68 



THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE RUDOLF 



have been a siofiial of distress from someone who had lost his 

 way ; but, after half an hour of suspense, some dark figures 

 appeared in the gloom, carrying the cooking pots on their 

 heads, a sure sign that some of those pots were not empty. 

 Our men, led by Juma Jussuf, were returning, and were 

 received by us with loud cheers. They had followed the 

 channel of the river, but found it continued sandy and dry. 

 They then fell to digging, and for want of better tools had to 

 use their knives, bowls, and hands, but these served very 

 well in the loose sand, and at a depth of about five feet their 

 labours were crowned with success. There was not much 

 water oozing through the sand, but what there was was clear 

 and sweet. 



A few signal shots brought back the other and less fortu- 

 nate search parties, and then every one rushed with shovels 



to the newly found supply, to 

 dig different holes and drink 

 their fill. Each hole, however, 

 contained so little water that it 

 took the whole of the next day 

 to satisfy all the men and cattle. 

 I went off in the morning to 

 try and get a day's rations for 

 the men, with an eye specially to 

 rhinoceroses, for just as we were 

 camping on the evening before 

 we had seen one of these animals 

 with such an abnormally long 

 horn, that we had stared after 

 him as if he had been a ghost, 

 till he disappeared in the dis- 

 tance. My hunting zeal was thoroughly aroused, but for all 

 that I brought nothing back but a female giraiFe-antelope, 



GAZELLE VVALLERIl, FROM THE 'UNKNOWN 

 HORN OF AFRICA,' BY F. L. JAMES. 



