VI 



THE FIRST GAME CAMP 



IN THE review of "first" impressions with which 

 we are concerned, we must now skip a week or 

 ten days to stop at what is known in our diaries as 

 the First Ford of the Guaso Nyero River. 



These ten days were not uneventful. We had 

 crossed the wide and undulating plains, had paused 

 at some tall beautiful falls plunging several hundred 

 feet into the mysteriousness of a dense forest on 

 which we looked down. There we had enjoyed some 

 duck, goose and snipe shooting; had made the ac- 

 quaintance of a few of the Masai, and had looked 

 with awe on our first hippo tracks in the mud beside 

 a tiny ditchlike stream. Here and there were small 

 game herds. In the light of later experience we now 

 realize that these were nothing at all; but at the time 

 the sight of full-grown wild animals out in plain sight 

 was quite wonderful. At the close of the day's 

 march we always wandered out with our rifles to see 

 what we could find. Everything was new to us, and 

 we had our men to feed. Our shooting gradually 



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