200 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



I had shot for the Smithsonian. As we skinned 

 it the game of the neighborhood gathered to 

 look on. The spectators included wildebeest, 

 hartebeest, gazelle, topi, a zebra, and a rhinoc- 

 eros — the hook-lipped kind. Late that after- 

 noon I shot a lioness; the successive reports of 

 the rifle and the grunting roars of the lioness, 

 put to flight a mixed herd of zebra and harte- 

 beest which had hitherto been unconcernedly 

 grazing not far off to one side of the scene of 

 action. 



On another day as I journeyed along the 

 valley of the Guaso Nyero — first at the head 

 of the safari, as it travelled through the green 

 forest of the river-bed, and then with only my 

 gun-bearers, through the hot, waterless, sun- 

 scorched country back from the river — I saw 

 rhino, giraffe, buffalo, eland, oryx, waterbuck, 

 impalla, big gazelle, and gerenuk or giraffe- 

 gazelle. After camping, toward evening, I 

 walked up-stream, away from the tents, until 

 I came to a spot where the river ran through a 

 wild, rugged ravine. On the hither side I 

 found the carcass — little more than the skele- 

 ton — of a zebra which had been killed by a 

 couple of lions as it came to drink the previous 

 night. It was evidently a favorite drinking- 

 place, for broad game trails led down to the 



