I 
FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 
1 7 
bush to hunt in I might have had a splendid chance at 
them. 
We took a more direct route returning, and the first 
day slept at the most easterly of the head streams of the 
Mackenzie ; my intention being to go on to the second next 
day and camp there for a few days to shoot meat to carry 
back partially dried to the “ boma.” On our way the first 
day, when within about a couple of hours’ march of the 
stream, we passed through a beautiful open glade with short 
green grass. Here I had shot a couple of Grant’s gazelle 
on our way out, and seen zebra, oryx, and ostriches ; so I 
expected to find game, and hoped to shoot something for the 
men if not for myself, as I had been unable to get a shot at 
a rhino I had seen during the morning. 
As soon as we emerged from the bush we saw zebra ahead, 
so I made the men sit down while I went after them alone. I 
soon saw that they were not the common kind, by their wide 
ears, narrow stripes and much larger size, and became interested; 
for any animal new to me always delights me. But while I was 
stalking those ahead of me, another lot I had not seen trotted 
out of the bush to my right and ran past me. But halting for 
a moment to look at the (to them) strange creature, they gave 
me a good chance, and one received a bullet, which I saw at 
once by the way he galloped off would be fatal ; and following 
to where he had disappeared I found him lying down as if 
alive,'but in reality dead. I might have shot a second, but 
one was enough for our present needs. A beautiful creature 
he was ; far handsomer than Burchell’s and its allies as well as 
much bigger. This was my first acquaintance with Grevy’s 
magnificent zebra. I skinned his head for a trophy. I 
noticed too that the cry of this zebra (as I shall have 
occasion to notice more particularly later on) was quite 
different from the bark of all the small kinds (which are 
merely local varieties of Burchell’s), being a very hoarse kind 
of grunt varied by something approaching to a whistle. This 
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