261 
ch. x] ILLNESS OF MR. HELLER 
stones, and broken by ravines which were choked with 
dense underbrush. There were high hills, and to the 
left of the downs, toward Kenia, these were clad in 
forest. We pitched our tents on a steep cliff over¬ 
looking the crater lake —or pond, as it might more 
properly be called. It was bordered with sedge, and 
through the water-lilies on its surface we saw the 
reflection of the new moon after nightfall. Here and 
there thick forest came down to the brink, and through 
this, on opposite sides of the pond, deeply-worn elephant 
paths, evidently travelled for ages, wound down to the 
water. 
That evening we hunted for bushbuck, but saw none. 
While we were sitting on a hillock at dusk, watching 
for game, a rhino trotted up to inspect us, with ears 
cocked forward and tail erect. A rhino always has 
something comic about it, like a pig, formidable though 
it at times is. This one carried a poor horn, and there¬ 
fore we were pleased when at last it trotted off without 
obliging us to shoot it. We saw new kinds of whydah 
birds, one with a yellow breast, one with white in its 
tail; at this altitude the cocks were still in full plumage, 
although it was just past the middle of September ; 
whereas at Naivasha they had begun to lose their long 
tail feathers nearly two months previously. 
On returning to camp we received a note from 
Cuninghame saying that Heller had been taken seriously 
ill, and Tarlton had to go to them. This left Kermit 
and me to take our two days’ hunt together. 
One day we got nothing. We saw game on the 
open downs, but it was too wary, and though we got 
within twenty-five yards of eland in thick cover, we 
could only make out a cow, and she took fright and ran 
without our ever getting a glimpse of the bull that was 
