UNKNOWN BEAST ON THE MAGADI RAILWAY 58 
NOTES 
NOTES ON THE UNKNOWN BEAST SEEN ON THE 
MAGADI RAILWAY 
By G. W. Hickes. 
On March 8, 1918, I was travelling alone on our motor- 
trolley along the Magadi Railway. At about 9 a.m., when I 
was at Mile 16, I saw, about fifty yards ahead of me, what 
I took to be a hyena. 
It was almost on the line when I first saw it and at that 
time it had already seen me and was making off at a right - 
angle to the line — which is straight at this point. 
I wondered at seeing a hyena out so late in the morning, 
and looked at it with interest, especially as, owing to the 
speed I was travelling (about twenty-five miles per hour) I 
should pass so close to it before it had time to get away. 
There had been heavy rain the night before but at the 
time I saw the animal it was clearing up, although the sun was 
not shining. 
The country is quite open, with grass about eighteen 
inches high, and the ground is ‘ black cotton,’ with many 
projecting whinstone boulders. 
As I got closer to the animal I saw it was not a hyena. 
At first I saw it nearly broadside on : it then looked about as 
high as a lion. In colour it was tawny — about like a black- 
maned lion — with very shaggy long hair. It was short and 
thick-set in the body, with high withers, and had a short neck 
and stumpy nose. 
It did not turn round to look at me, but loped off — running 
with its fore-legs and with both hind legs rising at the same 
time. 
As I got alongside it, it was about forty or fifty yards 
away, and I noticed it was very broad across its rump, had 
very short ears, and had no tail that I could see. 
As its hind legs came out of the grass I noticed the legs 
were very shaggy right down to the feet, and that the feet 
seemed large and were, of course, covered with black mud. 
