CHAPTER V. 



THE PLAINS. 



COMING up from the coast by train one first passes through the coast belt; 

 this, for the first twenty miles or so, consists of cocoanut plantations and 

 other cultivation. Shortly after, one enters on the dry bush country of 

 the Taru Desert, with its unpleasant red dust-cloud that envelops the train. 

 This thick and thorny country is passed through for most of the night's journey. 

 As dawn breaks the scene has changed. As far as the eye can see, on both 

 sides of the line, the great plains there reach and roll away, broken only by a 

 few rocky hills and a few solitary and weather-beaten trees. The hills are more 

 numerous at first, but grow less in number as the expanses of the Kapiti and 

 Athi plains are reached. It is impossible to convey a correct idea of the seeming 

 vastness of these great plains. The impression gained when standing on one of 

 the little stony hills is that of being on some small island in the midst of a great 

 sea of stationary billows stretching away in every direction. On the left of the line, 

 going up country, is the game reserve, gently undulating to the German boundary. 

 On the right the plains roll away to the foot of the Ukamba-land and 01 Doinyo 

 Sapuk hills. Beyond these the country begins to get covered more and more 

 with little thorn bushes, till it gives place to bush country. Game is seen in the 

 foreground crawling about over the plains like little ants ; beyond, the landscape 

 becomes more and more blurred, till it finally merges into the haze. 



I will now try to give a little sketch of how life on the plains must appear 

 to the creatures that live there. Man, and especially the white man, is an animal 

 not in touch with the rest ; he is an outsider, and so cannot, except surreptitiously, 

 see life on the plain as it really is. The scent or sight of him gives uneasiness 

 to all the denizens of the plains. So we will try to watch the life on the plains 

 for twenty-four hours, let us say in the guise of a zebra. 



Dawn steals over the plains, and gradually objects begin to stand out from the 

 darkness, weird in shape and as yet unrecognisable. All around us is the munch, 

 munch of our busily feeding friends. A little farther off is a different munching 

 sound coming from a herd of kongoni, as yet scarcely recognisable, although they 



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