AFTER ORYX AND ELAND— BARINGO 81 



species (Numida j^f^^orhyncha) were as numerous as 

 grouse on a Northumbrian moor. 



Our main objective here was to secure the oryx and 

 the eland. The latter, it is true, may be found at less 

 inaccessible points ; but nowhere in East Africa can the 

 stately, straight-horned Oryx heisa be found within 

 100 miles of the railway. Its main home is in Somali - 

 land and Abyssinia, and rarely does it range southward 

 of Baringo. We had done that long march expressly to 

 secure a pair of oryx apiece — that being the limit allowed 

 by law. Yet the total number of oryx on the Mugitani 

 at this date (August) was certainly under a dozen. A 

 single giraffe lingered there, while of elands I personally 

 saw none. 



We therefore held on to the Tangulwee, a day's 

 march northwards. This river, which forms the bound- 

 ary of the Sugota Game-reserve (in other words, all 

 beyond it is "sanctuary"), has, for the equator, a fair- 

 sized bed, yet was stone-dry. We were therefore com- 

 pelled to fall back on another stream, a tiny trickling 

 burn, hardly recognisable save by the croaking of frogs, 

 that issues from the Laikipia Range, and was called, we 

 understood, the Masai — a most unlikely name, as w^e 

 were now in the Suk country, far beyond Masailand.^ 

 It, however, provided our prime necessary — water ; and 

 from its banks, though game was far from abundant, we 

 enjoyed many memorable, days. We were, at this point, 

 the northernmost white men in the British Protectorate, 

 excepting Arthur Neumann, who was still many marches 

 to the northward — away in the unknown by Lake 

 Rudolph, too far distant for an afternoon call. 



On reaching camp that evening, our men told us 

 that while on the march they had seen a lion in the act 

 of stalking some zebras feeding near the edge of the 

 bush. 



1 For the beautiful photos in the Suk and Turkana countries 

 here reproduced, my readers and I are indebted to Mr. G. F. Archer, 

 who, as District-Commissioner, controls those wild regions beyond 

 Baringo. 



G 



