CHAPTER VI 



A BUFFALO HFN r liV THE KAMITI 



Heatley's Ranch comprises twenty thousand acres 

 lying between the Rewero and Kamiti Rivers. It is 

 seventeen miles long, and four across at the widest 

 place. It includes some bits of natural scenery as 

 beautiful as can well be imagined ; and though Heatley, 

 a thorough farmer and the son and grandson of farmers, 

 was making it a successful farm, with large herds of 

 cattle, much-improved stock, hundreds of acres under 

 cultivation, a fine dairy, and the like, yet it was also 

 a game reserve such as could not be matched either in 

 Europe or America. From Juja Farm we marched 

 a dozen miles, and pitched our tent close beside the 

 Kamiti. 



The Kamiti is a queer little stream, running for most 

 of its course through a broad swamp of tall papyrus. 

 Such a swamp is almost impenetrable. The papyrus 

 grows to a height of over twenty feet, and the stems 

 are so close together that in most places it is impossible 

 to see anything at a distance of six feet. Ten yards 

 from the edge, when within the swamp, I was wholly 

 unable to tell in which direction the open ground lay, 

 and could get out only by either following my back 

 track or listening for voices. Underfoot the mud and 

 water are hip-deep. This swamp was the home of a 



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