CHAPTER XVIII 



LIONS ON THE ATHI PLAINS 



SHORTLY after I took charge at railhead we entered 

 the Kapiti Plain, which gradually merges into the 

 Athi Plain, and, indeed, is hardly to be distinguished 

 from the latter in the appearance or general charac- 

 ter of the country. Together they form a great 

 tract of rolling downs covered with grass, and inter- 

 sected here and there by dry ravines, along the 

 baked banks of which a few stunted trees the only 

 ones to be seen struggle to keep themselves alive. 

 In all this expanse there is absolutely no water in 

 the dry season, except in the Athi River (some forty 

 miles away) and in a few water-holes known only to 

 the wild animals. The great feature of the un- 

 dulating plains, however, and the one which gives 

 them a never-failing interest, is the great abundance 

 of game of almost every conceivable kind. Here 

 I myself have seen lion, rhinoceros, leopard, eland, 

 giraffe, zebra, wildebeeste, hartebeeste, waterbuck, 



