SECOND EXPEDITION TO EAST AFRICA 177 



There was a gun in the corner of the room ; but, 

 when one of the men moved towards the gun, 

 the leopard attacked him and clawed him badly. 

 When the other man went to the rescue he also 

 was mauled. Eventually, with great difficulty, 

 they opened the door, and the leopard departed, 

 having injured both the men, while they had 

 been unable to retaliate. Both the men, however, 

 escaped blood-poisoning, and were recovering 

 from their injuries. 



From Nyeri we marched along the northern 

 slopes of Kenia to the Station of Meru on the 

 north-east of the mountain. The road was said 

 to have been closed for some time owing to attacks 

 upon travellers by man-eating lions, but it was 

 again in use when we made our journey. We 

 passed through some beautifully watered country, 

 with clear streams running down from the 

 mountain, and had fine views of the glacier on 

 the summit of Kenia; but we neither saw nor 

 heard anything of lions along the road. There was, 

 in fact, very little game of any kind, as we were 

 high up on the slopes of the mountain ; and, to 

 break the monotony of the march, we deviated 

 from the route and made our way northwards 

 into the plain to do a little shooting. We shot 

 Baisa Oryx, which takes the place of the Grantii 

 and Thomsonii gazelles in this part of the country, 

 and I think I also shot a good impala and a good 

 specimen of the hunting-dog at this time, but am 

 not quite sure about this. One of the oryx I 

 shot, when lying crippled on the ground, struck 

 out viciously with his horns, the blow being 

 delivered by a rapid backward sweep of the head 



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