248 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
abundant at this time—“ like water,” as Lesiat himself ex¬ 
pressed it,—and when that is the case they will not trouble 
about anything else. The bush was white with the blossoms 
of a black-barked tree with hooked thorns, common in this 
part, and the air fragrant with their scent, giving the bees an 
ample harvest; and Lesiat assured me that they could tap 
their bee-tubs twice a month. 
By the end of October Abdulla had still not returned, though 
he had now been away thirty days instead of the twenty we 
had agreed upon. I therefore determined, though rather re¬ 
luctantly, to go on ahead as far as Mount Nyiro and wait for 
him there. I hoped I might find elephants in that district now, 
and, at all events, it would be less monotonous than waiting 
longer at El Bogoi, where it was troublesome even to procure 
meat. So on the 30th, as there was still no news of the 
caravan, I started, taking all but two men, whom I left in 
charge, with my own personal baggage and a couple of donkeys 
carrying food, leaving orders that Abdulla was to follow with 
the whole outfit as soon as he arrived. 
Owing to there having been much rain in these parts during 
the past wet season, there was more grass and tangled weeds 
than when I went through the year before, making our progress 
slow and arduous, so that it was noon on the second day when 
we got near the Barasaloi. But what a difference on coming 
within sight of it! Instead of dry burning sand, a welcome 
silver stream was visible through the green mimosas as we 
approached ; a sight which made me thank God fervently. On 
the march I had shot a Grant’s gazelle for meat, picking out the 
ram, for the sake of my men, on account of its much larger size ; 
although, when shooting purely for my own larder, I generally 
chose the tenderer venison of the doe—nor do I see that there 
is anything unsportsmanlike in making such a selection in a 
wild country where one has to live by one’s rifle, and where 
mine was the only one that ever took toll of the game. Not 
but that I wanted meat myself, too, now ; but my plodding 
