122 
ON SAFARI 
Elmenteita. Five minutes later, my blankets having 
meanwhile been transferred from the carriage to the 
station sleeping-room—a convenience that on the Uganda 
railway atones for absent hotels—I was in bed again. 
Starting, as usual, a little before dawn, we found 
ourselves at daybreak on a rolling grass-prairie literally 
teeming with game. This, however, is not the case here 
at all seasons. In February, for example (as will be 
shown later), the veld of Elmenteita is comparatively 
deserted owing to seasonal migration. To-day (September 
11) in every direction stood troop beyond troop of zebras, 
outlined dark against the coming sunrise. A herd of 
thirty-two elands grazed right ahead, mingled with 
them being several ostriches and hartebeests, while the 
nearer foreground was alive with gazelles in scores, and 
a few wart-hogs and jackals. Away on our right in the 
sunlight stretched a string of orange-red kongoni, while 
the distant horizon was silhouetted with the galloping 
ungainly forms of others of their kind. Were these 
neumanni ? 
Holding forward (since “ herd-bulls ” are never the 
best), we descried a group of three; and beyond, one 
lone bull. To these we glued attention. The last- 
named took right away, but after three hours’ work we 
still kept touch of the trio. The ground was perfectly 
open—not a scrap of “advantage” or cover. Here and 
there rose low, graduated hillocks formed of volcanic 
debris, with broad flats between, on the pools of which 
wild-geese splashed and preened, and noisy plovers 
bathed. At times we seemed to walk almost through 
the herds of zebra, which watched keenly yet undis¬ 
mayed ; and we frequently passed gazelles and geese— 
once even elands—within fair shot. Yet hour after 
hour the coveted trio held us in check till the heat of 
the day began to be felt. Then our persistent “ sticking- 
in ” told, and suspicion slowly relaxed; but it was high 
noon before they offered a first chance at a long 300 
yards, and a ball in the base of neck sent the best bull 
staggering to earth. What mattered it then, in those 
