TO THE UASIN GISHU 



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oribi and hartebeest were usually to be seen from the tents. 

 The hartebeest, by the way, in its three forms, is much the 

 commonest game animal of East Africa. 



A few miles beyond this swamp we suddenly came on a 

 small herd of elephants in the open. There were eight 

 cows and two calves, and they were moving slowly, feeding 

 on the thorny tops of the scattered mimosas, and of other 

 bushes which were thornless. The eyesight of elephants is 

 very bad; I doubt whether they see more clearly than a 

 rather near-sighted man; and we walked up to within 

 seventy yards of these, slight though the cover was, so that 

 Kermit could try to photograph them. We did not need to 

 kill another cow for the National Museum, and so after we 

 had looked at the huge, interesting creatures as long as we 

 wished, we croaked and whistled, and they moved off with 

 leisurely indifference. There is always a fascination about 

 watching elephants; they are such giants, they are so intel- 

 ligent much more so than any other game, except perhaps 

 the lion, whose intelligence has a very sinister bent and 

 they look so odd with their great ears flapping and their 

 trunks lifting and curling. Elephants are rarely absolutely 

 still for any length of time; now and then they flap an ear, 

 or their bodies sway slightly, while at intervals they utter 

 curious internal rumblings, or trumpet gently. These were 

 feeding on saplings of the mimosas and other trees, ap- 

 parently caring nothing for the thorns of the former; they 

 would tear off branches, big or little, or snap a trunk short 

 off if the whim seized them. They swallowed the leaves and 

 twigs of these trees; but I have known them merely chew 

 and spit out the stems of certain bushes. 



After leaving the elephants we were on our way back to 



