ? Never again, after this experience, would I follow him up in that fearful grass, where he has one as in a trap, for a man cannot move a yard to right or left, whereas an elephant goes through it as if walking in a meadow. We decided on a policy of " masterly inactivity," leaving the wounded elephant to die quietly (as we hoped) where he stood, our scouts being posted in trees to watch him, while we proceeded to have our lunch. Presently our elephant slowly moved into some very heavy thorn-jungle beyond. How he crossed the deep donga of the Tigerish River (which we had to swim a second time) we could not see. Here we had a bit of bad luck. Probably our trackers pressed on too fast ; anyway the beast retreated on his heel-tracks, and we lost an hour before recovering the spoor behind us. He now left the grass-forest and entered a stretch of thick, low thorn-scrub, most laborious and painful to traverse. The day was far spent, and of intense heat and hard going I had had enough, and returned to camp at four o'clock. Archer followed on, first into the swampy ground adjoining Lake Baringo, thence wheel- ing to the left as the spoor turned due west, as if the wounded beast meant to seek refuge in the Kamasea Mountains, which closed the horizon some six miles away. In that case we knew he was lost to us. Next day, however, the tracks showed that he had not dared to face the mountains, but had held to the south some twenty miles down the valley, where he had entered a 70 ON SAFARI huge morass, a league in diameter, choked with reeds and flags, and with water three to four feet deep- possibly far more and swarming with leeches. To explore this Archer sent men back to the lake to carry canoes hither, twenty miles, and we offered a reward of two cows for the recovery of the ivory. There ends, so far as our knowledge goes, the story of our elephant. It seemed certain that the sick beast would die wherever he took final refuge, and this con- viction was confirmed by a letter sent me a few days later : " The latest news of your elephant is that he was seen, very sick, making for Magi-Moto or the swamp beyond. The natives are still on his spoor, so I trust you will have the satisfaction of receiving the ivory on your return here." Yet no monster tusks were ever sent in to the fort at Baringo. Whether the Njemusi really failed to find the beast, or whether they recovered him and said nothing, we could not be certain. But, sad to tell, these primitive savages are already beginning to understand differences in value, and to distinguish between a pair of tusks worth, perhaps, 80 to =100 sterling, and a couple of cows only worth as many rupees. The sensation of failure, after the prolonged excite- ment, risk and labour was sickening enough ; twice we had been within less than ten yards of one of the grand- est beasts in all Africa, and had failed to secure him ; yet we could not but feel thankful that we had come out of it unharmed. Both those terrible charges had been full of mischief and malice, and we had only escaped, in either case, through a mere lucky flaw or slant in the wind. My impression was that the danger is more real with elephant (and, in minor degree, with rhino) than with lion. For the big carnivora in- variably give one the first chance, and that ought, in their case, with modern weapons and short range, to be decisive ; whereas this elephant charged at once, with full intent to kill, before we had molested him in the smallest degree, beyond getting in his wind. Moreover, 71 though he had just received two cordite-driven bullets in his head, he instantly, within fifteen seconds, repeated his charge a second time, and after all, with some seven balls in his head, travelled upwards of twenty miles almost without stopping. Subsequently Archer wrote me that, a fortnight later, during his absence on duty, an immense bull- elephant, carrying tusks of 90-lbs. apiece, had come down to the water at Magi-Moto and had died there ! It was not, of course, proved that this was our elephant, though the probability amounted to no less than a moral certainty. Unluckily, owing to Archer's absence, the ivory disappeared, falling into the hands of some Swahili traders. The foregoing serves incidentally to show how easy it is for an elephant or for a herd of elephants, enormous as is their bulk to exist unseen ; as easy as for a rabbit at home, so dense and far-spreading is the tropical jungle ! Another illustration of this fell within my own knowledge. Two Englishmen had gone snipe- shooting on a marsh bordered by comparatively narrow belts of heavy reed. For some hours they had been shooting away merrily, when from these reeds hard by there emerged a whole herd of elephants quietly moving off in search of a less noisy siesta. A point that struck me during our sojourn at Njemps was the inveterate laziness of the native savages. Each morning, shortly after dawn, groups of them assembled at certain spots, each man bringing a " cracket," or low three-legged stool, whereon he squatted, his spear stuck in the ground within arm's- length ; there they sat the livelong day, neither talking, working nor even, apparently, thinking simply idling away the hours and the days. Those groups which squatted thus around our tents might perhaps be presumed to be in consultation with H.M.'s representa- tive ; but all over the village sat other groups similarly " employed." The Njemusi are stated to be a degenerate offshoot of the Masai " degenerate " because they affect 72 ON SAFARI agriculture, work with which the noble Masai never demeans himself. Here, outside the stockades, there >"/,s a patch of cultivation whereon I observed a few women and boys working in listless fashion. The out- ward and visible sign of "work" consisted in their having rude hoes and spades ; but two-thirds of the labourers lay sleeping in the sun. Here amidst African wilds one does find in real life that race which Socialist tub-thumpers, with customary inexactitude, delight in denouncing at home as the "idle rich." CHAPTER VII BEYOND BARINGO (l) AFTER ORYX AND ELAND Now that Baringo is becoming a favourite resort of big-game hunters, it is interesting to recall that but a score of years ago the region was unknown. The first / o white explorer to reach its shores was Joseph Thomson, who, writing in 1885, thus described it: "The mys- terious lake of Baringo, though long heard of, has been a delightful bone of contention between geographers at home, who have drawn it in various phases with the large and liberal hand characteristic of those who are guided by their inner consciousness and a theoretic eye. [Sometimes it was comparable to the Nyanza in size ; at other times it had no existence. Then it knocked around the map a bit, being now tacked on to Victoria Xyanza, anon separated therefrom, or only connected by a thin watery line. After all this shuttlecock work, Lake Baringo proves to be an isolated basin, sunnily smiling up at its great parents, the shaggy, overhanging ranges of Kamasea and Laikipia. In extreme length the lake is eighteen miles, and in breadth ten miles." l Bariiigo has now acquired not only a fixed position in geography, but even a niche in history. A British station was first established on the Bibo Hills to the north of the lake ; and this led to bloody fighting. Two- thirds of the native garrison, having been treacherously decoyed away, were surrounded and speared to a man by overwhelming swarms of the Jabtulail and Turkana 1 Through Masailand, p. 533. 73 74 ON SAFARI tribes. These, flushed with victory, dashed on the British post ; but its solitary white occupant, Mr. Hyde Baker, aided by a handful of Nubian askaris, held the savages at bay for five days, till assistance arrived. Such incidents merely the grinding of the mill of progress are, I presume, printed in Blue-books, but seldom reach the average British reader. Baringo now enjoys the reputation of being one of the most favoured regions in the British Protectorate in respect of its big game. There remains, nevertheless, room for disappointment. For so extensive, and as yet so little understood, are the migratory movements of the antelope- tribe, as also of giraffe, rhino and other game-animals, that a district which swarms with them one month may be found deserted the next. The materials at present available are too scanty either to determine the extent and dates of these migrations, or to correlate them with seasonal or other causes. It is one object of these chapters to contribute thereto such gleams of light as were furnished by our experiences at Baringo and elsewhere in East Africa. Shortly before leaving England, I had received a letter from Major C. S. Cumberland, who was then at Baringo, that he was disappointed with that district. He wrote as follows : " Baringo, March 29 [1904]. This is supposed to be a good game-country, but I have seen very little, and what there is, having been much hunted, is very wild. It will give you an idea of what this country is like this year to say that I have not halted in any one of my camps for more than one day. In my opinion the beasts have shifted owing to the drought." Under the impression that if March were unfavour- able, August might prove to be the reverse, we reached Baringo in the latter month. On arrival, Mr. Archer told us that five or six weeks earlier, at the end of the rains, game had been extremely abundant a few marches to the northward. Thus an entry in his diary on July 11 mentions seeing during the morning, while riding AFTER ORYX AND ELAND BARINGO 75 southwards towards the Mugitani River, two herds of 50 and 80 oryx respectively, 11 giraffes and 2 elands; SKETCH-MAP OF BARIXGO. while the same evening he rode within sight of some 300 elands, 100 oryx, 32 giraffes and 3 rhino, besides 76 ON SAFARI the ordinary game. Our own experiences, five weeks later, were as follows. To begin with, I fell in with one of those unpleasant adventures that are incidental to African travel. As related in the last chapter, I had left my brother to continue his march northwards towards the Mugitani River while 1 made a back-cast of thirty miles to Njemps after elephant. Returning thence, on the evening of the fourth day I had reached the neighbourhood of the spot where, by arrangement, I expected to find W- encamped, when one of those violent thunderstorms characteristic of the equator suddenly burst. Being unable, in elemental cataclysm, amidst roaring winds, thunder and hissing rain, either to find the river or to get response to our signal- shots, I .ordered camp to be pitched exactly where I stood. Then a new difficulty arose. The heavily-laden safari, struggling against the storm, had got separated and half lost among the bush, the confusion being accentuated by running into a herd of half- wild Suk cattle, the longest-horned and most trucu- lent beasts I ever saw. One by one, or in scattered groups, the safari straggled in, but, of course, the " boy " with the tent-poles was last to arrive. Thus it was two hours after dark ere I got shelter under canvas, and turned in supperless bar a tin of sardines and a pint of " emergency " champagne ! The storm moderating at midnight, we got in touch with my brother's camp, which proved to be little more than an hour's march away ; and in the morning, to our mutual relief, W walked across in time for breakfast. The Mugitani at this point, as we discovered by daylight, is little more than a series of mud-holes connected by subterranean channels. No wonder we had failed to find it in the darkness and stress of the night before. My brother reported having seen a herd of eland and some oryx, but the latter were scarce and very wild. The only game he had killed were impala, Grant's gazelle (the local race, G. g. brighti), a kori bustard, and a zebra for meat. But a notable occurrence had AFTER ORYX AND ELAND BARINGO 77 befallen. He had come across a gigantic pig which dwarfed the big wart-hogs (animals we saw daily) into comparative insignificance. We had neither of us at that time heard of the existence of the giant forest- hog (Hylochcerus) recently discovered in these regions, and described, from some fragments of skin and bone, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1904, KORI BUSTARD. Male : weight 251bs., span 8 ft., has head like a bittern. p. 193, though I now remembered having hastily glanced through these a night or two before sailing. Whether the animal seen here was Hylochcerus, or otherwise, remains unproven ; but the following is my brother's narrative " It was on the Mugitani River that I had my first sight of elands. Leaving camp at daybreak, we had traversed the scattered forest that covers the bush- tangled, boulder-strewn hills above that river, and come upon a level plain, a mile across, stretching to the foot- hills of Laikipia beyond. Upon this plain was a herd of 78 ON SAFARI elands about fifty strong, mostly females and young beasts, but including a single large bull whose brisket appeared to sweep the ground. They had not noticed us, and their onward direction indicated that they would feed past quite near. What slight wind there was blew in our favour, so we lay down in the deep grass and waited. Presently the whole herd filed past from left to right within easy shot. The big bull was, as usual, last of all, and came on very slowly, often stopping. Whether some breath of suspicion were aroused or not, it is impossible to say ; but it certainly did happen that before the great bull had arrived opposite our position, first one small beast, then another, quietly dropped astern of the herd and so surrounded his majesty that there remained absolutely no point of his person on which we could get a sight. His massive stubby horns and the line of his back were the only indications of his being there at all. We could do nothing to avert a catastrophe, so lay still, and the elands passed out of the picture in the same slow, dignified order in which they had appeared. They simply faded away within the fastnesses of the Laikipia, and our efforts all that day failed to bring us again within touch of them. " Next morning, skirting this plain towards the north, we first spotted a bull giraffe, very black, but as he was travelling faster than we could follow, we took no further interest in him. We then entered a glade which traversed the forest, and were approaching its outlet, when my eye caught something moving in the open beyond. Immediately thereafter the glade was occupied by the form of a pig, which for a moment of time stood gazing towards us long enough for me to see that this was something quite out of the common in the pig line. Reddish-brown as to colour, with head shaped like that of a bush-pig, its dimensions were what arrested atten- tion. Whether by some optical delusion or not I could not say, but this pig certainly appeared to me to stand well- nigh as big as a zebra, say near four feet at the shoulder. It was gone in a moment. We rushed forward to get AFTER ORYX AND ELAND BARINGO 79 another view ; but though one other fairly big one and three or four small bright-red pigs dashed across the glade, we never again set eyes on the first monster. "At that time I had heard nothing of Hylochoerus, the unknown species that is said to inhabit the forests of Mau and Laikipia, the first intimation of the existence of such a creature only reaching me when my brother rejoined camp a few days later. The natives assert that these huge pigs are not seen beyond the mountain forests. Possibly the prevailing lack of water which proved our main difficulty in exploring this region explained their being driven to lower ground in search thereof." The drawing of a forest-hog overleaf has been prepared by Mr. Caldwell from a female specimen recently received from the Mau Plateau at the British Museum. Features that strike one are the unusual size of the nasal disc ; the splayed-out, warthog-like tusks ; the open tear-duct ; and the curious tufts of white hairs on the upper-lip. The body is covered with long black bristles, but the ears are not tufted as in the bush-pigs. On the following morning I enjoyed my first sight of an oryx, a lone bull moving along the lower slopes ; but though 1 followed him for hours, far into the stony hills, never got within half-a-mile. In case the fact may possess scientific interest, I should record meeting with a hedgehog during this stalk. I would not have noticed it among long grass had it not loudly resented my proximity. In size it resembled our British species, and its spines were of a uniform brown. Well I knew that my duty to zoology involved taking that beast along ; but, in the midst of a laborious stalk, it was impossible to carry that spiky specimen. Cactus and barbed thorn are torment enough, without having a hedgehog in one's pocket. The bushy prairies here- abouts swarmed with a species of short-eared owl, very dark in colour, probably Asio capensis ; from a patch 80 ON SAFARI of heath-like scrub, a couple of acres in extent, I put up over twenty. Quails also abounded ; walking along the GIANT FOREST-HOG (Hylochcmis meinertzhayeni}. A female from the Mau Plateau. rushy glades, half-a-dozen would spring at every step. These were Coturnix delegorguii, the harlequin quail, also the Kurrichaine button-quail. Francolins (Franco- linus granti) and guinea-fowl of the helmeted Abyssinian AFTER ORYX AND ELAND BARINGO 81 species (Numida ptilorhyncha) were as numerous as grouse on a Northumbrian moor. Our main objective here was to secure the oryx and the eland. The latter, it is true, may be found at less inaccessible points ; but nowhere in East Africa can the stately, straight-horned Oryx beisa be found within 100 miles of the railwaj 7 . Its main home is in Somali- land and Abyssinia, and rarely does it range southward of Baringo. We had done that long march expressly to secure a pair of oryx apiece that being the limit allowed by law. Yet the total number of oryx on the Mugitani at this date (August) was certainly under a dozen. A single giraffe lingered there, while of elands I personally saw none. We therefore held on to the Tangulwee, a day's march northwards. This river, which forms the bound- ary of the Sugota Game-reserve (in other words, all beyond it is ''sanctuary"), has, for the equator, a fair- sized bed, yet was stone-dry. We were therefore com- pelled to fall back on another stream, a tiny trickling burn, hardly recognisable save by the croaking of frogs, that issues from the Laikipia Range, and was called, we understood, the Masai a most unlikely name, as we were now in the Suk country, far beyond Masailand. 1 It, however, provided our prime necessary water ; and from its banks, though game was far from abundant, we enjoyed many memorable days. We were, at this point, the northernmost white men in the British Protectorate, excepting Arthur Neumann, who was still many marches to the northward away in the unknown by Lake Rudolph, too far distant for an afternoon call. On reaching camp that evening, our men told us that while on the march they had seen a lion in the act of stalking some zebras feeding near the edge of the bush. 1 For the beautiful photos in the Suk and Turkana countries here reproduced, my readers and I are indebted to Mr. G. F. Archer, who, as District-Commissioner, controls those wild regions beyond Baringo. 82 ON SAFAKI We encamped under a grove of huge umbrella- topped acacias that, at a little distance, remind one of Scotch firs at home. .;,... i GIRAFFE BULL AT BARINGO. The country around our camp was thin forest of thorn and juniper, opening out into low loose mimosa- scrub, easy to traverse ; and beyond this, towards the lake, stretched leagues of level grassy plain. It was upon this last that we now got really in touch with Oryx AFTER ORYX AND ELAND BARINGO 83 beisa. There were not many only nine or ten; and on the open prairie the task of approach appeared well- nigh hopeless. For days our best efforts failed. Then (on August 27) I had the luck to find a pair, bull and cow, well within the fringe of mimosa-scrub aforesaid. After a stalk of about average difficulty I fired at the bull, but missed. This shot was taken through the horizontal branches of a thin thorn-bush, and as it was not much w Trf=~ W> "BEYOND THE LOW ALOES" (ORYX). over 100 yards, the ball had perhaps been deflected. Not having seen us, the oryx, after one long burst, gradually settled down, and an hour later I came up with them again. They now stood on a perfectly open flat of hard, bare, sun-baked mud. Islanded in the midst of this was one patch of spiky aloes, twenty yards wide and three feet high. Getting this in line, I essayed that terrible crawl, 200 yards of cruel going, over brazen clay studded with flints and dwarf cacti, as bad as broken bottles. Yet the stalk succeeded. I have always attributed that success to a remarkable instance of mis- taken animal-instinct. Far out on the flat were grazing 84 ON SAFAKI (presumably on flints) a group of Grant's gazelles (Gazella granti brighti to give them their correct title). These, perceiving us, and perhaps mistaking our khaki-clad forms, prone on the earth, for crouching lions, advanced to mob their deadly enemy as small birds mob a hawk. Their short, petulant " wuff, wuff," attracted my attention, and, looking round through eyes near blinded with perspiration, I saw a score of these graceful antelopes within fifty yards, angrily barking and stamping their slender feet. This demonstration was being carried out in full view of our oryx, and I have no doubt monopolised their rapt attention during the fateful minutes while we gained the shelter of the aloes. Thence, aiming between intervals of the spiky aloe tops, I fired the shot that gave me my first oryx. It was the female that fell, with a bullet high on the shoulder. The bull bounced off, but shortly pulled up, awaiting his consort. The distance was still under 200 yards, and I might at once have secured my pair without further trouble, but for the freak of my gun- bearer, Elmi Hassan. He, being a Somali and good Mohammedan, must needs get his knife into any animal before it was actually dead. Consequently, with all eyes on " meat " and the still struggling cow, but none for the grand bull standing beyond, he was already racing in, thus ruining my chance of a second shot. It was not the first time he had offended thus, but I put the matter in such clear terms that it was the last. This oryx (female) carried horns of 31 ins. in length, span 11 ins. between tips. As the bull continued to hover about on the horizon, I followed on ; but after two hours' pursuit he suddenly changed his mind and went off at speed, disappearing in the distance. During all this time the herd of gazelles had kept in close attendance on the larger animal, and as they now remained alone I directed my attention to them. This was, perhaps, rather unhandsome conduct, seeing the assistance they had rendered me in securing AFTER ORYX AND ELAND BARINGO 85 my oryx ; but the herd contained several handsome heads, and, moreover, I was then under a totally false impression that all gazelles north of Baringo were G. petersi a new species to me and not G. granti at all. I had been so assured, and, under that belief, proceeded to pick out, one after another, the four finest heads in the herd. These gazelles apparently realised no danger in the report of a rifle, for they merely con- tinued their stately walk, their splendid horns nodding in unison with each step, while by creeping in the long grass parallel with their file I secured the four best bucks within a space of 200 yards. These four heads taped 23^, 2 If, 20 and 20 ins. respectively, span of the biggest lOf ins., and are as good as any to be seen in the Baringo country. NOTE ON GRANT'S GAZELLE Grant's gazelle, it is now recognised, is divisible into several distinct local races, varying both in the form of horn and also in distribution of colour, particularly on the rump-patch and in the depth or absence of dark lateral bands. The typical form, Gazetta granti typica, as secured by us on the Athi Plains, at Elmenteita and elsewhere, carried horns up to 25 ins. in length, with an extreme span between tips of 16 ins. Such are average specimens. Further south, on the Seringeti and Rhombo Plains towards Kilimanjaro, much larger examples are recorded, measuring 28 to 30 ins., and even more. These are all typical G. granti. On the western boundary of German East Africa, a race exists which (while the horns do not reach 25 ins. in length) displays quite an extravagant divergence, the span between tips spreading out to 27 and 28 ins. a breadth which obviously alters the whole type and appearance of the head, as shown in the annexed plate (p. 87). This latter race has been entitled G. g. roberfsi. The Baringo gazelles above mentioned are G. g. brigkli ; while on the Laikipia Plateau to the eastward yet another form is recog- nised, distinguishable from the typical race not only by its smaller size and shorter, narrower horns, but by a deeper body-colour and more conspicuous lateral bands. These Laikipia gazelles have been separated as G. g. notata. All those we shot, of either race, possessed the curious tuft of bushy hair below the fore-knees. Peters' gazelle (G. peter si} is quite a different animal, much smaller (intermediate in size between Grant's and Thomson's gazelles), and is not met with inland, being confined to the coast. 86 ON SAFARI region. This species can always be distinguished by the fact that the fawn colour of the back continues down to the tail, and is not interrupted by the white of the rump-patch, as is the case in all forms of Grant's gazelle. The horns of Peters' gazelle average from 20 to 22 ins. in length, and are narrow, almost parallel, the usual span being only 6 to 9 ins. between tips, as shown opposite. The growth of the horns in immature examples of G. g. brighti so closely resembles in form the horns of adult G. petersi (as will be seen in the drawing on p. 87), that it is hardly surprising if we were mistaken in identifying these species at Baringo. Next morning three giraffes were visible from the look-out koppie near our camp, but these great animals possessed no attraction for us, and as a single bull oryx was feeding with two zebras in another direction, I made for these. Oryx, however, proved intensely watchful and wild, and defied every effort both of my brother and myself on that and many another day. August 30 proved my red-letter day. I began with a fairly good impala buck (24|- ins.) close to camp, and then, after expending a lot of wasted energy in stalking a zebra, that both Elmi and I, in the early light, had mistaken for an eland, we espied a lone oryx bull afar on the open prairie. Beyond him was a second. Stalking, strictly speaking, was impossible ; we merely crouched forward, stooping low, and with Elmi's arm around my shoulder. While thus progressing, the two bulls, having closed in, began to fight. I heard their horns crash together repeatedly, but had not much opportunity, while racing ahead, to observe closely their mode of attack. They certainly did not lower their heads to the ground, as they are reported to do in receiving the charge of a lion (and as represented at South Kensington). One such blow, well driven home, must mean death. They rather sparred with their rapier- like horns, each seeking to gain the other's flank. While the oryx were thus engrossed I got in, and at 400 yards (estimated) fired both barrels, each aimed with the utmost care, yet without the slightest effect or any apparent notice being taken. The beasts continued D HORNS OF GAZELLES. A, A, A. Grant's Gazelle Three males, typical race. A. 9 . ,, Female ,, B. ,, Male of variety O. g. robcrtsi. C, C. ,, Two young males, Baringo race. D, D, D 9 . Peters' Gazelle Two males and a female. E, E 9 . Thomson's Gazelle Male and female. 88 ON SAFARI fighting. Presently the bigger bull got an advantage, and the other fled. The fighting and the pursuit together had taken us some miles from our original position ; we were now close under the foothills of Laikipia. Here at last the champion halted, the van- quished half-a-mile beyond, we double that distance astern. The victor had pulled up just beyond a little "Hardly had we left camp in the dawn than a lovely apparition showed up on the sky-line ahead. " (Got him in the neck : horns 24 J ins. ) string of gazelles that were feeding across the plain. I felt that if only those gazelles would stand I would get my shot. They did stand, and, firing over their heads at 300 yards, I realised the fierce joy of seeing that noble oryx bull drop stone-dead on the plain. The ball had struck the orifice of the ear, entering the brain not a shot to boast of, as the shoulder had been my mark ; yet withal no more magnificent trophy had ever fallen to my lot, nor a keener ambition been satisfied. AFTER ORYX AND ELAND BARINGO 89 Of the many splendid forms that Nature has designed for African antelopes, none surpass that of the oryx. Strength and grace combine in every line. A massive chest and upright neck, deep, yet tapering to the tjiroat, are completed by a beautifully-proportioned barrel and strong though slightly sloping quarters. It is in this latter respect that the hartebeest group fall away, the exaggerated slope giving them one is loth to apply a disparaging epithet to such fine game almost an un- ORYX. gainly appearance. Of the former type none but the superb sable really compares on equal terms with the oryx, and the roan comes second to this pair. The waterbuck, it is true, idealises massive elegance, but his type is different. His are rather the four-square lines of a red deer on a grander scale. My prize carried horns of 31^ ins., with a basal circumference of just under 7 ins. His hide was scarred with wounds from a score of fights, and from the skin of his neck, which was near 2 ins. thick (thus differing from that of the cow, which was quite thin-skinned), I cut an imbedded bullet of some previous hunter. The weight of this oryx bull we estimated at 450 Ibs., the female about 400 Ibs. Returning towards camp and 90 ON SAFARI a three-hours' tramp in the midday heat possessed no terrors that morning a nightjar rose at my feet from its two eggs, lying on bare ground. This was the small African species (I believe Caprimulgus donaldsoni] whose loud " hoo, hoo," awakens the echoes throughout the livelong night. CHAPTER VIII (ll) TWO RHINOS THAT same afternoon when I had secured my oryx bull, after the usual midday rest in camp we went out separately in search of Gazella petersi, being still under the false impression that that species was the gazelle of Baringo. While I was busy " glassing " a small herd, Elmi suddenly turned on me, and I knew by the fire in his eye what was coming. " I see rhino," he said. The huge beast was standing about 400 yards away in a grassy glade a sort of broad grass street bor- dered on either side by a line of low thorn-bush. I was unprepared, having only five " solid " cartridges with me ; but, as it was too late to send back to camp for more, I decided to take on the rhino at once. On reaching the grass street the rhino had disappeared. I therefore proceeded along the windward side of the open, keeping close under the lee of the low thorns, amidst which I expected to find him. It was, nevertheless, a bit of a shock when I found we had walked within twenty yards before seeing him. He was standing facing us, up a sort of side street, or narrow opening in the scrub. Being almost under the rhino's nose, I dropped in the grass, Elmi behind me. The latter, as we lay still, presently remarked (and the words were not reassuring), " Shoot, he's coming ! " The expression for a moment conveyed the idea of a charge ; but I could see for myself that there was no such danger, as the beast clearly had not seen us, although so near. What Elmi meant was that the rhino was moving our way. 91 92 ON SAFARI Though not blind, yet rhino use their eyesight but little. All I could distinguish among grass and thorn was an amorphous mass, of a red-brown colour (from wallowing in red mud), with a spiky horn like a smoke- stack at the hither end. No possible shot was presented, and the beast was slowly approaching, feeding on mimosa boughs. We therefore crept away through the grass, and, gaining the cover of the thorns, soon reached the broadside position. Even then, though within less than twenty yards, and full broadside on, I was reluctant to fire, for in the bad light (the prelude to a coming thunderstorm) and the shade of the bush, I could not quite distinguish the vital spots. Presently the rhino raised his huge head to pull down a mimosa branch (akin to eating a mouthful of barbed wire), and the whole outline was fully exposed. I placed a '303 solid at the point selected one foot behind the ear and slightly below while Elmi, by my direction, put another, from the carbine '303, between eye and ear. The rhino merely moved two steps forward, turned deliberately round and stood still, with his other broadside exposed. We repeated our salute as before, Elmi this time taking the neck shot, while I tried a point below the ear and slightly forward thereof. The effect this time was unmistakable. The great beast dropped straight to earth, disappearing from view. For some seconds I thought the deed was done, and greatly rejoiced thereat. The joy was premature, for once more that vast red- brown bulk rose above the thorns, and slowly, deliberately walked away. Only a single cartridge now remained. I followed the rhino, walking some thirty yards behind him, awaiting a chance. Presently he left the bush, and, with head carried low and a dead-sick gait, entered the open grass street. This time I decided to try the heart, presuming that a rhino carries such an appendage (which I now doubt), or, at any rate, the shoulder. The distance, ere I had perfected a thrice-refined aim, was near eighty yards, and I heard the bullet tell. Arrli-r, Photo. TUKKANA. The wild nomad inhabitants of the region towards Lake Rudolph. Archer, Photo. KEIUO 1UVER IIUXNIXG TOWARDS LAKE RUDOLPH. TWO RHINOS 93 The effect was remarkable. This hitherto apathetic beast, which had so far treated cordite with sluggish indifference, suddenly awoke to life and amazing activity. With a succession of hissing snorts resound- ing like jets of steam driving through a safety-valve he reared on end, spun round again and again, and finally, still shrieking and rearing, bolted back to the covert he had just quitted. He left a track like a runaway wagon, which we followed ; but it was now dusk and raining in torrents, with lightning and thunder crackling straight overhead. Nothing more could be done that night. It was a rough job to regain camp. At break of day I took up the spoor with fifteen boys, following it for hours through thin scrub and thick. The latter seemed to me highly dangerous work, our radius of vision being limited to a few yards. On open ground the rain had obliterated all tracks, and I divided my force into three parties, two circling on the flanks, to cut the spoor ahead when we lost it ourselves ; but noon arrived without our overhauling the stricken rhino. The midday heat was more than I could withstand, so I returned to camp, directing the trackers to hold the spoor till night. After sundown they too returned empty-handed. Not a sign of the beast had been seen, though we had followed on for eight or ten miles. Either I or the '303 had failed. After this double disappointment, first with elephant and now with rhino, I decided never again to take on these huge pachyderms with a small bore. It was at this spot that is, on the first plateau of Laikipia that, a year before, a terrible accident had befallen an English sportsman, Mr. B. Eastwood of Nairobi, whom I afterwards had the pleasure of meeting, and who kindly allows me to reproduce his description of the event as follows " On Sunday, the 19th of October, I was under way before six, and made straight for the big hill (Njoro- Ilimalo), nine or ten miles away, where I had seen the koodoo tracks. I had gone some distance up the valley, 94 ON SAFARI shooting a steinbuck on the way, when I saw two rhinos a mile away. The country was fairly open, and before I got up they had disappeared in some dry scrub. There was, just inside this scrub, what I took to be a low hillock, and which I purposed using for stalking. But to this my gun-bearer, Sulimani, objected most strongly. He said it was not a hillock, but rhinoceroses. We crouched behind a little bush and waited, but not for long. Hardly were we down before the group opened, and I saw there were seven rhinos in a cluster. 1 Two came rushing in my direction, and at forty yards I fired and dropped one, finding afterwards that the bullet had splintered its nose, and I now have the huge splinter of bone, 1 8 ins. long, with the horns mounted on it. " Leaving Sulimani to skin the beast, I went, with one porter, after^an oryx that I could see considerably more than a mile away, but could not get anywhere near it. I followed it nearly five miles, passing on the way another rhino, that I marked in case I lost the oryx. " On the way back I passed an immense herd of eland, fully one hundred, and then returned to the rhino. It was 120 yards away, with its back towards me. I sat down in grass eighteen inches high and waited. After ten minutes the rhino turned round and walked slowly towards me, grazing. The man I had with me became frightened, and after creeping for some distance through the grass, jumped to his feet and ran. This aroused the beast, for it lifted its head and looked after the man, giving me the chance I wanted. I ^put a solid bullet in the centre of its chest, about twelve inches up ; it took two or three short quick steps and went down heavily, head-first, its body slewing round as it fell. * It made one futile effort to rise, but did not succeed in even lifting its head, and then lay motionless. I put in a second shot to make sure, but might as well have fired at a rock, as it did not move in any way. There seemed to 1 As related in a subsequent chapter, the author on one occasion came across a " hillock " of six rhinos in a cluster. TWO EHINOS 95 be not the slightest breath of life left in it ; so I walked up, wondering what its horns measured, and how I could get it skinned and reach camp before dark. " All these conjectures were rudely knocked on the head. When less than twenty yards away the huge beast gave a roll and got on to its feet. My rifle was up at once, and I put a bullet into the shoulder ; but before I could get in a second shot the brute was charging straight. " I commenced to run at a right angle to its course, thinking the rhino would probably go on in a straight line, as they usually do ; but the first step I took I tripped and fell, and before I could regain my feet it was on top of me. " I was nearly on my feet when it struck me. It hit me first with its nose, dropped with both knees on me, then, drawing back for the blow, threw me clean over its back, the horn entering the back of my left thigh, and I saw the animal well underneath me as I was flying through the air. It threw me a second time, but I cannot recollect that throw clearly : and then came on a third time. I was lying on my right side when the great black snout was pushed against me. Then I found myself upon my feet how, I do not know and staggered off. As I went an inky darkness came upon me. After going perhaps forty or fifty yards, expecting every moment to be charged again, I felt that I might as well lie down and let the beast finish its work without further trouble ; so I lay down." 1 The spot where the catastrophe occurred was fifteen miles from his camp, and that camp a twelve-hours' march beyond Baringo. The nearest doctor was distant 136 miles at Fort Ternan. There, on the desert veld, a shattered wreck, with right arm smashed, ribs stove in and broken, and many minor injuries, lay Eastwood all alone, and exposed hour after hour to the fierce equatorial sun and with ghoulish vultures flapping close overhead. Not till late in the afternoon did his men 1 Globe Trotter, March 1907. 96 ON SAFAKI find him, and it was near midnight ere they could carry him into camp. By indomitable pluck he reached Baringo, carried in a litter, on the second morning ; but it was not till the eighth day after the accident that the doctor arrived and the necessary operations could be performed. Poor Eastwood lost his right arm, but otherwise bears no trace of his terrible experience. Another rhino incident. Mr. Long-Innes, whom I met close by Baringo, had just had this curious adven- ture. While passing Lake Hanniugton on his way up, he suddenly saw the beast lying asleep beneath a dwarf mimosa, and only a few yards from the track. The rhino sprang to its feet in a blind charge. The Kikuyu gun-bearer with the rifle having promptly taken to his heels, Innes had no resource but to bolt the other way, but pitched his white Panama hat behind him as a blind. The rhino momentarily halted at this bait, but, seeing the flying Kikuyu beyond, transferred attention to him', and speedily overtaking him, " chucked " the luckless ".boy" over his back, then continuing his course. Curiously, the Kikuyu was not seriously damaged. The blunt horn of the rhino had caught him under the chin a blow that would surely have broken a white man's neck, but in the savage it merely produced " contusions " ! CHAPTER IX BEYOND BARINGO (ill) ORYX, ELAND, IMPALA, JACKSON'S HARTEBEEST, DIKDIK, ETC. HITHERTO we had not seen more than fifteen or twenty oryx in the whole district, but on the day after securing the second of my pair (the limit allowed by the game-laws) I fell in with a herd of no less than fifty of these stately antelopes. These presented a magnificent spectacle, their glancing horns resembling a forest of fixed bayonets as they moved in from the north-west in a long file, doubtless an arrival on migration. They were accompanied by zebras and gazelles, while several jackals hung on their flanks. It still remained for my brother to secure his pair of oryx, and a day or two later he succeeded in that object, getting two bulls out of this newly-arrived herd, the best carrying an exceptionally fine head of 34 ins., besides bringing in a young male oryx as large as a goat, which he and the men had captured in the grass. At daybreak, when setting out, he had also bagged a big spotted hyena close to camp. The native boys kept shouting, " Simba, simba " (lion, lion) ; so that after making a good shot, running, at over 100 yards, W was disappointed to find he had killed only a hyena. While W was busy with his oryx, I devoted myself to impala, which here carry splendid heads ; specimens of 28 ins. are not uncommon, but one I met with appeared to exceed that dimension. Of course it is always the biggest that escape, and that was the case 97 H 98 ON SAFARI with my record impala. 1 Still, the incident possessed a moral which may be worth relating. I had "jumped" this animal in open forest, and crippled him so severely with a straightaway stern- shot that I walked up within twenty yards of where he stood disabled, with head down and hind-legs straddled apart. My gun-bearer kept urging, " Shoot, shoot," but I thought it unneces- sary, till the buck staggered a few yards into some thicker scrub, when I fired carelessly with the single carbine and missed. Even then the sick beast stood gazing towards us within thirty yards. I covered his shoulder with the double '303, but that rifle was on " safety " (note, that the carbine has no safety), and before I could remedy that bungle, the impala, with a loud cough, disappeared over a ridge.. I never saw him again, though I stuck to his spoor all that day and the next, and kept men watching the vultures till we left that camp. Such is the vitality of African antelopes. The moral is, never spare a cartridge while game remains on its legs. While busy puzzling out spoor that night, hearing. the same "cough," or sneeze, I approached the spot and got another impala with fine, strong head, but he appeared a bagatelle by comparison. I have seen hundreds of impala, both in South and East Africa, but never a head like the one my folly threw away that day. We had now secured one out of the two main objects of our trip to Baringo a pair of oryx apiece. But in the