CHAPTER XIX 



ON THE STONY ATHI 

 JANUARY — FEBRUAEY 1906 



Not having heard a single Hon by night since the 

 18th, on January 23 we shifted camp to the Stony 

 Athi. While the safari held the line of the rivers, 



W and I crossed over by the Lukenia Heights, 



where in a steep rocky glen we observed a hyena 

 slinking away. Having by a flank stalk reached the 

 exact spot, and seeing nothing of the beast, I feared he 

 had slipped away (though how I could not see), and was 

 searching the ground minutely, when he jumped from a 

 wet drain in the hollow below and galloped up the 

 opposite slope, distended with meat to double his proper 

 breadth. After over-shooting; with the rio;ht, I g-ot him 

 stone-dead with the left, going for all he was worth, at 

 100 yards. This was a male in his prime, and the best 

 I have seen, being perfect in both teeth and fur, the 

 latter heavily spotted, clean and without the least touch 

 of- mange. Length, taped along back, 57^ ins.; 

 weight, full as he was (we coald barely lift him to pose 

 for his photo, see p. 232), reckoned at nearly 200 lbs. ; 

 irides dark ; inside of mouth, lips and tongue, livid blue 

 or lavender colour. 



Stony Athi, January 24. — Lions roaring splendidly 

 near camp at 4 a.m., so we set out at dawn, with two 

 Wakamba savages as guides, and tried a great extent of 

 likely cover — wood, scrub and reed-beds along the river 

 — but without seeing anything bigger than a bushbuck. 



I shot a zebra for meat, a photo of which (showing 



225 Q 



