220 TO LAKE NAIVASHA [ch. ix 



latter if it could have been avoided ; but in the circum- 

 stances I do not see how it was possible to help it. The 

 meat was not wasted ; on the contrary, it was a godsend, 

 not only to our own porters, but to the natives round 

 about, many of whom were on short commons on account 

 of the drought. 



Bringing over the launch, we M^orked until after dark 

 to get the bull out of the difficult position in which he 

 lay. It was nearly seven o'clock before we liad him 

 fixed for towing on one quarter, the row-boat towing on 

 the other, by which time two hippos were snorting and 

 blowing within a few yards of us, their curiosity much 

 excited as to what was going on. The night was over- 

 cast ; there were drenching rain squalls, and a rather 

 heavy sea was running, and I did not get back to camp 

 until after three. Next day the launch fetched in the 

 rest of the hippo meat. 



From this camp we went into Naivasha, on the line 

 of the railway. In many places the road was beautiful, 

 leading among the huge yellow trunks of giant thorn- 

 trees, the ground rising sheer on our left as we cantered 

 along the edge of the lake. We passed impalla, 

 tommies, zebra, and wart-hog ; and in one place saw 

 three waterbuck cows feeding just outside the papyrus 

 at high noon. They belonged to a herd that lived in 

 the papyrus and fed on the grassy flats outside ; and 

 their feeding in the open exactly at noon was another 

 proof of the fact that the custom of feeding in the early 

 morning and late evening is with most game entirely 

 artificial and the result of fear of man. Birds abounded. 

 Parties of the dark-coloured ant-eating wlieatear sang 

 sweetly from trees and bushes, and even from the roofs 

 of the settlers' houses. The tri-coloured starlings — 

 black, white, and chestnut — sang in the air, as well as 



