CHAPTER XV 
WHERE A MAN CAN RAISE A THIRST 
The dry season, which, in Equatorial East 
Africa, roughly extends from April to December, 
though favourable for hunting, owing to the com¬ 
parative sparseness of foliage in the bush and the 
decay of the giant grasses which afford such excellent 
cover for all kinds of game, is often rendered 
by the terrible scarcity of water a most trying time. 
Only he who has lived the strenuous life of a hunter 
and seen the conditions that exist during a period 
of exceptional drought in that Continent of the Sun, 
can justly estimate the preciousness of this element 
which, when in the form of rain, is so often looked 
upon by those living in northern climes as an 
unmitigated nuisance. Picture to yourself a land¬ 
scape held in the grip of a pitiless, blinding sunshine, 
the trees denuded of green foliage, the grass sere 
and yellow, and at times stretches of country, 
varying in extent from ten to thirty miles, without 
a drop of water. Imagine tramping all day long 
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