SPORT ON THE GUASO MARU 



are often so thickly plastered with this red mud that it is im- 

 possible to see the stripes at any distance. 



The next morning I spent in saving and preparing trophies, 

 while Fuguet started with a small force for several days' hunt- 

 ing up the Guaso Maru. Having completed my work by noon, 

 I started into the acacia-dotted country to the west of camp 

 in spite of the threat of a thunder-storm. We had not been 

 travelling half an hour before it broke upon us in all its fury, 

 and an almost solid sheet of warm water came down for a half- 

 hour. When the sun suddenly reappeared and cleared up the 

 atmosphere we were travelling across a plain, and through 

 the rapidly disappearing haze of mist I could see both oryx 

 and zebra in motion ahead of us. By a spirited sprint over the 

 short grass I managed to get a three-hundred-yard resting shot 

 at a galloping bull oryx which was bringing up the rear of 

 a herd of about thirty of these antelopes. Following the report 

 of the rifle I distinctly heard the impact of the bullet against 

 the side of the oryx. Then, in a few frantic plunges, the 

 wounded bull regained the herd, which disappeared en masse 

 among the acacias. By following in the wake of these animals 

 for half a mile I eventually sighted the crippled oryx travelling 

 along slowly by itself, and managed to keep it in view for a 

 mile. Having lost sight of the game in a clump of high, leaf- 

 less bushes, I was surprised to see it suddenly lurch to its feet 

 from the grass a few yards ahead, and disappear around a 

 small patch of thorn-scrub. I hurried around this, expecting 

 to see the or>'x staggering over the open plain beyond, but 

 almost fell over the totally spent animal, which was lying on 

 the bare ground only a few yards distant. 



When the Swahilis at last arrived on the scene, instead of 

 rushing in and bleeding the animal, Mohammedan fashion, they 

 cautiously circled about the alert but exhausted antelope with- 

 out showing much desire to close in on it. In the following 

 that day was one old Swahili porter, who, besides being very 



193 



MV$? f-A 



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