THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



sportsman's license, as I was collecting for a scientific 

 institution. 



The other experience, which showed me how imprudent 

 these animals are, was made a few days later at the ex- 

 treme south end of the same lake. We had been ascending 

 and then descending a large, extinct volcano, from the top 

 of which we had a most wonderful view of the surround- 

 ing country : to the north of us lay, glittering in the rays 

 of the tropical sun, beautiful Elmenteita ; to the northwest, 

 the blue waters of Lake Nakuru, the Uganda Railroad 

 winding its way between the two like a striped, shining 

 ribbon; to the east and west we saw the high escarpments 

 that limit the Rift Valley in those directions, and to the 

 south of us we could look 'way down into the Rift Valley, 

 where the mighty, extinct volcanoes, Longonot and Suswa, 

 formed the background! We had just descended the vol- 

 cano, and were lunching under a little tree in a narrow 

 valley between two little ridges, when we were suddenly 

 startled by the noise of clattering hoofs, and, looking up, 

 we found a herd of several hundred zebras galloping right 

 down upon us at top speed. 



The tree under which we were sitting was too small 

 to afford any protection from our being trampled down 

 under the animals' hoofs, so we all ran forward, waving 

 our arms and screaming at the top of our lungs, to head 

 off the herd. Yet nearer and nearer they came, until at 

 about forty yards' distance I dropped two of the animals 

 in their tracks. The report of the gun, and the sudden 

 fall of their two comrades, made the rest of the herd 

 swing ofif right and left up the sides of the hills. The 

 herd had probably been badly frightened, and in their 



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