274 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chai-. 



It was not till the third morning after leaving its shores, 

 that, with delight, we found ourselves once more beside the 

 ample bosom of our dear old friend. We were now on the 

 large bay of Alia or Lalia. The water here is very shallow for 

 a long distance out, and there is much water-grass growing in 

 it. We camped early, under some bushy thorn-trees giving 

 real shade, a by no means common feature of the trees in this 

 country, but particularly grateful in the torrid heat. The 

 opportunity of resting in comfort was especially welcome, as I 

 had got a touch of fever from the trying ordeal of seeing the 

 donkeys watered the day before. Opposite was another fishing 

 village on a small island, the natives from which soon brought 

 quantities of fish for sale. I sent word that I should like some 

 freshly caught, and some of them went out and speared a lot in 

 quite a short time. There were some Reshiat people, too, here, 

 who had come for the sake of the fish on account of famine in 

 their own country. All are excessively black. 



I saw a good deal of game ; and, in addition to the usual 

 oryx and grantii, now, for the first time, " topi." I shot one of 

 the latter in the afternoon, but had to fetch Pice to assist in its 

 capture, and it gave us a good chase before it was done, not- 

 withstanding that I had hit it right in the shoulder, though an 

 inch or two low if anything. It seemed wonderful how it could 

 live and run after such a shot. This was the first antelope of 

 the kind I had ever shot, though I had seen some years before 

 in Sotike (a district in the direction of the Victoria Nyanza, but 

 south of the ordinary route to that lake). They remind one 

 strongly of the bastard hartebeeste (Damaliscus hmatus) of the 

 south. I am not sure whether this variety is identical with the 

 " topi " of the east coast, or whether, as I think very likely, it is 

 an intermediate form between that and the " korrigum " of the 

 west, in the same way that the oryx agrees entirely with 

 neither beisa nor callotis.^ It was here, too, that I noticed 



^ Probably the ' ' topi," ' ' korrigum, " and ' ' tiang " are all three mere local varieties of 

 one species. 



