SECOND EXPEDITION TO EAST AFRICA 179 



on the plain here ; and, wishing to obtain a better 

 head than I had yet got, I paid the prescribed 

 fee which authorised me to shoot a third buck. 

 I also paid the prescribed fee of £^ which secured 

 for me the permission to shoot a second buffalo. 

 Thinking that the oryx would keep until our 

 return, I did not hunt them at this time, and 

 when we returned from the Lorian swamp hardly 

 any were left on the plain, the others having all 

 migrated. 



From this point on the route our journey 

 became a difficult and adventurous one. For 

 four marches down the Guaso Nyiro River there 

 were a few scattered kraals, but no food or 

 supplies of any kind could be obtained from the 

 natives. The remaining eight marches to the 

 Lorian swamp lay through uninhabited waste. 

 We were warned that we might possibly meet 

 raiding parties of Somalis from Jubaland, but 

 in this country we did not see a single human 

 being. Special arrangements for food had there- 

 fore to be made. One day's food for eighty- 

 two porters was 123 lbs. of beans, and the bags 

 of beans which we purchased from Indian traders 

 at Meru and other places, and which were supposed 

 to contain 60 lbs. in each bag, rarely contained 

 more than 50 lbs., and very often less. A bag of 

 beans was, however, usually one porter's load. 

 By great good fortune we met Mr. Archer, C.I.E., 

 who was then the District Officer at Marsobit; 

 and he allowed us to take all the bags of beans 

 we could carry from the Government Stores at 

 the river-crossing, on the understanding that 

 the bags taken would be replaced by bags sent 



