HUNTING THE AFRICAN. BUFFALO 
for the journey when one morning a 
company of the King’s African Rifles 
passed on the Fort Hall road, and we 
soon learned that trouble had broken 
out among the natives across the Tana 
and as a result our trip was postponed. 
Some eight weeks later after an ele- 
phant hunt on the Abadare Mountains, 
we arrived at Fort Hall just as the Gover- 
nor, Sir James Hayes-Saddler, with his 
suite was about to go across Mount 
Kenya Province for the purpose of locat- 
ing the site of the new “Boma” in the 
newly pacified region. Not only was our 
permit to hunt in the district renewed 
but we were invited to accompany the 
official party as far as our routes paral- 
leled. It had been the Governor’s in- 
tention to go on a buffalo hunt, when 
the official work was finished, and it was 
suggested that we go elephant-hunting 
on Mount Kenya until the Governor had 
finished his shooting. To hunt elephant 
on Mount Kenya was an unexpected 
privilege; nothing could have pleased us 
more. 
After six weeks we returned from the 
elephant hunt to the Tana River where 
we made a base camp, stored the ele- 
phant and other skins and proceeded 
two marches about twenty-five miles 
down the river. Here we established 
our “buffalo camp.” Buffalo sign was 
abundant but for many days we came 
up with none except old outcast bulls, 
usually two or three together, no one 
of which seemed desirable specimens. 
We frequently saw indications of a herd 
but it was only after many days that we 
finally found them, and then just at the 
close of a day so that we were not able 
to pick out the individuals we wanted. 
Back to camp we went, ten miles in the 
dark, through a region that was literally 
rhino-infested, with the hope that on the 
following day we could make good with 
the buffalo. It turned out that we spent 
153 
a week looking for that herd and never 
again found it. 
One morning however, Cunningham 
having gone out with some boys to shoot 
meat for camp, came upon three old 
buffalo. He sent a runner back to 
camp with the news and Mrs. Akeley 
and I started out to join him. Halfway 
from camp we were obliged to make a 
wide detour to avoid an old rhino and 
calf, but soon caught up with Cunning- 
ham. He reported however, that the 
buffalo had passed on into some dense 
bush. We started to follow, but sud- 
denly came on to two rhinos. We 
quickly turned to the leeward not to 
disturb them by giving them our wind, 
thereby possibly bringing on a general 
stampede of the game in the neighbor- 
hood. This turn brought us to the wind- 
ward of the old cow and calf that we had 
first avoided, with the result that she 
came charging up, followed by the calf 
close at her heels, snorting like a loco- 
motive. Cunningham helped Mrs. Ake- 
ley up a convenient tree. He stood at 
the base of the tree and I at the foot of 
another where we poised with our guns 
ready, watching the old cow go tearing 
past within twenty feet of us. But the 
rhino had lost her scent and it was a 
typical “rhino charge” which means 
merely a general mad rush up and down 
in a stupid effort — perhaps to get away 
from the supposed danger. 
We continued on the buffalo trail, but 
the stampede of the rhino had resulted 
in alarming the buffalo so that instead 
of finding them nearby, we were forced 
to follow them for an hour or more before 
again coming in sight of them; and again 
twice more they were stampeded by 
rhinos that happened to get in our path. 
At last the buffalo evidently became 
tired of being chased from place to place, 
and came to rest on a sloping hillside 
which we could approach only by crawl- 
