ELMENTEITA IN SEPTEMBER 
129 
decided to fall back upon Eburu, and next morning we 
struck and retraced our steps along the lake-shore, where 
I had just shot a one-horned impala; when we descried 
a single “ Aoul ” far out on the open plain. He proved 
hopelessly wild, and after infinite manoeuvres, all in 
vain, we saw him join two others of his kind, when all 
three made right away down-wind behind us. I have 
called these animals “ Aoul ” merely for distinction, and 
because it was Elmi’s name for them, though what they 
actually were is not proven. They were conspicuously 
distinct from anything else I saw in East Africa. I 
searched the same ground again on my second expedition 
(in February 1906), but without seeing a sign of the 
aoul. 
A few miles to the eastward, beyond and amidst 
some broken rocky ridges, we fell in with one of those 
immense aggregations of wild game that it has been my 
good fortune to meet with on various occasions in this 
land. Gazelles in vast numbers (mostly does and small 
bucks) thronged the foreground—literally colouring the 
landscape—while a couple of elands, looking gigantic 
among such small fry, stood in their midst. Beyond 
were numberless troops of zebra, hartebeests, and more 
elands, 1 the whole assemblage being sprinkled with wart- 
hogs and ostriches ! In one long straggling group I 
counted over 100 of these giant birds. 
The hartebeests were inaccessible ; but by aid of 
some broken ridges, I got well in to three separate 
groups of elands—about 100 in all—and enjoyed the 
sight at close quarters; all, however, were females or 
young beasts, not a single heavy old bull among them. 
Jackals trotted about and—a curious addition—wild 
geese ( chenalojpex ) fed on the driest plain. 
I secured here two of the finest granti bucks that we 
had then obtained : the first in company with half-a- 
dozen does, while the second had a harem of thirty-four. 
1 Note that we had seen no elands in this district six weeks before 
—in July—except a single young beast on the Enderit River. Now 
was there a sign of them when I returned here later, in February. 
K 
