CHAPTER XX 
HUNTING ON THE SIMBA RIVER 
“ In valleys remote where the Oribi plays, 
And the Gnu, the Gazelle and the Hartebeest graze, 
And the shy Quagga’s whistling neigh 
Is heard by the fountain at break of day.” 
Pringle. 
Amid sultry jungle we pitched camp by the banks of 
the Simba River. This spot lies 200 miles eastward 
from Nairobi, and being only 3,350 ft. above sea-level 
(against 6,000 ft., the mean elevation of the Athi 
Plains), is apt to be terribly warm. We had, in fact, 
descended to a tropical zone, as was evidenced in every 
detail of nature—in the changed trees and shrubs, with 
their far denser foliage, in the changed bird- and insect- 
life, and ... in the heat. This was mid-March. 
We had sought this inferno specially to hunt the 
fringe-eared oryx of East Africa (Oryx callotis), which 
is only found here and southwards therefrom. 
The other species, Oryx beisa , is confined to Baringo 
and the Tana River and the regions northwards thence 
(see ChajD. VII.).' There thus intervenes between these 
two closely-allied species a broad belt of country, say 
100 miles in width, devoid of oryx of either kind. A 
secondary object (we always have “ objects”) was the 
lesser koodoo. 
Simba, at certain seasons, is a great game-country. 
In the month of September we have seen its prairies 
and forest-opens thronged with troop upon troop of 
zebras and hartebeests, gazelles, ostrich and brindled 
gnu. But not a single gnu remains in the district in 
March, and only an insignificant proportion of the rest. 
This is, moreover, a notable lion-country (the name 
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