THE ATHI PLAINS 
205 
alone prevented our securing him that night, and when 
we did recover the trophy at daybreak—guided thereto by 
circling marabous—the meat had already been devoured 
by a lion, whose pngs were distinct on the soft soil. 
Not a morsel remained to reward the thirty or forty 
vultures that sat around. Two hyenas watched their 
own interests from a high ridge beyond. 
Before leaving camp on this, my last morning, I had 
“CLEAKED OUT.” 
sent out scouts in three directions to spy for wildebeest, 
with instructions to report to me here (by the dead 
hartebeest) at the earliest possible moment. While we 
were yet busy with the kongoni, one of these men 
arrived with the news that a herd of twenty or thirty 
“ Nyumbo ” (wildebeest) were grazing one hour’s walk to 
the southward. Mounting the mule, I set off at once in 
the direction indicated. This was the first time I had 
ridden during this whole expedition, and, on coming 
among game, I at once noticed (1) that game took less 
notice of a mounted man than of a hunter on foot, 
and (2) that distance-judgment was simpler and more 
