SPORT ON THE GUASO MARU 



light from the blacks heralded this discovery, but, even handi- 

 capped as it was, this swift gazelle gave them a spirited run of 

 six hundred yards out in the open plain before they overtook 

 and finished it. The horns measured five and one -quarter 

 inches around the base of each; length of right, fifteen and 

 three-quarter inches; length of left, sixteen and one-quarter 

 inches: distance between tips, six and one-half inches. 



Early the next morning we broke camp and marched down 

 the banks of the Guaso Maru to its junction with the wide, 

 deep, and swift-running Guaso Nyiro, and then up its southern 

 bank for many miles. Farther to the east this volume of 

 water is said to pour into Lorian Swamp and find its outlet, 

 underground. On this march I was travelling several hundred 

 yards from and parallel with the line of porters, when my 

 gun-bearer pointed out a group of four does and one buck 

 gerenuk in the bush ahead. With slender necks stretched in 

 the air as they suspiciously watched our approach, the band 

 of fawn-colored does and rich claret-colored buck formed a 

 striking group at the edge of a thicket three hundred yards 

 away. At the first shot I succeeded in breaking the shoulder 

 of the buck, which presented a very slender target at that 

 distance. 



Abandoned by the startled does, the wounded gazelle limped 

 painfully away through the bushes, followed by the two of us 

 at our best pace. I managed to keep the crippled buck in 

 sight for about half a mile, and then was unfortunate enough 

 to stumble into a jackal's den hidden by the matted grass 

 underfoot. In a nasty fall I lost the lens from one part of my 

 field-glasses, and failing to find it after half an hour's search, 

 I continued through the bush in the general direction taken by 

 the gerenuk. A few hundred yards farther the keen eye of 

 my gun-bearer detected the lyre-shaped horns of the buck 

 as it lay hidden in the long grass awaiting the approach of 

 pursuit. Leaving Myzzio to watch from where he was crouch- 



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