CHAPTER IX 



TO LAKE NAIVASHA 



From this camp we turned nortli toward Lake Nai- 

 vaslia. 



The Sotik country through which we had hunted 

 was sorely stricken by drought. The grass was short 

 and withered, and most of the waterholes were drying 

 up, while both the game and the flocks and herds of 

 the nomad Masai gathered round the watercourses in 

 which there were still occasional muddy pools, and 

 grazed their neighbourhood bare of pasturage. It was 

 an unceasing pleasure to watch the ways of the game 

 and to study their A^arying habits. Where there was a 

 river from which to drink or where there were many 

 pools, the different kinds of buck and the zebra often 

 showed comparatively little timidity about drinking, 

 and came boldly down to the water's edge, sometimes 

 in broad daylight, sometimes in darkness ; although 

 even under those conditions they were very cautious if 

 there was cover at the drinking place. But where the 

 pools were few they never approached one without feel- 

 ing panic dread of their great enemy the lion, who, they 

 I knew well, might be lurking around their drinking 

 I place. At such a pool I once saw a herd of zebras 

 come to water at nightfall. They stood motionless 

 i some distance oft': then they slowly approached, and 



195 " ^ 



