148 



ALONG LAKE RUDOLF 



the reason for such an early halt. Through the glass we saw 

 no less than four herds of elephants in the distance, the largest 

 of which contained some twenty-five or thirty animals. 



The sky was much overcast all day, and we could see rain 

 falling on the north and north-east. In the morning a strong 

 breeze blew from land to sea, and in the afternoon from sea to 

 land. One of the men who had gone to the dead elephant to 

 fetch some meat was missing in the evening, and to guide him 

 to camp we lit a big fire. 



Saturday, March 31. — We marched for three and a half 

 hours along the flat beach, which sloped up towards the east. 

 The low steep ridge, which had so long shut in the horizon on 

 the east, ended here, and instead of it we caught sight for 

 the first time of the peaks of a distant chain of mountains 

 called the Trr or Tarr range, on the west of which, according 

 to our guide, was situated the Basso Ebor, the second lake of 

 which we were in quest. 



During this march the man we had missed the day before 

 turned up. He had lost his way, and, it appeared, his head 

 too, for he could easily have got back to the beach. In the 

 deep sand at the edge of the water we came upon immense 

 quantities of two kinds of mussels, the first we had seen. 



Towards sunset some two or three hundred buffaloes of 

 the Bos caffer oequinoctialis variety came down to drink, but, 

 as there was no shelter, it was impossible to stalk them. I got 

 a shot at them from a distance as they galloped away huddled 

 closely together, and was lucky enough to wound a cow 

 mortally. This kind of buffalo is pretty weU covered with hair, 

 whilst the true Bos caffer has scarcely any. We also saw some 

 zebras here. 



Sunday, April 1. — Marched for five and a half hours along 

 the flat sandy beach. We saw no seaweed yesterday or to-day, 

 and it was probably for this reason that we came upon no 



