148 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



the plateau, and saw and heard a wonderful variety 

 of game, including- giraffe, rhino, bush-buck, the 

 lesser kudu, zebra, wart - hog, baboons and 

 monkeys, and any number of pact, the last being of 

 a redder colour than those of the Tsavo valley. Of 

 natives or of human habitations, however, we saw 

 no signs, and indeed the whole region was so 

 dry and waterless as to be quite uninhabitable. The 

 animals that require water have to make a nightly 

 journey to and from the Sabaki, which accounts for 

 the thousands of animal paths leading from the 

 plateau to the river. 



By this time we were all beginning to feel 

 very tired, and the bkistis stock of water was 

 running low. I therefore climbed the highest 

 tree I could find in order to have a good look 

 round, but absolutely nothing could I see in any 

 direction but the same flat thorny wilderness, inter- 

 spersed here and there with a few green trees ; 

 not a landmark of any sort or kind as far as 

 the eye could reach ; a most hopeless, terrible 

 place should one be lost in it, with certain death 

 either by thirst or by savage beasts staring one 

 in the face. Clearly, then, the only thing to do 

 was to return to the river ; and in order to accom- 

 plish this before dark it was necessary that no time 

 should be lost. But we had been winding in and 

 out so much through the animal paths that it was no 



