12 
African Game Trails 
my presence. Twice I saw steinbuck, on 
catching sight of me, lie down, hoping to 
escape observation. The red coat of the 
steinbuck is rather conspicuous, much 
more so than the coat of the duiker; yet it 
often tries to hide from possible foes. 
Late in the afternoon of September 3 
Cuninghame and Heller, with the main sa¬ 
fari, joined me, and I greeted them joyfully; 
while my men were equally pleased to see 
their fellows, each shaking hands with his 
especial friends. Next morning we started 
toward Meru, heading north¬ 
east, toward the foot-hills 
of Kenia. The vegetation 
changed its character as we 
rose. By the stream where 
we had camped grew the 
great thorn-trees with yellow- 
green trunks which we had 
become accustomed to associ¬ 
ate with the presence of herds 
of game. Out on the dry flats 
were other thorns, weazened 
little trees, or mere scrawny 
bushes, with swellings like 
Dulbs on the branches and 
twigs, and the long thorns 
far more conspicuous than 
the scanty foliage; though 
what there was of this foliage, 
now brilliant green, was ex¬ 
quisite in hue and form, the 
sprays of delicate little leaves 
being as fine as the daintiest 
lace. On the foot-hills all these thorn-trees 
vanished. We did not go as high as the 
forest belt proper (here narrow, while above 
it the bamboos covered the mountain-side), 
but tongues of juniper forest stretched down 
along the valleys which we crossed, and 
there were large patches of coarse deer fern, 
while among many unknown flowers we 
saw blue lupines, oxeye daisies, and clover. 
That night we camped so high that it was 
really cold, and we welcomed the roaring 
fires of juniper logs. 
We rose at sunrise. It was a glorious 
morning, clear and cool, and as we sat at 
breakfast, the table spread in the open on 
the dew-drenched .grass, we saw in the 
south-east the peak of Kenia, and through 
the high, transparent air the snow-fields 
seemed so close as almost to dazzle our 
eyes. To the north and west we looked far 
out over the wide, rolling plains to a wilder- 
our eyes. But in bright sunlight, in bush, 
I also noticed that the zebra themselves 
were hard to see. 
One afternoon, while skirting the edge of 
a marsh teeming with waders and water- 
fowl, I came across four stately Kavirondo 
cranes, specimens of which bird the natural¬ 
ists had been particularly anxious to secure. 
They were not very shy for cranes, but they 
would not keep still, and I missed a shot 
with the Springfield as they walked along 
about a hundred and fifty yards ahead of 
me. However, they were unwise enough 
to circle round me when they rose, still keep¬ 
ing the same distance, and all the time ut¬ 
tering their musical call, while their great 
wings flapped in measured beats. Wing 
shooting with the rifle, even at such large 
birds of such slow and regular flight, is 
never easy, and they were rather far off; but 
with the last cartridge in my magazine—the 
fifth—I brought one whirling down through 
the air, the bullet having pierced his body. 
It was a most beautiful bird, black, white, 
and chestnut, with an erect golden crest, 
and long, lanceolate gray feathers on the 
throat and breast. 
There were water-buck and impalla in 
this swamp. I tried to get a bull of the 
former but failed. Several times I was 
within fifty yards of doe impalla and cow 
water-buck, with their young, and watched 
as they fed and rested, quite unconscious of 
