VICTORIA NYANZA 127 



of saffron and gold. Africa can be beautiful one 

 moment and violently cruel the next. 



Before dawn, as we bounced over the hazy land- 

 scape toward the place where I had killed the topi, we 

 tried to solve some of the mysteries of the early morn- 

 ing; what sort of an animal a certain shape would 

 turn out to be! In the dim hght we would point out 

 a moving shadow and call it a zebra, when in all proba- 

 bility it was a hyena, or you would name something a 

 lion and find it to be an old-man baboon. So as this 

 new day was born and we rode over the African veldt 

 tow ard the dead topi, I saw a moving black shape and 

 thought to myself, " Great Caesar, what a Hon that isl " 

 As we drew nearer several hyenas hustled away, which 

 indicated there were no hons about. Upon getting a 

 better look at the dim object, I was surprised to find that 

 my hon was a rhino I The fact of its being near the 

 kill was simply a coincidence. The prehistoric pachy- 

 derm was just ambling from one hill to another and 

 happened to be passing our bait as we approached. 

 Mr. Rhino gave a few snorts, then disappeared into 

 some thick thorn scrub. 



It was brightening into dayfight now, so we hustled 

 to where the eland remains had been left. Mike was 

 driving the truck and in a position to see around the 

 corner first, as we neared the clump of wild sisal. He 

 took a quick glance, then whispered the magic word 

 "lions!" In the next second I saw them, counting 

 seven in all, four honesses and three males. Two of 

 the males had fair manes and as Austin had failed so 

 far to shoot a hon we gave him first chance. He had 

 brought an old .405, but as it was quite a distance, I 

 handed him the Remington .30 and when it spoke the 



