360 TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 



impenetrable, that half the time no man can follow their 

 trails save by bending and crawling, and one cannot make 

 out an object twenty yards ahead. It is extraordinary 

 to see the places through which the bongo pass, and 

 which are their chosen haunts. 



While Lord Delamere and I were hunting in vain, 

 Kermit was more fortunate. He was the guest of 

 Barclay Cole, Delamere's brother-in-law. They took 

 eight portei"s, and went into the forest, accompanied by 

 four 'Ndorobo. They marched straight up to the 

 bamboo and yellow-wood forest near the top of the 

 Mau escarpment. They spent five days in hunting. 

 The procedure was simply to find the trail of a herd, 

 to follow it through the tangled woods as rapidly and 

 noiselessly as possible until it was overtaken, and then 

 to try to get a shot at the first patch of reddish hide of 

 which they got a glimpse — for they never saw more than 

 such a patch, and then only for a moment. The first 

 day Kermit, firing at such a patch, knocked over the 

 animal ; but it rose, and the tracks were so confused 

 that even the keen eyes of the wild men could not pick 

 out the right one. Next day they again got into a 

 herd. This time Kermit was the first to see the game, 

 all that was visible being a reddish patch the size of a 

 man's two hands, with a white stripe across it. Firing, 

 he killed the animal, but it proved to be only half 

 grown. Even the 'Ndorobo now thought it useless to 

 follow the herd, but Kermit took one of them and 

 started in pursuit. After a couple of hours' trailing the 

 herd was again overtaken, and again Kermit got a 

 glimpse of the animals. He hit two, and, selecting the 

 trail with most blood, they followed it for three or four 

 miles, until Kermit overtook and finished off' the 

 wounded bongo, a fine cow. 



Kermit always found them lying up during the 



