CHAPTER xVitl 
LIONS ON THE ATHI PLAINS 
SHORTLY after I took charge at railhead we entere 
the Kapiti Plain, which gradually merges into the 
Athi Plain, and, indeed, is hardly to be distinguished 
from the latter in the appearance or general charac- 
ter of the country. Together they form a great 
tract of rolling downs covered with grass, and inter- 
sected here and there by dry ravines, along the 
baked banks of which a few stunted trees—the only 
ones to be seen—struggle to keep themselves alive. 
In all this expanse there is absolutely no water in 
the dry season, except in the Athi River (some forty 
miles away) and in a few water-holes known only to 
the wild animals. The great feature of the un- 
dulating plains, however, and the one which gives 
them a never-failing interest, is the great abundance 
of game of almost every conceivable kind. Here 
I myself have seen lion, rhinoceros, leopard, eland, 
giraffe, zebra, wildebeeste, hartebeeste, waterbuck, 
