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Show . V 1 H ' rS i -"v ': ' t CROSSING A . FORD IN IA5T AFRICA FIOM Mozambique to Mombasa is a four days' Bail, passing the delightful, palm-covered island is-land of Zanzibar on the way, writes Sir Henry Seton-Karr, C. M. G., a big game hunter. This Island deserves a longer vis-It vis-It and a fuller account than I had time to pay or am able to give. But a ten-mile motor drive and a short day'p visit afforded a glimpse of its luxuriant cocoanut and clove plantations, planta-tions, Its beautiful vegetation, its narrow nar-row eastern streets and brass-studded brass-studded doors, and its heterogeneous colored population. Mombasa, or rather Klllndinl (Mombasa (Mom-basa being the town). Is a fine harbor, har-bor, the best of shelter, fairly er : of access, and with good anchorage. Moreover, it Is an increasingly busy port, and a standing witness '.o the foresight of the late Lord Salisbury when he faced the responsibility of the Uganda railway, of which It is the terminus and the outlet. My immediate objective In visiting the newest English colony was a month's safari from Nairobi and Bome big-game hunting. So I left Mombasa by the first available train, and in twenty-four hours had ascended 6,000 feet I through palm grove, tropical Jungle, thorn and grass-covered plain and mountain ranges, to the high tableland table-land that makes British East Africa possible as a white man's colony and another cradle for our race. Of this tableland Nairobi is the capital, and the social anl political center. Incidentally Inci-dentally I was Informed that 200 young British wives In and around Nairobi had produced among them during the last two or three years no fewer than 120 bonnle white babies 120 "bundles of possibilities" for the furtherance and future extension of British dominion do-minion and Anglo-Saxon civilization. Great Variety of Sport. Never have I seen anything like the quantity of big game in any part of the world such as now exist in their thousands In British East Africa. Even Western America thirty years ago had nothing like this wealth of wild fauna. I rather doubt if South America in its pioneer days equaled It In this respect. For Bome hours before be-fore reaching Nairobi thousands . of zebra, hartebeeste (kongoni), gazelle of various kinds- ("Grant's" and "tommies") "tom-mies") can be seen from the railway carriage windows dotting the plains and grass-covered, tree-sprinkled hillsides hill-sides throuh which the railway runs. .erds of wildebeeste are almost always al-ways "In Bight; also other varieties of buck or antelope, such as impala and orlbi. Also an occasional rhino, and frequently a herd of giraffe. . One has heard so much .of hunting parties visiting Nairobi of late years and returning in every case laden with spoils and trophies of the chase, that I had a sort of feeling beforehand before-hand that the game would soon be all killed, unless one hurried up and went soon. But now the mystery was solved. The country Is so fertile, pastoral pas-toral and extensive, and the olimate so equable, that It is capable of maintaining main-taining an almost incredible amount of game. The game Is there, and has not been recklessly slaughtered and squandered in the past. It Is now only saot in a sportsmanlike manner, under strict regulation as to numbers and locality some rarer kinds being absolutely protected and only on payment of a substantial license fee; and so the consequence con-sequence is that, if anything, the game Is increasing In numbers, not diminishing. dimin-ishing. In fact, the boot is on the other leg. The question is whether, in some districts, the commoner kinds of game are too numerous and should not, in the Interests of settlers and their fencing and crops, be greatly great-ly reduced in numbers or even altogether, alto-gether, killed off. ' So far as my own hunting experiences experi-ences are concerned, I enjoyed a most delightful and productive three weeks' safari, during the course of which I shot about forty head of big game, either for meat or for trophies, including includ-ing eighteen different varieties, among them a great python sixteen feet long. I am bound to confess, in my Yiew, that there Is no great sporting merit n nh'cinfn- the ordinary common big I game trophies of East Africa, such as wildebeeste, hartebeeste, the various vari-ous kinds of gazelle and smaller antelope, an-telope, zebra and warthog, all of which are to be found on tho open plains and outside long grass and Jungle. Jun-gle. It is merely a question of how long one stays out and how many cartridges car-tridges one uses. Poor Opinion of Lion. There are, however, other varieties of big game much harder to find and shoot, and In the hunting of which some woodcraft and Intelligence, as well as straight shooting, are required, and there is more danger to be faced. The dangerous game are the lion and leopard, the rhino-, buffalo and elephant ele-phant As a matter of fact, these are all hard to find in the grassy. Jungly ravines and thick forests In which they hide during the day. Lion huntr Ing, In particular, is the most "chancy" sport possible. This great carnlvora only feeds at night, and kills once in twenty-four or forty-eight forty-eight hours some authorities say the iatter. He Is somewhat generously tyled the king of beasts, being, as a rule, a sneaking, crawling, night-prowling brute, hiding away in deep ravines and thick reedbeds until night comes, when he goes forth to hunt Some sportsmen have been years in Africa without getting a shot at a lion; others drdp across one in the first week. I was not fortunate enough on this trip to get a shot at a lion, though I saw three, and heard several others at night grunting and roaring close to camp. My most exciting experiences were with buffalo. This great mammal is a fine sporting beast, and I have the greatest respect for him. On the whole I consider him to be the most dangerous game I have ever hunted. He is massive and powerful, extraordinary extraordi-nary quick in his movements for so large and heavy a creature, endowea with great vitality and very hard to kill. . Also he plays the game of hide-and-seek in the grassy ravines and Jungle of his native home with much success; and when hunted r.nd wounded, turns on his pursuer with the utmost determination and ferocity. In fact, he plays the game to perfection. |