462 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



we sighted from the boat several herds of white-eared kob, 

 and Kermit and I went in different directions after them, 

 getting four. The old rams were very handsome animals 

 with coats of a deep rich brown that was almost black, 

 and sharply contrasted black and white markings on their 

 faces; but it was interesting to see that many of the younger 

 rams, not yet in the fully adult pelage, had horns as long 

 as those of their elders. The young rams and ewes were 

 a light reddish-yellow, being in color much like the ewes 

 of the saddle-back lechwe; and there was the usual dis- 

 proportion in size between the sexes. With each flock of 

 ewes and young rams there was ordinarily one old black 

 ram; and some of the old rams went by themselves. The 

 ground was so open that all my shots had to be taken at 

 long range. In habits they differed from the saddle-back 

 lechwes, for they were found on dry land, often where the 

 grass was quite short, and went freely among the thorn- 

 trees; they cared for the neighborhood of water merely as 

 ordinary waterbuck or kob care for it. 



Here we met another boat, with aboard it Sir William 

 Garstin, one of the men who have made Egypt and the 

 Soudan what they are to-day, and who have thereby ren- 

 dered an incalculable service not only to England but to 

 civilization. 



We had now finished our hunting, save that once or 

 twice we landed to shoot a buck or some birds for the 

 table. It was amusing to see how sharply the birds dis- 

 criminated between the birds of prey which they feared 

 and those which they regarded as harmless. We saw 

 a flock of guinea-fowl strolling unconcernedly about at 

 the foot of a tree in which a fish eagle was perched ; and 



