166 MY SOMALI BOOK 



traversed by a winding river-bed like a great white 

 serpent, with another hilly system be^/ond. We were 

 here some thirty miles north-west of Hargeisa in Ogo- 

 Guban ; we had been moving due north, but now turned 

 in an easterly direction during the afternoon march, 

 encamping at a place called Barka Hagar. 



Half an hour before halting I was thrilled by an 

 unexpected sight in recent traces of a herd of elephants 

 that had been there a couple of days before ; droppings 

 and huge foot-prints, aloe plants and a bush or two 

 torn from their places, here and there a broken branch, 

 marked their path of destruction. 



This was a charming camp, in the higher end of an 

 extensive valley between two converging hills. A large 

 part of the valley was more or less thick jungle on the 

 banks of a river-bed, with a good deal of sansevieria, 

 where I thought there should be lesser kudu, while it 

 was on the lower slopes of one of these hills that M. 

 had bagged his grand greater kudu the previous year. 



On halting I found to my sorrow that the little 

 lynx kitten was gone ; he had somehow contrived to 

 squeeze out of his basket, and then fallen or jumped 

 from the camel's back unnoticed on the march. Poor 

 little beggar, I am afraid he starved, unless something 

 bigger put an end to him first. The jungle has but a 

 cold welcome for her children who have once forsaken 

 her if ever they seek to return. 



I had not had any particular excitement for some 

 little time, but my experience that night was to com- 

 pensate in unique fashion. The valley contained 

 excellent cover for leopards, and, as I remarked to 

 Abdilleh, if there tliej^ should be hungry, for there 



