214 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



nasty wounds on my fingers, made by the lo-bore rifle, which, 

 with its ten drams of powder, kicked like a mule ; and, from 

 constant exposure to a scorching sun, the sores had festered 

 badly. As no one had come from Lesiat's, I sent Squareface, 

 on the 2 2nd, to look him up, while I went out to the open 

 country to try for meat. I saw some oryx, but they were wild ; 

 and I did not particularly care for zebra, so left them alone. 

 Then, after managing to miss some Grant's gazelle, I was on my 

 way back, having given up hopes of getting anything, when I 

 came upon some more and killed two with the next two shots, 

 for which success I was very thankful as I was quite out of 

 meat, and it was a long way to where game is to be found from 

 El Bogoi. 



Lesiat had not been found, and I now learned that he had 

 gone with his clan to camp in the " subugo " forest on the top 

 of the Lorogi Mountains. This seemed strange, and I came to 

 the conclusion that he was piqued at my going away to hunt 

 at El Gereh. But Baithai had now, with my permission, 

 pitched his camp not far from mine, and he was really about 

 the most sensible Ndorobo I had come across ; so I availed 

 myself of his services. One of his men, who came with him the 

 next morning, brought word that there were elephants in the 

 vicinity of a spring at the foot of the range towards the north ; 

 so we packed up at once and moved again to a small rock 

 pool, from whence I could hunt that district. This informant 

 described the length of a bull's spoor he had seen by laying 

 one arm on the ground and grasping it with the other hand a 

 third of the way up from the elbow to the shoulder, thus 

 indicating the measurement of the diameter of the footprint. 

 We had some trouble in getting through the old game-track 

 that led towards the water, for it was very much overgrown 

 with thorns ; and when we got there we found the hollow in 

 the rock almost dry, so that I had to send to another some 

 distance off for more. 



I was off, as usual, betimes on the 24th September, and 



