CHAPTER VI 



A BUFFALO HUNT BY THE KAMITI 



HEATLEY'S RANCH comprises twenty thousand acres 

 lying between the Rewero and Kamiti Rivers. It is seven- 

 teen miles long, and four across at the widest place. It 

 includes some as beautiful bits of natural scenery as 

 can well be imagined, 

 and though Heatley a 

 thorough farmer, and the 

 son and grandson of 

 farmers was making it 

 a successful farm, with 

 large herds of cattle, much 

 improved stock, hundreds 

 of acres under cultivation, 

 a fine dairy, and the like, 

 yet it was also a game re- 

 serve such as could not be 

 matched either in Europe 

 or America. From Juja 

 Farm we marched a dozen 

 miles and pitched our tent 

 close beside the Kamiti. 

 The Kamiti is a queer 

 little stream, running for 



most of its course through a broad swamp of tall papyrus. 

 Such a swamp is almost impenetrable. The papyrus grows 

 to a height of over twenty feet, and the stems are so close 

 together that in most places it is impossible to see anything 

 at a distance of six feet. Ten yards from the edge, when 

 within the swamp, I was wholly unable to tell in which 

 direction the open ground lay, and could get out only by 



Heatley with two leopard cubs he caught 

 From a photograph fry Ksrniit Rnoseptll 



149 



