CHAPTER VI 
A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI 
Heatley’s Ranch comprises twenty thousand acres 
lying between the Rewero and Kamiti Rivers. It is seven¬ 
teen miles long, and four across at the widest place. It 
includes some as beautiful bits of natural scenery as can 
well be imagined, and though Heatley—a thorough farmer, 
and the son and grandson of farmers—was making it a 
successful farm, with large herds of cattle, much improved 
stock, hundreds of acres under cultivation, a fine dairy, and 
the like, yet it was also a game reserve such as could not 
be matched either in Europe or America. From Juja 
Farm we marched a dozen miles and pitched our tent close 
beside the Kamiti. 
The Kamiti is a queer little stream, running for most 
of its course through a broad swamp of tall papyrus. Such 
a swamp is almost impenetrable. The papyrus grows 
to a height of over twenty feet, and the stems are so close 
together that in most places it is impossible to see anything 
at a distance of six feet. Ten yards from the edge, when 
within the swamp, I was wholly unable to tell in which 
direction the open ground lay, and could get out only by 
either following my back track or listening for voices. 
Underfoot, the mud and water are hip-deep. This swamp 
was the home of a herd of buffalo numbering perhaps 
a hundred individuals. They are semi-aquatic beasts, and 
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