192 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



It may here be of interest to remark, that the 

 giraffe is the only one of the great quadrupeds 

 of Africa that is absolutely voiceless. I have never 

 heard one make any sound whatever, and they 

 are, I believe, quite incapable of doing so. 

 Could they speak they would, I imagine, hurl 

 well-chosen and well-merited invectives on the 

 puny mortals who take glory in shooting death- 

 dealing bits of nickel into their colossal patchwork 

 hides. 



A few miles from Kampi ya Nyama Yangu 

 is a little fort, surely one of the most desolate 

 of all the defences of the Empire. Some day, 

 if the unruly peoples of the North break through 

 the all-insufficient barriers of Moyali and Marsabit, 

 this cluster of huts, hemmed in by barbed wire, 

 and with one or two black " askaris " (police) 

 as custodians, may play a minor part in Colonial 

 tragedy, but for the present it is more of a store 

 and half-way house between Meru and Marsabit 

 than a Lilliputian Gibraltar. It is commonly 

 known as " Archer's Post," because Mr. Geoffrey 

 Archer, the District Commissioner at Marsabit, 

 built it. Around here Grant's gazelles were very 

 numerous, and the morning we passed the post 

 I strayed off the path and secured a very good 

 head of the species " Notata." 



Wandering down the river, we one morning 

 met three or four Somalis tending camels. They 

 informed Elmi that lions had prowled around 

 them all night, and that they had just seen a 

 fine buffalo bull enter some sandy, bush-covered 

 ground away to the north. Elmi quickly picked 

 up the buffalo spoor, and before many minutes 

 had elapsed I had the great beast wounded. 

 He galloped off; but we soon came up with him 

 again, and after missing him badly with the '375 



