250 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



near now, so took a round over the hills, and shot a couple of 

 Grant's gazelle for meat. 



Ongata Xdamez, as this locality is called by the Ndorobos 

 of the adjoining districts, has the appearance of being a very 

 sporting country. It looked much drier now than when I was 

 here before, but the numerous well-worn paths leading to the 

 water, all freshly trampled with rhinoceros and other foot- 

 prints, suggested abundance of game, though it seemed to range 

 far afield in search of more succulent food than the withered 

 herbage (resembling scraggy heather covered with fine sharp 

 thorns) afforded. The rhinoceros " scrapes " were numerous 

 and full. What I mean by a " scrape " is a wide saucer-shaped 

 hole, which it is the peculiar habit of the black rhinoceros to 

 scoop out in the ground before depositing its droppings. The 

 same holes are used regularly, and other animals, such as zebras 

 and gazelles, often add their contributions, so that accumulations 

 of manure are formed. They made me think of " the old man 

 with the muck rake " — as in my childhood we used to call the 

 ancient rustic who, with barrow and shovel, collected in the 

 village road fertilising material for his allotment. Here he 

 might fill not only his barrow but a cart, often, at a single 

 " scrape." The thoughts of the potatoes and cabbages that old 

 fellow's garden would produce made one long for something 

 more than the dinner of bitter herbs that is one's contentment 

 here! In connection with these same "scrapes" I may point 

 out that the furrows it is this animal's habit to draw, sometimes 

 for several yards along the ground, from the spot where this 

 natural process has been gone through, are not made, as is 

 sometimes supposed, with its horn, but with its feet. 



The plateau between the Lorogi and Mathews ranges has 

 been much cut up by the valleys of the Seya and its tributaries, 

 of which the Barasaloi and the Suya are the principal. Their 

 main valleys are worn to a considerable depth and bordered by 

 much denuded hilly ground with a gravelly soil, from which 

 many conspicuous white quartz reefs crop up in parts. The 



