A SAFARI AND WHAT IT IS 
77 
but along about nine o’clock the equatorial sun be¬ 
gins to beat down upon our heavy sun helmets and 
our red-lined and padded spine protectors. But it 
is seldom hot for long. A cloud passes across the 
sun and instantly everything is cooled. A wave 
of wind sweeps across the hill and cools the moist 
brow like a camphor compress. An instant later the 
sun is out again and the land lies swimming in the 
shimmer of heat waves. Distant hills swim on mi- 
ragic lakes, and if we are in plains country the 
mirages appear upon all sides. 
We rarely shot while on a march from camp to 
camp. We walked or rode along, watching the 
swarms of game that slowly moved away as we ap¬ 
proached. The scenery was beautiful. Sometimes 
we wound along on game trails or native trails 
through vast park-like stretches of rolling hills; at 
other times we climbed across low hills studded 
with thorn scrub, while off in the distance rose the 
blue hills and mountains. To the northward, al¬ 
ways with us, was the great Mount Kenia, eighteen 
thousand feet high and nearly always veiled with 
masses of clouds. On her slopes are great droves of 
elephants, and we could pick out the spot where 
three years before Mrs. Akeley had killed her ele¬ 
phant with the record pair of tusks. 
Our marches were seldom long. At noon or even 
earlier we arrived at our new camping place, ten or 
twelve miles from our starting of the morning. 
Frequently we loitered along so that the porters 
might get there first and the camp be fully estab- 
