206 THE LAND OF THE £IGN 
the great beasts love above everything to feed, made walk- 
ing delightful. 
We soon had them in view and the stalk was an easy 
one, though, since the herd stood in the open and far from 
cover, we had to go cautiously. We got within fifty yards 
and carefully looked them over, but as no good bull was 
there we left them in peace. I tried a photograph, but 
heavy clouds had gathered over the mountain, and the light 
was poor. 
As we leisurely strolled campward, the black storm 
clouds burst among the cliffs and canons of the great crater 
summit of Elgon. Fora few moments, no longer, no mountain 
could be seen, and incessant lightnings alone marked 
where the rocky points drew down the electric currents. 
Then the sun beat through the storm, and all the many 
square miles of broken forest that clothes, and softens as it 
clothes, the jagged outlines of broken scarp and crag, were 
actually lit up by the evening glow. One great mass of 
snowy cloud still held together in the very crater itself, 
and on it the full strength of the sun seemed to fall, till it 
radiated over the cliffs and dense masses of woodland round 
it, a soft white light all its own. 
I never fancied anything so strange or so lovely. The 
secret places of the great mountain that were quite hidden 
before, stood forth to view, as this lower light searched them 
out. Then the smoky spirals of drifting cloud still clinging 
to the tree tops, the leavings of the warm storm, rose at last 
in silvery columns, slowly freeing themselves from the 
earthly claims that had bound them, and you could hear 
the augmented roar of the river torrent, as it came down the 
dark canon of the Turkwell. 
The last evening light fell tenderly over the yellow 
plain, while slowly the mighty herd moved off into the 
darkening east. 
Let me close my rambling chapter by saying that I 
