XI 
FROM EL BO GO I TO LAKE RUDOLPH 
253 
I saw the skeletons of some they had killed. They hunt in 
large parties, using bows and poisoned arrows and wound a 
great many besides what they kill. I could find none, though 
I tried in all directions except on the mountain-top. That 
was covered with heavy clouds during the whole time I was in 
its neighbourhood, for the weather was very stormy. I was 
told there were elephants in the “ subugo ” forest on the summit, 
but as it was always raining there I did not attempt to climb 
the mountain. It was bad enough below, the wind rushing 
down with terrific force on to a camp I had for a day or two 
close under the western face, where it is very precipitous, 
seeming to come straight down the cliffs like a waterfall. 
Nyiro is neither a peak nor a range ; but rather a block, 
with apparently a considerable extent of mountain forest on its 
top. Owing to its isolation, surrounded by waterless plains 
and cut off by wide uninhabited tracts from other districts, the 
cattle plague which devastated East Central Africa several 
years ago seems not to have reached these islands in the 
desert. I gathered that the Sambur natives owned considerable 
herds of cattle, though they keep them out of sight in the 
ravines of the mountain. I noticed, too, the spoor of small 
herds of buffalo once or twice, a rare sight now in Central 
Africa. 
Though I got tired of waiting here so long and met with 
no elephants to reward my exertions in examining the 
neighbourhood, it was as pleasant a place to be delayed in as 
any on the route : a fine open country, a good stream of clear, 
cold water, game enough within easy reach to keep the larder 
supplied, and a healthy climate. One day I shot an ostrich, but, 
though a cock, its plumes were damaged. There were a good 
many about, and once or twice I saw large flocks of chicks. 
Something must prey on these, or ostriches would be much 
more numerous than they are. When the skin of my ostrich 
was dry, I made an attempt to utilise it as a disguise (a la 
Bushman) for the purpose of photographing living Grant’s gazelle. 
