2 5 8 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
about this part I noticed a number of circles of large stones, 
about three yards in diameter, evidently arranged by human 
hands. These must have formed the ground-plan of some sort 
of rude huts. But who made them, or what they could have 
been doing in this desert, and why they should camp, even if 
travelling, where there was no water, is a puzzle. These circles 
of stones on bare ground are quite distinct from the heaps of 
broken lava so often seen in a volcanic country, and which, 
though they present the appearance of having been piled up 
artificially, can only be due to natural causes. These “ blows ” 
of rock (as I call them) I have always supposed to have been 
caused by huge bubbles in the molten lava; but whether I am 
right or not I leave to more scientific travellers to determine. 
For a while the going was easier ; but just at sundown we came 
above a quite impassable descent for loaded donkeys, so bivou¬ 
acked for the night in sight of a place where our pioneers told us 
water was to be had, some two miles ahead, in another valley. 
This had been a hard day, but we had seen the lake and 
hoped to reach it on the morrow. But it proved farther than 
it had appeared, for there was much broken ground between 
which had not been visible from the plateau, as we had 
looked over it to the water far out from the shore, and a great 
drop had yet to be made before we could reach its brink. 
During this day’s march I had seen some koodoos (the large 
species) among the hills and noticed a good deal of their spoor. 
Though I had shot many in South Africa in former years, these 
were the first I had actually seen myself in Central Africa, where 
they are, as far as my own experience goes, very uncommon. 
Few signs of other game were here ; an occasional zebra spoor 
and a little old rhino dung now and then was all the evidence I 
noticed. I observed a few of the rare glossy starlings of the 
beautiful crested species (Galeopsar salvadorii ), of which I had 
obtained a specimen near Murkeben on my former trip ; but even 
birds are scarce in this barren region. In the morning I got all 
the donkey-loads carried down the declivity by sunrise, and we 
