THE LAND OF THE LION 



They seem to go to bed very early in the morning, and unless 

 you are lucky enough to find them loitering on their "kill" of 

 the night before, they are hard to see. If you are well 

 mounted or have a Somali or gunbearer mounted on a swift 

 pony to round them up, Laikipia plain is an ideal place to 

 get them. 



Grant antelope are to be seen here, not in as large herds as 

 are common south of the railroad and east of Naivasha plain, 

 nor do these Grant carry as long a horn. These of Laikipia 

 are the grantii notata, a different variety. The beautiful 

 horn does not branch as widely and curves more decidedly 

 forward. A twenty-four inch measurement is a good trophy. 



I must not forget the giraffe but somehow I have never 

 been able to think of these strange old world creatures 

 as things to be shot. Here they can be seen and studied 

 at leisure, for near the river, and north to within a few 

 miles of the mountain, herds of from five to fifteen are 

 common. 



I shot a wild dog on the plateau which I am inclined 

 to think is a distinct species. It is quite smooth-skinned, 

 no hair anywhere on the body, only a few sparse white 

 hairs on the tip of the tail. It is quite black and resembles 

 closely a Mexican hound. And twice I heard it bark 

 distinctly. Other wild dogs do not bark. Three or 

 four times I had an opportunity of examining the dog 

 carefully with my glasses, and also twice I had one thrust 

 his head out of a bush and very distinctly bark at me. 

 If this species is distinct it is as yet unknown to science. 

 To give some idea of the game resources of this splendid 

 country, I will enumerate what I saw during one morn- 

 ing's ride. Zebra, eland (several hundred), Grant, five 

 rhino, one leopard, giraffe (twenty), klipspringer, impala 

 (three large herds), ostrich, stein-buck, duiker-buck and 

 geranuk. 



There is another attraction that the Laikipia plateau 



