THE ATHI PLAINS 



205 



alone prevented our securing liim tliat night, and when 

 we did recover the trophy at daybreak — guided thereto by 

 circling marabous — the meat had already been devoured 

 by a lion, whose pugs were distinct on the soft soil. 

 Not a morsel remained to reward the thirty or forty 

 vultures that sat around. Two hyenas watched their 

 own interests from a high ridge beyond. 



Before leaving camp on this, my last morning, I had 



CLEARED our, 



sent out scouts in three directions to spy for wildebeest, 

 with instructions to report to me here (by the dead 

 hartebeest) at the earliest possible moment. While we 

 were yet busy with the kongoni, one of these men 

 arrived with the news that a herd of twenty or thirty 

 " Nyumbo " (wildebeest) were grazing one hour s walk to 

 the southward. Mounting the mule, I set off at once in 

 the direction indicated. This was the first time I had 

 ridden during this whole expedition, and, on coming 

 among game, I at once noticed (1) that game took less 

 notice of a mounted man than of a hunter on foot, 

 and (2) that distance-judgment was simpler and more 



