x COMPLETION OF THE TSAVO BRIDGE 113 



against the cutwaters of my stone piers. The shock 

 was great, but to my immense satisfaction the 

 bridge took it without a tremor, and I saw the 

 remnant of the temporary crossings swirl through 

 the great spans and quickly disappear on its journey 

 to the ocean. I confess that I witnessed the whole 

 occurrence with a thrill of pride. 



We were never long without excitement of some 

 kind or another at Tsavo. When the camp was 

 not being attacked by man-eating lions, it was 

 visited by leopards, hyaenas, wild dogs, wild cats, 

 and other inhabitants of the jungle around us. 

 These animals did a great deal of damage to the 

 herds of sheep and goats which were kept to supply 

 the commissariat, and there was always great rejoic- 

 ing when a capture was made in one of the many 

 traps that were laid for them. Leopards especially 

 are most destructive, often killing simply for pleasure 

 and not for food : and I have always harboured 

 animosity towards them since the night when one 

 wantonly destroyed a whole herd of mine. I hap : 

 pened at the time to have a flock of about thirty 

 sheep and goats which I kept for food and for milk, 

 and which were secured at sundown in a grass hut 

 at one corner of my boma. One particularly dark 

 night we were startled by a tremendous commotion 

 in this shed, but as this was before the man-eaters 

 were killed, no one dared stir out to investigate the 



I 



