HUNTING ON THE SIMBA RIVER 241 
have a dull routine prepared with incident and adven¬ 
ture, perhaps he. may arrange to swap jobs with the 
babu at Simba.” 
It may here be worth mentioning that, from the 
higher hills north of Simba, on a clear day, both Mount 
Kenya on the north and Kilimanjaro on the south may 
be seen at once. 
Our own objective being, not lion, but Oryx callotis , 
we devoted scorching days to the exploration of the 
adjoining veld, especially those lovely inset prairies 
bordered all round by tropical forest, which are a 
feature of this region, and the favourite.resort of oryx. 
Here we fell in with herds of giant giraffes, sometimes 
feeding in the open, at others towering up among the 
mimosa thorn-tree on which they browse. These great 
animals, however, have never attracted us, and we left 
them in peace. 
Personally during these days I never set eye on an 
oryx, and my brother but once—a single animal that, 
being associated with restless kongoni, proved inac¬ 
cessible. Next day we sought for him far and wide, but 
found him not. To leave no chance untried, we even, 
Simba having failed, travelled back to Makindu, twenty 
miles, that also proving blank; then thirty-nine miles 
onwards to Sultan Hamud, where we saw superb giraffes, 
but not a single oryx at either point. Here, however, I 
am anticipating. 
The Simba River, with its broad forests and 
dense tropical bush, harbours many waterbuck ( Cobus 
ellipsiprymnus), of which we secured local specimens, 
one bull carrying fair horns, though none are really 
good. On two occasions, while stalking, we observed 
monkeys, and many small birds displayed gorgeous 
colours— especially the weaver-finches, rollers, sunbirds, 
barbets and bee-eaters; while fireflies on the river by 
night made a wondrous spectacle. 
On March 19, after spending five hours in vain search 
of oryx, at 11 a.m. I shot a couple of hartebeest bulls in 
R 
