ELMENTEITA IN SEPTEMBER 127 



a reliable and intelligent hunter to boot, lie ought to 

 have known. My own impression of the animal seen, 

 however, but little accords with descriptions of the 

 heavily-built aoul, the only point of resemblance being 

 its habit of "bucking," or bounding, after the style of 

 impala or springbok, whenever it commenced to move. 

 There, for the present, I must leave it. 



Lake Elmenteita being salt, it was necessary to camp 

 at its extreme west end, where a lovely stream of sweet 

 water empties into it. This involved a long and heavy 

 grind under the fierce midday sun, during which I was 

 almost knocked over by a wart-hog. The brute must 

 have been sleeping so near the mouth of its den, that 

 when an askari walked over it the boar bolted, snorting 

 and grunting, in a cloud of dust. I was only a few yards 

 behind ; consequently the pig was all but into my legs 

 before either of us realised the situation. Luckily he 

 swerved aside in the nick of time, as I had nothing but a 

 stick in my hands. 



Once before, in the Transvaal, I had had an even 

 closer shave with a wart-hog. It was the Twelfth of 

 August, and we were holding that festival in the best 

 way available in Africa — francolins taking the place of 

 grouse — when in a patch of bush our dogs gave tongue 

 in a kev that denoted somethino; bio'o;er than " oTouse." 

 On hurrying up, we found a furious fight raging within 

 an ant-bear's cave. Poor " Flo " backed out bleeding — 

 she was unprepared for what she had found within that 

 hole ; but " Chops " (always there when biting had to 

 be done) stuck to it, I had just reached the spot, and 

 w^as stooping to look down the den, when a great blue- 

 grey beast filled the hollow, his ivory tusks gleaming like 

 a white collar round his neck. That was all I saw, for 

 in an instant he was on me — or rather where I had been ; 

 for I had jumped aside, pulling trigger at the same 

 moment, the gun-muzzle within six inches of the beast's 

 back. Through the cloud of smoke and dust I saw the 

 unknown beast pitch forward on his head and roll over, 

 dead. The No. 6 shot had shattered the vertebrae, one 



