i8 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
is about the limit of the species ; there are none south of the 
Tana nor farther up the river on this side. 
The men (I had about a dozen with me) soon piled all the 
meat on to the loads they were already carrying, and we went 
on to the stream. This one, just at the part where we struck 
it, flows through lovely open meadows of soft green grass with 
only scattered trees. The formation here is limestone, generally 
close to the surface, and where it is so the grass grows short 
and soft ; and there having been plenty of rain that season it 
was then beautifully green. As we came out of the bush to 
the edge of the open a herd of oryx were standing in the 
meadow ; and as I had no meat for myself (besides which I 
wanted oryx heads) I shot one, which proved a nice fat heifer. 
We camped close by on the stream, within a hundred yards or 
so of the antelope. A delightful and most picturesque spot it 
was, with the delicious brook of clear, cold water—so especially 
precious in Equatorial Africa—rushing past. My tent was 
pitched under a spreading tree on its banks and but little 
above its surface, for it had hardly any bed and the gently 
sloping lawn came right down to the water. The men caught 
quantities of fish, and one kind—a sort of small perch—proved 
a very sweet little fellow when fried fresh out of the water. 
On some of these streams grows a plant which I take to be a 
kind of lily, of which the root when thoroughly boiled is a 
very good vegetable and a welcome addition to one’s menu in 
the bush. 
Next morning we started to move on to the next stream, 
where I knew there was abundance of game ; and as the 
“ boma ” at Laiju could from there be reached in one good 
day, it would be a suitable locality in which to shoot meat for 
the purpose of being carried in. But on the way, while it was 
yet early, as we were traversing the comparatively open bush 
that covers most of this particular part (though in places are 
dense thickets of considerable extent) of the nearly level 
country, we came suddenly in sight of a rhinoceros standing a 
