7Q ON SAFAEI 



the ordinary game. Our own experiences, five weeks 

 later, were as follows. 



To begin with, I fell in with one of those unpleasant 

 adventures that are incidental to African travel. As 

 related in the last chapter, I had left my brother to 

 continue his march northwards towards the Mugitani 

 Piiver while 1 made a back-cast of thirty miles to Njemps 

 after elephant. Returning thence, on the evening of the 

 fourth day I had reached the neighbourhood of the sj^ot 



where, by arrangement, I expected to find W 



encamped, when one of those violent thunderstorms 

 characteristic of the equator suddenly burst. Being 

 unable, in elemental cataclysm, amidst roaring winds, 

 thunder and hissing rain, either to find the river or to 

 get response to our signal-shots, I ordered camp to be 

 pitched exactly where I stood. Then a new difiiculty 

 arose. The heavily-laden safari, struggling against the 

 storm, had got separated and half lost among the bush, 

 the confusion being accentuated by running into a herd of 

 half-wild Suk cattle, the longest-horned and most trucu- 

 lent beasts I ever saw^. One by one, or in scattered 

 groups, the safari straggled in, but, of course, the " boy " 

 with the tent-poles was last to arrive. Thus it was two 

 hours after dark ere I got shelter under canvas, and turned 

 in supperless — bar a tin of sardines and a pint of 

 " emergency " champagne ! 



The storm moderatino- at midnioht, we got in touch 

 with my brother's camp, which proved to be little more 

 than an hour's march away ; and in the morning, to our 



mutual relief, W walked across in time for breakfast. 



The Mugitani at this point, as we discovered by daylight, 

 is little more than a series of mud-holes connected by 

 subterranean channels. No w^onder we had failed to 

 find it in the darkness and stress of the night before. 



My brother reported having seen a herd of eland 

 and some oryx, but the latter were scarce and very wild. 

 The only game he had killed were impala. Grant's 

 gazelle (the local race, G. g. hrighti), a kori bustard, 

 and a zebra for meat. But a notable occurrence had 



