194 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



uprights his length was nine feet four inches, and his weight 

 four hundred and ten pounds, for he was not fat. We 

 skinned him and started for camp, which we reached after 

 dark. There was a thunder-storm in the south-west, and 

 in the red sunset that burned behind us the rain clouds 

 turned to many gorgeous hues. Then daylight failed, the 

 clouds cleared, and, as we made our way across the form- 

 less plain, the half moon hung high overhead, strange stars 

 shone in the brilliant heavens, and the Southern Cross lay 

 radiant above the sky-line. 



Our next camp was pitched on a stony plain, by a 

 winding stream-bed still containing an occasional rush- 

 fringed pool of muddy water, fouled by the herds and flocks 

 of the numerous Masai. Game was plentiful around this 

 camp. We killed what we needed of the common kinds, 

 and in addition each of us killed a big rhino. The two 

 rhinos were almost exactly alike, and their horns were of the 

 so-called "Keitloa" type; the fore horn twenty-two inches 

 long, the rear over seventeen. The day I killed mine I used 

 all three of my rifles. We all went out together, as Kermit 

 was desirous of taking photos of my rhino, if I shot one; 

 he had not been able to get good ones of his on the previous 

 day. We also took the small ox wagon, so as to bring into 

 camp bodily the rhino if we got it and one or two zebras, 

 of which we wanted the flesh for the safari, the skeletons 

 for the Museum. The night had been cool, but the day 

 was sunny and hot. At first we rode through a broad val- 

 ley, bounded by high, scrub-covered hills. The banks 

 of the dry stream were fringed with deep green acacias, and 

 here and there in relief against their dark foliage flamed 

 the orange-red flowers of the tall aloe clumps. With the 



