HUNTING ELEPHANT AND RIDING LION 169 



we had little fear of being interfered with by another sefari, 

 and as lions would keep, but elephant would wander away, 

 we determined to make a wide circle and try and cut fresh 

 elephant spoor. 



It was dawn, but not day, when I and my man rode off 

 to the westward, toward Elgon. We had not ridden a 

 mile, before we came on elephant signs, that could not be 

 more than eight or nine hours old, and, turning off, fol- 

 lowed as fast as our trackers could make it out. Much 

 of the ground was bare, and all of it baked hard, so tracking 

 at times, even though the N'dorobo, we had, were good at 

 their work, was not easy. In a couple of hours we had left 

 the level, treeless plain, and were among stunted thorn and 

 patch, and long grass, that in some places was four or five 

 feet high and very thick. We had scarcely ridden a mile, 

 in this sort of cover when my Brownie and H. at the same 

 moment, saw three lionesses, slinking away, some five hun- 

 dred yards on our right. It was a most undesirable sort 

 of country to ride them in. You could only see ahead of 

 you, for a little way, and the grass was long enough, even 

 when it was shortest, to cover a crouching lioness. But 

 it was our first chance, and anyway we took it quickly. 

 H.'s pony was a beauty, and very fast. I had mounted 

 my syce (a Somali, who had ridden lion) on a good strong 

 mare, that had a turn of speed too, and for myself, I rode 

 a quite extraordinarily good sure-footed mule. Noth- 

 ing could separate that mule from H.'s pony. Where the 

 pony went, that mule could not be prevented going, and at 

 a pace that was quite wonderful, for a mule. H. took his 

 .450 from the gunboy, I seized my .350 repeater. Brownie 

 had to follow as best he could, and we were off. 



No riding like it anywhere in the world. On, on, the 

 yellow, waving grass often above my saddle, no chance to 

 see holes, or rocks, or fallen tree stems. Amid the thick- 

 ening brush I had all I could do to sit tight and keep the 



