CHAPTER XI 



FROM EL BOGOI TO LAKE RUDOLPH 



A trying march — A Swahili yarn — Shoot an uncommon gazelle — The "high veldt" 

 — A jackal claims relationship — A curious episode — Thomson's gazelle and 

 Jackson's hartebeeste — My "lucky camp" — A new branch of obstetrics — A 

 land flowing with honey — My ivory store- — A welcome sight — Disturbing a 

 siesta — A gardener's opportunity — Death of a favourite — A photographer's 

 disguise — Our route to Lake Rudolph — A providential escape. 



On 9th October I climbed the range, accompanied by Baithai 

 and two Xdorobo youths, and of course my usual little party 

 of nine or ten men carrying my hunting equipment. We had 

 a terribly trying march. Baithai took us straight up the 

 almost precipitous mountain side, where there was no track of 

 any sort. After struggling through dense thickets at the base, 

 we found the lower part of the ascent covered with a thick low 

 growth of brushwood, very disagreeable to get through, and 

 above that the dry grass was as slippery as ice. This on such 

 an excessively steep gradient made the long climb a most 

 arduous and trying one in the broiling heat. When, at last, 

 the pleasant cool shade of the forest was reached on the 

 summit, the relief was unspeakable, after the fierce glare of the 

 burning sun on the steep hillside to which we had been 

 exposed all the morning while laboriously mounting step by 

 step some 3000 feet. Once on the top, our hard work was 

 over. We could walk with comfort among the stems of tall 

 trees, there being but little undergrowth except in the valleys, 

 and had a welcome rest by a little stream (the head of El 



