CHAPTER IX 

 TO LAKE NAIVASHA 



FROM this camp we turned north toward Lake Nai- 

 vasha. 



The Sotik country through which we had hunted was 

 sorely stricken by drought. The grass was short and with- 

 ered and most of the water- 

 holes were drying up, while 

 both the game and the 

 flocks and herds of the no- 

 mad Masai gathered round 

 the watercourses in which 

 there were still occasional 

 muddy pools, and grazed 

 their neighborhood bare of 

 pasturage. It was an un- 

 ceasing pleasure to watch 

 the ways of the game and 

 to study their varying hab- 

 its. Where there was a 

 river from which to drink, 

 or where there were many 

 pools, the different kinds of 

 buck, and the zebra, often 

 showed comparatively little 

 timidity about drinking, and 

 came boldly down to the 



, , . Masai guides on Sutik trip 



water s edge, sometimes in . .. 



t> ' From a photograph by Edmund It flit r 



broad daylight, sometimes 



in darkness; although even under those conditions they 

 were very cautious if there was cover at the drinking- 

 place. But where the pools were few they never ap- 



237 



