THE LARGER EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES 



station Muhuroni and Kibigori, not far from the Victoria 

 Nyanza. Here, on the northern side of the railroad, I 

 went out for the first time to hunt the roan in January, 

 1910. 



I arrived at Muhuroni railroad station after a long and 

 tedious march of a whole day, during which I had severely 

 injured my right leg in a successful attempt to scare off 

 a number of actually charging Masai bulls. At the station 

 I met two Englishmen, who had both been out for several 

 days in the vicinity, looking for roan antelopes, but who 

 saw only fresh tracks of them. They were very much 

 discouraged, and told me that I had no chance whatever 

 to get a roan, particularly as I was not in any condition to 

 make a very long tour on foot. This part of the country 

 lies rather low, and is very much hotter than most other 

 parts of British East Africa. It is also infested by the 

 dangerous tsetse fly, so deadly to horses that the hunter 

 cannot with safety use ponies. This news was rather dis- 

 couraging, but as I had come all the way to this place to 

 hunt for a roan, I did not feel it fair to myself to give up 

 before I had at least tried my luck for one day. 



The Hindu station master at Muhuroni told me that in 

 the country to the north of the station, some three miles 

 away from the track, was a place near a little stream 

 where I was most likely to find roan antelopes at this time 

 of the year. With my right leg black and blue, and swelled 

 to almost twice its size, I started out before four o'clock 

 the following morning. Guided by the half-moon, shin- 

 ing down from a clear sky, we started off toward the re- 

 gion mentioned by the station master, with one of his 

 private servants as an additional guide. 



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