CHAP. XI FROM EL BOGOI TO LAKE RUDOLPH 241 



On coming over the next rise no hartebeeste were visible ; 

 but soon I spied my terrier and two jackals, standing not far 

 apart. I feared that Pice, having overcome his first terror, 

 had got interested in these, and given up the pursuit of the 

 antelope ; but, on getting near, I found it lying down close to 

 him. He sometimes lay down, and then would run round to 

 have a look at his quarry, the jackals waiting a little way off 

 (evidently for the buck to succumb), while vultures hovered over 

 the poor brute, in expectation of the approaching end. It was 

 altogether a curious episode, and, except that I was sorry for 

 the sufferings of the hartebeeste, almost worth making an in- 

 different shot to witness. However, calling up the men, we 

 soon caught and despatched it, though it was just on the point 

 of death. I had left a man to skin and carry in the first buck, 

 which was near our camp, and this one I protected from 

 vultures with a white handkerchief fluttering in the breeze, 

 according to my usual custom, and left till our return. 



As we got farther away from the hills the country became 

 drier and drier, showing how very local are the rains, and there 

 was hardly any game, it being attracted by green grass near 

 the forest edge. The lake I found to be a sheet of stinking, 

 greenish water, of no great size, very salt and quite undrink- 

 able. Its surface, and some little islets of whitish rock, were 

 covered with ducks and other water-fowl — a most interesting 

 sight, reminding one of Naivasha on a small scale. On our 

 way back we picked up the hartebeeste meat. In this district 

 I also found Thomson's gazelle, one of which I shot, for 

 purposes of identification, and brought the skin and skull to 

 England. This is the only point on the whole of my journeys 

 between Mombasa and the north end of Rudolph where this 

 gazelle and Jackson's hartebeeste are met with, and hence 

 appears to be the extreme northern limit of their range. 

 Thus the Lorogi Mountains here form a distinct line of 

 demarkation in the geographical distribution of certain species. 



I saw no Grevy's zebra here, but large herds of one of the 



R 



