XVIII EL BOGOI TO MOMBASA 429 



them. Sometimes they would stampede after game we passed 

 near on the march, causing long delay and hard work before 

 they could be turned and brought back. 



Mnyamiri, who had preceded us, had, I afterwards learned, 

 lost several of his altogether, which had followed a rhino that 

 crossed their path. He was so unfortunate, too, as to get all 

 but one of the remainder drowned in the Tana, when attempting 

 to follow my plan of pulling them through the rapids with a 

 rope. We lost none, but ours gave us little rest when 

 bivouacking in the open, where there was no water and where 

 we could build no boma. They were constantly stampeding 

 through the camp in the night, through taking false alarm. 

 Then they would come and smell out my little store of precious 

 water, and upset it, and even eat my allowance of coarse cake 

 for my morning meal if left on the table. But, thanks to our 

 knowledge of the country, we never suffered, to speak of, even 

 this exceptionally dry season, for lack of water. Our march 

 was uneventful and free from any misfortunes, or even in- 

 conveniences except of a trivial character. 



One afternoon, when passing round the end of the Jambeni 

 range, and within a few hours of the first stream on the Tana 

 side, I was reluctantly compelled to shoot two rhinos within 

 half an hour, for which we had no use. It caused me real 

 pangs of sympathy to take their lives thus ; but each was so 

 close to our path that there was great risk of their causing a 

 stampede of my skittish donkeys, as well as among the porters, 

 though little actual danger to ourselves. For the wind was 

 from them to us, and, unless warned by scent, these blind 

 creatures are too stupid to get out of the way until the caravan 

 is right upon them, when they are likely to cause a scare. 

 Abdulla had experienced such a one on his journey with the 

 first batch of ivory from El Bogoi, with the result that many 

 tusks were thrown down on the stones and several more or less 

 damaged ; Mnyamiri, too, had lost some of his donkeys from 

 the same cause. The .303 bullet was as deadly in the case of 



