CHAPTER VI 



A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS 



I LEFT Dol, by which name my last camp was known, 

 just before 5 a.m., and in an hour's time, as the sun 

 was rising above Eyladera, we left the plain and 

 entered the real bush. In all my life I have never 

 seen such a tangle, such thick, clinging, thorny scrub, 

 twelve feet high, leafless, grey and dead-looking. 

 Fortunately there was a native trail running due 

 west to Eylad (white well), and this we followed for 

 two and a half hours, before emerging into a delightful 

 litde meadow of ten or twelve acres, with thick green 

 grass and two large circular depressions in the centre 

 full of rain-water. I later discovered, by careful ob- 

 servation, that the ground for miles around slopes 

 very gradually, and, to the casual observer, imper- 

 ceptibly, down to these pools, which, when full, contain 

 sufficient water for four hundred cattle for at least 

 three months. As I rode out into this delightful 

 spot, I saw a large number of guinea-fowl feeding, 

 and a dik-dik disappearing into the bush. I fired 

 and got a guinea-fowl, and a second as they rose, 

 and, hastily reloading, I shot a francolin as it came 

 flying directly overhead. These two game birds 

 are common throughout Jubaland, and are both 

 exceedingly handsome specimens. 



In the francolin {Pternistes infuscatus) the head 

 and upper part of the neck are devoid of feathers. 



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