II 
ON THE JAMBENI RANGE 
49 
suffering from a touch of fever, brought on by the pain and 
consequent restless nights they caused me. On the way back 
to camp that day I shot another impala in the curious striped 
bush previously described. One of these bucks standing among 
the red-barked mimosa stems was very difficult to make out, 
so exactly did its colour match with these .trees. The impalas 
in this part of Africa seem to have much wider-spreading horns 
than those of the south. They are nowhere anything like so 
numerous as they used to be in the parts of South-Eastern 
Africa I hunted in years ago. Along the Umbuluzi, lotver 
Komati, Crocodile and Sabi rivers they were formerly to be 
met with in immense herds; but in Central Africa the herds are 
always comparatively small and these much fewer and farther 
between, though here they are very much freer from molesta¬ 
tion. On the strength of the news that had been brought me 
as to the direction the elephants had retreated in, I took a 
long round next day through the low country in hopes of 
cutting their spoor ; but the report proved to be false, so I had 
my tramp for nothing except that I shot another impala for 
the benefit of some natives who were with me. 
Though badly in want of a rest—both for the sake of my 
feet and general health—as a Mthara native had come to 
report elephants to be in another patch of forest, beyond the one 
where I had killed mine, and slept in camp on purpose to take 
me there, I made a very early start with him the next morning 
to look for them. The place was very similar to the other, 
though of less extent ; with, like it, a swamp in it. The 
elephants were not there though ; but the spoor of the day 
before showed our guide had not deceived us. We went a 
long way farther in search of them, leaving the next district 
(called Janjai) to our left, and got close to the foot-hills of 
Kenia. We found many recent spoors and at last some of 
the night before, but too late in the day to be worth following 
at such a distance from camp, as it was in open bush and they 
were therefore likely to lead us a long chase. However, I had 
E 
