AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



zebra, and hartebeeste; but soon plunged into a 

 bush country quite destitute of game. We were 

 paralleling the highest ridge of the escarpment; 

 and so alternated between the crossing of canons 

 and the travelling along broad ridges between them. 

 In lack of other amusement for a long time I rode 

 with the wagon. The country was very rough and 

 rocky. Everybody was excited to the point of 

 frenzy, except the wagon. It had a certain Dutch 

 stolidity in its manner of calmly and bumpily sur- 

 mounting such portions of the landscape as happened 

 in its way. 



After a very long tiresome march we camped 

 above a little stream. Barring our lucky rain this 

 would have been the first water since leaving the 

 Kedong River. Here were hundreds of big blue 

 pigeons swooping in to their evening drink. 



For two days more we repeated this sort of travel; 

 but always with good camps at fair-sized streams. 

 Gradually we slanted away from the main ridge; 

 though we still continued cross-cutting the swells 

 and ravines thrown off its flanks. Only the ravines 

 hour by hour became shallower, and the swells lower 

 and broader. On their tops the scrub sometimes 

 gave way to openings of short-grass. On these fed 

 a few gazelle of both sorts, and an occasional zebra 

 or so. We saw also four topi, a beast about the 



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