Big Game Shooting 



of leisure and time on one's hands, which was in- 

 variably employed in shooting and improving 

 one's mind in natural history. The other officer, 

 who was with me almost all the time, I am glad 

 to say, held the same views as myself with regard 

 to sport in general, from the "sport of kings" to 

 shooting a bull buffalo, or a rat hunt. In his own 

 language, he was "all over anything." Many 

 and many a happy day we spent together in con- 

 sequence. 



Our camp was pitched on a grassy bend of the 

 Guaso Nyiro in the open. The river was fringed 

 with shady trees, and there were some big clumps 

 at the neck of the bend also, which our men and 

 porters made good use of to lie and cook their 

 food under in shelter from the heat. The open 

 ground stretched for about three-quarters of a 

 mile, and ended in a belt of bush -jungle about 

 one mile broad, merging into open sandy desert 

 further on. There was very little game in this 

 bush, except a few impalah and wart-hogs, 

 and an occasional wandering buffalo that had 

 been caught by the sun on his way back to his 

 lair in the swamp two miles off. In the sandy 

 desert everything swarmed. The other bank of 

 the river was very similar, but six miles away 

 towered the bold bluffs and crags of the con- 

 tinuation of the Mau plateau, and there was 

 more swampy ground towards the south. The 

 camp itself was composed of a series of grass 



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