XII 
LAKE RUDOLPH 
261 
My longing for one was, however, tempered by the contempla¬ 
tion of the seas this furious wind raised out in the open 
water of the wide channel between us and a large, barren¬ 
looking island, which rose high out of the expanse of waves 
opposite. Beyond again, a steep and rugged range of for¬ 
bidding-looking hills, forming the western shore of this end of 
the lake, seemed to come sheer down into the water. 
Being almost devoid of vegetation, this district has natur¬ 
ally little animal life—a small troop of the ubiquitous grantii 
here and there, and rarely a few oryx, was all I saw in the way 
of game. It was difficult to shoot anything, as these were 
singularly wild and the high wind made it hard to hold a rifle 
steady, while the country was a bad one to get about in ; but 
I managed to get a gazelle on the evening of our second day 
on the lake, by making a careful stalk up one of the lava 
ridges. The men continued to catch plenty of fish, though, of 
various kinds, some very large. A goose also fell to my rook 
rifle. 
The conditions had not improved on 8th December ; the 
going was as bad as ever, and the hurricane, which had never 
dropped for a moment for days, still blew, giving one no rest 
and making things thoroughly uncomfortable. What with the 
desolate surroundings and the uncertainty as to how far this 
sort of thing would continue, I confess I was feeling a little 
bit low-spirited, and a curious sight we came across rather 
tended to depress me more, though I admit the folly of 
allowing oneself to be affected by such influences. Alongside 
a rocky gully, right on the lake side, a patch of the black lava 
debris was covered thickly with bleached bones. From a 
distance it looked like snow, and I wondered what in the world 
it could be ; but on getting close I found it to consist of the 
whitened bones of camels. Hundreds must have perished 
here, all huddled in one little corner. What could be the 
history of the catastrophe ? In a country, too, where now is 
no sign of human inhabitants and which seems uninhabitable. 
