TANGANYIKA LIONS 267 



what he had found on his reconnoissance. "Not 

 lions," he said first, for he knew how eager we were. 

 "But plenty of other kinds of animals." He had 

 struck the vanguard of a big game migration at a 

 point not many miles away. Luckily the movement 

 seemed to be in our direction. 



Next morning we .broke camp early. Our own 

 excitement communicated itself to the natives. 

 Rarely had they packed so quickly before. We 

 worked our way down through the most beautiful 

 country I have ever seen: wide stretches of plains, 

 broken here and there by grotesque rock formations 

 that suggested a lunar landscape. The chief vege- 

 tation consisted of little forests of thick thorn growth. 

 Otherwise there was cover neither for us nor for any 

 other animal. 



Then we struck game. It was a sight that made 

 us hold our breath. Miles and miles of the wilde- 

 beest in herds that must have numbered into the tens 

 of thousands; Thompson's gazelle more nimierous 

 than I had ever seen them before; himdreds of 

 Grant's gazelle; giraffe — sixty-one in a single herd; 

 wart hogs, topi and kongoni; ostriches; innimierable 

 zebras, with an outer fringe of hyenas and jackals 

 numbering hundreds. There were many vultures 

 too, circling high overhead on tireless wings. 



It was a hunter's paradise. Game birds were 

 plentiful. The boys caught catfish running as high 



