ACROSS THE MAU ESCARPMENT 63 



way, that is destined on this very plateau, again and again, 

 to baffle and confuse you. Within and around this reedy 

 stronghold there are probably more lions to-day than 

 anywhere else in Africa. On these countless herds of 

 game they feed abundantly. At night they kill, and ear- 

 liest dawn finds them where they are safe from any hunter, 

 in their impenetrable papyrus stronghold. 



Far away on the horizon to the west, north, and east, 

 the faint patchy beginnings of a sparsely wooded country 

 are seen, but all round the rock the grass lies green, not 

 even a bush growing anywhere. Here on this treeless 

 greensward lions can rarely be stalked, but they can be 

 "ridden" gloriously. 



Look carefully with your glasses over the plain, and 

 well-defined paths show up. These the elephants have 

 made, as they take a pleasant one-night excursion of thirty 

 miles or so, from their two favourite forest haunts 

 from Elgon's slopes on the west, to the far denser woods of 

 Elgao and Cherangang. Sometimes they, unwisely for 

 themselves, break the journey and linger by the way to eat 

 the succulent shoots of the thorn trees that cover the lower 

 slopes of the plain. Amid these low-growing trees the 

 sportsman has the very best of good chances cover, for 

 a close approach, and some shelter, in case there is trouble. 

 Standing on the summit, a good view is had into the 

 basin of the little, brackish, well-hidden, Sergoit Lake. 

 Troops of eland, herds of zebra, and Jackson's hartebeest, 

 in hundreds, troop down in the evening, to drink around 

 the reedy margin of the water. Reed buck are always to 

 be found, and a fine band of waterbuck seem to make their 

 home in the little bit of broken ground, that lies just to the 

 west of the water. A sportsman will leave game just here- 

 abouts alone. If meat must be had, and by now your 

 porters will surely be pestering you with cries of N'yama, 

 bwana (meat, master), go a mile or two out of camp and 



