IV THE NDOROBO COUNTRY 93 



me) from coming on ; so I only stayed two or three days before 

 retracing my steps towards my camp at the last-named place. 



While at Nyiro I found an ostrich's nest, when out hunting 

 for meat, containing no less than twenty-eight eggs. It was 

 a great sell to find them hard sat upon. I shot the male bird, 

 but he was in poor plumage. On my return journey I had an 

 easy chance to shoot a magnificent bull eland, as he came 

 towards us, where we sat resting one day, attended by four 

 cows, and walked to within short range before finding out what 

 we were, the wind happening to be right. But as it was just 

 in the middle of our longest march, and we could not have 

 carried either the meat or his grand head, I refused to be 

 tempted to harm him, though my cook pleaded that his 

 department was out of fat. The game that I shot for meat 

 on this trip consisted of giraffe, zebra, oryx, and Grant's gazelle. 

 One male oryx which I shot had only one horn, giving it a 

 curious resemblance to the unicorn of heraldry. The other 

 must have been broken off at the base when it was young, as 

 the skin had grown right over the place. I kept the skull, 

 but unfortunately the scalp went bad, or it would have been 

 a curiosity when mounted. On getting near the Lorogi 

 mountains again I skirted along the foot of the range in hopes 

 of finding elephants, but there was no fresh spoor there then. 



Thus by the time I once more reached El Bogoi I had 

 been two months away from my Laiju boma without bagging 

 a single elephant — a not very hopeful look-out, truly, for 

 paying the expenses of m)^ rather large caravan, which were 

 running on month after month, while the goods I had brought 

 from the coast in the hope of trading some ivory to help 

 towards covering its heavy cost were lying idle, and there 

 seemed no chance of doing anything with them. However, I 

 had at length come to a more favourable turning in my long 

 lane, and during the ensuing month I had a fair amount of 

 luck among the elephant in the district around El Bogoi. Of 

 this huntinir I will now endeavour to give some account. 



