A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



good waterbuck head. But in two hours of hunting along 

 the banks I saw only numerous female waterbuck, a troop 

 of baboons, and a solitary rhino drinking on the opposite 

 shore of the stream. Then I walked southward through dense 

 bush until I reached the level, grassy plains beyond, when I 

 climbed a tall dead acacia to look over the country with the 

 glasses. 



Numerous zebra were grazing in every direction with the 

 exception of the east, where large herds of native cattle were 

 being driven southward enveloped in clouds of red dust. The 

 distant lowing of these black-and-white herds was wafted to 

 us by the light morning breeze, and was continually interrupted 

 by the barking challenge of the zebra about us. As we needed 

 meat for the men, I determined to shoot a zebra, and, sheltered 

 by an ant-hill, crawded to within one hundred and fifty yards 

 of a herd of twenty of these animals. Selecting a large stallion 

 to one side of the herd, I took careful aim and fired, only to 

 see it gallop away with the remainder of the herd. I foUow^ed 

 in their wake for several hundred yards, until they stopped 

 about two hundred yards distant, and when the stallion trotted 

 out to one side to gain a better view of the pursuer it dropped 

 in its tracks, shot through the heart. 



Leaving the three Swahilis to skin, cut up and carry the meat 

 of the zebra to camp, I continued the hunt, accompanied by 

 three Samburu, who had insisted on starting with us in the 

 morning. Several hours later I was leading the way along a 

 narrow game trail, which wound through a strip of tropical 

 jungle bordering a small stream, when I almost trod upon what 

 I judged w^as a large poisonous puff-adder. This repulsive 

 reptile, which was about to strike, was about four feet long, 

 very thick, and of the color of an unhealthy toad. When I 

 attempted to point it out to the savages they leaned on their 

 spears, and grinned and laughed at the jokes they thought the 

 white man was telling them in his foreign tongue. Suddenly 



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