CHAPTER XI 
ELMENTEITA 
(l) IN SEPTEMBEK 
In mid-September 1904 I alighted at Elmenteita, a 
station in the Rift Valley adjoining and overlooking the 
basin of the Enderit River and our lovely hunting-grounds 
of six weeks earlier, already described in Chap. III. 
These latter, in fact, lay within a few hours’ march to 
the southward; but my object in returning was to try 
the country to the north of the railway—see sketch- 
map at p. 14. 
The special object was to obtain specimens of 
Neumann’s hartebeest (Bubalis neumanni ), males. As 
already mentioned, we had each secured a female of this 
species; but owing either to the extreme wariness of 
this antelope or, perhaps in greater degree, to defici¬ 
encies in hunting-craft, a pair of bulls were still lacking, 
and these I was determined to obtain at Elmenteita. 
At the moment, time was an essential element in the 
enterprise, since homeward-bound steamers in those 
days were few and often far between, and I had only 
left myself some eight shooting-days to attain both this 
object at Elmenteita, and, if possible, a second. The 
latter, it may be added, was to obtain on the Athi 
Plains, 100 miles to the eastward, examples of Coke’s 
hartebeest and the white-bearded gnu; but such a 
programme seemed altogether too ambitious within those 
narrow limits of time. 
It was 3 a.m. when the coast-bound train, carrying 
away my brother, left me standing alone, in pyjamas, 
on the rubble stones that serve for a platform at 
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