CHAPTER VIII 
EXCURSIONS FROM EL BOGOI 
Comfortable quarters—Among old Ndorobo friends—A favourite elephant haunt 
—Bag a giraffe—Lost in the bush—A deceitful guide—A grateful recompense 
—Native jealousy—Travelling elephants—A pair of .lovers — Camp by the 
Seya River—The Mathews range—Kill five elephants—A malarious climate— 
Up the Barasaloi River—A marvellous sight—Abundance of elephants—An 
exciting hunt—A narrow escape—A good day’s work. 
I FELT in great spirits at getting back to my old, jolly camp 
in this most interesting country, and very hopeful of success 
among the elephants again this year. We had passed, on our 
way, two or three pretty recent trails of herds, though we saw 
no signs of feeding. The vegetation was, as usual here, quite 
green, and the weather evidently very wet on the mountains. 
My camp was much overgrown ; the shade tree, with its 
canopy of creepers, more verdant than ever ; and the skeleton 
of my old shed was covered with beans in pod, which had 
sprung up where some, which we had stored in it, had been 
spilt, and crept all over its framework. I soon had the place 
cleaned up, and made things comfortable in this favourite 
camp of mine; and Shebane laid my table, decorated with a 
bowl of flowers picked from the brooklet’s banks, in the cool 
and pleasant bower that formed my dining-room. I decided 
to send the bulk of my caravan, under Abdulla, back to 
Mthara (near Kenia) for more food, while I hunted the district ; 
but they were to halt one day here, first, to rest their feet and 
run up a new shed and make a boma for the donkeys, which 
