2 5 0 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
near now, so took a round over the hills, and shot a couple of 
Grant’s gazelle for meat. 
Ongata Ndamez, as this locality is called by the Ndorobos 
of the adjoining districts, has the appearance of being a very 
sporting country. It looked much drier now than when I was 
here before, but the numerous well-worn paths leading to the 
water, all freshly trampled with rhinoceros and other foot¬ 
prints, suggested abundance of game, though it seemed to range 
far afield in search of more succulent food than the withered 
herbage (resembling scraggy heather covered with fine sharp 
thorns) afforded. The rhinoceros “ scrapes ” were numerous 
and full. What I mean by a “ scrape ” is a wide saucer-shaped 
hole, which it is the peculiar habit of the black rhinoceros to 
scoop out in the ground before depositing its droppings. The 
same holes are used regularly, and other animals, such as zebras 
and gazelles, often add their contributions, so that accumulations 
of manure are formed. They made me think of “ the old man 
with the muck rake ”—as in my childhood we used to call the 
ancient rustic who, with barrow and shovel, collected in the 
village road fertilising material for his allotment. Here he 
might fill not only his barrow but a cart, often, at a single 
“scrape.” The thoughts of the potatoes and cabbages that old 
fellow’s garden would produce made one long for something 
more than the dinner of bitter herbs that is one’s contentment 
here! In connection with these same “scrapes” I may point 
out that the furrows it is this animal’s habit to draw, sometimes 
for several yards along the ground, from the spot where this 
natural process has been gone through, are not made, as is 
sometimes supposed, with its horn, but with its feet. 
The plateau between the Lorogi and Mathews ranges has 
been much cut up by the valleys of the Seya and its tributaries, 
of which the Barasaloi and the Suya are the principal. Their 
main valleys are worn to a considerable depth and bordered by 
much denuded hilly ground with a gravelly soil, from which 
many conspicuous white quartz reefs crop up in parts. The 
