( Fi. Mj TO MERU AND KENIA 277 



There were waterbuck and inipalla in this swamp. I 

 tried to get a bull of the former, hut failed. Several 

 times I was within Hfty yards of doe inipalla and cow 

 waterbuck, with their young, and watched them as they 

 fed and rested, quite unconscious of my presence. 

 Twice 1 saw steinbuck, on catching sight of me, lie 

 down, hoping to escape observation. The red coat of 

 the steinbuck is rather conspicuous, much more so than 

 the coat of the duiker, yet it often tries to hide from 

 possible foes. 



Late in the afternoon of September 3, Cuninghame 

 and Heller, with the main safari, joined me, and I 

 greeted them joyfully, while my men were equally 

 pleased to see their fellow^s, each shaking hands with his 

 especial friends. Next morning we started toward 

 INIcru, heading north-east, toward the foothills of 

 Kenia. The vegetation changed its character as w^e 

 rose. 13y the stream where we had camped grew the 

 great thorn-trees with yellow-green trunks which we 

 had become accustomed to associate with the presence 

 of herds of game. Out on the dry fiats were other 

 tiiorns, weazened little trees, or mere scrawny bushes, 

 with swellings like bulbs on the branches and twigs, and 

 the long thorns far more conspicuous than the scanty 

 foliage ; though what there was of this foliage, now 

 brilliant green, was exquisite in hue and form, the 

 sprays of delicate little leaves being as fine as the 

 daintiest lace. On the foothills all these thorn-trees 

 vanished. We did not go as high as the forest belt 

 proper (here narrow, while above it the bamboos 

 covered the mountain side), but tongues of juniper forest 

 stretched down along the valleys which we crossed, and 

 there were large patches of coarse deer-fern, while 

 among many unknown flowers we saw blue lupins. 



