318 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



age continually led along and across it, some of them be- 

 ing much better marked than the trail itself, as it twisted 

 through the sun-flecked shadows underneath the great trees. 

 Then we came out on high downs, covered with tall grass 

 and littered with volcanic stones; and broken by ravines 

 which were choked with dense underbrush. There were 

 high hills, and to the left of the downs, toward Kenia, these 

 were clad in forest. We pitched our tents on a steep cliff 

 overlooking the crater lake or pond, as it might more 

 properly be called. It was bordered with sedge, and through 

 the water-lilies on its surface we saw the reflection of the 

 new moon after nightfall. Here and there thick forest came 

 down to the brink, and through this, on opposite sides of 

 the pond, deeply worn elephant paths, evidently travelled 

 for ages, wound down to the water. 



That evening we hunted for bushbuck, but saw none. 

 While sitting on a hillock at dusk, watching for game, a 

 rhino trotted up to inspect us, with ears cocked forward 

 and tail erect. A rhino always has something comic about 

 it, like a pig, formidable though it at times is. This one 

 carried a poor horn, and therefore we were pleased when at 

 last it trotted off without obliging us to shoot it. We saw 

 new kinds of whydah birds, one with a yellow breast, one 

 with white in its tail; at this altitude the cocks were still 

 in full plumage, although it was just past the middle of 

 September; whereas at Naivasha they had begun to lose 

 their long tail feathers nearly two months previously. 



On returning to camp we received a note from Cuning- 

 hame saying that Heller had been taken seriously sick, and 

 Tarlton had to go to them. This left Kermit and me to 

 take our two days' hunt together. 



One day we got nothing. We saw game on the open 

 downs, but it was too wary, and though we got within twenty- 

 five yards of eland in thick cover, we could only make out 

 a cow, and she took fright and ran without our ever getting 

 a glimpse of the bull that was with her. Late in the after- 

 noon we saw an elephant a mile and a half away, crossing 



