366 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
Delamere’s brother-in-law. They took eight porters and 
went into the forest accompanied by four ^Ndorobo. They 
marched straight up to the bamboo and yellow-wood for¬ 
est near the top of the Mau escarpment. They spent five 
days hunting. The procedure was simply to find the trail 
of a herd, to follow it through the tangled woods as rapidly 
and noiselessly as possible until it was overtaken, and then 
to try to get a shot at the first patch of reddish hide of 
which they got a glimpse—for they never saw more than 
such a patch, and then only for a moment. The first 
day Kermit, firing at such a patch, knocked over the ani¬ 
mal; but it rose and the tracks were so confused that even 
the keen eyes of the wild men could not pick out the right 
one. Next day they again got into a herd; this time Ker¬ 
mit was the first to see the game—all that was visible 
being a patch of reddish, the size of a man’s two hands, 
with a white stripe across it. Firing he killed the animal; 
but it proved to be only half grown. Even the ’Ndorobo 
now thought it useless to follow the herd; but Kermit 
took one of them and started in pursuit. After a couple 
of hours’ trailing the herd was again overtaken, and again 
Kermit got a glimpse of the animals. He hit two; and 
selecting the trail with most blood they followed it for three 
or four miles, until Kermit overtook and finished off the 
wounded bongo, a fine cow. 
Kermit always found them lying up during the middle 
of the day and feeding in the morning and afternoon; other¬ 
wise his observations of their habits coincided with mine. 
The next ten days Kermit spent in a trip to the coast, 
near Mombasa, for sable—the most beautiful antelope next 
to the koodoo. The cows and bulls are red, the very old 
