HUNTING ON LAKE SOLAI 
183 
apparently dead. As we approached, however, from 
converging directions, the pig suddenly sprang to his 
feet and charged on W-, who was within a dozen 
yards. A shot in the nape terminated this gallant 
effort. As a rule, the wart-hog, with all his formidable 
armament, seems less apt to take the offensive than his 
European cousin. One of these animals, shot by my 
brother, was entirely devoid of the usual warts on the 
lower face, while the set of the tusks was upright. 
W-crossed over the rugged shoulder of Meningai 
in one more effort to secure the elusive Chanler’s 
reedbuck, but again these grey phantoms kept their 
skins intact. 
One day, being near the western summit, we went 
to look into the crater of Meningai, and an appalling 
abyss it is—perhaps as big a hole as exists in the crust 
of our planet. A few hundred yards below the external 
lip there is a lower rim, and having descended to this, 
we could look down into the full depth of the chasm, 
apparently 2,000 or 3,000 ft. The width may be 
perhaps three miles across, and the sides slope inwards 
and downwards as regularly as a funnel, the lower depths 
apparently tree-clad and bushy. 
We attempted to descend, being at first deceived by 
the apparent simplicity of the undertaking. Not for 
long, however, were we left in doubt. It was the dis¬ 
tance that had hidden the terrible rugosity of its depths 
from view—depths that are practically impenetrable. 
But we little dreamed (as we have since been posi¬ 
tively assured by men who do not lightly accept fabled 
tales) that that vast abyss is still one of Nature’s own 
sanctuaries. Elephants descend its depths to breed 
therein, rhinos take their ease amidst subterranean 
bush, while lions occupy its many inaccessible strong¬ 
holds. Men, it is said, had descended and been lost— 
probably eaten ! Such, we were told, is the crater of 
Meningai. 
That evening at Nakuru we enjoyed an odd experi¬ 
ence—an incident perhaps unicjue in the process of 
