l6o ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



with " fly " and other risks, some deaths are always to be 

 expected. I felt thankful that we were at last ready to 

 trek once more. It having now served our turn, we sent 

 our good ship adrift, knowing that it would be rotten before 

 we returned. 



We did not get off very early the next morning, having so 

 many pack-donkeys with new pads and " sogis " to load for the 

 first time ; but it did not matter, as the stage was only a shor 

 one to the first of several small rivers — tributaries of the Tana, 

 from the Jambeni hills — that have to be crossed. They are 

 all fordable, but the loads have mostly to be carried over by 

 the men, to avoid getting them wet. I found that I had, 

 luckily, calculated almost to a pound the quantity of food we 

 should require ; and, on starting from the river, all hands had 

 ten days' rations, while of the twenty donkeys seventeen carried 

 food. 



It takes a long time packing a lot of donkeys, and it is a 

 bad plan to start the caravan before they are all ready. I 

 found it took about an hour and a half from the time the men 

 were called till we could actually get off; so I used to blow 

 my cartridge-case^ at 3.30 or 4 A.M., according to the nature 

 of the country. Under the equator, the dawn first begins per- 

 ceptibly about 5, and if the going was fairly passable I used to 

 start then ; but in very rough and bushy ground a little more 

 light is necessary, in which case 5.30 is early enough. With 

 a morning moon, and in decent ground or on a path, one may 

 start at any hour. It is most important to get off as early as 

 possible ; for in the cool of the morning the men do not feel 

 the work, while after i i o'clock the sun gets very powerful, 

 and every half-hour then tells on them more than an extra 

 hour before sunrise. 



I had intended taking a path used by Wakamba hunting 



1 An empty cartridge-case (I found a long .450 the best) is the most handy and 

 serviceable call you can use in the " bara," whether to arouse the camp in the morning 

 or to signal to your gun-bearers in the bush. It is easily carried, can be replaced if lost, 

 may be heard a long way, and does not alarm game. 



