Feb- 25, igu.] 
forest and stream. 
A Night in the Elgayo Valley. 
Washington, D. C„ Feb. g.-Editor Forest 
"V'l"-' The follo ' vin 8' story was told me 
y • . Hoey, when we were hunting in Africa 
last summer. We were camped on the Elgayo 
Escarpment at the time and were thus on the 
scene ot his adventure, and this situation 
brought up the story. This is what he told me: 
I had arranged to set out on a skin trading 
rip in to the Elgayo country, and was about a 
long days march from Marachori, my destina¬ 
tion. Expecting my safari to make the march 
295 
porters we were going to sleep at Marachori, 
1 pushed on in that direction. 
dhe valley being very much shut in, the heat 
was very trying, the mountains running up to 
4.000 feet high on either side. One side of 
ie 'a ley was inhabited by the Kamasia, the 
o lei side by the Elgayo—two tribes, which 
were continually at war with one another and 
engaged in raiding each other’s sheep and 
goats whenever opportunity offered. Each 
tribe bved on its own side, the valley being 
neutral and without inhabitants. 
It was my intention to camp in the valley and 
to meet my safari during the day, I had taken 
no food with me, and knowing the day would 
be warm had even dispensed with my coat 
being dressed just in my khaki shirt and 
trousers. 
The rain came down with such force that 
cate nng sight of a warthog fifty yards off I 
co 1 ^ "ot shoot at it because I could not see 
my rifle sights! 
It was now that I realized I was in for a 
night on the veldt-absolutely alone. To make 
matters worse, I discovered that my match! 
box, which I should have put in my helmet 
that day, I started off early alone—without 
a gun-bearer. I had arranged to meet 
satari at a soda spring which was on the 
ot march, which arrangement, however 
altogether upset because I sighted a her. 
impa a with some very fine heads among t 
and left the trail in pursuit of them. I c < 
not approach them, and without even the s; 
taction of bagging one of these decent he' 
I presently realized that I had missed the r 
and should probably have considerable diffic 
forThe V again ' 1 dCCided t0 ^ and m 
tor the soda springs. 
who 1 d,VM "'I tQ fa " ^ With an E1 ^° wan 
who did his best to point out some road to , 
ut a couple of hours’ hard traveling gave 
the idea that I had passed the spring a 1c 
way on my right, and not thinking It wo 
' C to return , as I had distinctly told I 
trade skins with the Elgayo, so I pushed on to 
mv camp- at Marachori, reaching there about 
4 p. m. No one had come and I sat down and 
waited for my safari, expecting them at every 
moment. After waiting about half an hour and 
seeing a heavy thunderstorm brewing, I thought 
it advisable to try to find them, and started back 
toward the soda spring— a distance of ten miles 
or so. Before I had been an hour on my wav 
the storm burst with such violence as I had 
never before seen. Soaked through and 
through, with torrents of water running every¬ 
where. and signs of the rapidly approaching 
and more rapidly disappearing twilight, I be¬ 
gan to uneasily realize that I was likely to be 
bushed” for the night in an unknown and 
more or less hostile country, with no food and 
a scantiness of clothing, the thought of which 
began to make me shiver. Having expected 
when the rain commenced, had gone to pieces 
m my wet pocket. I then decided to retrace my 
steps to Marachori, where, at least there was 
a" old grass hut to shelter me, and where there 
was just a faint hope that the safari might 
have arrived by some other path Alas the 
path or game trail that I had come alone was 
now one of many running streams, and it was 
impossible to know which track I had taken 
Darkness was setting in. I found myself on 
11 e banks of the N’do River, which flows down 
the Elgayo valley and divides the Kamasia 
irom the Elgayo. I knew that several of my 
Elgayo friends were living on the escarpment 
not far from the river, and not being quite 
sure of the exact location of Marachori, I de¬ 
cided. that the best thing to do was to swim 
the river, climb the steep escarpment opposite 
and endeavor to find the Elgayo huts-where I 
