BRITISH EAST AFRICA 177 



Government authorities have so wisely created 

 for the preservation of the intensely interesting 

 fauna of this part of the Dark Continent. We 

 were accordingly greatly pleased when one fine 

 morning in August having got our " safari " 

 (hunting expedition) together, we rode out of 

 Nairobi with our faces set towards Donyo Sabuk 

 —the great mountain mass which towers skywards 

 to the north of Nairobi. We had with us 

 seventy " pagazis," or porters, to carry our 

 loads; nine Somali servants, syces, " askaris " 

 (or native police), and a certain number of 

 " totos " or " picannins," employed by the 

 porters to carry their tents and blankets. All 

 told we numbered over ninety, and great was 

 the noise and shouting as we marched off on 

 the Fort Hall road. 



Our first shoot was at N'Durugu, nearly 

 halfway between Nairobi and Fort Hall, the 

 capital of the Kenya Province. Here we shot 

 " kongoni " or Coke's hartebeeste, and impala. 

 The former animals were exceedingly numerous 

 there, as indeed they are over a great part of 

 the East African Protectorate. They are un- 

 gainly-looking beasts, but, despite their awk- 

 ward, lumbering gallop, they are capable of 

 putting a very good distance between pursuer 

 and pursued in an amazingly short space of time. 

 We found " kongoni," in fact, so plentiful as to 

 constitute a veritable nuisance. Time after 

 time in East Africa, when we were stalking some 

 more highly-prized trophy than an ugly harte- 

 beeste head, a great herd of these animals would 

 break cover and carry away all other game 

 with them. 



From N'Durugu we travelled along the Thika 

 River to Fort Hall, and thence to Embu, a 



