76 
ON SAFARI 
the ordinary game. Our own experiences, five weeks 
later, were as follows. 
To begin with, I fell in with one of those unpleasant 
adventures that are incidental to African travel. As 
related in the last chapter, I had left my brother to 
continue his march northwards towards the Mugitani 
River while I made a back-cast of thirty miles to Njernps 
after elephant. Returning thence, on the evening of the 
fourth day I had reached the neighbourhood of the spot 
where, by arrangement, I expected to find W- 
encamped, when one of those violent thunderstorms 
characteristic of the equator suddenly burst. Being 
unable, in elemental cataclysm, amidst roaring winds, 
thunder and hissing rain, either to find the river or to 
get response to our signal-shots, I ordered camp to be 
pitched exactly where I stood. Then a new difficulty 
arose. The heavily-laden safari, struggling against the 
storm, had got separated and half lost among the bush, 
the confusion being accentuated by running into a herd of 
half-wild Suk cattle, the longest-horned and most trucu¬ 
lent beasts I ever saw. One by one, or in scattered 
groups, the safari straggled in, but, of course, the “ boy ” 
wfith the tent-poles was last to arrive. Thus it was two 
hours after dark ere I got shelter under canvas, and turned 
in supperless—bar a tin of sardines and a pint of 
“ emergency ” champagne ! 
The storm moderating at midnight, we got in touch 
with my brother’s camp, which proved to be little more 
than an hour’s march away; and in the morning, to our 
mutual relief, W-walked across in time for breakfast. 
The Mugitani at this point, as we discovered by daylight, 
is little more than a series of mud-holes connected by 
subterranean channels. No wonder we had failed to 
find it in the darkness and stress of the night before. 
My brother reported having seen a herd of eland 
and some oryx, but the latter were scarce and very wild. 
The only game he had killed were impala, Grant’s 
gazelle (the local race, G. g. brighti), a kori bustard, 
and a zebra for meat. But a notable occurrence had 
