HUNTING ON THE SIMBA KIYER 255 



gulf on the otlier, or a convolution corresponding with 

 a break. The one consistent feature is constant dis- 

 similarity. 



Beyond the rocky ranges to the north are splendid 

 stretches of mixed woodland and pasturage ; but these, 

 in March, are devoid of game. 



The heat at this period passed description, and the 

 discomfort was accentuated by torrential rain-bursts 

 daily, producing a plague of vicious-biting insects and 

 mosquitoes in millions. We, having mosquito-curtains 

 (mine were rigged here for the first time this year), 

 partially escaped that terror ; but not a man of our 

 safari could get a wink of sleep at nights, and general 

 discontent prevailed. Yama, moreover, went down 

 with fever ; and we suffered also from an irritating red 

 rash — said to be called " prickly heat " — though I 

 attributed it to a plague of small grey caterpillars with 

 arched backs that span webs like spiders and so lowered 

 themselves in shoals from the trees above. We habitu- 

 ally dined and lived al fresco beneath these trees, thus 

 becoming an easy prey to these noxious beasts, that 

 caused irritation wherever they crawled. Then we 

 began to dream once more of the cool moorlands of 

 Northumbria and its swirling salmon- streams ! 



Such were our miseries, that at eight one evening — to 

 avoid delay awaiting the thrice-a-week passenger- train — 

 we fled in a " C.G.," that is, a covered goods-van, an 

 iron box on wheels, and reached Yoi (altitude 1,830 ft). 

 at 9.30 next morning, after a terrible' night's jolting and 

 shunting^ on a freio-ht- train. The discomforts of that 

 nit!:ht were, moreover, accentuated when, as the train 

 started, our "boys" shoved into our truck the (very 

 high) rhino head, which in the darkness had nearly been 

 left behind on the platform. 



