36 



ON SAFARI 



This little wood, unknown to me, bordered a creek of 

 Lake Nakiiru, and a score of these pachyderms had been 

 lying asleep within a few yards of where I had fired that 

 final shot. 



Thus the bull of Neumann's hartebeest, for the 

 present, remained wanting. I had, however, secured 

 an immature example, and the annexed drawing shows 

 the earlier, upright growth in the horns of this species. 

 They belonged to a nearly full-grown calf (female), and 



HEADS OF NEUMAXX S HARTEBEEST. 



Bull, 1S| ins. (shot later) ; cow, log ius. ; immature, lOf ins. 



measured lOf ins. in length along the front curve. How 

 I came to kill this small beast I never quite knew. 

 Possibly the bullet, missing its mark, had struck another ; 

 more probably (the distance being great and the grass 

 long) the luckless youngster had been standing in front 

 of a larger animal, which masked the separate outline. 

 Anyway, it lay there dead ; and, after all, its horns 

 exhibit an interesting phase of growth. 



That evening, close to camp, I saw another leopard. 

 He retreated into heavy bush overhanging the banks of 

 a stream — a favourable place to hustle him out. I had 

 fifteen " boys " with me, Swahilis, but to my surprise 

 not one of them would face the job, and the leopard 



