On their tops the scrub sometimes gave
way to openings of short grass. On these fed a few gazelle of both
sorts, and an occasional zebra or so. We saw also four topi, a beast
about the size of our wapiti, built on the general specifications of a
hartebeeste, but with the most beautiful iridescent plum-coloured coat.
This quartette was very wild. I made three separate stalks on them, but
the best I could do was 360 paces, at which range I missed.
Finally we surmounted the last low swell to look down a wide and sloping
plain to the depression in which flowed the principal river of these
parts, the Southern Guaso Nyero. Beyond it stretched the immense
oceanlike plains of the Loieta, from which here and there rose isolated
hills, very distant, like lonesome ships at sea. A little to the left,
also very distant, we could make out an unbroken blue range of
mountains. These were our ultimate destination.
XXXVII.
THE SOUTHERN GUASO NYERO.
The Southern Guaso Nyero, unlike its northern namesake, is a sluggish,
muddy stream, rather small, flowing between abrupt clay banks. Farther
down it drops into great canons and eroded abysses, and acquires a
certain grandeur. But here, at the ford of Agate's Drift, it is
decidedly unimpressive. Scant greenery ornaments its banks. In fact, at
most places they run hard and baked to a sheer drop-off of ten or
fifteen feet. Scattered mimosa trees and aloes mark its course.
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