248 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AERICA chap. 



abundant at this time — " like water," as Lesiat himself ex- 

 pressed it, — and when that is the case they will not trouble 

 about anything else. The bush was white with the blossoms 

 of a black-barked tree with hooked thorns, common in this 

 part, and the air fragrant with their scent, giving the bees an 

 ample harvest ; and Lesiat assured me that they could tap 

 their bee-tubs twice a month. 



By the end of October Abdulla had still not returned, though 

 he had now been away thirty days instead of the twenty we 

 had agreed upon. I therefore determined, though rather re- 

 luctantly, to go on ahead as far as ]\Iount Nyiro and wait for 

 him there. I hoped I might find elephants in that district now, 

 and, at all events, it would be less monotonous than waiting 

 longer at El Bogoi, where it was troublesome even to procure 

 meat. So on the 30th, as there was still no news of the 

 caravan, I started, taking all but two men, whom I left in 

 charge, with my own personal baggage and a couple of donkeys 

 carrying food, leaving orders that Abdulla was to follow with 

 the whole outfit as soon as he arrived. 



Owing to there having been much rain in these parts during 

 the past wet season, there was more grass and tangled weeds 

 than when I went through the year before, making our progress 

 slow and arduous, so that it was noon on the second day when 

 we got near the Barasaloi. But what a difference on coming 

 within sight of it ! Instead of dry burning sand, a welcome 

 silver stream w^as visible through the green mimosas as we 

 approached ; a sight which made me thank God fervently. On 

 the march I had shot a Grant's gazelle for meat, picking out the 

 ram, for the sake of my men, on account of its much larger size ; 

 although, when shooting purely for my own larder, I generally 

 chose the tenderer venison of the doe — nor do I see that there 

 is anything unsportsmanlike in making such a selection in a 

 wild country where one has to live by one's rifle, and where 

 mine was the only one that ever took toll of the game. Not 

 but that I wanted meat myself, too, now ; but my plodding 



