CH. x] ILLNESS OF MR. HELLER 261 



stones, and broken by ravines whicli were choked with 

 dense underbrush. There were high hills, and to the 

 left of the downs, toward ]\enia, these were clad in 

 forest. We pitched our tents on a steep cliff over- 

 looking- the crater lake or pond, as it might more 

 properly be called. It was bordered with sedge, and 

 tin-ough the water-lilies on its surface we saw the 

 i-efiection of the new moon after nightfall. Here and 

 there thick forest came down to the brink, and through 

 this, on opposite sides of the pond, deeply-worn elephant 

 paths, evidently travelled for ages, wound down to the 

 \vater. 



That evening we hunted for bushbuck, but saw none. 

 W^hile we were sitting on a hillock at dusk, watching 

 for game, a rhino trotted up to inspect us, with ears 

 cocked forward and tail erect. A rhino always has 

 something comic about it, like a pig, formidable though 

 it at times is. This one carried a poor horn, and there- 

 fore we were pleased wlien at last it trotted oft' without 

 obliging us to shoot it. We saw new kinds of wiiydah 

 birds, one with a yellow breast, one with white in its 

 tail ; at this altitude the cocks were still in full plumage, 

 although it was just past the middle of September ; 

 whereas at \ai\'asha they had begun to lose their long 

 tail feathers nearly two months previously. 



On returning to camp we received a note from 

 : Cuninghame saying that Heller had been taken seriously 

 ' ill, and Tarlton had to go to them. This left Kermit 

 and me to take our two days' hunt together. 



One day we got nothing. We saw game on the 



' open downs, but it was too wary, and though we got 



I within twenty-five yards of eland in tliick cover, we 



could only make out a cow, and she took friglit and ran 



1 without our ever getting a glimpse of the bull that was 



