ON SOME UNIDENTIFIED BEASTS 
51 
of the launch. It did not succeed, and Sir Clement (who was 
under the awning aft) told me that he distinctly saw it some 
little distance behind the boat ; only its head visible, it was of 
a roundish shape and dark in colour. He was quite certain that 
it was not a crocodile. 
About three years ago a strange story was published in a 
book called ‘ In Closed Territory,’ by E. B. Bronson (pp. 181-3). 1 
Mr. Bronson was an American sportsman, and when shooting 
in the country west of Sotik he met a hunter named Jordan 
who described an encounter with a terrible monster — which he 
called the Dingonek — on the Gori Biver, which runs into Lake 
Victoria on the eastern shore near the Anglo-German boundary. 
This beast is described as fourteen to fifteen feet long, head 
as big as a lioness but shaped and marked as a leopard, two 
long white fangs sticking down straight out of his upper jaw, 
scaled like an armadillo, back broad as a hippo, spotted like 
a leopard, and a broad, fine tail ; the imprints of its feet were 
as large as that of a hippo but clawed like a reptile. 
At the time this story appeared it was considered that 
this was probably a traveller’s tale, told to entertain a new- 
comer, but I have since met a man who a few years back was 
wandering about the Mara Biver or Ngare Dubash which rises 
in Sotik, crosses the Anglo-German boundary, and runs into 
Lake Victoria in German territory. He emphatically asserts 
that he saw this beast. He was at the time about where the 
Mara Biver crosses the frontier, and the river was in high flood. 
The beast came floating down the river on a big log, and he 
estimated its length at about sixteen feet, but could not be 
certain of the length as its tail was in the water. He describes 
it as spotted like a leopard, covered with scales, and having 
a head like an otter ; he did not see the long fangs described 
by Mr. Jordan. He fired at it and hit it ; it slid off the log 
into the water and was not seen again. 
I made inquiries of the District Commissioner, Kisii, 
Mr. Crampton, and he wrote recently and said he had visited 
the Amala Biver and made inquiries from the Masai in the 
neighbourhood, and they knew of the beast, which they called 
Ol-umaina, and described it as follows : About fifteen feet 
1 McClurg & Co., Chicago. 
