CHAPTER XIV 



BRITISH EAST AFRICA (continued} 



As the season advances, from the thick forest which 

 covers the slopes of Kenia bands of elephants move 

 out and play havoc with the shambas which lie near. 

 At times they wander far afield, and a short time 

 before we reached Rumuruti four good elephants had 

 been killed in the swamp close by. It was in the 

 shambas that we hoped to get them, so sending the 

 safari on ahead, we left Embu after lunch and camped 

 that night, a long four hours' ride distant, on the 

 fringe of the forest. A few natives came in to visit 

 us, but no one seemed to know anything about 

 elephants ! One had been seen three weeks pre- 

 viously, but that was all ! It was not a very promis- 

 ing outlook, and I started at dawn the next morning 

 with no great expectations of sport. 



A mile or so of shambas and banana patches 

 brought us to the edge of the forest. It was a 

 wonderful place. We plodded up through groves 

 of magnolias and other flowering shrubs, with no 

 sound to bear us company save the ceaseless, melan- 

 choly patter of the rain, and the drip, drip on the 

 dark foliage which hemmed us in on all sides. Now 

 and again the note of a bird came from the topmost 



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