and quartz. What had so smoothed them I do not know, for they seemed to
be ill-placed for water erosion. The boys with their packs atop found
this hard going, and we ourselves slipped and slid and bumped in spite
of our caution.

Once through the pass we found ourselves overlooking a wide prospect of
undulating thorn scrub from which rose occasional bushy hills, solitary
buttes, and bold cliffs. It was a thick-looking country to make a way
through.

Nevertheless somewhere here dwelt the Kudu, so in we plunged. The rest
of the day--and of days to follow--we spent in picking a way through the
thorn scrub and over loose rocks and shifting stones. A stream bed
contained an occasional water hole. Tall aloes were ablaze with red
flowers. The country looked arid, the air felt dry, the atmosphere was
so clear that a day's journey seemed--usually--but the matter of a few
hours. Only rarely did we enjoy a few moments of open travel. Most of
the time the thorns caught at us. In the mountain passes were sometimes
broad trails of game or of the Masai cattle. The country was harsh and
dry and beautiful with the grays and dull greens of arid-land brush, or
with the soft atmospheric tints of arid-land distances. Game was fairly
common, but rather difficult to find. There were many buffalo, a very
few zebra, leopards, hyenas, plenty of impalla, some sing-sing, a few
eland, abundant wart-hog, Thompson's gazelle, and duiker. We never
lacked for meat when we dared shoot it, but we were after nobler game.
The sheep given us by Naiokotuku followed along under charge of the
syces.

When we should run quite out of meat, we intended to eat them. We
delayed too long, however. One evening the fool boy tied them to a thorn