228 ELEPHANT-HUNTING [ch. x 



more exasperating because interspersed with the misses 

 were some good shots : I killed a fine waterbuck cow at 

 a hundred yards, and a buck tommy for the table at two 

 hundred and fifty ; and, after missing a handsome black 

 and white, red-billed and red-legged jabiru, or saddle- 

 billed stork, at a hundred and fifty yards, as he stalked 

 through the meadow after frogs, I cut him down on the 

 wing at a hundred and eighty with the little Springfield 

 rifle. 



The waterbuck spent the daytime outside, but near 

 the edge of, the papyrus. I found them grazing or rest- 

 ing, in the open, at all times between early morning 

 and late afternoon. Some of them spent most of 

 the day in the papyrus, keeping to the watery trails 

 made by the hippos and by themselves ; but this was 

 not the general habit, unless they had been persecuted. 

 AVhen frightened they often ran into the papyrus, smash- 

 ing the dead reeds and splashing tlie water in their rush. 

 They are noble-looking antelope, with long, shaggy 

 hair, and their chosen haimts beside the lake were very 

 attractive. Clumps of thorn-trees and flowering bushes 

 grew at the edge of the tall papyrus here and there, and 

 oflen formed a matted jungle, the trees laced together 

 by creepers, many of them brilliant in their bloom. 

 The climbing morning-glories sometimes completely 

 covered a tree with their pale purple flowers, and other 

 blossoming vines spangled the green over which their 

 sprays were flung with masses of bright yellow. 



Four days' march from Naivasha, where we again left 

 Mearns and Loring, took us to Neri. Our line of march 

 lay across the high plateaux and mountain chains of the 

 Aberdare range. The steep, twisting trail was slippery 

 with mud. Our last camp, at an altitude of about ten 

 thousand feet, was so cold that the water froze in the 



