CHAPTER VI 

 A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI 



HEATLEY'S RANCH comprises twenty thousand acres 

 lying between the Rewero and Kamiti Rivers. It is seven- 

 teen miles long, and four across at the widest place. It 

 includes some as beautiful bits of natural scenery as can 

 well be imagined, and though Heatley a thorough farmer, 

 and the son and grandson of farmers was making it a 

 successful farm, with large herds of cattle, much improved 

 stock, hundreds of acres under cultivation, a fine dairy, and 

 the like, yet it was also a game reserve such as could not 

 be matched either in Europe or America. From Juja 

 Farm we marched a dozen miles and pitched our tent close 

 beside the Kamiti. 



The Kamiti is a queer little stream, running for most 

 of its course through a broad swamp of tall papyrus. Such 

 a swamp is almost impenetrable. The papyrus grows 

 to a height of over twenty feet, and the stems are so close 

 together that in most places it is impossible to see anything 

 at a distance of six feet. Ten yards from the edge, when 

 within the swamp, I was wholly unable to tell in which 

 direction the open ground lay, and could get out only by 

 either following my back track or listening for voices. 

 Underfoot, the mud and water are hip-deep. This swamp 

 was the home of a herd of buffalo numbering perhaps 

 a hundred individuals. They are semi-aquatic beasts, and 



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