CHAPTER XVII 



THE ATHI PLAINS 

 (l) FLYING VISIT IN" SEPTEMBER 1904 



The rolling downs known as the Athi Plains are 

 familiar to all travellers on the Uganda railway, and 

 I need not stop to describe the spectacle of animal-life 

 that can be enjoyed from the carriage windows through- 

 out a distance of close upon 150 miles. Nowhere 

 else on earth can wild game be seen to such advantage, 

 in all the luxurv of a corridor-carriao^e. 



It was merely a flying visit that I paid to the Athi 

 in 1904, since only forty-eight hours remained available 

 for shooting before the homeward-bound train was due at 

 Athi River station ; and in that short time my object 

 was to secure specimens of Coke's hartebeest and of the 

 East- African blue wildebeest or white-bearded onu. 



Leaving Nairobi at 3 p.m. (September 17), and being 

 mounted on a riding-mule, we covered that evening 

 more than half of the nineteen miles that separate the 

 tin capital from Athi River. On this march many 

 hartebeests were seen, but all hopelessly wild, and the 

 half-day closed blank. 



Starting again before dawn, and riding in advance 

 of the safari, I descried in the half-light some 400 

 yards ahead an ostrich that certainly had not been in 

 sight five seconds before. This seemed inexplicable, 

 but on riding to the spot, there lay eleven huge eggs 

 scattered at random over a bare spot from which the 

 grass had been roughly scratched away. Four selected 

 specimens furnished excellent omelettes for my whole 



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