ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 29 
seldom occur, for the game here, such as zebra, eland, 
hartebeest, impala, waterbuck, gazelles, wart-hog and 
grass-antelopes of sorts, are nearly always in herds, and 
those herds, while among bush, are moving about on 
the feed. Hence the problem is not simple. Firstly, 
the stalker must get forward at a fair speed or he w T ill 
lose touch. Then in a herd, say, of a dozen, there will 
probably be only one really good head. The other 
eleven are only so many nuisances and sources of 
danger. All the eleven must, nevertheless, be held 
under accurate observation, or else some insignificant 
little beastie, appearing at an unexpected spot, will ruin 
the whole operation. Bush-stalking, in short, is an art 
in itself, affording difficult, but withal very pretty, 
manoeuvring. The hunter who has singled out the 
master-buck, held him in all his vagaries, avoided the 
keen view of the other eleven, and finally secured the 
prize, has done good work. 
More often, instead of eleven, there will be forty, 
fifty or sixty undesired individuals whose gaze it is 
necessary to shun. 
Two difficulties deserve mention. First, the ever- 
shifting wind, which changes, both in force and direction, 
with the changing hours of the day. This trouble is 
common to all tropical Africa, but is specially pronounced 
hi this great Rift Valley, which, though its floor averages 
6,000 ft. elevation, is yet shut in by loftier mountain- 
ranges of 10,000 to 14,000 ft. in altitude, and distant 
some thirty to fifty miles apart. Hence the light airs 
move in puffs and eddies, wafting scent one knows not 
whither. When, after infinite care, one has gained the 
deadly range, and is scrutinising each horn in the 
herd to make sure of killing the best, suddenly, with¬ 
out a moment’s warning, up goes every head. Some 
treacherous back-set breeze has betrayed us, and in an 
instant the game is gone, swift and silent as a thought. 
The second danger lies in the presence of so many 
creatures that lie hidden. I pass over the francolins and 
guinea-fowl, since they are no w T orse than the cockling 
