FROM GILGIL TO KENIA 273 



Rough as the country is on the northern bank, it teems 

 with game. Very fine impala are plentiful. Large flocks 

 of Grant and Tommy feed on the more open country across 

 the river to the south, and eland were quite plentiful, 

 some carrying good horns. 



Three miles back from the river, the bush slopes sharply 

 up to a wide table-land. I saw oryx, eland and rhino as 

 well as two lions and a leopard all on one morning. The 

 oryx and rhino I did not want and I needed a pony 

 which I did not then have, to get near either of the other 

 animals. 



At the junction of the Guasi Narok (down which we 

 had been marching ever since we came to the Embellossett 

 Swamp) and the Guasi Nyiro we made permanent camp 

 for several days. This is an excellent place to establish 

 a hunting camp, and as you move farther north toward 

 the mountain, a base camp from which to supply the 

 sefari. 



On the Guasi Narok, fifteen miles above the junction, 

 I shot an aard wolf and saw two others. This is an ex- 

 ceedingly rare animal in the Protectorate. 



Several kinds of partridges and frankolin are common 

 along the river banks. One little brown partridge with a 

 sharp spur, which I have seen nowhere else, is the best 

 eating bird I found in Africa, except the snipe, quail and 

 lesser bustard. 



The morning star burns gloriously in the east as I 

 stand at the front door. There are no signs as yet of 

 daylight, but you can smell the day, and the earliest birds 

 are beginning to call and twitter. Presently the blue 

 black of the eastern horizon takes a tinge of clear gray 

 which changes almost suddenly into a low-lying band of 

 dull red; in a moment this becomes first crimson, then 

 golden, and then between the two great mountains, over 

 the dark purple plain that divides them, bursts the sun. 



