TO LAKE NAIVASHA 
203 
him standing, plunged in meditation—probably it would be 
more accurate to say, thinking of absolutely nothing, as if he 
had been a huge turtle. After leaving him we also passed 
by files of zebra and topi who gazed at us, intent and 
curious, within two hundred yards, until we had gone by 
and the danger was over; whereupon they fled in fright. 
The so-called salt marsh consisted of a dry watercourse, 
with here and there a deep muddy pool. The ground 
was impregnated with some saline substance, and the 
game licked it, as well as coming to water. Our camp 
was near two reedy pools, in which there were big yellow¬ 
billed ducks, while queer brown herons, the hammerhead, 
had built big nests of sticks in the tall acacias. Bush cuckoos 
gurgled in the underbrush by night and day. Brilliant roll¬ 
ers flitted through the trees. There was much sweet bird 
music in the morning. Funny little elephant shrews with 
long snouts, and pretty zebra mice, evidently of diurnal 
habit, scampered among the bushes or scuttled into their 
burrows. Tiny dikdiks, antelopes no bigger than hares, 
with swollen muzzles, and their little horns half hidden by 
tufts of hair, ran like rabbits through the grass; the females 
were at least as large as the males. Another seven-foot 
cobra was killed. There were brilliant masses of the red 
aloe flowers, and of yellow-blossomed vines. Around the 
pools the ground was bare, and the game trails leading to 
the water were deeply rutted by the hooves of the wild 
creatures that had travelled them for countless generations. 
The day after reaching this camp, Cuninghame and 
I hunted on the plains. Before noon we made out with our 
glasses two rhino lying down, a mile off. As usual with 
these sluggish creatures we made our preparations in 
