Ill 
CAMPING A T MOUNT KENIA 
7 
afternoon, we began to make back in the direction of the 
stream—the excitement being over and a good deal of annoy¬ 
ance at having so bunglingly allowed my best elephant to escape 
taking its place—the distance, which had not been noticed in 
passing it that morning, seemed now very long. My men were 
probably suffering more from thirst even than myself, as they 
always eat quantities of meat, which tends to produce it, and 
never seem able to go far without wanting water. Coming 
then upon a herd of zebras (Burchell’s 1 and Grevy’s mixed), I 
shot two, one of each kind, and, cutting them open, we drank 
the water out of their stomachs. Zebras always have plenty, as 
they drink regularly, never being found very far from water ; and 
if you give the contents time to settle, it spouts out as clear as 
possible when an incision is made in the right place. We did 
not wait for this though. What we assuaged our thirst with 
was yellow, like weak tea with a strong flavour of vegetables ! 
But it was only grass after all ; and though we might have been 
looked on with disgust, imbibing the lukewarm fluid, by those 
who know not what thirst is, I certainly felt much refreshed 
by it, and trudged on more unconcernedly to the spruit and up 
it to camp past the swamps, arriving at dusk. A wash in a 
bucket of hot water, followed by several of cold, freshens one 
up to enjoy a hearty dinner, with such an appetite as ensures 
against indigestion even though turning in directly after. 
I was up again before daylight the next morning, feeling 
quite fresh again after a good sleep, and off before sunrise. I 
struck straight across country, leaving the stream to the left, 
for the place where we had left the spoor of the wounded 
elephant, and found it without difficulty, as we had marked the 
spot. I sent on two of the men to cut out the tusks of the 
one elephant that was really dead (they proved a little better 
than I had thought, though one was broken), while I and Square- 
face tried to take on the spoor again. However, after puzzling 
1 I use this name to distinguish the small species, though the variety here is not the 
typical Burchell’s zebra. 
