314 THE LAND OF THE LION 
They seem to go to bed very early in the morning, and unless 
you are lucky enough to find them loitering on their “kill” of 
the night before, they are hard to see. If you are well 
mounted or have a Somali or gunbearer mounted on a swift 
pony to round them up, Laikipia plain is an ideal place to 
get them. 
Grant antelope are to be seen here, not in as large herds as 
are common south of the railroad and east of Naivasha plain, 
nor do these Grant carry as long a horn. These of Laikipia 
are the grantii notata, a different variety. The beautiful 
horn does not branch as widely and curves more decidedly 
forward. A twenty-four inch measurement is a good trophy. 
I must not forget the giraffe but somehow I have never 
been able to think of these strange old world creatures 
as things to be shot. Here they can be seen and studied 
at leisure, for near the river, and north to within a few 
miles of the mountain, herds of from five to fifteen are 
common. 
I shot a wild dog on the plateau which I am inclined 
to think is a distinct species. It is quite smooth-skinned, 
no hair anywhere on the body, only a few sparse white 
hairs on the tip of the tail. It is quite black and resembles 
closely a Mexican hound. And twice I heard it bark 
distinctly. Other wild dogs do not bark. Three or 
four times I had an opportunity of examining the dog 
carefully with my glasses, and also twice I had one thrust 
his head out of a bush and very distinctly bark at me. 
If this species is distinct it is as yet unknown to science. 
To give some idea of the game resources of this splendid 
country, I will enumerate what I saw during one morn- 
ing’s ride. Zebra, eland (several hundred), Grant, five 
rhino, one leopard, giraffe (twenty), klipspringer, impala 
(three large herds), ostrich, stein-buck, duiker-buck and 
geranuk. 
There is another attraction that the Laikipia plateau 
