410 
EBURRU STEAM-JETS 
they rose in flight. I shot one, it dropped into the stream, and 
commenced to float away, and, as the river was very low, I 
waded in to recover it, and was within about twenty feet of it, 
when a crocodile’s head came up and absorbed the bird. I 
then hastily retreated to the bank. Now, why did not the 
crocodile attack the ducks when they were unconcernedly 
swimming about, a few yards away ? In some parts of India, 
natives catch duck by floating down stream to where they 
are swimming, and pull them under water by the legs ; the 
fowler has his head above water, but under a calabash, per- 
forated with holes, through which he can see and breathe. If 
a human being can snipe duck in this way a crocodile certainly 
could. 
EBURRU STEAM-JETS 
By J. H. Hervey Pirie, M.D. 
Recently, in company with Dr. Thomson, I had an oppor- 
tunity of visiting Eburru, to see the steam-jets of this region. 
Many are visible from the train on the hillside south of the 
station, especially in the early morning, when the steam 
condenses freely in the cool air, and in the railway cutting a 
few hundred yards east of the station, you may even get a 
puff of steam in the carriage window as you pass by. 
A plan of the district made by the Survey Department in 
1915 shows some 60 jets within the area round the station 
reserved as a township site ; 107 in the 1500 acres lying south 
and east of this ; and 116 in the smaller area lying to the south 
and west. All these are within the area lying between the 
railway and the crest of the ridge of hill to the south. On the 
far side of this ridge, I understand, the jets are even more 
numerous, and some of larger size. A settler there has 
harnessed some of them, condensing the steam by allowing 
it to impinge on metal sheets, thus obtaining a constant supply 
of water for stock and household uses. Unfortunately we 
had not time to visit the far side of the range. 
Of the jets near the station, many are quite tiny, issuing 
