422 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



certainly not the case with those we came across. Both of 

 the herds, which we followed patiently and cautiously for 

 hours without alarming them, were feeding as they moved 

 slowly along. One herd lay down for a few hours at noon; 

 the other kept feeding until mid-afternoon, when we alarmed 

 it; and the animals then went straight up the mountain 

 over the rimrock. It was cold rainy weather, and the dark 

 of the moon, which may perhaps have had something to 

 do with the bongo being on the move and feeding during 

 the day; but the 'Ndorobo said that they never fed at night 

 I of course know nothing about this personally. Leop- 

 ards catch the young bongo and giant hog, but dare not 

 meddle with those that are full-grown. The forest which 

 they frequent is so dense, so wellnigh impenetrable, that 

 half the time no man can follow their trails save by bend- 

 ing and crawling, and cannot make out an object twenty 

 yards ahead. It is extraordinary to see the places through 

 which the bongo pass, and which are their chosen haunts. 

 While Lord Delamere and I were hunting in vain Kermit 

 was more fortunate. He was the guest of Barclay Cole, 

 Delamere's brother-in-law. They took eight porters and 

 went into the forest accompanied by four 'Ndorobo. They 

 marched straight up to the bamboo and yellow-wood for- 

 est near the top of the Mau escarpment. They spent five 

 days hunting. The procedure was simply to find the trail 

 of a herd, to follow it through the tangled woods as rapidly 

 and noiselessly as possible until it was overtaken, and then 

 to try to get a shot at the first patch of reddish hide of 

 which they got a glimpse for they never saw more than 

 such a patch, and then only for a moment. The first 

 day Kermit, firing at such a patch, knocked over the ani- 

 mal; but it rose and the tracks were so confused that even 

 the keen eyes of the wild men could not pick out the right 

 one. Next day they again got into a herd; this time Ker- 

 mit was the first to see the game all that was visible 

 being a patch of reddish, the size of a man's two hands, 

 with a white stripe across it. Firing he killed the animal; 



