THE GUASO NYERO 367 



across the stream; I have rarely taken a shot among more 

 picturesque surroundings. 



At our final camp on the river, before leaving it on our 

 week's steady trek southward to Neri, we found a spot 

 in which game abounded. It was about ten miles back 

 from the river, a stretch of plain sparsely covered with 

 thorn-trees, broken by koppies, and bounded by chains of 

 low, jagged mountains, with an occasional bold, isolated 

 peak. The crags and cliff walls were fantastically carved and 

 channelled by the weathering of ages in that dry climate. 

 It was a harsh, unlovely spot in the glare of the hot day- 

 light; but at sunset it was very lovely, with a wild and 

 stern beauty. 



Here the game abounded, and was not wary. Before 

 starting out on our week's steady marching I wished to 

 give the safari a good feed; and one day I shot them five 

 zebra and an oryx bull, together with a couple of gazelle 

 for ourselves and our immediate attendants enough of 

 the game being hallalled to provide for the Mohammedans 

 in the safari. I also shot an old bull giraffe of the northern 

 form, after an uneventful stalk which culminated in a shot 

 with the Winchester at a hundred and seventy yards. In 

 most places this particular stretch of country was not 

 suitable for galloping, the ground being rotten, filled with 

 holes, and covered with tall, coarse grass. One evening 

 we saw two lions half a mile away; I tried to ride them, 

 but my horse fell twice in the first hundred and fifty yards 

 and I could not even keep them in sight. Another day 

 we got a glimpse of two lions, quarter of a mile off, glid- 

 ing away among the thorns. They went straight to the 

 river and swam across it. More surprising was the fact 

 that a monkey, which lost its head when we surprised it in 

 a tree by the river, actually sprang plump into the stream, 

 and swam, easily and strongly, across it. 



One day we had a most interesting experience with a 

 cow giraffe. We saw her a long way off and stalked to 

 within a couple of hundred yards before we could make out 



