258 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



about this part I noticed a number of circles of large stones, 

 about three yards in diameter, evidently arranged by human 

 hands. These must have formed the ground-plan of some sort 

 of rude huts. But who made them, or what they could have 

 been doing in this desert, and why they should camp, even if 

 travelling, where there was no water, is a puzzle. These circles 

 of stones on bare ground are quite distinct from the heaps of 

 broken lava so often seen in a volcanic country, and which, 

 though they present the appearance of having been piled up 

 artificially, can only be due to natural causes. These " blows " 

 of rock (as I call them) I have always supposed to have been 

 caused by huge bubbles in the molten lava ; but whether I am 

 right or not I leave to more scientific travellers to determine. 

 For a while the going was easier ; but just at sundown we came 

 above a quite impassable descent for loaded donkeys, so bivou- 

 acked for the night in sight of a place where our pioneers told us 

 water was to be had, some two miles ahead, in another valley. 

 This had been a hard day, but we had seen the lake and 

 hoped to reach it on the morrow. But it proved farther than 

 it had appeared, for there was much broken ground between 

 which had not been visible from the plateau, as we had 

 looked over it to the water far out from the shore, and a great 

 drop had yet to be made before we could reach its brink. 

 During this day's march I had seen some koodoos (the large 

 species) among the hills and noticed a good deal of their spoor. 

 Though I had shot many in South Africa in former years, these 

 were the first I had actually seen myself in Central Africa, where 

 they are, as far as my own experience goes, very uncommon. 

 Few signs of other game were here ; an occasional zebra spoor 

 and a little old rhino dung now and then was all the evidence I 

 noticed. I observed a few of the rare glossy starlings of the 

 beautiful crested species {Galcopsar salvadorii), of which I had 

 obtained a specimen near Murkeben on my former trip ; but even 

 birds are scarce in this barren region. In the morning I got all 

 the donkey-loads carried down the declivity by sunrise, and we 



