HUNTING ELEPHANT AND RIDING LION 169 
we had little fear of being interfered with by another sefari, 
and as lions would keep, but elephant would wander away, 
we determined to make a wide circle and try and cut fresh 
elephant spoor. 
It was dawn, but not day, when I and my man rode off 
to the westward, toward Elgon. We had not ridden a 
mile, before we came on elephant signs, that could not be 
more than eight or nine hours old, and, turning off, fol- 
lowed as fast as our trackers could make it out. Much 
of the ground was bare, and all of it baked hard, so tracking 
at times, even though the N’dorobo, we had, were good at 
their work, was not easy. In a couple of hours we had left 
the level, treeless plain, and were among stunted thorn and 
patch, and long grass, that in some places was four or five 
feet high and very thick. We had scarcely ridden a mile, 
in this sort of cover when my Brownie and H. at the same 
moment, saw three lionesses, slinking away, some five hun- 
dred yards on our right. It was a most undesirable sort 
of country to ride them in. You could only see ahead of 
you, for a little way, and the grass was long enough, even 
when it was shortest, to cover a crouching lioness. But 
it was our first chance, and anyway we took it quickly. 
H.’s pony was a beauty, and very fast. I had mounted 
my syce (a Somali, who had ridden lion) on a good strong 
mare, that had a turn of speed too, and for myself, I rode 
a quite extraordinarily good sure-footed mule. Noth- 
ing could separate that mule from H.’s pony. Where the 
pony went, that mule could not be prevented going, and at 
a pace that was quite wonderful, for a mule. H. took his 
.450 from the gunboy, I seized my .350 repeater. Brownie 
had to follow as best he could, and we were off. 
No riding like it anywhere in the world. On, on, the 
yellow, waving grass often above my saddle, no chance to 
see holes, or rocks, or fallen tree stems. Amid the thick- 
ening brush I had all I could do to sit tight and keep the 
