308 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



hands high at the withers and weighed about eight 

 hundred and thirty pounds/ according to the Seton 

 beam. I shot another kangani just at nightfall, a mile 

 or so from camp, as it drank in a wild, tree-clad gorge 

 of the river. I was alone, stroUing quietly through the 

 dusk, along the margin of the liigh banks by the stream, 

 and saw a mixed herd of zebras coming down to a well- 

 worn drinking-place, evidently much used by game, on 

 the opposite side of the river. They were alert and 

 nervous, evidently on the lookout for both lions and 

 crocodiles. 1 singled out the largest, the leader of the 

 troop, and shot it across the stream. 1 have rarely 

 taken a shot among more picturesque surroundings. 



At our final camp on the river, before leaving it on 

 our week's steady trek southward to Neri, we found a 

 spot in which game abounded. It was about ten miles 

 back from the river, a stretch of plain sparsely covered 

 with thorn-trees, broken by koppies, and bounded by 

 chains of low, jagged mountains, with an occasional 

 bold, isolated peak. The crags and cliff' walls were 

 fantastically carved and channelled by the weathering 

 of ages in that dry climate. It was a harsh, unlovely 

 spot in the glare of the hot daylight ; but at sunset it 

 was very lovely, with a wild and stern beauty. 



Here the game abounded, and was not wary. Before 

 starting out on our week's steady marching I wished to 



^ The aggregate of the weights of the different pieces was 778 

 pounds ; the loss of blood and the drying of the pieces of flesh in 

 the intense heat of the sun we thought certainly accounted for 50 

 pounds more. The stallion was not fat. At any rate, it weighed 

 between 800 and 850 pounds. Its testicles, though fully developed, 

 had not come down out of the belly skin. One of those shot by 

 Kermit showed the same pecuHarity. Cuninghame says it is a 

 common occurrence with this species. Moreover, the stallons did 

 not have their canine teeth developed. 



