CHAPTER XI 



ELMENTEITA 

 (l) IN SEPTEMBER 



In mid- September 1904 I alighted at Elmenteita, a 

 station in tlie Rift Valley adjoining and overlooking the 

 basin of the Enderit River and our lovely hunting-grounds 

 of six weeks earlier, already described in Chap. III. 

 These latter, in fact, lay within a few hours' march to 

 the southward; but my object in returning was to try 

 the country to the north of the railway — see sketch- 

 map at p. 14. 



The special object was to obtain specimens of 

 Neumann's hartebeest (Buhalis neumamii), males. As 

 already mentioned, we had each secured a female of this 

 species; but owing either to the extreme wariness of 

 this antelope or, perhaps in greater degree, to defici- 

 encies in hunting- craft, a pair of bulls were still lacking, 

 and these I was determined to obtain at Elmenteita. 

 At the moment, time was an essential element in the 

 enterprise, since homeward-bound steamers in those 

 days were few and often far between, and I had only 

 left myself some eight shooting-days to attain both this 

 object at Elmenteita, and, if possible, a second. The 

 latter, it may be added, was to obtain on the Athi 

 Plains, 100 miles to the eastward, examples of Coke's 

 hartebeest and the white-bearded gnu ; but such a 

 programme seemed altogether too ambitious within those 

 narrow limits of time. 



It was 3 a.m. when the coast-bound train, carrying 

 away my brother, left me standing alone, in pj^jamas, 

 on the rubble stones that serve for a platform at 



121 



