?•% <1>«**xZZ DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Treasure %oom PLh Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Duke University Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/twoafricantripswOObuxt TWO AFRICAN TRIPS Two African Trips WITH NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS ON BIG GAME PRESERVATION IN AFRICA BY EDWARD NORTH BUXTON AUTHOR OF * SHORT STALKS,' ETC. With Illustrations and Map LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD ia, 13, & 14, LONG ACRE, W.C. 1 902 1L o 11 \ PEEFACE The descriptive chapters in this volume deal with the modest events of two holiday trips in Africa, one in British East Africa, the other in the Soudan. In each case I spent a little over a month in a good game-district, shooting, photographing, and travelling gently from camp to camp. These pages are little more than a transcription of my field-notes which I have put into a permanent form for the benefit of friends who are interested in the same subjects as I am. With these I have combined reproduc- tions from some of my photographs which seemed best to illustrate the daily incidents of such journeys and the characteristics of the people and wild animals which I encountered. In fact, it would be better described as a picture-book than a volume of travels. It is obvious that these brief journeys, undertaken solely for pleasure, gave me no title to speak with authority on many subjects affecting those great terri- tories, the most recent "claims pegged out" by British energy. Sir Samuel Baker and Sir Harry Johnston have long ago given us descriptions of the Soudan and East vi TWO AFRICAN TRIPS Africa respectively which remain the classics of the subject ; and these are annually supplemented by Blue Books which contain the cream of official information, and a great deal besides the dry bones of statistics. To these I can add nothing ; but even so unprofitable a person as the " mere globe-trotter " may have a purpose, and my object is to interest naturalists and sportsmen in these game-fields, in the hope of seconding the efforts of those officials on the spot who are endeavouring to preserve the species from destruction by the creation of a sound public opinion at home. Having myself hunted many beasts in many lands for many years, I have used my opportunities to watch the conditions under which they prosper or the reverse, and I may claim to have definite ideas on the sub- ject. Past experience shows that the question is urgent. I have therefore added a chapter dealing with this subject. When in East Africa, I often regretted that I had not brought a more powerful camera and thus secured permanent records of the wonderful herds which inhabit the great feeding -grounds, opportunities for which may not recur when the game becomes rarer and wilder. This omission I supplied on my trip to the White Nile by one of Dalmeyer's naturalist cameras. I have described the difficulties which attend its use by the amateur, especially for one who, like myself, had no previous practice with it. The pictures which I have here reproduced show at least what might have been obtained by more competent hands. That they will be improved upon I do not doubt, but I kj i j^^^y ' ^ jH ^^B 8^*. *» L *| it ill 3 ijjH i z < Q < u I cc D O g i CO < PREFACE vii offer them as a casual attempt in a field of investigation which promises most interesting results. I can at any rate vouch for so much, that this form of amusement is of absorbing interest. It demands more patience and endurance of heat and other torments, more knowledge of the habits of animals — in a word, better sportmanship than a mere tube of iron with a trigger ; and when a successful picture of wild life is obtained it is a higher achievement, even in the realm of mere sport, than a trophy, however imposing. Thus, though I do not pretend to the role of a reformed game-slayer, I hope that my pictures will not be the less attractive that the birds and beasts here portrayed are, as far as I know, still living their life in the same surroundings. The map which accompanies this volume shows the position and boundaries of all the Game Eeserves in British Central African territories and the Soudan, and the closed areas in the latter. My thanks are due to General Sir Francis Wingate, the Governor- General of the Soudan, as well as other officers serving under him, for their assistance in defining the somewhat obscure boundaries of the districts into which his domain has been divided. Count Ernest Hoyos, Mr. S. H. Whitbread, and Mr. Greece have kindly allowed me to reproduce pictures of theirs of " The Village Dance," " A Khartoum Nuggar," and "The Kikuyu Escarpment," subjects of which my own attempts were imperfect. viii TWO AFRICAN TRIPS Indeed, many of my snapshots must be so described ; and if they have been rendered tolerable, it is due to very careful developing by Mr. H. T. Malby, and to Mr. Cameron Swan, who reproduced them. E. N. BUXTON. Knighton, April 1902. CONTENTS PAGE BRITISH EAST AFRICA 1 THE WHITE NILE 45 BIG GAME PRESERVATION . . . .115 APPENDICES .141 IX I ILLUSTKATIONS Jabiru and Spoonbill Frontispiece A Teita Village To face page i A Herd of Zebra . » v Rashid » y ii An Old Bull Giraffe » J x The Raw Material ii si Mombasa Harbour . » 1 The Safari . ii 3 Tired Porters ,. 5 In the Bura Hills . 7 The Serengati Plain ,i 9 Kilimanjaro ii 11 The River Lumi „ 13 The Shades of Evening „ 15 By the Rhombo River 17 Burchell's Zebra „ 19 An Impala 21 Killed iu the Open 23 The Next Morning . 25 Posho 27 The Athi River 31 The Athi Plains . 33 My Two Lions 35 Native Staging for shooting Hippos i. 37 The Kikuyu Escarpment 39 XI TWO AFRICAN TRIPS A Hippopotamus Pool To face page 41 Homeward Bound . 11 43 Philae u 45 Ali Barali . »» 47 A Tame Dinka >i 49 Dinka au naturel . n 51 Sacred Ibis » 53 Mudlarks . 11 55 The Babur • n 57 The Nuggar Cook . n 59 Papa, Mamma, and the Bab y » 61 A Good Header u 63 The Toilet. u 65 A Wet Crossing »j 67 First-fruits n 69 Water-bucks i> 71 A Roan Antelope . n 73 The "Hill" Camp . » 75 The Camp Scavenger » 77 More Scavengers i» 79 Village Gossips » 81 A Village Dance »» 83 My First Buffalo . )» 85 Fish-eagles n 87 Sunday Best a 89 Pelicans n 91 Cobs in the High Grass » 93 Filling the Water-skins )T 95 My Lion . II 97 The White-eared Cob »> 99 A Grass Fire II 101 Tiang » 103 Stilts at Rest ii 105 A Mob of Pelicans . » 107 An Old Male Cob . »* 109 Fishermen » 111 Our Party . ii 113 ILLUSTRATIONS The Stalker stalked To face page 115 A Doe Water-buck .... 117 Marabout Storks .... 119 Feeding-time .... 121 Goliath Herons and Demoiselle Cranes 123 At the Point of Departure . 125 White Herons .... 127 Pelicans ..... 129 Black Ibis and Kite 131 Wood Ibis feeding .... 133 Meat for All .... 135 Ambatch Canoe .... 137 A Khartoum Nuggar 139 Meeting the Homeward Bound 141 Facing the Dawn .... 153 Buff-backed Herons 171 Family Life .... 185 Egrets ..... 203 cc D O a DC < I < < CO O 5 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS BRITISH EAST AFRICA Early in 1899 a small band of travellers and sportsmen, brought together by the kindness of a prominent official of the Foreign Office, met to consider the question of the preservation of the large game of Africa. The question was urgent, and many people hoped for some results from the International Conference of the great Powers having African possessions which assembled under Lord Salis- bury's auspices to confer upon the measures to be taken. Stimulated thereto by the first-named gathering, I paid a holiday visit with my daughter in the summer of 1899 to British East Africa, hunted for a few weeks in some of the best game-districts, and paid special attention to the protective measures which had been already taken. My field-notes may not be without their value as bearing on the subject, and especially as showing the extra- ordinary wealth of life which may yet be preserved, provided good rules are made and enforced ; the condi- tions under which the game lives and multiplies ; the B 2 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS dangers which threaten some species with extinction, as well as the means of averting them. Some of my friends point the finger of scorn at my own modest bag, as if it were inconsistent with these views ; but it is scarcely necessary to observe that no one proposes to interfere with legitimate sport, — indeed, it is the conservative sportsman who is generally found most anxious to pre- serve the animated scenes in which he delights. Seven days' battering from Cape Guardafui in the worst period of the south-west monsoon was the price which we paid for our first view of the low-lying African coast, with its coral strand, and fringe of palms, and huge baobab- trees, as well as for the mysterious delights which lay behind. We cast anchor opposite the warehouses of Mombasa, and the whitewashed Portuguese fort and its rust-brown cannons. Mombasa is an island, but within the land, being encircled by a double estuary formed by some small streams. Wild rovers from Vasco da Gama downwards have wrestled for this good harbour, but it was left for the authorities of the Uganda Railway to discover that the southern or Kilindini Channel was the better road- stead of the two. The old order and the new are visible on every hand. The steamers which month by month bring the material for the new railway are jostled by native "dug-out" canoes and Arab dhows. The latest invasion is from India, for the town is mainly peopled from Bombay. There has always been a trade between the eastern and western coasts of the Indian Ocean, and this has received an immense stimulus from the fact that the Uganda Railway is being constructed 5 < Ul h a BRITISH EAST AFRICA 3 by coolies, who are followed by a number of traders of their own race. A small tramway two miles long connects the town of Mombasa with the railway terminus, which was then at Kilindini on the opposite side of the island, and for a newly arrived tenderfoot it is very pleasant locomotion to be pushed in a covered trolly by a couple of nimble Swahili boys past the banana-shambas, the palm-groves, and the giant baobab- trees, and through stretches of long grass, among which "bishop" birds, like little balls of orange plush, and yellow weaver-birds, play and flutter and weave their bag-like nests. Our preparations were so forward that we were able to take our places in the train the same night, and, some time in the small hours, crossed the bridge to the main- land. When daylight grew we were traversing the Taru, or arid region of thorn-scrub, which has hitherto proved such a terrible ordeal to every caravan bound up-country. The interminable jungle of thorn carries scarcely any foliage in the dry season, and is almost bare of life. " Afric's sunny fountains" are wider apart than the old hymn would lead one to suppose, and the first permanent running stream is the Tsavo, crossed at the 115th mile. This, being derived from the snows of Kilimanjaro, is perennial. There may be some good engineering reason why this precious gift has not been already utilised for the supply of the railway down to the coast, and even of Mombasa itself; but it seems to me, now that the pressure of the French on the Nile valley is relieved and the Soudanese revolt suppressed, that works of this character are of more immediate value than the advance 4 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS of the railway at feverish speed. Although our train carried its own tank, and was thus independent, we passed several others hung up for want of water. They depended upon a tank supplied from a water-hole four miles off. The driver of one of these engines informed me that he had walked there and found the coolies, who should have been pumping, all sick or idle. At Voi station, situated at the 100th mile, we left the train. From this point a new direct track has been cut through the jungle for about sixty miles to Taveta, close to the frontier of the German territory and near the lowest slope of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was around the base of that famous ex-volcano that I proposed to wander for two or three weeks. At Voi we found our caravan, which had been sent up some days beforehand, assembled. They consisted of Rashid, the headman, one of Stanley's faithful followers, and about seventy Swahili porters, shepherded by seven or eight askaris armed with old-fashioned rifles. The Swahilis are a mixed race, mainly the result of innumer- able slave-raids by Arab traders along the coast and into the interior. AVith good treatment and fat feeding, com- bined with forced labour, they have developed a muscular physique which distinguishes them from the tribesmen of the interior, although they may be identical in blood and race. They are a jovial, light-hearted race, and sing and chatter as they swing along with the regulation load of 65 lbs., enhanced by their own belongings. They are troublesome owing to the childish impulses to which they are subject, especially aimless desertion. This tendency is fostered by a foolish custom of prepayment of wages, BRITISH EAST AFRICA 5 but it is dasturi, or custom, and what can a casual globe-trotter do ? The deserting porter never steals his load, but throws it down in the jungle and decamps. This is a grave danger to caravans, as the mobility or even life of the caravan may depend on that load — as for instance, if it eontaius medicines or cartridges. Hence one of our first cares is to call the roll from the register of porters, which it is de rigueur to carry. The bwana, or master, is accountable for his men, and this measure is for their protection as well as his. Three had disappeared already, and we suffered some further depletion of numbers. Then followed the regulation gift of blankets and water- bottles and the distribution of " posho " — the rice ration to which they are entitled. It was a piteous sight to watch poor starved Wateita picking up the grains of rice dropped by our men, and this was the first sign among many which greeted us of the "starvation year" due to long- continued drought. The allotment of loads followed, accompanied by much struggling to secure the lightest ; and now we encountered a great difficulty. The porters assembled had to be shared with a friend proceeding in the same direction. A miscalculation had been made by somebody. Our carriers were obviously insufficient for the number of loads which comprised our tents and gear, trade goods, " chop boxes," as boxes of assorted provisions are called, and rice for a month. The Wateita who hung about the camp seemed too wasted to carry an ordinary load, and we were driven to leave a part of our rice behind, hoping to recruit sturdier beggars at the Bura Hills and send them back for the surplus. This we ultimately did, but they were long in 6 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS overtaking us, and the want of these loads hampered our subsequent movements. I had bought five Zanzibar donkeys, which are admirable for riding, but in the diffi- culty in which we found ourselves for transport I made the mistake of loading them with some of our luggage, for which they are not suited. At Aden we had engaged four Somalis, two as tent-boys, and the other two — Ali Barali and Darota Nur — as shikaris. In both capacities Somalis may be found who are excellent, the latter being, of course, much the most important function, and the post proportionally difficult to fill satisfactorily. By the middle of the next day we had completed our preparations, and our safari started, while we followed shortly after on our bicycles. We were by no means pioneers in the use of this kind of locomotion in East Africa, but it is only the broader roads on which they can be usefully ridden. The ordinary native track through the thorn-jungle is too narrow and tortuous, and the long grass hampers the wheels. Solid tyres are essential, owing to the innumerable spines and thorny seeds which strew the ground. We believed that the Taveta road, being cut broad and straight, would be practicable, but it proved by no means free from traps for the unwary. Although the cleared road is twelve feet wide, the hard track beaten by the feet of natives, who always move in Indian file, is only a few inches wide and follows a wavy line. Thus the slightest deviation from it generally involves a flying leap over a tree stump or a dead stop in soft ground, followed by a fall. Thus our start was accompanied by some minor accidents, of which, being in a state of mental exaltation, we thought little. BRITISH EAST AFRICA 7 After following the new road for a couple of hours, our kirongozi, or guide, diverged along a native track. I can only account for this preference of the old path by the innate conservatism of the African nature. It involved us and our machines in many difficulties ; in fact, that day and the next we had to carry them almost as far as they carried us ; but we forgave him in consideration of the beauty of the camp to which he led us. This was on a branch of the Voi River ; its bed was dry, but our followers easily found water by scraping holes in the sandy bottom. Great timber-trees lined the banks, and lianas festooned many of them with a wealth of greenery. To walk along the winding river-bed, which sometimes was a mere tunnel of black shade, and again emerged into brilliant sunshine, was an enchanting introduction to the most attractive side of tropical vegetation. Butterflies coursed up and down this alley, and my daughter was quickly at work with her net. The track in the sand of a small antelope interested me the most. Waiting till the hour before sunset, I advanced very cautiously along a branch channel and caught a glimpse of the animal, and, by a fortunate shot from my rifle, secured it — a small duiker of a dark bay colour with short thick horns. Strange to say, none of the sportsmen in the country, to whom I subsequently showed it, had ever seen one, and as a matter of fact specimens of this antelope — Harvey's duiker — had ouly very rarely been recorded. This is perhaps owing to its secretive habits rather than to its intrinsic rarity, but it was a good beginning for my collection. I will describe the next day's march as typical of many others. Rising before daylight, we took our coffee while 8 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS the askaris rolled up the tents. At a signal the porters picked up their loads — once allotted, each man knows his own, — and we pushed on ahead of the line. We followed a valley, the bottom of which was occupied by shambas, or cultivated grounds, growing Indian corn or bananas. The latter is by far the most valuable food-plant in East Africa, the fruit being used in a variety of ways — au naturel, cooked, or dried, reduced to flour, and baked, while the leaves are folded into caps, baskets, or a cradle for the baby. Then, traversing rising gi-ound, we got into thorn -jungle, so dense that we could only push our bicycles through it by walking astride of the hind-wheel, and the porters had to bend double to clear the over- arching thorns which cover their vile hooks with soft- looking foliage and seem to be endowed with a mischievous intelligence. A wide marsh had next to be traversed. The grasses, ten feet in height, closed behind each passer- by, and only a chorus of shouting kept us from wandering. As there had been slight rain, we were soaked to the skin. After these comfortless experiences some more shambas were reached, and we gathered and roasted some heads of Indian corn by way of refreshment, for the boy carrying the luncheon had disappeared. At length we re-entered the new road, and mentally determined not to be diverted from it again. At the Bura Hills, the next morning, we entered on the Serengeti desert, a waterless tract which extends for a distance of about forty-five miles to Taveta. The track was now harder and better suited to wheeling, so that we were generally far ahead of the safari, and we soon had our first sight of the larger game. Herds of the z < -I Q. < O z z o BRITISH EAST AFRICA 9 ungainly hartebeest, and of the more beautiful Grant's gazelle, gazed at the unwonted sight of people on wheels, or galloped just across our front, thrown out of their calculations by the unwonted speed. A herd of impala, an antelope of a dark bay colour, went off with huge bounds, quite twice their own height or more, into the air, which seemed a superfluous proceeding. Giraffe, ostrich, and zebra were also seen by us at various times either during the outward or homeward journey across the desert. It might be thought that this is a hunter's paradise, but the water difficulty is an obstacle. No doubt that is the very reason why game still abounds, as no hunter can stay long in the neighbourhood unless provided for by relays of water-carriers. We kept far ahead, and easily reached the camping-place near a rocky hill, in the steep face of which there is a small natural catch-water basin about as large as a hip-bath, holding a few gallons. Our Somalis also came in with the five donkeys who carried our kitchen equipment ; but the bulk of the porters had dawdled, and never arrived that night, which was a cold one for us, and the lying very hard. The truants dropped in the next morning, but were- unfit to start again before noon. My daughter and I were soon again some miles ahead of the safari. Low ridges covered with thin bush alternated with wide grassy valleys, now baked to a pale yellow, the favourite feeding- grounds of the game. We were just entering on the downward track into one of these hollows, when I saw the outline of a large animal approaching the road through the thorn - bushes, which were here fairly dense. For a moment I thought it was a donkey belong- 10 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS ing to some Wateita whom we had passed. The next moment a full-grown lion stood right across the road, thirty yards in front of us, looking out over the veldt, and wholly unconscious of our approach. I shouted to my daughter, who was some yards in front, and of course between me and the lion. We jumped off and gazed with the awe which royalty inspires, and not a little trepidation. But it was only for a moment. His majesty turned his head at the sound of my voice and sprang into the bushes. This incident mysteriously got into the papers, with embellishments — as, for instance, that we frightened the lion away with our bicycle -bells. One poet burst into satirical song, comparing me and my bell with Orpheus and his lyre. The last couplet was something like this — Orpheus is dead — stilled are his dulcet strains, The lyre, the blatant lyre, alone remains. A lion is not generally dangerous in the daytime, unless wounded or cornered. In such a case, as we subsequently found, he may be trusted to face his enemy. The real danger lies in his stealthy approach by night. The history of the depredations of the two man-eating lions at Tsavo, who so harried the railway construction - camp as to materially delay the advance of the railway, was of sufficient importance to be referred to by Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords. Being quite unarmed, I must confess to some feeling of suspense as we passed the spot where the lion had disappeared into the scrub at the side of the path, and we certainly put on the speed for the next half-mile. The next morning my Somalis, whom I had sent forward along the track, spied a band of seven lions — "Four man and wife BRITISH EAST AFRICA 11 and three little boys," as they expressed it. I never found them to invent tales of this sort, and the tracks at least showed them to be numerous hereabouts. The following day we came in sight of Kilimanjaro, but its wide flattened cone is rarely visible except at sunset, and not always then. The moisture precipitated, combined with a fertile volcanic soil, make its slopes highly productive, and the lower zone is one of the most populous districts in East Africa. Perennial streams, fed by the snow, spring from its sides. One of them, the little river Lumi, waters the beautiful forest of Taveta. The black mass of the latter at length began to show in front, and at the same time the gleaming expanse of Lake Jipe, which fills a hollow to the south. Captain Temple Maxted, the Protectorate officer of these regions, met us on the verge of the forest and conducted us to his house on the banks of the Lumi. For several days we had been practically strangers to water, except a starvation allowance, and the little river was very welcome. On the opposite side a wide verandah commanded the open plain and the great mountain rising beyond. The functions of an assistant-collector in an outlying position such as this are varied and peculiar. Apart from the general civil administration of his district, he combines the functions of commander-in-chief and leading diplomatist. In this case the army is limited to twenty - five rank - and - file ; but if these were not drilled and disciplined there would soon be trouble, as the Swahili is inclined to loot. Our relations with the Germans, whose frontier runs within a mile or two, are cordial, and the international exchange of visits is frequent. 12 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS While I was there the German doctor kindly undertook a nine hours' march from Moschi to prescribe for a mission- ary. The German mails come through our territory, and that reminds me that our administrator is postmaster- general. He is also technical instructor in agriculture — of which subject he knows nothing — to the native population. On week-days he is justice of the peace, on Sundays churchwarden and organist of the little mission church. As jailor, road engineer, and general medical practitioner for white and black he fills up his spare moments. I am inclined to think that the last-named function is the most important of all. It is pleasant to see the out-patients from various parts of his territory ranged up every morning at nine o'clock. Though he probably started but slightly equipped with medical knowledge, his practice is large, and his cures, which are not quite accidental, have evidently made a profound impression on " his children." Here is a chance for a young empire-maker to distinguish himself on £3 or £4 a week ! There are more ways than one of maintaining the King's flag, and, so far as I observed, his young men in East Africa have been singularly successful in regaining the confidence of the natives, shaken by centuries of treacherous wrong on the part of caravan-leaders. It is only fair to say that whatever the methods of the Germans may have been in the past, they were at the time of our visit governed under Colonel Johannes by the same humane considerations. To the density of their forest the Wataveta owe their comparative security from the raids of the Masai. Those bold buccaneers are good at a combined rush in the open, but have a wholesome dread of the poisoned arrow and BRITISH EAST AFRICA 13 stealthy ambush. Hence the little clearances, banana patches, and bee-hive huts in the midst of the jungle wear a peaceful air, and their owners meet a stranger with a confident grin. Except in these sunny openings, tall clean shafts of sycamore-fig and other giant trees support a lofty canopy of foliage, and from their branches rope- like trailers descend a hundred feet to earth and strike again. These sombre alleys are silent and devoid of life. It is otherwise with the groves of exquisite Rafia palms, which carry fronds forty feet in length, whose scarlet midribs contrast finely with the luminous green of the banana. This is the home of bright-coloured birds and little black monkeys. Deep down in black shade the Lumi tunnels its way, bridged here and there by big stems felled on the bank and thrown across for the purpose. There is a C.M.S. mission -station at Taveta, which maintains no less than five churches. This is not an evidence of the piety of the natives, but rather a conces- sion to their laziness. They attend church, but will not walk far to do so. They readily fall in with the precept to abstain from work on Sunday ; in fact, they would gladly extend the doctrine to other days in the week. The whole community would, I think, embrace Christianity on the slightest encouragement, but their spiritual pastors are wisely cautious in view of certain pagan practices which die hard. The missionaries have succeeded in inculcating some useful industrial notions, as, for instance, the value of associated labour. An irrigation-canal four miles long, which they have constructed, is a monument to their energy. After two days' rest in the hospitable Residency we 14 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS again picked up our tents and departed northwards, for the plains at the foot of the mountain. We were guided by two Masai boys, who were quite unburdened with impedimenta of any sort except water-gourds. It was a pleasure to see the ease and grace with which these slim savages covered the ground. They never spoke, and, when asked a question about the route, pointed out the direction with their tongues. AVhere the slopes of the mountain merge into the plain, at a point a few miles from Taveta, its volcanic character is illustrated by an ancient crater, now occupied by a deep-seated lake, called Lake Chala, three or four miles in circumference. The surface of the water is three hundred feet below the rim, which is very precipitous on the inner side ; and being thus protected from every breeze, its placid surface mirrors the trees which project from its margin and the great ex-volcano, of whose imprisoned forces it was at one time the vent. A strongly marked rhinoceros -path round the upper edge seemed to show that those animals vainly sought a way down to those pleasant waters. Numerous small streams which go to form the Lumi, flowing south, and the Rombo, flowing north, descend the mountain and traverse the plain. Having their origin in the snowfields above, they are perennial ; hence their winding courses are marked by belts of superb trees and other luxuriant vegetation. The deeper pools are crowded with carp-like fish. AVhen camp was pitched, my daughter was soon busy with her rod, and our men presently followed her example with rougher tackle, roars of laughter accompanying the friendly competition. The catch was afterwards grilled on a framework of green twigs. A 0. O Q < I 03 I h BRITISH EAST AFRICA 15 number of Wa-rombo, whose home is on the slopes of the mountain, were constantly wandering about these plains seeking for roots, or gathering the salt which exudes in certain places. They appeared to be in a half- starved condition, but I never saw them supplementing their scanty fare by fishing. On the other hand, they construct numerous game-pits, which are very artfully concealed. The labour must be enormous with their poor tools, and the soil excavated must be removed to a distance, lest it should excite suspicion. They are generally formed near a watering-place or some other likely traverse, and are arranged in groups, and parallel to one another like graves, the intermediate spaces being filled in with thorn-bushes to guide the quarry to its destruction. I was fairly caught in one of these snares, which, until I made a big hole in it, looked like a pleasant little path, and was no sooner rescued from its depths than I was all but engulfed in a second. In this pleasant region, on the banks of the Lumi or the Rombo, we spent a fortnight hunting, loafing, and bird-collecting. We dared not go farther afield, as the rest of our stock of rice, for which we had sent back, had not arrived, and in this year of scarcity we could not purchase grain. But we were well content. The climate at three thousand feet elevation was perfect. Clouds daily form on the mountain, and spread them- selves in a thin film far and wide. Thus in July, which is mid-winter, the sun is rarely oppressive and is tempered by a constant breeze. We shifted our ground several times in the search for this or that animal. When the camp was stationary we invariably left it at the first streak of dawn, about which time a lion commonly sighed out his 16 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS last signal to his mate. This is a deep guttural cough, not to be confounded with the roar of an angry or frightened lion, as we afterwards had reason to know. With my field-notes before me, I will endeavour to describe the various animals which we encountered, though it must not be supposed that all would be seen on the same day. As a rule, each species has its favourite feeding-ground, which is not much trespassed upon by others. Wide areas are bare of game of any kind, and it is probable that the hunter will traverse, as we did, much ground before he finds a camp in a good game-country. Even then he will not complete his collection of specimens without a persevering and often fruitless search. To return to our morning walk. As we proceed parallel to the river, some big vultures will depart with heavy flight from the trees where they roosted, and a company of baboons, led by grizzled grandfathers, will be seen mov- ing in Indian file to their watering-place. A sounder of wild hogs are so busy with their snouts that they allow us to come very close, and then scuttle noisily, with tails erect. This is a different pig, I think, from the wart- hog. They are not further disturbed, as my Somalis would not pollute themselves by touching the unclean animal. Nor do I care to shoot at hyenas, two or three of which animals were generally round the camp at night, attracted by the smell of meat. Here is something more exciting, a large black body moving rapidly away, at a distance of three or four hundred yards. Ali calls it an " oyster," but he means ostrich. This is the cock bird. His sober-coloured mate may perhaps be made out with the glass, in close attendance. They know the value > O CD £ o i BRITISH EAST AFRICA 17 of their own feathers, and are the most watchful of all the game. Their long necks give them a great advantage, and they keep a bright look-out over the bushes which conceal their bodies. Thus when seen they are generally on the move and already out of shot. They are good judges of distance, and begin to stroll and feed uncon- cernedly when they have put about five hundred yards between themselves and the hunter. After many futile shots, I did, however, succeed in reaching one with a bullet at long range. She lay, delivering convulsive kicks, which would have demolished any man. Besides the feathers, I carried away the shank-bones and feet a3 trophies, but my omnivorous followers purloined them in the night and broke them up for the marrow. Next we see a row of ten or twelve animals standing at gaze ; their heads only are visible, and the black-tipped ears, pointed in an attitude of inquiry, have the appear- ance of a series of butterflies with extended wings. These are irnpala, an antelope of singular grace in form and movement. There is no buck with them, and they seem to know that I shall not shoot. When disturbed, they take every bush or other obstacle with flying leaps of astonishing compass, and sometimes they appear to do the same in sheer exuberance of spirits. My first success with these animals was rather singular. I had seen several herds, but either there were no bucks with them, or they were so alert that I failed to get a shot. We began to seek for a good spot of shade, and established ourselves under a spreading thorn- tree. I must explain that we made much of our "tiffin- camp." To this practice of making ourselves as comfort- able as circumstances permitted, and avoiding the rnid- c 18 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS day sun, I attribute the good health which we uniformly enjoyed. I must even confess that we had carried out a couple of light deck-chairs in which we reposed for the hottest hours. Ou this occasion the two donkeys on which we had ridden from camp stood dozing by us. These seem to have excited the curiosity of a herd of impala, who, without noticing us, galloped up to take stock of the new-comers, and I picked off their leader, a very handsome buck, without moving from my chair. Zebras of Burchell's variety, of which there were many herds, were also devoured with the same spirit of inquiry about the donkeys, which they probably regarded as a new kind of zebra. They would occasionally approach to within a hundred yards, and form up to inspect us ; but their nervousness soon prevailed, and they would gallop off with streaming tails in a cloud of dust. The Swahilis were always urging me to kill zebras, the meat of which they prefer to any other ; but I only gratified them on two occasions, when I could get nothing else. It is a great pity that a serious attempt should not be made to domesticate a whole herd by enclosing them, and gradually accustoming them to be fed. This would get over the great difficulty of rearing the foals. The adults should be released as soon as the foals are ready to feed themselves, as the latter only can be tamed. 1 It is in thin bush that we may expect to find giraffes, if at all. When they are startled their necks are held perfectly erect, and their heads have a quaint resemblance 1 Since writing the above I have seen an account of such an experiment which was carried out in German East Africa — successfully, as far as the capture of the animals went, but the bulk of them died, perhaps from some avoidable cause. BRITISH EAST AFRICA 19 to chimney-pots as they gaze over the tops of the mimosa thorns, on which they feed. My licence permitted me to shoot two, and on a later day I did this with two succes- sive shots without moving from the spot where I stood. They were both fine old males, so that I hoped the breed would not be much diminished ; but I must confess that this excuse occurred to me only after the event, and does not entirely satisfy my conscience. After the heat of the day was over, M. would commonly return to camp, under the escort of one of my trusty Somalis, to fish or skin some bird which I had shot for her, or attend to some of the sick men, of whom there were always several, willing — nay, anxious — to submit themselves for treatment. In spite of our ignor- ance of drugs, I hope that we did nothing to shake this trust. The great thing in such cases is to choose a remedy the effect of which is unmistakable. Thus we applied mustard-plasters in nearly all cases, because their trail is plain to all beholders, and the sufferer is proud of his honourable scars ; besides, he is in no hurry for another. Our men suffered chiefly from the effects of over-eating, and from sores caused by the jigger, or boring flea. This scourge has crossed the Atlantic from the West Indies, or perhaps from South America, worked its way across Africa, and has now, I am told, begun to invade India. To return to my own hunting-notes ; we have hitherto remained in thin bush, which has its own peculiar fauna. If our hunt extended to the open plain we should find certain grass-feeders which do not so often seek covert — the hartebeest (Coke's variety) with its high withers and long ugly face, and Grant's gazelle, the handsomest of all 20 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS the tribe, not found, I think, outside British and German East Africa, Uganda, and Southern Abyssinia. The male is as large as a fallow- buck, and carries lyrate horns over two feet in length. Like other game in this region, they were exceptionally wild, being much hunted from Taveta and the populous district on the mountain. The difficulty of approaching them was increased owing to the drought, as no fresh grass had grown on the level plain. It was in vain that I tried to flatten myself out as close as my shikari Ali could do, he being a very small man, and many were the exhortations he addressed to me under his elbow. My position during this and many a subsequent crawl was rendered still more irksome by a small seed endowed with horny spikes, which covers the ground in many places. Another instrument of torture is the grass-tick, which abounds in every game-district. These insect pests invade the person at every entry, and inflict a most irritating bite. We were trying to approach a herd of "Grants." At each laborious attempt they tantalised us by moving a little out of range. Just as the sun on my back, and the thorns in my knees, had exhausted the last ves- tige of patience, the two biggest bucks began fighting, and so vigorously as to raise a cloud of red .dust. The clashing of their horns could be heard, but they were for the moment hidden. Seeing my chance, I ran in. The rest of the herd made off, and there remained only the whirling cloud, on the edge of which the contending animals occasionally appeared. I fired at one of these apparitions unsuccessfully, as the range was still too great, but the combatants took no notice of the shot. I ran BRITISH EAST AFRICA 21 on again, and a second bullet at shorter range told on one of them. With the sickness of death upon him, he turned and fled, hotly pursued by his antagon- ist, who seemed surprised at his easy victory. Both were unconscious of the cause, and the pursuit was con- tinued in my direction, till at easy range the wounded animal fell dead to a third shot, and the victor, still hesitating, paid the penalty of his own life also. A message back to camp soon brought out a score of Swahili followers, and an hour later every pot was simmer- ing. The prospect of fresh meat, to them an unwonted luxury, is one of the attractions which make service in an Englishman's caravan so popular. Rhinoceros, of the two-horned kind, are at present common, but it is to be feared will not long remain so. They take their daily siesta in thick bush, lying in the shade and shaking their small pig-like ears ; but they feed in the open, and are of course then very conspicuous. Owing to this, and their blindness and stupidity, they are easily approached. Indeed, even when the intruder is seen by them, they are rather reluctant to get out of the way, and will sometimes charge. My first rhino, though mortally wounded, led me a stern-chase of four hours before he was secured. Once we came up with him hiding behind a bush, and when he dashed out un- expectedly with loud grunts I sprang behind a tree, and thus lost the opportunity of putting an end to the hunt. For this weakness I was severely taken to task by Ali. Taking up the track again, it led us across a river and into aloe -scrub. This affords exceedingly dense covert, and the chase became highly exciting, as it was certain that 22 ' TWO AFRICAN TRIPS if we could bold the track we should come to very close quarters. The hunt was so long, however, that we were at the point of abandoning it for the night, and Ali had actually drawn a line on the ground to mark the point we had reached, when the wounded animal jumped up within a few yards. This time I was too quick for him, and soon put an end to the business. In this aloe-scrub I found for the first and only time the fresh track of elephants. It is also the favourite ground for Kirk's gazelle, the smallest of all the antelopes. Another rhinoceros which I shot subsequently on the Athi plains lay sound asleep in the open, and I walked, without any attempt at conceal- ment, to within twenty -five yards. When I fired, he sprang up and came straight for me, so that his massive head and horns covered his vital parts, and I could not fire an effective second shot. Standing up, I waited ready to jump aside, but, whatever his original intentions may have been, he swerved slightly, and passed three or four yards to my left, when I put my second bullet into him almost at the muzzle of the rifle. Either shot would have been sufficient, and after galloping two hundred yards he slackened speed, lay down, and died without further move- ment. I believe that more accidents have happened in East Africa from rhinoceros than from lions. This is perhaps because the former are too blind and stupid to detect the presence of a man until he is very close, when they charge suddenly. In the open it should not be difficult to avoid the charge ; in bush it is otherwise. The quantity of meat on a rhinoceros does not daunt a Swahili. He approaches the task with a cheerful con- fidence in his own capacity, and even while cutting up the BRITISH EAST AFRICA 23 carcase he crams quivering lumps of raw meat into his capacious mouth, as appetisers for the feast to come. The meat once transported to camp, he sits down in a business- like way to work through it. The hunks of meat are skewered on a stick, which is planted among the embers till the outside is black. While this meal is being con- sumed another is preparing, and this goes on, with brief siestas interposed, throughout the day, and even the night. Their phenomenal capacity for stowing food is balanced by the power, not less extraordinary, of prolonged fasting. It is a common thing, when " posho " for six days has been distributed, to find that most of the men have finished their rations in half the time. But they cheerfully encounter the lean period and carry their loads without inconvenience. Yet, if you come to think of it, it is not more wonderful than that we should be able to last from breakfast to lunch. Our food supply is constant, theirs intermittent, but often abundant. Thus they are built to suit these conditions — with a " large coal capacity." Being so short of rice, and the camp full of meat, I cut down the rations of the former by one-half. But this was not acceptable. The porters drew up in a long line in front of my tent. This is a signal that they have a grievance. They complained that they were too weak from want of food to carry loads, and that they did not like meat. This I could understand, for they had had such a surfeit in the previous twenty-four hours as would suffice me for a fortnight. We were now met by two serious difficulties. Owing to the non-arrival of our supplies, a retreat to our base on the railway became inevitable. Moreover, an outbreak of 24 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS smallpox occurred among our porters. The Swabilis are not protected as they should be, and easily might be, by compulsory vaccination at the coast. This is a serious blot on our rule, and the result of it, combined with the railway, is the free and unrestricted importation of small- pox among the tribes. To us the danger of its spreading through the whole caravan was a serious one. In such a case we should have been unable either to move or succour the sick. It was a serious dilemma how to reconcile our obligations to the stricken men with the safety of the remainder. Fortunately, the two men first attacked were not too ill to march. We sent them under escort to Taveta, where they were isolated and provided for, and where one died, while the other recovered. Subsequent cases were dealt with as they arose, with the best means at hand. As an instance of the trials of a caravan-leader I may mention that our headman concealed one of these cases from me, and made the man carry a small tent. I was of course compelled to burn it, an incident the more annoying as the package contained the feathers of one of the ostriches which I had shot. These had also to be sacrificed. Thus our retreat from the Kilimanjaro district was a somewhat hasty one. When within a day and a half of Voi we encountered the laggard commissariat column. Instead of marching to our relief, they had devoted their whole energies to devouring as much as possible of the rice which they carried. When almost within touch of the railway, the chain of my bicycle, which had been audibly complaining for some time, gave way with a bang — a victim to the inequalities of the road. But, as it z z a. o s i- X u z BRITISH EAST AFRICA 25 turned out, it would have been scarcely possible to use it in subsequent excursions from the iron way. Arrived at Voi, the homing instinct of my men asserted itself. Many who were perfectly well the day before developed mysterious complaints. I lacked the skill to discriminate, and packed off a round dozen of sleek malingerers to Mombasa. The faithful fifty who remained were transported, w r ith ourselves, in two days — the train did not then run at night — to the 308th mile, at the crossing of the Athi River. At Taveta we had encountered scarcity. In the territories of the Wateita and Wakamba, which the line traverses, evidences of positive starvation abounded. The natives seen from the railway were little better than walking skeletons, and at many of the stations were groups of found- lings, the orphans of parents who had perished. The Protectorate and railway officers had done their utmost with small means to save those within reach ; but no one will ever know whether starvation, or the fell disease which dogged its footsteps, claimed most victims. For the first two hundred miles the railway runs through thorn-jungle, which, being almost leafless, is singularly monotonous. This gradually opens out to park -like country, until, beyond the 250th mile, the Athi plains are reached — a grassy plateau at an elevation of five thousand feet, treeless except for the thin patches which mark the upper courses of the Athi River and its affluent, the Stony Athi. The sweetness of the grass attracts great herds of animals ; indeed, it is doubtful if, for variety and number of visible game, it can be matched elsewhere at the present day on that continent, or 26 TWO AFRICAN TRirS indeed in the world. From the windows of the train I noticed rhinoceros, hartebeest, gazelles of the two species named respectively after the explorers Thomson and Grant, zebras, ostrich, impala, steinbuck, and wilde- beest in numbers which I have dreamed of, but never hoped to see. We left the train at Lukenia by the crossing of the Athi. This high-sounding name suggests a place of con- sequence. As a matter of fact there was nothing but the station, which consisted, like many others, of a little green canvas, a thorn boma, and a water-tank. Hard by Captain and Mrs. Hinde were encamped, and we thought ourselves fortunate to meet so good a sportsman and naturahst. His camp was something of a menagerie, and contained, besides the trophies of several lions, a young zebra, a Grant's gazelle, a Thomson's gazelle, two falcons, a parrot, and several derelict babies. Hinde was appointed Com- missioner to the Masai tribe, small camps of whom were squatted outside his boma. He had succeeded in establish- ing very friendly relations with this people, a short time ago the most formidable tribe in East Africa, They were the owners of vast flocks and herds, which they were in the habit of replenishing by raiding their neighbours. The rinderpest has destroyed so many cattle that there is not the same temptation as formerly, and the Masai are now poor and humble ; but " when the Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be," and I think the propensity is only dormant. When on the war-path they trust in hand- to-hand fighting, charging en masse with heavy thrusting spears. Other tribes, like the Wakamba and AVandorobbo, adopt more stealthy methods and the poisoned arrow, a BRITISH EAST AFRICA 27 scarcely less deadly weapon. Owing to this difference of tactics it is the Wakaniba, and other tribes habitually practising a silent approach, who are the most successful hunters. Perhaps also the Masai, being cattle-owners, do not hanker for game-meat. Many of our coast-bred men suffered from the cold in this elevated region, but to the European the climate of the Athi plains is most invigorating, and there is a glorious sense of freedom in the vast expanse of sun-dried grass and rolling prairie, to which life is given by the herds of game, some of which, at the time of our visit at any rate, were always in sight. Owing to its size and dark colour, the most conspicuous creature on the open grass plain is the wildebeest or white-bearded gnu. Its black unkempt mane gives it a wild, gipsy-like appearance, like some patriarchal Boer of the veldt. These bovine animals mass together in very large bands when proceeding to water or if frightened, and in this respect their habits and appearance somewhat resemble those of the bison of the American prairies. It is much to be hoped that they will not suffer the same fate, but they have been badly thinned. The Masai are said to catch females of this species to nurture their tame calves. On account of the harrying the wildebeest had received they were very wild near Lukenia ; but riding one morning with Captain Hinde to the southward, I found them very numerous and comparatively easy to approach. I dropped two old bulls with a right and left shot, one for the consumption of his outfit, and one for my own men. AValking up to the first, which carried a very fine head, I told AU to make haste and halldl it, as it showed signs of life. 28 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS 1 then laid my rifle down and walked on to examine the second, which lay fifty yards farther on. In the meanwhile the struggles of the first became so violent that Ali could not lay hold of it ; and at last it staggered to its feet and without a moment's hesitation charged first one shikari and then the other. Finally it galloped off after the rest of the herd and disappeared in the distance. Hinde sent his two Masai boys on the trail. They returned some hours later, having sighted the animal but failed to come up with it. It was not till three weeks later, when I returned to this neighbourhood, that the horns were brought in to me, the beast having been pulled down and eaten by hyenas. Owing to the depletion of my porters I had to wait at Lukenia while I sent up to Machakos to engage some fresh ones. In due time a very handy lot of recruits arrived, many of whom were Wanyamwezi, whose tribal district lies to the south of the Great Lake. I was told that this tribe keeps slaves "for eating" in their own country, but this is a travellers' tale, or rather a tale told to travellers. I found them the most contented and reliable of the porters I encountered. Being now adequately supplied with human transport, my column had recovered its mobility, and we marched down the right bank of the Athi, the other side being in the " Reserve." The shallow pools of the river were the resort of large herons and other waders, while on the plain were many greater and lesser bustards and the grotesque secretary-bird, whose gait resembles that of a man walking on stilts. They had all been too much shot at to allow approach with a gun, but specimens BRITISH EAST AFRICA 29 secured by my rifle gave M. ample occupation while we camped on these plains. Here were plenty of Thomson's gazelles, the handsomest of all the lesser African gazelles, colloquially called " Tommy." It is decorated with a broad black lateral stripe. Strange to say, this conspicuous mark renders it more invisible at a distance. The zebra, another instance of this anomalous protective colouring, almost disappears when standing at five hundred yards with a grey background. The females and young males of Grant's gazelle have the same stripe as the " Tommies," but it disappears in the old males, perhaps because when they have grown long and sharp horns they no longer require colour protection. The "Tommies" make the plain lively when at play by chasing one another for long distances and at an extraordinary speed. Besides the species already described, the water-buck is generally to be found within a mile of the river. Owing to its conspicuous colour and large size, it is easily found. Being dependent on water, the area frequented by them is limited. Hence I think that this animal is in great danger of extinction. The best specimen I brought home was vicariously obtained for me by a lion. It must have been killed just before we pitched camp, and within a hundred yards of it, and the men fetching water must have disturbed the captor before he could begin his meal. The hippopotamus is also very easily shot out. They cannot leave the pools, which, though sometimes two or three miles long, are quite narrow. They must come up to breathe, and cannot escape from the unscrupulous sports- man. The pools at Lukenia and for some way down have already been cleared of them, and it was not till we got 30 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS beyond the bend of the Athi, thirty miles farther north, that we found these animals. There is a pool there of great length and depth. The remains on the banks showed that numbers are killed by the Wakamba. Their method is to build a slight staging in the pool, constructed of the mid-ribs of palm-leaves. On this they crouch, waiting the opportunity to discharge a poisoned arrow, which does its work with certainty if the skin is penetrated. Where the banks are high the hippos in the course of ages have worn deep and narrow lanes, quite ten feet below the general level of the ground, in their passage to and from the land. While here, one of my Somalis had a narrow escape from a poisoned arrow. I had sent him across the river towards Mount Kenia, accompanied by an askari, to look for the tracks of elands. According to their account, they were shot at by a party of Wa-kikuyu, and one arrow passed through Darota's breeches, fortunately without breaking his skin. The Wa-kikuyu have generally proved themselves troublesome to travellers. The reason of this probably is that, being cultivators, they have constantly been raided for food by passing caravans. The game on these plains attracts large numbers of lions, and I suppose that more of these animals have been killed near Lukenia crossing than at any other single spot in Africa. I have lately received a letter from a friend who has been following our footsteps, and who describes seeing a band of eleven all together, close to the place where the above-mentioned water-buck was killed , so to speak, at our back-door. Being night-rovers, it is a matter of luck to encounter them in the daytime, and many men who have been long in the country have failed to do so. BRITISH EAST AFRICA 31 A group of marabout storks standing on the bank of the river attracted our attention. We knew that they must have come down to carrion, and that some- thing was keeping them from it. Searching in the bushes in the bed of the river, we found the body of a zebra freshly killed by a lion. The handiwork of a lion is unmistakable. With the same movement that he seizes his prey he breaks the neck. The chest is then torn open and the blood drunk, after which he begins to eat the hind-quarters. In this case there were signs that the lion had only just left, and he was probably on the carcase when we approached, but withdrew into the reeds which lined the stream. We tried to stone him out, but he would not show. This made us and our Somali hunters very keen. There were many lions about, but it was in vain that we tried to follow up tracks, the ground always proving too hard ; but " with the help of God," as Ali said, " we would meet and overcome them." One morning, after we had left Lukenia on our way down the Athi, when marching at the head of our column, we saw four lions quietly strolling along in Indian file, on the open plain about a thousand yards off. Now and again they stopped and turned their heads to look at my safari, and, after remaining in sight for a quarter of an hour, they disappeared, without quickening their pace, over the rise towards the bed of the Athi, where we felt sure they would lie up for the heat of the day. Camp was at once pitched, and we started to look for them. M. begged to be allowed to come too ; and as the lions had seen us, I did not think they would let us come to close quarters. Had I thought otherwise — but it is vain to recall what I 32 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS should have done in such a case. I stipulated, however, that she should walk some way in the rear with one of the armed Wanyamwezi, a particularly reliable man, by her side. I had the Somali shikaris with me. We got down to the river-bed and began walking along it. There were here long stagnant pools bordered with rushes, and the grass on the banks was about two feet high, while here and there were patches of small thorn-bushes. Thus the covert looked scarcely good enough to hide a hare. We moved along, the Somalis throwiug lumps of dry mud into the thin strip of rushes. My daughter was supposed to keep a hundred yards behind, but this limit she in- terpreted liberally in her own favour, and was not more than fifty yards from me when the crisis came ; but to tell the truth, I never thought of lions getting back through such thin covert. Under the shelter of the high banks it was intensely hot, which we thought a good thing, as the lions would be more likely to lie close. A rustling immediately on my left attracted my attention, and then for a brief moment a vision of a lion rushing forward through the reeds, and an instant later a patch of yellow moving amonar the thorn-bushes in front of me, at which I incontinently fired, and fortunately missed. This was perhaps foolish, as in dealing with a lion it is well to have a definite sight of him, and to be cpuite sure what part of him is aimed at. The next minute a lion and a lioness broke out of the covert and were seen topping the high bank to my right, and were instantly lost to view. I rushed up the bank, and saw them trotting off across the plain, seventy or eighty yards off. Now, a heavy ten- bore rifle is not exactly the weapon one would choose to BRITISH EAST AFRICA 33 make accurate shooting with, at a running animal at that distance ; at any rate, my shot had no other effect than to quicken their pace. But while I was gazing disconsolately after them, something was happening behind me. A lion was roaring in his best feeding-time manner, and my daughter was shouting something which I could not hear. What had really happened was this. While I was out of the way on the top of the bank, a third lion had sneaked back and suddenly found himself face to face with my daughter. The askari with her immediately shot at him. An askari does not usually hit anything, but the shot had the effect of turning him back towards me. Doubtless he now realised that he was in a tight place, with guns in front and behind and water on one side, for he began demonstrating in a very imposing manner. My daughter was, in fact, shouting, " He is coming for you," and the moment I returned to the edge of the bank he left me in no doubt, for he came straight for me into the open. I think a lion, fairly faced, seldom charges straight home at the first intent. At any rate this one paused about eight yards off, and a ten-bore bullet crashed through his shoulder. He retreated noisily into the bushes. Catching sight of him again, I gave him the second barrel with deadly effect, for I saw him fall over. I waved my cap in triumph, and my daughter, who took this as a signal, came up to me, thinking it was all over. It was not, however. While she was approaching the roaring began again. I forgot that there was a fourth lion to be accounted for, and supposed that the one I had seen fall was only partially disabled and was recovering himself. Now we stood in a 34 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS group together, and in a moment my daughter said, "There he is, father." Ali also said, "You no see. Oh dam!" It was a bad case of slow-sightedness, a defect which has cost me many a good chance. I could only see the bushes, from which a succession of earth-shaking grunts proceeded. Yet the covert was so thin that it did not look as if a large animal could conceal himself. At last I moved a few steps down the bank to gain a better sight, and in a moment he bounded out from the thorn - bushes as before, and stopped a few yards from us, raising all the echoes. Still convinced it was the wounded animal, and being so close, I aimed at his eye, and the bullet struck him half an inch below it and traversed his throat into his chest. It just missed his brain, but knocked him over backwards. Though completely disabled, it took two or three more shots with the small bore before he ceased all demonstra- tions. It was not till then that I realised that this was an entirely fresh and unwounded lion, and that my first also lay dead just behind it. I am not prepared to argue the point whether lion- hunting is a suitable sport for young ladies to engage in ; but there is no doubt that, but for M.'s presence in the river-bed, both these lions would have escaped un- perceived along the way we had come. They were fully grown males of great size, and in prime condition. One has a fine mane, a feature which is generally not very conspicuous in an East African lion. We stayed two days in that camp to dry the skins, as my Somalis were anxious to turn them out creditably ; and then continued our journey northwards. o 5 i- > 2 BRITISH EAST AFRICA 35 The nisdit of the lion adventure the whole outline of Mount Kenia became visible for the first time ; thus another object of my ambition was realised. This was almost the only occasion when this queen of African mountains unveiled her charms, and I wondered whether Mr. Mackinder, who was then approaching it, would succeed in penetrating that cold blanket which generally covered those ice-filled conies. Swahili porters bred on the coast cannot stand bad weather at high elevations, and I myself experienced the numbing effect upon them of mist at a much lower level. Although the Athi at Lukenia and for many miles below was a mere chain of pools without any apparent current, I noticed fifteen miles below that it began to flow, and it increased in volume till it became a considerable torrent. I can vouch for it that no affluent reaches it from the east ; but though I cannot be equally certain about the left bank, I am inclined to think the facts point to extensive underground reservoirs which may possibly be tapped for the benefit of future settlers. Below the easterly bend of the Athi the pools assume the dimensions of narrow lakes and are margined with beautiful clumps of papyrus. Ehinoceros were numerous in these parts, and I saw a family of four on one occasion. I had enough already, but amused myself by stalking them with a camera. One in particular was very suspicious, and would not allow me near enough, but at length he hid behind one of the small mounds common hereabouts. I crept up and jumped suddenly on to the top to make him pose well as a sitter, which he did to admiration. For a moment he looked like charging, but when he 36 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS heard the click of the camera he seemed to think his last hour was come, for he went off at a gallop with his tail cocked. Although these experiments afforded me much amusement, the light was at that time so bad that I got no results worth having. On our return to Lukenia I received a curious written recmest from the Indian stationmaster. He wrote : " May- it please your honour of your bounty to grant me a portion of lions' fat or claws or skin, as this is of great use for all kinds of diseases." The passion for this sort of fetish is very strong among the Indian coolies, and lion trophies require to be watched almost day and night, or they are liable to be shorn of claws and whiskers. Throughout the Athi plain there must have been, at one time, a great number of buffalo. Their massive skulls were to be found all over the place. They were swept away by the epidemic of rinderpest, and, though not extinct, the survivors, at the time of my visit, were probably confined to one or two small herds, which should surely receive special protection. Elands, the largest of the African antelopes, also suffered from the same cause and were then rare. Our search for them at Donyo Sabuk was unsuccessful, but while we were there a herd of sixty passed near Lukenia station. My own single encounter with elands led to the worst disappointment of the trip. I had reason to believe that there were some at the foot of an isolated range. After seeking for them for several days I found fresh tracks one morning. Looking round to see that my men were not dispersed, I missed the Swahili boy who was carrying my luncheon. A3 it was essential BRITISH EAST AFRICA 37 that there should be no aimless wandering, I whistled. No response ! Gradually I raised my voice to a shout. It was of no avail. Finally, with great reluctance, I fired my rifle. Even this seemed preferable to having a Swahili wandering at large on the track. There was no answer, and I could wait no longer. Taking up the spoor, half an hour's tracking brought us within sight of the elands — a herd of seven, with one very good head among them, which I judged from the blue-grey colour to belong to a bull. They were feeding cmietly away from us about two hundred yards off. This is too great a distance to risk with a heavy bore rifle, and I began crawling. I had covered thirty or forty yards, and was just debating whether I should take the shot, when I heard the missing boy coming up behind, and whistling hysterically. There he was, standing bolt upright with a red fez on his head. With a swift motion I waved him down into the grass, and, hoping against hope, crawled forward to a little rise. Just as I reached it the heads of the elands went up, and they disappeared into the bush. Looking round, I found my angelic boy calmly walking at my heels while I laboriously crawled. Of course I got no shot at all. This is a fair sample of the brainlessness of the Swahili. This boy must have seen me stalking game a dozen times and profited by it. Yet, as he did not perceive the elands, he was unable to draw the inference. When we re-entered the train to proceed to rail-head we were spectators from the windows of a wonderful trek of wildebeest, which surpassed everything we had pre- viously seen. I am convinced that the herd must have 38 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS contained at least three thousand of these animals. They were moving steadily on in a long line with some set purpose, possibly having been too much persecuted else- where, or in search of better water or pasture. They were in no ways perturbed by the train, but held a course parallel to it ; thus we passed the whole column in review, but not at any one moment. It stretched as far as I could see in both directions, the country being quite open, and must have been quite four miles long. If they held on the same course they would presently have found a brand-new town of corrugated iron and green canvas which had just sprung up in the midst of their favourite feeding-ground. This is Nairobi, destined to be the central depot and workshop of the railway. The town was about two months old at the time of our visit, and contained already a considerable population. From rail-head, at that time a dozen miles beyond Nairobi, we marched through an elevated region of green meadow and forest. In many of these meadows were immense patches of a large yellow cornflower, from which projected the tall spikes of brilliant scarlet tritomas, the "red-hot pokers " of our gardens — a fine contrast with the grass. Here thousands of coolies were engaged in spoiling Nature on the construction line. Our farthest point was the Kikuyu escarpment, a steep slope descending to the Rift Valley. The railway trucks were then intended to be lowered to the floor of the valley by a rope incline, but the permanent gradient to the floor of the valley has now been completed. From this elevated region we gazed over Uganda territory, but were forbidden to enter it by the quarantine against smallpox then raging behind us. Thus we turned coast- 1 I ■ 1 • Br . • BRITISH EAST AFRICA 39 ways again, and in due course embarked at Mombasa just two months after landing there. The question is constantly asked whether our African Protectorates have justified, or will justify, their cost. No one can as yet attempt a final answer, but there are certain governing facts which cannot be ignored, and from these even the most casual visitor can draw logical in- ferences, provided he corrects his own observations by a study of other sources of information. The Protectorate of British East Africa has been in existence since 1895, and previously the Chartered Com- pany had a tenure of several years. Now that the rail- way unites Uganda with it they should be considered as one. Uganda has been constituted a Protectorate for a longer period. The blessings of a partial civilisation have there- fore been more or less extended to a country as wide as France and Germany combined, and it is not too soon to consider the loss and gain from an economical, humani- tarian, and strategical point of view. To what extent, then, have the natives benefited as the philanthropists hoped, or new sources of wealth been discovered as the traders expected, or the Empire been strengthened as statesmen intended ? To answer the last question first : from the strategical point of view, no one can doubt that the railway has tightened our hold on the Nile valley and given us a commanding position in the territories adjoin- ing the great lakes. Most people will think that the five millions which the railway has cost was an insurance which the country could afford to pay, and it is well that we should content ourselves with this, for in that case we shall not be disappointed. 40 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS It is much more difficult to estimate the gain or loss of the British occupation to the indigenous population. On the one hand, the fact stands out that the railway has put an end, once for all, to the iniquities of the slave-trade in those regions, and this is a big item to the credit side. But contact with civilisation has not been an unmixed benefit to these natives. In our Equatorial provinces rinderpest, smallpox, and the jigger were not unknown before the railway came, and therefore cannot be said to have followed in its wake ; but every new facility of communication adds to the risk of these visitations. It may be doubted whether on a balance of advantages the tribes are really happier for the presence in their midst of resident British collectors and squads of Swahili troops representing centralised control, than they were under their own village government. Of course the pax Britannica prevails, but an enforced peace is a doubtful advantage when varied by occasional punitive expeditions in which rifles are opposed to arrows and the innocent are necessarily confounded with the guilty. We are told on high authority that the pure-bred Masai, the bravest and most intelligent of East African races, are dying out, and the survivors becoming enervated by in- activity. We have for good or for evil interfered with the conditions established by centuries of intertribal war. I must confess to a hankering for some corner of the world in which the struggle for existence may go on without let or hindrance from paternal government. We are estab- lishing Reserves in which all kinds of wild beasts are to be left to fight it out. Can we not extend such a measure to some of the human species, to this extent — BRITISH EAST AFRICA 41 that they shall govern themselves, and the strongest shall prevail ? They are more interesting than the four- footed ones ; and though their ideas of life are inscrut- able to us, they may after all, in some respects, be able to teach us something. These remarks have of course nothing to do with the missionaries, who were established in the country long before the present regime, and are in no sense a part of the system. Sir Charles Elliot has compared the railway to a back- bone, and he asks very pertinently, " What is a backbone without a body ? " Let us examine how far sinews and muscles are likely to grow up round the backbone. In ap- praising the commercial prospects of the railway one must remember that the only products that are worth consider- ing are those which it would pay to convey to the coast. The list is therefore limited to those products which have a high value proportionate to their bulk. Grain, for in- stance, handicapped by three or four hundred miles of freightage to the coast, would probably be undersold by that which is sea-borne. Ivory, coffee, and rubber are the commodities which are generally referred to as fulfilling the conditions ; but ivory is little enough, and the quantity carried appears to diminish as the old native hoards of it are tapped and exhausted. The export of it in 1900- 1901 appears to have only amounted to two-thirds of the total for the previous year. There are practically no European settlers who have repeated the experiment of the Shire Highlands and attempted to grow coffee as a commercial speculation ; but scientific experiments, appar- ently successful, have been made by the head of the Botanical Department in the neighbourhood of Kampala, 42 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS and this may be the beginning of an important industry. Rubber-plants exist widely in the forests, but are liable to rapid exhaustion by reckless destruction of the plants. Its collection must depend on native labour, and the native is averse to labour. In the Congo State the Belgians have no doubt got over this, but by methods which would not be tolerated in British territory. Here again the quantity ex- ported last year shows a serious decrease. But I have said enough to show that the future is obscure — not necessarily dark. Science combined with energy may make the wilderness to blossom. The working expenses of the railway last year were, in round figures, £350,000, and this was rather more than balanced by the apparent earnings ; but of the 10,000 tons carried, about four-fifths was for the upward traffic. Now, it is upon the downward traffic that our hopes for the future must centre. I am afraid that the discrepancy can only be explained by the little army of 20,000 coolies engaged on the construction, to whose needs this large importation ministered, and it is obvious that this demand will cease when the railway is finished. Supposing this to be the case, and the upward traffic to drop till it approximately balances the downward or export traffic, which is what one must expect as not unlikely to happen. That would mean a diminution to less than a half of the present nominal earnings, unless the output of the country receives some extraordinary stimulus, or an unexpected demand arises among the native races. At present they have no means to purchase anything, and nothing to sell except their labour, and that they are un- willing to give for love or money. Nor are there at I h < in I I- z o Q z 3 O CO Q DC < u O I BRITISH EAST AFRICA 43 present any white settlers who can be looked to as the producers of the future, except a few distributing agencies in the towns, and the missionaries. The railway has now reached the Victoria Lake, and from this time forward it taps an enormous territory which offers boundless possibilities. But even here it would be wise to avoid optimistic prophecies. These countries are not entirely unexplored. Intelligent travellers of several nationalities have traversed them in many directions, but no mineral or vegetable Eldorado has so far been located. Sir C. Elliot suggests a thorough scientific exploration by experts in both these natural fields, but until that has been done it is premature to count on " cargoes of spice and all things nice." Of course the outlook may be altered in a few months, but the present figures point to this — that we must take out our dividends on the five millions sunk in the railway, in prestige and contingent military advantages ; and that for an unknown period the working expenses will not be covered by the earnings, but must remain a charge on the British taxpayer. h 3 < U. u. - Off CO' II THE WHITE NILE It was at Brindisi that the quartette which formed my party for the White Nile was completed. Ernest and Charlie joined us from Vienna. "The Boy," who was fresh from Eton and had never before crossed the Channel, accompanied me. Every trip is bound to have its share of bad luck, and it is always a relief to have got it over early. Thus my Austrian friends had the singular experience to find the line blocked with snow in the latitude of Naples, and were compelled to make a detour by Rome, where they lost a part of their luggage. We also had performed pilgrim's penance, for our mail-boat ran aground between Dover and Calais. While the lady passengers were lowered in a boat, we men, when the tide ebbed, climbed down over the side, clinging desperately to a frozen rope-ladder, and walked two miles over the gleaming sand to Calais. The 400 mail-bags (it was Friday night) were subsequently thrown over into carts, and our luggage bore evidence of the same treatment with unfortunate results. After these abnormal experiences I counted on immunity from all further disaster, and 45 46 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS this confidence in the kindness of the fates was not misplaced. From that time wind and tide favoured us, and every connection on which we had calculated fitted exactly, until our camels, which had marched from the Blue Nile to the White Nile, met us at a tryst — un- marked on the map — 360 miles south of Khartoum. But this is to anticipate. The spell which the Nile casts over all who have visited its green valley has held me for forty years ; and it was in pursuance of a secret hankering of long standing, dating back, in fact, to the publication of Baker's books in the early seventies, that I sought to carry my knowledge of the sacred stream to Khartoum and beyond, as far as a three months' holiday, and the Sirdar in his wisdom, would permit. The last time I had been in Assouan was in 1862. I remember seeing among other Nubian merchandise a half-grown lion, tied by a rope to a portmanteau, and "minding himself." Since that date I had often wondered where he came from. Now I was perhaps going to find some of his relations. The spot where this strange cargo had been discharged is now dominated by a huge hotel, but this Capua did not detain us ; nor the unlovely details of the dam, destined soon to submerge the delicate tracery of Philae ; nor again the serene deities of Abu Simbel, who have greeted the morning a million times twice counted, and even now seem to smile benignly at our efforts to harness the beneficent stream at their feet ; nor the friendly amenities of Wady Haifa, where we again entered the dust-laden train, to make a short cut of the big Nile bend, nor left it till we were turned out at Halfeyeh, on the right bank \ ALI BARALI. THE WHITE NILE 47 of the Blue Nile. On the opposite side the Union Jack and the flag of the Khedive floating over the square front of the Sirdar's palace offered a friendly greeting, which was not belied ; while near it Gordon College, then rising to the second story, told of the old regime and the new. On the platform, camping behind a zareba of boxes, we found our Cairene servants and two Somali shikaris — Ali Barali and Ali Kharshi, the former of whom had accom- panied me in East Africa. They should have been here a week, and made a number of preparations before our arrival, but had only just arrived under the charge of one Hassan, who was dignified by the name of dragoman, but was scarcely up to his work. Now, this was serious, because the Sirdar, who had courteously postponed until the following day the departure southwards of the monthly gunboat which carries the mails to the southern posts, could not be expected to detain it further. The search for water-skins and rope saddle-bags, as well as the formalities connected with game-licences, the hire of a nuggar, the purchase of horses, donkeys, and a felucca or rowing-boat, and the transfer of our luggage to Omdurman, work which might have taken several days, had to be compressed into twenty-four hours. A distinguished pro-Consul has recently told his Government that the visits of strangers, whether for sport or exploration, are not always welcome to the officers who administer African territory. If these were the sentiments of the busy officials at Omdurman, they artfully concealed them, for without their cordial co-operation we should never have been ready. Division of labour among ourselves accomplished the rest. 48 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS Omdurraan, where most of the Government offices were situated at the time of our visit and all the merchants reside, covers several miles with its mud-walls, sand-swept spaces, and dusty lanes, so that the various points to be visited were wide apart. These distances I endeavoured to cover on a donkey ; but being top-heavy at the best of times, the art of balancing on an unearthed native saddle without stirrups is not my strong point. Thus my observa- tions were superficial. But of the sights of Omdurman by far the most interesting are the people themselves, and the best place to observe them is the market — the gossiping- place of this heterogeneous assembly of tribesmen. The small commerce of the Soudan was in full swing ; and to hear the genial chattering and soft laughter which accom- panied it, you would think that these good-natured blacks had never heard of war and rapine. Here were Dinkas phenomenally tall and thin, broad-shouldered Shilluks, and frog-mouthed Bantus from beyond the Swamps, while the ruthless, impassive Bagara who has enslaved them all in turns stalked among them with contemptuous mien. The policy of the Khalifa was to gather all the fighting elements of the Soudan under his own eye ; thus at the time of Kitchener's occupation the city numbered more than a quarter of a million inhabitants, while the corn-growing regions had been depopulated, and grain had reached such a fabulous price that the system must have soon broken down by its own weight. From all points of the compass they had been collected at the point of the spear, and they exhibit an extraordinary diversity ; but the disdainful Arab of the conquering race is never to be confounded with these others — the happy- A TAME DINKA. THE WHITE NILE 49 go-lucky indigenous Soudanese. However much they may have mixed the blood, the Arab type keeps itself dis- tinct or reverts to its masterful progenitors, and shows itself as much by demeanour as by lineaments. Both Arabs and Soudanese are good fighters, and many of the Khalifa's soldiers have taken service under our flag. Whether any still cherish their fanatical hatred it is impossible to say ; but while the Arab never forgets his pride of race, the full- blooded blacks will serve faithfully whatever masters pay and feed them well. That is to say, he will do so as long as no torch is applied to the very combustible material of which he is compounded. But the explosive is there — too much of it in my opinion, — and it is difficult to understand against what enemy it is intended by us to be used. Some Soudanese belonging to the Dinka tribe were engaged by us as servants and gun-bearers, and we hoped that these would prove useful as interpreters when we got among their fellow-tribesmen. These men, like most of their race, were of fine physique but phenomenally lazy ; and this aversion to labour seems most characteristic of those tribes which, like the Dinkas, own and herd cattle, but do not cultivate to any great extent. Throughout the Soudan the Sirdar exercises a benevo- lent despotism, and without his leave we could not take passage by His Highness's gunboat Zafir, or indeed travel at all beyond Khartoum. His permit to us extended to the right bank of the White Nile as far as Fashoda ; but he advised us against extending our explorations beyond that point, and this of course we regarded as a command. Doubtless he had some good reason for laying this temporary embargo on the sud-country, but it is to E 50 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS be hoped that the great Nile route which has now been opened for a thousand miles above Khartoum will presently be free to all travellers, whether they wear the official uniform or not. We of course made many inquiries as to the animals we expected to find, and our sporting instincts were stirred by the following literal translation of an official report just received by the Government from a native Egyptian officer in charge of a district in the West : " I am obliged to write this myself as my clerks are devils and would not keep my secret, and I beg your pardon for my bad penmanship. A certain animal has lately come to my country ; it is called the ' Kik.' Its face is like a tiger, and it is as big as a donkey. Its back consists of eight rows. It has destroyed one-third of our cattle, and eats men also. The Remington was used, but without effect. I therefore beg that the Government may, by your wisdom, send us some means of destroying this animal." Though we never dis- covered the " Kik " ourselves, it is clearly worth the while of some enterprising sportsman to secure such a trophy. None of the tribes on the White Nile south of Goz abou Guma are owners of camels, but Colonel Jackson had kindly undertaken to arrange with an Arab sheikh to march thirty of these animals, with their necessary camel men, from Wad Medani on the Blue Nile, where large numbers are owned by the Arab tribes, to Kawa on the White Nile, and thence for about two hundred miles along its east bank to a point near Jebel Achmet Agha, where we proposed to disembark. Our chief anxiety now was whether these wild tribesmen would have sufficient faith in the word of an Englishman whom they had never seen THE WHITE KILE 51 to persevere with this march of three hundred miles, two- thirds of which would be through a country totally un- known to them, and keep a tryst the date of which could not be accurately determined beforehand. By twelve o'clock on the day following our arrival we had completed our preparations and got together the most essential parts of our equipment ; the rest we had to do without. At one o'clock we went aboard. The last hour I had spent in a despairing search for my two Somalis, whose instinct of aimless wandering makes them troublesome sheep to shepherd. I lost myself in the maze of dusty lanes bordered by high mud -walls, but by a happy providence I encountered them as they strolled out of some coffee -shop, where they had been sitting regardless of the lapse of time. They looked aggravatingly cool in the long white robes which Somalis affect. With the thermometer somewhere up in three figures I was myself in a melting mood, but not towards them. Friends of Ali Barali will remember the childlike look of innocence which that little man assumes on such occasions. Our gunboat, the Zafir, was triple-decked, the battery, consisting of a 12-pounder and two Nordenfelts, being- mounted on the look-out deck, while the upper deck was sacred to the privileged passengers, and on the lowest tier, or main deck, a motley crew lay among the luggage which cumbered it. But this was not all. We carried with us what may be best described as a floating village. Lashed to either side was a ponderous "sandal" or iron barge with two decks. The upper tiers were crowded with an array of natives and their families, together with a squad 52 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS of Soudanese soldiers, carried as hewers of wood wherewith to feed the engine. The lower deck was occupied by a varied assortment of camels, horses, and donkeys, as well as a modest poultry-yard. As if this was not load enough for our long-suffering engine, three "nuggars" or native sailing boats, forty feet long and broad in proportion, were also lashed alongside. The one hired by us carried, besides its crew, our servants, luggage, and ten sheep, and one sturdy native woman who " did for " the lot. This long-suffering creature had enough industry to compensate for the masterly inactivity of her male relations who sailed with her. Hour after hour she knelt on the prow engaged in the back-breaking labour of grinding doura between two stones, chaffing her friends all the time, while her lighter moments were devoted to cooking in a little dog-hole of a cuddie three feet high, under the planks, whence mysterious smothered sounds continued to be emitted like those made by a terrier barking in a box. As our cook had come on board drunk, we had a great mind to secure the willing old lady as our chef. The other nuggars were even more crowded. I counted over fifty souls on one of them. The wonder was they did not slop over. One in fact did so, and saved himself by seizing a rope. These people were being returned to their tribes free of charge by the Government, in pursuance of their policy of decentralisation. This is not merely that the fertile tracts may be cultivated and the food -supply overtake the demand, but because an overgrown city, and a possibly turbulent population, might become a danger to the seat of government. Judging from the number of babies, the residence of these ££M 'M «f. w» - ■ • ^C«*S Ib ' IK " V/%2 » < s. » n ft! o < 0) THE WHITE NILE 53 people in Omdurmau was not barren of results, and it was amusing to note the petits soins which great hulking papas lavished on the toilet of their black mites. These Soudanese are models of the homely virtues. It is strange that so much domestic bliss should have emerged from the hell-gate of the Khalifa's city. It was one o'clock before we drew away from the bank, and calls had to be made farther up for belated passengers or forgotten stores. It was after four before we passed the junction of the rivers and our stern-wheeler began to hammer its way at full speed, which averages about four mfles an hour, against the current. And now at once began the real charm of the voyage — the teeming bird- kfe. Owing; to the heading back of the water of the "White Nile by the tremendous floods of the Blue Nile, there are, during the season of low-water, wide stretches of bare mud on the foreshore arid low-lying banks. These muds constitute the feeding - grounds of vast flocks of waders and aquatic birds. The river opposite Omdurman was haunted by numbers of gulls and terns, unexpected birds to find fifteen hundred miles from the sea, but whether they migrate here or are bred in the marshes I do not know. By the time we tied up for the night we had only made ten miles, but in that short space we had seen huge flocks of storks, geese, grey demoiselle cranes, coal-black ibis and snow-white ones, spoonbills, black -headed gulls, pelicans, wood -ibis, avocets, spur-winged geese, teal, and ruddy sheldrake. The long lines of the last-named sitting at the edge of the water made a brilliant piece of colour in the setting sun. Some of the storks and ibis have the habit of spreading their wings to the sun ; and when a row of 54 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS them maintains this rigid attitude, they have the appear- ance of ladies holding up their skirts with both hands. Towards evening many of these birds shifted their ground and passed us on the wing with a great clatter. The next morning we added to the list of birds observed the sacred ibis, which has a white body with black head and neck. It was no doubt the striking appearance of this bird which attracted the ancient Egyptians, who domesticated them and mummied them at death. I think it is now extinct or a rare visitor in Lower Egypt. An old friend, the golden-crested crane, was present, but in small numbers. I got out my long-range camera, from which I hoped great things, but a steady foundation is essential to that instrument, and I soon found that the vibration of the engine made a well-defined picture im- possible. The pictures here given were really taken at a later stage. Besides these ever- varying pictures of bird -life, the banks offered an endless panorama of lively scenes. The whole population of the Ghezireh, or island, as that portion is called which is comprised between the two Niles, seems to migrate to the neighbourhood of the river in the dry season, and countless herds of cattle or goats accompany them. The astonishing thing is that these flocks should have so multiplied since the depredations of the Khalifa, unless it be that they were hidden from the greedy eyes of his Bagaras in some remote ranges, or it may be that he had the foresight to keep this rich district as a favoured reserve for the supply of Omdurman. All day the banks as we passed them exhibited a moving scene of men, women, and beasts, and this continues for about a hundred THE WHITE NILE 56 and fifty miles above Khartoum. Beyond that the popula- tion is scantier or more hidden by tall riverine vegetation. Many of the natives were engaged in sowing the islands which were but just appearing above the retreating waters. On our return voyage six weeks later the mud had dis- appeared under a waving crop. Some villages of straw beehive huts appeared on the bank. There must have been many others farther back, to judge from the number of natives visible. The party on board consisted, besides ourselves, of two other English sportsmen, two American missionaries on their way to seek a fresh station among the Shilluks, and a young officer who was proceeding to the remotest station on the Belgian frontier, and who, being the only com- missioned officer on board, w r as technically in command of the ship. I did not envy him his solitary banishment, though he had no complaints to make of his prospects. Such single-handed commands in remote districts, away from any European companionship, must be a severe strain on any man, and a doubtful economy. Passengers are carried on these gunboats by the courtesy of the Government, but they are expected to cater and cook for themselves. We messed together, the various parties taking it in turns to feed as many as the single table would hold. There were two or three small cabins on our deck, but they were too airless to sleep in, and as the evening advanced we divided up the narrow deck among our respective angereeps. These native bed- steads, being made of plaited strips of skin on a wooden frame, afford very cool and comfortable lying when well made, but are a cranky load on a camel. The next day 66 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS we halted for fuel, the wood being ready cut and piled on the shore. A similar halt was necessary every day, but on all subsequent occasions the necessary fuel had to be cut and carried by our own men, and this is an operation which takes from four to six hours, or even longer, accord- ing to the proximity of the jungle. As a rule, a halt of so many hours at a spot tolerably favourable for wooding would provide for that number of hours' steaming and no more. The jungle is being rapidly denuded near the river, and this points to a serious problem for the im- mediate future unless a hidden treasure of coal or mineral- oil should be discovered. The furnaces appear to be only capable of burning small wood ; thus only the branches and smaller stems are cut, the large trunks being left standing, which seems wasteful. If means could be found to fell and split these, a better class of fuel would be provided. These halts for wooding gave us an escape from our narrow quarters, and we scoured the country north, south, and east, hoping to vary our bill of fare. On one occa- sion I contributed to the larder two crested cranes, which are not bad eating ; but a goose which I annexed was impossibly tough. One of the men had a casting- net which he used with excellent results in the shallow water. Some of his catch weighed 2 or 3 lbs., and were well- flavoured fish. Farther south we began to see man}' guinea-fowl, which thenceforth held an important place in the menu. They prefer to use their legs rather than their wings, and, as they can run faster than a man can walk, they are not particularly easy to shoot. As they are constantly walking down in a long string to feed on THE WHITE NILE 57 the marsh, the best way to circumvent them is to post guns in the jungle behind them, and send beaters round, when they give fair overhead shots. Their numbers are extraordinary, and many parts of the jungle have the appearance of a crowded poultry-yard. They must come from a long way inland to water and feed on the marsh. It is scarcely too much to say that they are never out of sight, but always on the run. On one occasion I saw Dinkas trying to spear some which they had cut off in a patch of grass. It seemed a futile proceeding. A more effective method employed by them is a long cord laid across their line of march, with a noose at every run used by the birds, into which they are driven. It is certain that they catch many, as I constantly saw them in their hands. Crocodiles were seen on the second day, looking like greenish slimy logs ; and small families of hippopotamus began to appear after we passed the ford at Abu Zeid. They seem to be in great dread of the steamers, and only show their heads for a moment's breathing-space. I fancy they have been much shot at from the passing boats, although the practice is nominally forbidden. It is dan- gerous to natives on shore, besides being cruel and wasteful, as a bullet would not kill unless it should enter the brain, and in that case the animal sinks and does not rise again until the steamer has passed on its way. I would plead with the authorities to make the actual course of the river a reserve or sanctuary, allowing no shot to be fired from boat or steamer. This would also save the bird-life which adds such a unique charm to this voyage. I remember the Nile in Lower Egypt in 1862, which then abounded 58 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS with aquatic life. In that and successive years a great English seigneur visited it with all the paraphernalia of punts and swivel-guns. His bags of geese and other fowl for two or three years in succession were numbered in thousands, and he returned covered with glory. He bad practically cleared the stream for ever and a day from Cairo to Assouan. For pity's sake let us avert this vulgar desecration in the upper regions while there is time. There is no valid reason why wanton destruction should tread on the heels of civilised government. After passing Duem, a hundred miles above Khartoum, the low shore began to be dotted over with large masses of sud, consisting of tall grasses or papyrus, which had floated down the stream and stranded with the falling river, but continued to grow in their new positions. Pre- sumably these islands have been carried down from the sud - cutting operations. As we advanced they became more and more frequent, until at length they were merged in a continuous wall of vegetation, which thenceforth lined both sides of the river, and through which it was difficult to perceive the landing-places used by the natives. It formed the edge of a marsh wliich grew ever wider as we proceeded. We had passed out of the region of the great aquatic feeding-grounds, and strong swimmers like the pelicans or perching fishermen like the herons, night-herons, and fish- eagles took the place of the big flocks of waders, which, however, still occupied in force the shallow lagoons and wet khors within the marsh. Natives themselves were seen comparatively seldom, and it was only once or twice that we observed their long narrow canoes being poled under the shadow of the reeds by a naked fisherman. THE NUGGAR COOK. THE WHITE NILE 59 Indeed, the rarity of rowing-boats and almost total absence of sailing -boats throughout the White Nile is most ob- servable, and is attributed to the fact that the Khalifa impounded them all. Occasionally we saw canoes formed of bundles of ambatch wood with the ends brought together in an elevated prow, something like those one sees depicted on early Egyptian tombs. The ambatch is a buoyant, pithy stem which grows in marshy places near the river. Such craft are too frail to carry loads. In this thinly populated country we began to see larger game. Hippos were much more numerous, and from the gun- deck we more than once viewed the shadowy outlines of antelopes standing in the shade of mimosa-thorns. One day we met the down -coming babur, as every puffing steamboat is called by Europeans and natives alike. We both drew into the bank so that the outer corners of our respective sandals came into contact. Then a babel of greeting arose as the denizens of the lower deck stretched and jabbered at their friends, while the " quality " above also exchanged the news, and the two "reises," walking out on the rafters which covered the upper deck, compared notes on the condition of the shallows and other mysteries. This information was most necessary to us, as the river was very low and navigation henceforth became difficult in places, while our zigzag progress was accom- panied by frequent grinding sounds under the keel. At Renk the other hunting-party found their nuggar, which had been sent forward, and left us. The disem- barkation of their live stock, and especially the compulsory- headers of the camels, afforded to the whole company half an hour of delirious joy. Three weeks later we heard, to our 60 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS great regret, that our companions of a week had had to abandon their hunt owing to one of them being attacked by dysentery. I mention the incident as a warn- ing, because this insidious enemy generally approaches under cover of bad water, or milk served in tainted vessels. At Renk we secured two Selim Arabs, father and son, the younger of whom, named Talib, became my constant companion after we landed. He had the local knowledge which my Somali shikaris lacked. From them we heard, to our great relief, that our camels had passed on their way southward eight days previously, and were waiting for us at a landing-place which they called Tereba, fifteen miles short of Jebel Achmet Agha. The latter was the appointed tryst, but we were told that there was no prac- ticable landing-jslace there. I may here observe that a landing can be effected anywhere in the dry season, but wet khors, which traverse the marsh, and which often run parallel to the river for many miles, hinder the passage of loaded animals ; and it is therefore only at certain points, not always easy to perceive from the river, from which a sound path can be found across the marsh to the solid ground beyond, where the thorn-jungle begins, that a traverse can be effected. As we neared the supposed site of Tereba there was nothing visible but the usual wall of reeds. Our reis seemed in doubt of its real position and appealed fre- quently to the Renk Arabs, who scanned the bank anxiously and seemed puzzled. There was no village hereabouts or other sign of human occupation ; but at length they seemed to identify some group of thorn-trees or other landmark, and we drew into a small spot of bare THE WHITE NILE 61 bank. Here we were soon engaged in treading down the reeds and otherwise making a practicable causeway where- by to land our horses, donkeys, and the two or three sheep which had not been consumed on the voyage. All hands not engaged in woodcutting busied themselves in trans- porting our equipage to a fairly sound spot in the jungle, two hundred yards from the river. Our nuggar cast off from the babur and moored to the shore. It was hence- forth to constitute our reserve storehouse and base on the river, as well as post-office. It was to move up-stream parallel with our caravan marching along the native path, w T hich is sometimes close to the river and at others two or three miles from it. It was to wait for us at certain landing- places, and would receive and hold all messages for the outer world, in token of which it carried at the end of the long yard-arm a certain signal-flag by day and lantern by night, denoting its desire to be spoken by any passing steamer. And now our tw T o Arabs were sent inland in haste to seek the camel -camp, for upon these animals depended our mobility ; without them we could not move even the most necessary trunk a single mile from this mosquito- infested spot. Imagine the shock on their return with the disastrous news that the camp was easy to discover by the camel-droppings, a mile inland, but it w 7 as empty ! No mariner stranded on the desert shore could have felt worse than we did for a few minutes. Had they, after waiting for a week, given us up in despair and returned on their tracks ? However, our anxiety was presently refieved by another messenger who had waylaid a passing native. From him it appeared that the sheikh in charge had decided to go on to Achmed Agha, which indeed was 62 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS the original meeting-place appointed. It was too late to do anything that day, but Talib was confident that by starting very early in the morning he could bring them back by the next evening. And now to see what game there was in the neigh- bourhood. Leaving the Boy to shoot guinea-fowl for the pot, we went farther afield. Before night Ernest had come in with a fine water-buck, and this put us at ease as regards meat and raised our spirits, as first blood always does. It generally happens that the first camp reveals certain defects in equipment. We had already discovered that our dragoman had no resource and our cook no science. These negative qualities were extremely pro- nounced in the inevitable confusion of the landing. Our first dinner was a laughable failure, but we ceased to laugh before it was half over. As the sun went down we realised to the full the drawbacks of our position. Being surrounded by marsh and "cotton" soil, which is the breeding-place of mosquitoes, we were attacked by legions of these insects. We dashed for every conceivable woollen garment wherewith to protect neck, wrists, and ankles, which are the most vulnerable places, and, hastily mounting our mosquito -curtains, crept humbly to bed. But not to sleep, for it takes time and forethought to defeat these persistent enemies. An attempted bath reduces the victim to frenzy in two minutes. Here the only remedy is for a friend, or two friends, to dance round the bather flickering a large towel like summer lightning. As these snipers constitute the intolerable worry of this country, it is worth while to indicate some precautions. \ THE WHITE NILE 63 Something may be done with smoking logs, judiciously placed to windward, something too with gaiters, gauntlets, and mufflers, but the choice of the position of the camp is the important point. Cotton-soil is the Nile deposit, which, as it dries, cracks in every direction, and from these cracks the demons issue. It extends inland as far as the Nile flood reaches — a long way in low-lying places. The tents should be pitched as far from it on the solid yellow soil as possible, and always with a thought for the blessed northern breeze. Not only should beds be netted as carefully as gooseberry -bushes, but the dining-table also with a net large enough to cover the diners. The bed should also be large enough to lie on without any part of the person touching the net, or the prominence will be instantly discovered by a squadron of lancers. Essences are not of much use, as they are generally too volatile ; but in bad cases smoking wood inside the tent, if it does not set it on fire, will probably silence the trumpets for a season. In the morning we divided up our hemisphere, each of us taking a segment as his sphere of action, and sallied forth to catch something. I had an inland beat. I soon saw water-buck, but outside my spbere, and in another mile got into continuous cane-brake eight feet high. Some of the stems were erect and some prostrate, but all cracked like castanets, and made still hunting impossible. On the main path, which follows a course parallel to the river, I made my first acquaintance with the Dinka countryman, a friendly creature ; and through Ali Kharshi, my second Somali shikari, I got further reassuring tidings of the camels. This may seem strange, for " Harry," as I called him, had never been north of Aden before, but his linguistic 64 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS powers were remarkable, and in our communications with these people I soon learnt to rely upon him. He had already greatly improved upon the basis of Arabic which is found in the vocabulary of the Somalis. With this lingua franca, though the Dinkas do not generally speak it, he came to an understanding with them more readily than any of my other followers, but perhaps that was because none of them really understood my jargon as well as he did. But to return to camp — which I did that night empty- handed, — Charlie brought in a beautiful cat, not much bigger than the British wild -cat, but Avith all the fine markings of a leopard. It had dashed away in front of him, and, though he could only follow its movement by the waving of the grass, he had put a lucky bullet through its leg. Though I use the word, I ought to say that nearly all Charlie's bullets had a happy knack. Anyhow this misguided cat, feeling her wound, sprang up a tree, from which she fell an easy victim. Later we had news of the return of our camels to their camp, an excellent piece of work on Talib's part, for it meant a thirty miles' march since morning. We were anxious to escape from the mosquito zone, and in the morning the whole cavalcade with their Arab owners and the camel sheikh turned up early, with a great hullaballoo, inside our zareba. These Blue Nile camels are fine shapely creatures, able easily to carry from 360 lbs. to 400 lbs., which is much beyond the capacity of a Somali or Egyptian camel. Their masters were less attractive, and showed a most unpleasant independence, not to say impertinence. If the merciful man is merciful h. r i- UJ -1 H THE WHITE NILE 65 to his beast, these Arabs were conspicuous for that virtue. They had an acute perception for a light load, and a great alacrity in packing it up and escaping outside the precincts. The camel -sheikh had a superb manner and a gift of dignified speech, but he was more afraid of his men than of us. Our salvation lay in this : these Arabs have a passionate desire for meat. Thus we held the key of the position. The withholding of meat had a better disciplinary effect than the sheikh's courbatch. Charlie and the Boy were excellent whippers-in, and quickly brought back these shirkers and compelled them to take up their proper burdens. In these arrangements Hassan bore a conspicuous but not useful part. His inflated manner did not impose on the self-willed Arabs, and his lofty air gave way to screaming invective followed by a stage of gaping impotence. The night before, he had omitted to bake the bread, and in the morning forgot our breakfast. We therefore gave particular instructions as to our luncheon. We had brought with us three horses and five donkeys. The former might, in my opinion, have been dispensed with ; the latter are the more agreeable to ride, as they are less apt to " peck " among the cracks of the cotton - soil. Moreover, they will feed themselves anywhere, and do not stray. We got off at mid-day, and were soon far ahead of the slow-moving " baggagers." When we stopped and called for luncheon we found that our genius had packed it on a camel, which was miles behind, instead of in his saddle- bags. For this reason, and because it is always advisable to do so at the outset, we shortened the first day's journey, and thoroughly enjoyed a lazy camp, which we were careful F 66 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS to pitch well back from the marsh, so as to be free from insect tortures. In the course of my evening stroll I saw several water- buck on the marsh, but, as is frequently the case, a wide and deep backwater here ran between it and the firm ground where the jungle grows, and prevented my getting at them. An extensive grass fire was blazing on the marsh, and as we sat at dinner, in the deepening gloom, we were treated to very pretty fireworks. The line of fire, visible through a belt of tall mimosa stems, appeared to extend for a mile or more ; and as it reached the denser portions, tongues of flame shot skywards, with much crackling and showers of sparks, throwing an orange reflection on the dense columns of smoke. Along the edge of the Khor I encountered many monkeys, long-tailed and white- whiskered. They were seeking their food on the ground, most likely grasshoppers. Whichever way I turned, troops of guinea-fowls were visible running in front of me. We had hardly resumed our march the next morning, when we came across the fresh tracks of a considerable herd of elephants — fifteen or sixteen of them — which had crossed the path on their way to the river. This was the only sign of elephants that we saw during this trip, and I am inclined to think it was the only band in the neighbourhood at the time. From that time we daily covered between us so much ground parallel to the river, that we must have seen their tracks, if there had been others, when they came to water. It was quite otherwise with the buffalo, or gamuss, to adopt the Arabic term. We found frequent and unmistak- able signs of them, which rejoiced our hearts, as this a z 05 CO o DC THE WHITE NILE 67 was one of the animals with which we most desired to become acquainted. A sounder of hogs was also viewed. And now, through openings in the jungle, we began to see the rocky hill of Achmet Agha. It rises about four hundred feet from the dead-level of the plain, and shares with Jebel Ain the distinction of being a genuine land- mark visible for long distances. From Duem to the Sobat, at least, these two are the only visible rocks in the immediate neighbourhood of the Nile. Before reaching the base of the little mountain we encountered a marshy khor, which, coming from the east, crossed our road, and had to be traversed. Not knowing the capabilities of our camels, we were a little doubtful about their willingness to face water. It was not, however, more than knee-deep, and they made light of it. Indeed, my subsequent experience of camels as waders is, that they are far less nervous in swamps than horses or donkeys, whose small feet pass through the rotten vegetation. Hassan would entrust his precious person to none of them, but mounted the back of a rather small nigger, who was quite unequal to the task and dropped him full length in the muddiest part, to the great joy of the camel-men. As we were effecting this transit, a pretty band of water-buck crossed the khor a few hundred yards below. I followed them, and succeeded in getting, without detection, within thirty yards of some of the does, but the bucks had disappeared. We rounded the hill and found a convenient camping - ground on the south side of it, and after a square meal " felt good," for here was the goal which in imagination we had pictured to ourselves for months 68 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS previously. Unless we had greatly miscalculated, we were now in the heart of a good game-country. The first thing to do was to discover the whereabouts of the nuggar, and Hugh, volunteering to face the mid-day heat, started with Hansa, This Arab was the putative father of Talib. His mother must have been a good woman, for Hansa, unlike his son, was a confirmed shirker. According to him it was too late, the khor was too deep, the nuggar had not arrived; but the useful formula, "no nuggar, no meat," prevailed, and in due course they returned and reported that she lay about three miles off to the south, and easily accessible for camels, by crossing one khor, not more than leg - deep. Ernest climbed a hill, whence he learnt some geography and caught a glimpse of a leopard, while I went to seek the water-buck seen in the morning. I soon found them or another band, but out on the marsh where the ground was flat and the grass scarcely high enough to conceal me. My first attempt at approach was spoilt by the donkey which I had brought to carry any meat I might get. The syce, finding himself alone in a strange country, had got nervous, and followed in our tracks, thus putting the water-buck away. This dislike of solitude is, I think, common to all Africans. In my experience it is most difficult to persuade a black man to remain by himself where he is told. But water-buck are the least suspicious of animals. Giving them a little time to get on to better ground, we had the satisfaction of seeing them approach a khor where the grass was tempting and they would be hidden in the depression. I had an idea that by creeping to the edge CO h 3 K IL h- CO DC THE WHITE NILE 69 of the khor, at good rifle range from the spot where they had entered it, I could get a quiet shot and pick the best head, but allowed myself to be persuaded by Ali, who has a partiality for getting within spear-throw if he can. Thus we jumped them, and they dashed across our front, making for the jungle. A running shot has never been my forte, but on this occasion I stopped the best buck I saw. Another, which I think was better, eluded me by galloping along the khor for 200 yards before he turned for the covert. Leaving my men to cut up the animal and load the donkey, I started homewards through the jungle. I had only one cartridge in the rifle, as I did not want any more meat ; but seeing an oribi, an antelope about as large as a hare, with small straight horns, I fired, and un- doubtedly hit it. The covert being very thick, I failed to find it, and then, having never a shot in my locker, and the sun being down, and this a lion country, the same terror of solitude came over me which afflicted my poor syce, and I hurried home. The next morning Charlie found the remains of my oribi by the birds which were eating it. Though these little antelopes are numerous, it was two or three weeks before I happened to secure another, and that in rather an unusual manner. I was on the marsh, following a dry khor, when two oribi appeared at a long distance, but racing towards me, one male chasing another. Scmatting in the grass, I waited till they passed me within thirty yards, then, by whistling, stopped the hindmost, who fell a victim. As darkness increased, we were surprised by a number of twinkling fires on the Jebel. These proved to be the work of natives who were smoking out bees. This must 70 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS be a comparatively simple operation, as these bees attach their comb to the outside of a branch of some bush, a few feet from the ground. Some of the honey was brought to us as an offering;, but it was not attractive to taste or smell. That night a lion challenged close to camp, so my fears were not quite groundless after all. Charlie reported having caught sight of what he believed to be a roan antelope in the jungle, and the tracks showed buffalo to be numerous in the dense belt which borders the marsh. These two species carried the trophies most coveted by us, and we retired to bed content with our prospects. The lot fell to me to try beyond this belt to the east- ward, where the bush thins out, and is broken by small open plains, growing tall cane -grass in patches. This is better stalking -ground, though the game leaves it for shade when the sun gets hot. Ali and Talib accompanied me, the latter carrying his huge Dervish spear, a dignified but not very comfortable weapon. If carried aloft, the great leaf-like blade flashed in the sun, and was calculated to alarm every four-footed thing within a mile. If, on the other hand, he lowered his weapon, its proximity to my person frightened me even more. That was the last day the spear was allowed out of camp when hunting. But Talib's sharp eyes and knowledge of the country were indispensable, and on the whole he was prouder to carry my spare rifle. Five miles from camp, when the Jebel already looked low on the horizon, he espied the heads of some large antelope, just showing over the tall grass, which he thought were abou aroof, to quote the Arabic name of the roan. The glass revealed the erect mane and immense ears distinctive of those animals. They THE WHITE NILE 71 were four or five hundred yards off, and the air was blowing in their direction, so we turned sharp to the left with the intention of making a circuit ; but the herd was a large one, and, though we were at first unaware of the fact, they were spread out in a long line at right angles to our course. Thus our circuit was not large enough, and, though we were invisible to them, the cloud of dust which arose showed that the breeze had carried a warning to them and they were galloping. Eunning forward to clear the screen of grass, the herd crossed us, streaming by in Indian file, with manes and tails streaming. The moment they perceived the cause of their alarm, they pulled up short for a stare, and I attempted a shot ; but their great size deceived me as to the distance, and the bullet fell short. This seemed to alarm them but little, and having taken stock of us they dropped into a walk and passed leisurely through a belt of mimosa -thorns. This gave us a chance to diminish the distance, and as we reached the further edge of the belt some were still at fair range. Though it is by no means easy to distinguish the males at two hundred yards, as the females carry horns which are quite as long, one, bringing up the rear, was a very heavy beast, and I felt confident of his sex, and dropped him in his tracks. Like every other African traveller, I had long desired to add this species to my collection ; indeed, his great size, rich colour, and striking face-marks make the roan a very desirable trophy. His horns, which were only a fair average length, were very red in colour — the effect, I imagine, of rubbing on the stems of some species of thorn-tree. Some of our Arabs had stealthily followed us, anxious 72 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS for meat, and we sent them back for camels to carry the meat to camp. Sir Samuel Baker gives to this variety of roan the name of maaref. Maaref signifies in Arabic, " I do not know," and it is surmised that it was given in reply to his inquiry of the native name of the animal — a singular error for so good a linguist. However that may be, the name maaref has clung to it in the natural -history books ever since. As a matter of fact, it does not appear to differ appreciably from the roan found in other parts of Africa. When galloping, their long tails and manes give them almost the appearance of wild horses, and this resemblance is enhanced by their habit of snorting when frightened. At least, I noticed this habit in a herd which I surprised by moon- light, a few nights later. As we were now about six miles from the river, I determined to spend the rest of the morning in an investiga- tion of the daily movements of the various animals. We had been informed that the buffalo and larger antelopes spend most of their time far inland ; but though I followed for several miles a line due south and parallel with the river, it had not been recently crossed by any heavy animal except by a number of giraffes, whose stale tracks were very deep, showing that they had passed many weeks before, when the ground was still soft. Though in an ordinary season there may be wet khors and water-holes which make it possible for the game to live away from the river, I came to the conclusion that in the present exceptionally low Nile they were all concentrated within the riparian belt. This was an important fact governing our future a. O _. W H Z < Z < o THE WHITE NILE 73 movements. The giraffe whose tracks I have mentioned had probably gone east to the Blue Nile or south to the Sobat, as we never saw any of them, and only one fresh track. On again Hearing the river I at once noticed tracks of most of the animals I have mentioned, and I saw succes- sively bustard, tetel (hartebeest), roan, and a very good water-buck. This fine head I was tempted to secure, but we had meat enough for our men. What I denied, however, to my sporting instincts, I yielded to my stomach, for I shot two gazelles for our own eating, as their meat is superior to that of the roan. This gazelle is described as " Rufifrons" by the naturalists, but that is a West African species. The straight horns of the male and its lateral black stripe seem to ally it rather closely to Thomson's gazelle of East Africa. In camp a considerable curing establishment was in full swing. Our men had erected temporary stands and covered them with long strips of meat, which had the appearance of fishermen's nets hung out to dry. Thus not a scrap of the meat killed on that or any other occasion was wasted. Innumerable vultures and white -necked crows strolled about almost at arm's-length waiting for offal, while a few marabout storks, white-waistcoated like old gentlemen in evening dress, stood waiting for dinner. My next attempt was for a buffalo, but in this I was, for the moment, doomed to failure. The track which I followed — a very large one — unfortunately led down wind. It was a very long stern -chase, and ulti- mately the deeply driven toe - marks warned us that he had had the wind of us. It is probable that we had started him several times before we discovered this. 74 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS That night a slight accident occurred which interfered with my sport for some days. I was opening a bottle of ammonia wherewith to assuage the irritation of mosquito bites, and the instant I cut the string which secured the cork a lot of highly volatibsed liquor was violently driven into my eyes. Fortunately I was sitting by the bath, and plunged my head under water, and my companions had soon blindfolded me with wet compresses. This averted any serious consequences, but I was unable for the time to make effective use of my eyes. When I was convalescent I believe I caught sight of the only herd of Jackson's hartebeest seen by any of us, but my sight was too dim to be sure of anything. These animals appear to be but rarely seen south of Achmet Agha. My accident was " The Boy's " opportunity. He had joined us avowedly on the understanding that he was to tend the faltering steps of his old uncle. I repaid this protection by giving him a few lessons. I sent him out at first to try his 'prentice hand at guinea-fowl, oribi, and such-like small deer, and armed with my ten-bore "Paradox" loaded with swan-shot. Ali persisted in calling this my "masher" gun, by which I understood that he meant " scatter " gun. Perhaps it scattered too much, for the result was nil. This weapon he ex- changed for a small-bore rifle, Kharshi acting dry-nurse. Though he had had no previous experience, he was an apt pupil, and the number of cartridges he got through was quite surprising. On the second day, somewhat to my alarm, I heard a terrific fusilade — fifteen shots in rapid succession — followed by silence which might signify annihilation or an exhaustion of ammunition. As a THE WHITE NILE 75 matter of fact, lie had seen a gigantic oribi, which turned out to be a water-buck, and rained bullets into or over it, the last one bringing it down. But his liveliest time was at night. Scorning ease, and with the enthusiasm which is such a blessed thing while it lasts, the Boy invariably slept on the ground by the fire, so as to be favourably placed for any night encounter. He kept his rifle by his side, also his boots. There was a purpose in that. When Karulla, whose duty it was to replenish the fire, overslept himself, as he always did, he received one of the latter full in his back. The fire made up, he would meekly search in the dark for the missile, and restore it to its owner, to be handy for the next time. Now, the Boy's pet aversion was hyenas, who, needless to say, were very demonstrative round the zareba when there was meat in camp. Two or three times in the night he would bound up and stand peering into the darkness, and if, with the vain imagining of youth, he fancied he perceived a movement, bang went the rifle, of course wholly without result. I discouraged this practice, which did not tend to repose. Now, this grudge was prophetic, for the hyenas eventually scored off him. He had one night brought into camp the head of a much- coveted antelope, and, the hour being late, he omitted to skin the trophy, which was placed, almost at his elbow, under the heap of firewood laid for the night's consump- tion. In the small hours I heard a sudden crash of wood followed by a hue-and-cry, but the hyena, who had crept in through a gap in the zareba, under cover of the dark- ness, got away with his prize. When daylight came, the trail of the bloody head was easy to follow, and the place 76 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS where the titbit was consumed soon found. Of course, not a rag remained except the naked horns. Thus the Boy was started on his career. Now, four rifles cannot hunt from one camp. Even three is too many. Indeed, we had from the first intended to make two camps. Ernest, winning the toss, elected to stay with his brother in the Jebel camp. His choice was justified, for buffalo evidently frequented the place. After dividing up the stores, the Boy and I proceeded leisurely southwards, our chief aim being to find another good buffalo centre. When we fouud signs plentiful, and had put suffi- cient distance between us and our friends to ensure our not interfering with their sport, we camped at once. The next morning, leaving the caravan to follow on our tracks, we started along the main path an hour before sunrise, hoping to catch the gamuss as they left their feeding- ground, While it was still grey twilight, the path approached a chain of small lagoons with fine young grass on its banks. Some big black masses, dimly visible, were slowly moving about on it a quarter of a mile ahead. This was just what we sought. One camel with his driver had accompanied us thus far. To the latter we gave positive orders to stay where he was. We then dived into the thick bush to cover our advance, and emerged in due course opposite the lagoon ; but alas ! the beasts had vanished, and no wonder, for the afore-mentioned Arab, afflicted with the passion for society of which I have spoken, had advanced along the track which was in full view of the buffalo, and had put them away. But at least we had found their feeding-ground, and now for a camp near enough but not too near. A mile farther on the jungle THE WHITE KILE 77 opened out, leaving a wide grass-covered area with a low hill in the middle of it — that is, a hill in its comparative sense, where the surrounding country is so flat, for it was not more than twenty feet high. But it was high enough to command a very extensive view over the marsh, here from one to two miles wide, and not unduly cut up with impassable khors, but with plenty of damp shallow depressions green with sprouting grass, and very attractive to any ruminants in the neighbourhood, although these favoured spots were hidden from view by the high dead grass on the drier parts. Moreover, from the open character of this desirable location the precious north breeze reached our tents, not unduly filtered through foliage. True, we were some way from the river, so that our camel -men were tempted to fill the waterskins from some stagnant pool instead of the pure flowing stream. This was a danger, and the first delinquents were whipped. The process looked formidable, for they were laid in a row on their faces preparatory to receiving their dues. But it was rather an empty form, for the sheikh contented him- self with mildly stroking them with the courbatch. As I have already explained, he was afraid of his men, and his castigations had few terrors. Our camels having little to do, it was easy to main- tain daily communication and exchange the news with the sister camp, about twelve miles distant. We eagerly looked forward to the daily bulletin of our friends' suc- cesses and failures, which generally arrived about dinner- time. Thus we heard that Charlie had crossed the river, and sat up one night for a lion which had taken some sheep 78 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS belonging to a Shilluk village. He returned with glorious wounds — from mosquitoes. The lion was heard in close proximity. He was content to fight a vicarious battle, until the enemy retired, utterly defeated by these mercenaries. What that man must have suffered for the off-chance ! His face was like raw beef for days. As a set-off to this, there was rejoicing when Ernest got his first buffalo. This animal, a solitary old bull, had been seen to go down to- wards the river in the daytime — a somewhat unusual course for a gamuss to take — and was believed to be concealed somewhere in the reeds. Arrived near the spot, his shikari climbed tree after tree in the hope of locating his ugly black body. At length, from one of these posts of observa- tion, he described in pantomime the flapping of wings of a bird, and, looking through the grass, Ernest perceived an egret sitting on something, which might be a ridge of mud or a crocodile or a dead log. But remembering to have seen these birds playing a social part with buffaloes in South Africa, he approached near enough to make out an indefinite black ridge almost concealed by the reeds. Now, every one who has visited Italy or the East knows how the domesticated buffalo immerses itself in the water, all but the head and ridge of the back, and this gamuss was doubtless acting after its kind. It was impossible to approach noiselessly for the swamp, but if the thing lived it was necessary to make it show itself, and he now sent his men round so that their wind should be wafted over the reeds. The moment this was the case the buffalo sprang up and plunged away through the swamp, but not till he had received two bullets which quickly caused him to subside in the shallow water. a. in o z UJ > < o 03 UJ a. o 5 THE WHITE NILE 79 Near the " Hill " cainp was a party of nomadic Arabs, who, I think, had come from the western bank. They were arrant thieves, and were suspected of stealing our two remaining sheep. At any rate, this remnant of our little flock disappeared mysteriously one day, when these people were the only natives in our neighbourhood. That race is ever predatory by habit and instinct, and I am bound to admit that the Arabs of our own household — the camel-men — may have hankered for a change from game- meat. I never had reason to doubt the honesty of the Dinkas, who are indigenous to the soil and whom we now encountered frequently. Indeed, we had some instances of the voluntary restoration of lost property. Considering what the Dinka has suffered during the past fifty years from " Turk " and Khalifa, not to go farther back, his confidence is surprising. No doubt it is already recognised that Lord Cromer's promises, personally tendered to the chiefs, are genuine, and that the English- man pays in brass wire or other luxurious raiment, or even in round discs of silver which he never saw before, but which he is told have a mysterious power. Here comes a tall, well-built savage (the whole race is remark- able for its inches) stalking along the path. On seeing you his face broadens into a grin, and he perhaps quickens his pace to a run. As he approaches he spits copiously on his hand to show his goodwill, and offers it for a cordial grasp. While expressing his sentiments he probably stands on one leg, the spare foot being laid against the knee of the other. He may or may not steady himself by using his spears as a tripod. He needs no such assistance, for he can stand on one foot as long and as 80 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS steadily as we can on two. I always think that this must be the origin of old Sir John Maundeville's dictum that " in Ethiopia be folk that have but one foot, . . . and the foot is so large that it shadoweth all the body against the sun when they will lie and rest them." Our friend's body has been rubbed over with wood ashes to mitigate the force of the sun, or perhaps as some protection against mosquitoes, and is thus of a pale grey, which has rather a ghastly effect ; but, if a young dandy, his face, or a pattern on his chest, has been left black. His hair has probably been tortured with infinite care into a felt-like substance, which assumes various forms according to the taste of the wearer. A popular fashion is a ridge or cock's-comb along the axis of the head or a row of knobs in the same position, into one of which an ostrich-feather is jauntily stuck. If engaged in herding cattle, or other avocations near his village, he wears no clothes unless it be a necklace or an armlet cut out of an elephant's tusk ; but if on his travels, he may have a single garment of dirty cloth to enhance his dignity. He carries only a spear, or perhaps two, one being long and leaf-bladed, the other light with a very narrow head, bearing numerous recurved barbs. The latter is, I think, generally used for spearing fish or small game. It is rarely that they can be induced to sell these spears, even for the most tempting barter. If a person of consequence, he perhaps carries a curious short stick with a pair of wings at one end, fashioned out of fishes' skin. This has the appearance of Mercury's wand, and in fact might be the origin of that symbol. On nearing a village a deputation of such good-natured giants will probably meet you outside the zareba, and invite you to eg Q. W a o a u a < THE WHITE NILE 81 be seated ; but a European cannot imitate their attitude, which is to sit flat down on to one foot, not crouching on the heels as a Somali does, but using the foot as a stool. The illustration opposite this page shows what I mean. Then milk will be called for, and coy damsels will bring it, both fresh and sour — the latter very refreshing, — in gourds. If you enter the karia or village, the women, who wear a waist-cloth — at least, the married ones do so — will generally retire to their huts, as they are rather shy, but a few may be seen pounding doura with a heavy pole, or some such occupation which cannot be intermitted. Innumerable children peer round the corners of the tukls. If they have any terrors, they are inspired by the camera, not the man. They are less black than their parents, and here again I may quote Maundeville, who noticed that " in Ethiopia when the children be young and little they be all yellow, and when they wax of age that yellowness turneth to be all black." Outside some of the huts strips of white cloth or other fluttering articles are suspended, but whether to defeat the evil spirit, or for the more practical purpose of scaring hyenas, is not certain. Cattle and goats, which are very numerous, are kraaled inside the zareba for safety. Once the headmen of a village com- plained to me of the raids of Shilluks over the river, who, they said, stole their women and cattle — the latter being apparently regarded as the worst offence, — and asked for protection ; but they looked big enough to fight their own battles. The Shilluks appear to be the owners of the biggest boats, a circumstance which no doubt gives them the naval supremacy. Ernest one day hearing a big drum and sounds of & 82 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS revelry in a village, entered it, and found a dance pro- ceeding. This appeared to be quite spontaneous — for their own amusement, not for his. The men only took part in it. I have reproduced the snapshot which he took on that occasion. The rattles which they wore on their legs were made from the fruit of the doum palm. I now investigated the hinterland of my domain to see if it were possible to discover a retreat of the gamuss, and come at them by daylight ; but the conditions were quite different from those which prevailed at Achmet Agha. There the clumps of jungle were dense enough, but one could pass between them with tolerable ease, and, what is of more importance, with silence. Behind the " Hill " camp the thicket was continuous for miles. Taking up a fresh trail of the morning, it would lead for a time by one of their beaten game -paths towards the east, then diverging along a lesser one, where progress was increasingly difficult, it would sooner or later enter a continuous cane-brake of apparently unlimited extent. Here a silent advance was almost impossible ; the dry, brittle canes of last year, ten feet long, some of which were erect and others laid flat, cracked at the least provocation. There was no air moving, and sound seemed magnified in the quivering heat. A strong bovine smell pervaded the place, and, moving forward with extreme caution, I more than once heard the ponderous creatures moving sleepily about ; indeed, I must have been within twenty or thirty yards of them — near enough at least to hear them breathing, and the low moo of a cow to her calf ; but even the most cautious attempt to push aside the intervening screen was followed by a noisy z < □ < -i THE WHITE NILE 83 stampede. Once only I caught sight of a portion of black hide, and that appeared to belong to a young and inexperienced animal. Thus I came to the conclusion that they were unapproachable by day from this camp, and that my chance lay in creeping near them by moon- lioht when feeding on the open grass, as we had first seen them doing. To use a rifle with effect by moonlight, even the brightest, is much more difficult than might be supposed. To me at least the foresight in that light is quite invisible and the backsight nearly so, but if a piece of white plaster as large as a finger-nail be fastened below the foresight it catches the faint light, and this, if slowly lowered till it just disappears behind the backsight, affords a rough kind of alignment — sufficient at least for a big beast at close quarters. The moon, which was a little past the full, would rise at eleven o'clock, and would be well up two hours later. I therefore reached the neighbourhood of the lagoon about 1 a.m., and from the path plainly saw the shadowy black masses which might be inanimate until they revealed their nature by splashing in the edge of the water. Getting back into the jungle, we stepped out quickly through it as long as it afforded cover, and when it thinned out, crept on hands and knees. We had nearly got opposite to the animals and were crawl- ing under a thorn-tree, when a lot of guinea-fowl, roosting in it, spotted us and departed with a loud clatter of wings. The gamuss took the hint and ran for the jungle. I kept my eyes on certain vistas till one was occupied by a vague dark object which remained stationary. The distance, about a hundred yards, was too great for any approach to 84 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS certainty, and when I had pulled the trigger I felt I had done a foolish thing, for it seemed long odds against my having fluked a hit. We returned to camp and to bed. But in the morning I missed my eyeglasses, and sent the Somalis to see if they had been torn off in the course of the crawl. They rejoined me an hour later much excited at having found blood. As I was engaged in photograph- ing, and the heat of the day was about to begin, I declined to follow up the trail till it got cooler, but allowed them, at their urgent request, to go and see if the wounded animal had lain down at once, but with strict orders to proceed no farther. Unfortunately they were led on for several hours by their innate passion for tracking, jumped the creature twice — a well-grown but not first-class bull, which was hit in the shoulder, — and finally lost the line in a maze of tracks, thus spoiling what should have been a certainty. I may here mention that a fortnight later some Dinkas brought the head of this bull into camp. Everything had been devoured by hyenas except the horns and part of the skull. I am not very proud of it as a trophy, as one has no business to take off-chances. The night following this fiasco I again made the attempt, reaching the edge of the jungle half an hour later ; and, using an outlying clump of thorn to cover our approach, we got to the immediate rear of the feeding herd. They were quite unsuspicious, and we could afford to wait for a good chance. Lying flat and scanning the herd between two stems, I tried to determine which was a bull. One might as well attempt to distinguish between so many haycocks. Judging by mere size, the nearest to me, which appeared to be the biggest, should be the right sex. I THE WHITE NILE 85 could make quite sure of a hit this time, as he or she was not more than thirty yards from me. The creature stood end on, and it was impossible to say whether shoulder or rump was towards me ; but relying on the penetration of a "450 bullet with cordite behind it, I let fly. The stampede which followed shook the earth. I could see nothing, but heard a low bellow, which might be that of a dying animal. It would have been useless and decidedly dangerous to attempt to follow up in the darkness to ascertain the result, but when daylight came I quickly found my quarry. Alas ! it was a cow, though a very large and old animal. The bullet, entering by the shoulder, was found close to the haunch, thus penetrating four feet of solid flesh and muscle, which speaks well for this rifle. She 'carried what seemed an inexhaustible supply of meat ; and when my own people were well stocked, I invited some passing Dinkas to share the spoil. They responded with alacrity, and quickly hailed others whose presence I had not suspected, and the whole carcase disappeared in an hour. Although this moonlight work is interesting in the highest degree, I did not repeat the exploit owing to the impossibility of selecting the old bulls, but waited till I found a district more favourable to daylight stalking. I was, however, in no hurry to move from this seductive camp. The lagoons were thronged with storks, herons, ibis, cranes, and other waders of many kinds. While mobs of teal were wheeling in the air, geese, sheldrake, terns, or ponderous pelicans occupied the open water. The scene was most lively in the evening. The air then became full of the whistling of wings, and the varied conversation — 86 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS piping, wailing, croaking — which goes on at feeding-time, as well as those strange ventriloquising notes the origin of which is so hard to trace, but which I was inclined to attribute in this case to night-herons. The pelicans were the latest to arrive, and the most dignified and silent. They spend their days on the river, and, like the terns, only came in to rest. Their flight — a series of stately curves — is a splendid sight. The spoonbills seemed to fish the most zealously, pushing their broad beaks in front of them in the shallow water, like children with shrimp-nets on Cromer sands. Ever and anon the resonant shout of the fish -eagles, a pair of whom were generally to be seen resting on some thorn-tree or dead snag, rang out over the waste like the call of the muezzin to prayer, while the other sounds reminded one of the stir in a Mohammedan city which follows the sunset in the month of Ramadan. Even the fish were not silent, their frequent rises being marked by loud sucking gulps. I could not discover what bait attracted them, as the lines we set were untouched. The Dinkas were much more success- ful. They speared fish here daily, wading to their knees. The Shilluks also crossed the river to this place. The former carried two sorts of fishing-spears, which they used in different ways. One had a light shaft, eight or nine feet long, with a narrow barbed head. This was thrown apparently at random, but so as to fall into the water about twenty yards from the fisher, and always at an angle of 45 degrees. The other was three or four feet longer, some- times as much as fourteen feet, curved like a bow by a string attached to both ends so as to cause the point to glide over the surface of the mud. This was driven under water by a THE WHITE NILE 87 long underhand stroke accompanied by three or four rapid steps. A fisherman whose bag I examined had two fish, one of about six pounds, a carp-like fish with large scales, the other a short tbick eel with an ugly flat head. In this kind of spearing the point is generally made detachable, and is fastened to a float of ambatch wood, so that the victim, if very large, can be followed up and speared again. A few days later I saw an enormous fish caught in this way in the main stream of the Nile. Its captors had already drawn it into shallow water, where it lay splashing the spray far and wide. This was a beautiful silvery fish with scales as large as a half-crown, and is, I think, the species called " El Baggar," or the Cow, by Baker. It was five feet long, and broad in proportion, and would have scaled 150 lbs. at a rough guess. The method of fishing of the Shilluks, so far as I observed, was somewhat different — at least on one occasion I saw them using a long and rather shallow net in the main stream. They extended it parallel with the shore, standing along it shoulder-deep, and theu, advancing with it gradually, drew it towards the bank ; but having enclosed the fish, they did not attempt to draw them out, in which case they would have escaped by jumping the net, as indeed many did, but speared them very deftly as they showed a fin above water. The Shilluks seemed to be a broader and shorter race than the Dinkas. Among them I noticed some new styles of hairdressing not affected by the Dinkas. The most extraordinary is to train it into a fan-shaped flap as large as a plate, at the back of their heads. It has the appearance of a Tam-o'-Shanter cap of felt. From the lagoons, or from any point commanding a 88 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS wide expanse of the river -basin, huge columns of smoke, rising from the grass fires on the marsh, are visible in the daytime, in several directions, slowly drifting in the breeze, and are a feature of this featureless country. These fires are started and continually nursed by the natives in the season of low Nile, for the purpose of burning the old grass and encouraging the young growth. The tough, wiry stems, generally four or five feet long, are not consumed, but remain upright, or overlie one another, until the next Nile flood removes them. This makes walking on the marsh laborious, and one emerges covered from top to toe with the stains of black ash. Indeed, the air also is filled with it ; as the river runs northward and the wind blows steadily from that quarter, the smoke hangs for hundreds of miles over its course. Frequently showers of blackened fragments fall softly from the sky, even where no fire is visible, and the smoke haze spreads over the sky as far as the eye can reach. It gives an added glory to the sunsets, but materially interferes with the light for photo- graphic purposes. It is curious to note the number of birds who hang on the skirts of these fires. Marabout storks loaf about on the windward side, dabbing down on singed grasshoppers ; while great companies of a large rose-coloured bee-eater skim over the ground, pursuing the insects which seek safety in flight. The lagoon where I killed my first buffalo was a fortunate spot for me. As we were approaching along the track, a very fine roan bull crossed the open grass. It was rather surprising that he took no notice of us, as we were in full view, but walked straight on to SUNDAY BEST. THE WHITE NILE 89 the waters-edge. Hastily creeping back into the jungle, I got within reach and laid him low. He proved to be so lean and ragged with age that even my omnivorous followers were inclined to turn up their noses at him ; moreover, he was blind of the left eye, which accounted for his failure to take notice of us, but his horns taped thirty- two inches, which is an exceptionally good measurement in any part of Africa ; and I think the best recorded up to that time from the Nile regions. Subsequently, on my way home, I encountered a friend proceeding to the White Nile. I shook this head at him, and defied him to get a better, but to my great annoyance he did so, beating my trophy by half an inch. Besides the communications which passed between us and our friends, every few days we reunited our camps, and then separated again for the sake of the wader scope it gave us. These were very pleasant occasions when we shared again our mutual triumphs, and waxed jovial over inspiring draughts of the universal " sparklet." I remember well one such evening. I do not think any of us will forget it. It was a very hot and still night, and we placed our dinner - table away from the zareba, on the edge of the marsh, to get the benefit of whatever air was moving, and over it we hung our largest mosquito- curtain. The servant who brought us our dinner had retired, taking with him the lantern. There w 7 as no moon, and it was a black night ; but we sat on smoking, and listening for the voices of the night. Now and again the loud grunting of the hippos in the river a mile away, or the sharp chatter of small monkeys in the big tree behind us, disturbed the general silence. Suddenly it was broken 90 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS by the yawing of a lion, as we judged, about a hundred yards off. Even as we listened for a repetition we plainly heard the creature pass stealthily within a few yards of us. Not even a rat could tread through the dry grass on that side without each step being distinctly audible. When the sounds ceased we ran for our guns, but of course we could see nothing. Then the challenge was repeated about the same distance on the other side, and away in the forest we heard the distant answer of his mate. I have often wondered if that lion was aware of our presence, and what he thought of the ghostly white thing which smelt like a man. At any rate we agreed that that dinner was a social success, and that the music had been excellent. I now seriously turned my attention to another form of stalking. I had brought with me a long-range camera as an alternative weapon to the rifle, and hoped to secure some permanent records of birds and beasts in unguarded moments. I have referred to an accident which marked the outset of this journey. When I had first opened the telephoto camera, which is a cumbrous affair, I found the lens cover completely crushed in. This had been patched up with a substitute of cardboard by an ingenious man I met on the steamer, but it was not till long after that I found that the centering of the lens itself had been slightly interfered with. Either for this reason, or some other, my experience was that accurate focussing was impossible with large apertures, and that instantaneous exposures were necessarily wanting in definition. Thus all my attempts at moving animals were blurred, though, when time exposures were practicable, the small aperture corrected the error. Apart from this, the difficulties of r ^fcvl X .**>■' CO z < o THE WHITE NILE 91 effecting a silent approach were great. The telephoto lens is heavy, the camera long, and the particular stand I had brought of perverse shape. All this I loaded on a Soudanese, who bulked large, while his wits were small. I think at first he took his burden for a sort of machine-gun, which would work wholesale destruction ; but when he had lost faith in this fetish, his natural clumsiness was enhanced by his contempt for a kind of hunting which resulted in no meat. He frequently caught his feet in the overlaid grass and came heavily down with the whole thing ; still more often the stand, whose cantankerousness became almost devilish in his hands, like an angry crab would shed a leg, which fell on the ground with a strident clatter. As I could not trust my black giant to stoop at dangerous places, I had to carry the thing myself for the critical finish of the stalk. The instrument is complicated, and even when one had arrived within distance a dozen tricks had to be remembered, as well as the focussing, which must be delicately adjusted. I began with the birds, which were comparatively easy to approach, and the lagoons I have described offered a prolific field. Then I went on to the much more difficult and exciting art of stalking the antelopes. Fancy the trembling suspense of it when I had wormed myself within range — say 200 yards as a maximum — and was wondering how much more the beasts would stand. Practically, I found that I could only take these liberties with them when they were on the feed in the last hour before sunset, the light being then weak and changeable. To take a time exposure when they were moving about grazing, it was necessary slightly to attract their attention by 92 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS waving my hand, or some other means, and this was often the signal for departure. It will be seen that the chances were heavily against the success of any single stalk. All the keener, therefore, the triumph of a success ; and I frequently found myself streaming with perspira- tion from sheer excitement at critical moments. Of course, I could have done nothing if the animals had not been somewhat confiding, but in this almost virgin district they did not regard man as a very dangerous animal at two hundred yards. It was on the marsh that we generally found the Cobus leucotis or white-eared cob, a very beautiful small water- buck peculiar to the White Nile, with cheek and throat marks, as well as ears, of pure white, in sharp contrast with the brown of the rest of the body. With the old males this body colour is singularly variable, in some cases being almost black, while in others the dark colour on the neck is shot with chestnut. On the other hand, the females and younger bucks are uniformly of a rich fawn colour, corre- sponding in that respect with the Uganda cob, to which the leucotis is closely allied. Indeed, the two species would seem to be identical, except that the leucotis shows a highly distinctive local coloration of its own. This matches very closely the blacks and browns of the marsh- grasses after a fire has passed over them. It is rather a singular case of protective coloration, dependent upon conditions produced by human agency, though no doubt the cause has been in operation for all the ages since man inhabited the Nile valley, and has known the use of fire. Since writing the above, I have heard that some one has shot a melanistic Uganda cob. I think this tends to to < a. o I a THE WHITE NILE 93 confirm my theory. At least it shows that that species has a tendency to vary towards a melanism even in its own country. The native name for this cob is " tyl," and Talib drew a distinction between this and what he called " Hamaria tyl" — individuals with smaller horns without the backward curve ; but we soon perceived that these were only young undeveloped males of the same species. The Cobus TJwmasi reported to have been killed in this neighbourhood was, I am convinced, only a light-coloured leucotis. I was naturally anxious to secure portraits of this pretty antelope, of which, owing to the closing of the Soudan, few specimens have as yet reached this country ; and I spent much time, and enjoyed many a good stalk, in effecting this object. Being rather confiding, they were good sitters; but many times I presumed too much on their natural curiosity, which was highly developed. I found that, unless I was peculiarly fortunate in that the nature of the cover favoured my approach, a hundred and fifty yards was as near as they could stand. They were sometimes accompanied by the "bohor" reed-buck, which was more subject to panic and often defeated my efforts. The last-named species, though plainer in colour than the cob, is a very graceful animal, carrying small but striking horns with the points turned sharply forwards. We naturally sought for the oldest and blackest tyl, as carrying the most striking trophies. There was one which inhabited this marsh who seemed to be nearly coal-black, and whom I called " the demon " from the manner in which he eluded me by unaccountably disappearing in the grass. Late one evening I got my chance and wounded 94 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS him mortally, but he ran some way and fell out of sight in the long grass, so that I failed to recover him in the darkness. Early the next morning I was again on the spot and quickly picked up a broad trail, where the dead animal had been dragged by a marauder. The body had been devoured — lock, stock, and barrel. Nothing re- mained but the horns and some fragments of black skin from the head and shoulder, enough to show what a finely coloured trophy I had lost. Owing to the grass being trampled and overlaid, no tracks were visible, but only a lion could have made so clean a meal of an animal as large as a fallow-deer. I clearly owed that lion a grudge. Although we heard lions nearly every night, the ground was generally too hard to show impressions of their pads, except occasionally on the native paths where there was a little dust. On account of the density of the jungle, very few lions have yielded their skins in the Nile valley basin ; and even Sir Samuel Baker, who spent years in these regions and was the keenest of sportsmen, only records having killed one lioness on the White Nile. It was useless to try and follow them up, and I had little idea of seeking my revenge ; at least it was with no such thought that I found myself again near the spot where my black cob had been purloined. The heat of the day had begun, and I was returning to camp following the edge of a long strip of tall reeds which grew in a narrow wet khor. An exclamation from Talib, who had gone down to the waters-edge, made me turn round, and I heard some large animal plunging through the reeds. Seizing the rifle from Ali, I awaited its exit on the farther side where it must come into view. A full-grown lion emerged, quietly a z IE UJ h < 5 UJ I t- THE WHITE NILE 95 slipping up the opposite bank. The shot should have been a certainty, but the rifle had been handed to me with the lever open, and I pulled in vain. By the time I had adjusted it he was just entering the grass about fifty yards off", and I could only see his stern. I fired, and the shot told. He reared up and grunted loudly. Ali and I dashed through the khor, which took a little time, as the reeds were very high and thick, and the water knee -deep. On reaching the opposite bank I saw the head of the lion, who was sitting up looking at me over the grass. The inference seemed obvious that he was severely wounded, else why should he have remained there ? So I thought, and tried to get a rest for my elbow as the mark was small ; but suddenly his head disappeared and he slunk off, while I felt foolish. AVe now tracked him up by the blood on the grass. From the position of the stains on the upright stems, he seemed to be hit rather high up. I expected every moment to see him again, but, after picking it out with extreme care for some distance, these indications ceased. For a very exciting hour Ali used his utmost skill as a tracker to recover the line, while I stood ready, expecting to see the beast at any moment ; but the herbage was high and dense, and, though we were sure he was close at hand, we had at length, crestfallen, to abandon the search for the time. The cover where we finally lost the lion consisted of a strip of high grass about half a mile long and forty yards broad. The flood of the retreating Nile had laid low the grass between it and the aforesaid khor, and also on the other side for a wide space, so that the ground was open on 96 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS both sides of the strip. I felt sure therefore that the lion, being wounded, would not attempt to cross this bare ground by da) r light, but would remain in the standing grass. This impression was strengthened when we re- turned to the spot where we had jumped him, and there found the remains of a cob which he had just eaten. He was therefore belly -full and certainly disinclined to go far in the heat of the day. Now, I had heard the night before from Ernest that he and his brother intended to join us in our camp at mid-day. We therefore returned there, and the united party came out again as soon as it was cool enough to start. With a view to a systematic search of the strip of grass, I took with me ten or twelve camel-men. On re-examination I thought that if the lion were again disturbed he would hold to the high grass as long as he could. For this reason I sent Charlie to the extreme end of it. Then, returning well above the place where we had lost him, I disposed the beaters in line across the strip, Ernest and I being on the left and right flanks respectively, the Boy in the middle. There were some shirkers among my men who kept dropping behind, and others were over eager, but as the whole line was visible from each flank we moved very slowly and kept it fairly straight. One could generally see five or six yards into the grass, but some patches, which the fire had not laid hold of, were very thick and required cautious in- vestigation. The process bore an absurd resemblance to partridge -shooting, and this was enhanced by a number of guinea-fowl who kept getting up and flying over the left-hand gun towards the jungle. Nothing happened for THE WHITE NILE 97 three or four hundred yards, but when we had got within two hundred yards of the end I saw a sudden waver in the middle of the line. Ali afterwards told me that he had seen the lion sit up and face the line within five or six yards, then wheel round and bound forward just in front of the Boy who fired both barrels of my 10 bore without effect, except that the shots elicited savage grunts from the animal. He had got some way before I saw him as he rose in his bounds, and I tried a snap- shot, also without effect. Ernest and I pressed forward watching the open, then waited, feeling sure that Charlie would now get his chance. He, poor man, when the bullets began whizzing in his direction, threw himself flat on the ground. He recovered himself in time to see the lion slinking forward looking very sick. A shot followed. The line quickened to a run. We came to where the gras3 thinned out. The lion was struggling on the ground, and all waited for me to give the finishing shot, which was scarcely required. The nuggar lay in the river close at hand, and the crew had watched the whole hunt without knowing exactly what it was about. The3 r now came running, and helped in the shouting and the obsequies. My original shot had smashed his leg high up. It was Charlie's body shot which had done for him. By the laws of venerie he was my lion, but I shall always feel that in equity Charlie had the larger share, though he raised no such question himself. From nose to tail the lion measured eight feet eight inches as he lay, but the stretched skin was of course more. This would be small measurement in East Africa, but judging from the lions' footmarks which I saw at various times, lions hereabouts H 98 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS are a smaller race. That was a jovial evening, and we all agreed that it was one of the prettiest bits of sport that we had seen. On a few occasions we crossed the Nile, but there was not much temptation to do this, as it took time to dis- cover a landing-place through the dense vegetation, and game was comparatively scarce on the western bank. For the purpose of such crossings I had brought with me a light Berthon boat, which, when packed, travelled very well on the top of a camel load. The first time I launched my craft was in a narrow channel of the river, between an island and the mainland, and not wider than the Thames at Richmond ; but the current was strong, and the water deep, right up to the wall of vegetation on either side, and it abounded with hippos. As this channel was not used for navigation, they were unusually fearless. I wanted to make my way to a Shilluk village, a mile up stream on the opposite bank. To help Kharia, who was rowing, I hoisted my big white umbrella, and the breeze pulled us along against the current, Kharia using the oars only enough to clear the rushes. The apparition had an extraordinary effect on a band of hippos who were disporting themselves in the usual manner, four or five hundred yards ahead. On our approach they showed signs of extreme surprise, or possibly resentment. One old bull in particular began rearing him- self out of the water and snorting so aggressively that, after approaching within eighty yards, I fairly turned tail and ran away. I really do not know which was more afraid of the other, I or the hippos. It was clear that my collaps- ible boat would collapse rather too readdy in those huge < THE WHITE NILE 99 cavernous jaws. Even an upset would have been scarcely less dangerous where a landing would have been so difficult owing to the wall of reeds, which no swimmer could pene- trate, projecting right into the deep water. I realised this a few minutes later when, having found a passage through the vegetation, I landed from the boat and stood among the reeds. The largest crocodile I ever saw floated lazily by within five yards of me. I put a shot through his eye, and he sank like a stone, but owing to the depth and the current I failed to recover him. "Where the Nile is wide, and the edges shelving, it is easy to take a boat over the shallows, and as the position of the hippos can be seen in advance, they can be given a wide berth. On a subsequent trip, I had covered five miles of the main stream, and had thus passed several bands without their taking much account of us ; but gaining confidence, and going perhaps rather too near one family, I was startled to see a chain of bubbles approaching in a bee-line, and at a rapid rate. It was a nasty moment when, judging from this indication, the creature passed exactly under us amidships, but it did not touch us, and was probably influenced by curiosity only. It rose to the surface twenty yards beyond, and turned to stare at us. The danger is not imaginary, for Sir Samuel Baker's whale-boat was vehemently attacked on more than one occasion ; and quite recently even a gun- boat has been attacked, and some of the floats of the stern -wheel bitten off. Hippos are occasionally speared by the natives ; and a brother sportsman, whom we en- countered on his way up the river in a nuggar, told me that he had found an ambatch float, and hauling on the 100 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS rope, disturbed a hippo at the other end of it. The animal was very much alive, and dragged the felucca for some distance, but eventually broke away. The native method is to use the float merely as an indication of the creature's whereabouts, which is thus followed up and speared again and again. Though I have not seen it, I am informed by an eye- witness that the spearing is generally effected as follows. The hunters watch from their canoes for a hippo leaving the water to feed on the dry land. They then conceal themselves in the reeds along the game track which he uses, while a few make a circuit and drive him headlong back to the water, and he is speared as he passes, and afterwards followed by the floats until he is exhausted, as mucb perhaps by the difficulty of blowing as by the loss of blood. A relative of mine who visited the White Nile this year informs me that he surprised a number of natives who were thus playing a hippopotamus. He offered to help them by shooting the animal when he rose to the surface. This they refused, probably fearing that he would demand a share of the meat. Perhaps for the same reason they were in too great a hurry to finish the business, for they pulled too hard on the ropes and broke them. I may here mention an incident which occurred on our return voyage. Late one evening the gunboat was skirt- ing a rather high bank, the deep water being close inshore. Two hippos which were feeding on shore failed to notice our approach till we were exactly opposite them, and within thirty yards. For a few seconds they ran to and K L. f> to < a THE WHITE NILE 101 fro in confusion, then both dashed for the water, which they took with magnificent headers from the bank, which was there rather steep, one diving right under the middle of the steamer. Ernest and Charlie had passed ahead of us southward, and had had the luck to find another very good buffalo camp, where there was a small dense forest of big trees which was the resort of those animals. They had each had some luck, and, knowing that I had not yet scored a good bull, they offered to vacate this camp in my favour. AVhen we reached this place, which we called Monkey Camp from the numbers of those animals which inhabited certain large tamarind trees sheltering our tents, I soon found that the buffalo, having been disturbed, had migrated several miles inland, though their tracks showed that they still came nightly to feed on the grass in the khors. Early the nest morning Ali and I took up a promising track and followed them up. AVe had been going some hours, Ali always with his eyes on the ground. Towards mid-day a lion jumped up scarcely twenty yards in front, and began strolling away through the long grass. Doubtless he was hanging on the flanks of the same herd which we were tracking, in the hope of picking up a calf. I held my fire too long, hoping to get a clearer sight of him. This I failed to do, but I could still make out his course by the movement in the grass. He appeared to quicken his pace, and I judged him to be making for a long thicket of thorn bushes, perhaps three or four acres in extent. We ran forward about two hundred yards, to the end of this thicket, and concealed ourselves, hoping he would break cover that way. 102 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS After waiting awhile we perceived Talib the Arab, and the donkey syce, who had been following us at some distance, and were now making signals to us. We ran back to them and learned that they had seen the lion crossing to the other side of the thicket. Again we ran round it and this time jumped him. He went off bounding over the grass and bushes, and grunting loudly. He was very near, and it was a fair sporting chance as he appeared and disappeared, but my shot, aimed at him as he made one of these flying leaps, failed to touch him. Thus he got back into the thicket, and we again ran forward to reach the end, while he was keeping a parallel course inside it and grunting, either with fear or anger, all the time. But this ceased, and then once again we saw Talib some way off, standing very still, and silently pointing at an object in the thicket. We stealthily approached him. No doubt by this time the Hon had found his way barred in so many directions that he had received the impression that there were quite a lot of people surrounding him. Following the direction of Talib's finger I saw what appeared to be the head of the lion, who was crouching under a very thick and dark thorn bush, not more than fifteen yards from me. His raucous growling when he saw us approach indicated a nasty frame of mind. I am always slow - sighted in a thicket, and had some difficulty in distinguishing between lion and shadow, but, perceiving that the slightest movement on the part of the beast would take him out of my sight, I fired at once. As I pulled the trigger I felt so certain of him that I was simply astounded when he whipped round and disappeared. No doubt I was by this time almost THE WHITE NILE 103 exhausted, as the exciting chase had led me several hundreds of yards in the hottest hour of the day, as hard as I could run, which is not so fast as forty years ago, and carrying an 11 lb. rifle. No doubt if I had lain flat to the ground I should have got a clearer view and a rest for my elbows, but I was mindful of the chance I had lost at the first lion by not shooting at sight. Never had a lion a narrower escape, of that I am very sure, but it is a poor consolation. At the moment of firing I had felt so sure of him that the chance of his coming for me, if I missed, had not crossed my mind. He would have had me at a disadvantage if he had done so, as the rifle was a single one, but I think the bullet struck the ground just under his nose and knocked the dust into his eyes. In a trice he was out at the other side of the thicket. I once more followed in pursuit, but now with heaving chest and dragging limbs. Brief visions of his form, retreating in the distance, tempted me to fire one or two more despairing and futile shots. Then, being run to a standstill, and though the lion did not seem to gain much, I had no choice but to lie on my back panting, while Ali looked furies at me, and said a lot of Aden language which I didn't understand. I have made many bad misses in my time, but I think that was the most pain- ful. I could only assure Ali that I did not do it on purpose. We sat apart and sulked for three hot and gloomy hours, and at 3.30 took up the tracks of the buffalo once more, and in about an hour came up with them. A herd of about twenty were lying under a large tree in the middle of an open space — a well-chosen position. After a very cautious crawl, we reached a point about a hundred 104 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS and fifty yards from the herd, beyond which the cover came to an end, and the ground being quite bare, I dared not advance. At first the majority were lying down, but some of them were continually rising, moving a few yards, and then lying again. There appeared to be three or four bulls, of which one was, from his size and colour, plainly master of the herd, but owing to the heat quiver it was strangely difficult, even with a powerful Zeiss glass, to determine which body belonged to which head. As the evening advanced they got more restless, and more of them stood and moved about. All this time I lay ready with the heavy rifle, and Ali was keeping up a running fire of comment, pointing out the position of the big one, but whether from instinct or chance he was generally in the middle of the herd, and as often as I got my bead on him so often would some cow cover him. For the best part of an hour I lay alternately raising and lowering the rifle, determined not to make another mistake as to the sex if I could avoid it. At last the bull, or what I thought was the bull, stood clear, and, Ali confirming, I let drive and plainly heard the bullet strike. They ran a little way, when the wounded animal lay down and no doubt soon died. The rest all stood round gazing at the dead animal, and now I plainly made out, not only that the big bull stood erect, but, to my intense annoyance, that it was a cow that lay on the ground. This was indeed an unlucky day, but I must have one more try for that bull. He stood clear enough now, apart from the rest, though the distance was great, but, aiming high, I struck him at the junction of the fore- leg with the body. The rest then made off, but the bull h co u cc H < 05 H CO THE WHITE NILE 105 could only hobble slowly. And now a fresh misfortune ! The empty cartridge stuck, and no power that I could use would force the lever down. The heat and dryness make the explosion of cordite powder very violent, and it was this which had caused the cartridge to expand. I had a small-bore rifle, but I was not inclined to risk baying a wounded buffalo with that, It was a maddening sight to watch the stricken bull slowly making his way towards the dense thicket, when with a single shot from an adequate weapon I could have put an end to the business. There was nothing for it but to cut and shape a ramrod from a young thorn tree, and this Ali proceeded to do ; but it was too soft, and gave way under the hammering. A second w T as tried and failed. A third was more successful, but this had consumed a whole hour, and the sun was just setting when we hastened on the track of the bull. He had fortunately not gone far into the jungle. Suddenly Ali halted and pointed at a dense evergreen bush. At first I could see nothing, but presently made out the lower part of one leg. He wanted me to shoot through the bush, but that was too uncertain, and the restless movements of the creature showed that he was aware of our presence. 1 preferred to wait, and presently the dark muzzle showed, and the next moment the ponderous body was sent crashing to the ground with a bullet in the neck. My feelings were very mixed on the dark and weary tramp campwards. To have missed a sitting lion at fifteen yards and shot a cow buffalo by mistake marked the day as a singularly unfortunate one ; but, on the other hand, I had secured a first-class bull, so that it was easy to make an 106 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS inward resolution to shoot no more buffalo. Indeed I had now got all the specimens I required, and devoted myself whole-heartedly to the absorbing pursuit of camera-stalking. The fact that the forest to which I have referred projected at certain points into the marsh, gave special facilities for this. The portrait of an old buck cob was obtained by getting a huge trunk between myself and the animal, and thus approaching him within a hundred yards, and being myself in deep shadow, while he was in bright sun- shine, he was quite unconscious of me, and I was able to take my time about it, and snapped him in six or eight positions. He was one of the blackest of his species, but had only one horn. There was a lagoon in the neighbourhood which I visited with the camera nearly every evening. Among the birds which I had not hitherto noticed, but which I now observed daily, were a species of small finch which visited the water in vast flocks numbering several thousands. At a little distance these flocks appeared like animated and sentient clouds, apparently obeying some signal, and going through all kinds of rapid simultaneous evolutions with marvellous precision. The movement of the countless tiny wings seemed to be absolutely synchronised. Now they were advancing in line, now by companies, now in column. A swift soaring movement, indicated by a flash of white breasts, would be followed by a sudden stoop to earth, and the head of the column would double back under itself, reversing the direction. The purpose of these delirious manoeuvres was not very apparent, but the drill was perfect. A still more wonderful sight was vouchsafed to me but z < 2 THE WHITE NILE 107 once. A flock of large birds, which I estimated at two thousand, were flying at an enormous height over a lagoon. The glass showed them to be pelicans, and they appeared sometimes pale pink, sometimes silvery white, as the sun caught their wings or breasts. Wheeling in majestic circles they slowly descended, and finally alighted in the shallow water by twos and threes and tens, till they formed a solid phalanx right across the lagoon. I stood among the reeds, and without moving secured the picture on the opposite page, which gives a better idea of the scene than any words of mine, except that the field of the camera could only cover a fraction of the long wall of white. Near them, but not of them, were many marabouts and other waders of the usual kinds. I have no doubt the pelicans were migrating to the north with the advancing spring, as, though I revisited the spot on several occasions, they had all departed except a few immature birds who probably could not follow the long flight. Perhaps this was also the case with a single flamingo, the only specimen I saw on the White Nile. This lagoon was also the resort of the great black and white Jabiru crane (see Frontispiece), rendered conspicuous by its size, and still more by a huge beak of a brilliant orange and scarlet colour. These splendid birds were rather tame, and seemed to like posing for their portraits. The common black and white kingfishers, so familiar to all Nile travellers, were very numerous here, and gave life and movement to the peaceful scene by continually dropping Hke stones on to their fishy prey and breaking the still surface of the water. Eeturning one evening after sunset from one of my 108 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS excursions to the lagoons, I lazily rode a donkey which the syce led, while I abandoned myself to the enjoyment of my surroundings. My meditations were rudely dis- turbed by the syce, who sprang violently to one side, when I perceived in the dusk an immense snake, whose nightly passage to the water we had disturbed, coiled in the attitude to spring, while his head was raised, as it seemed, on a level with my knee, and in most un- comfortable proximity to it. I threw that leg over to the off side in a violent hurry, and fell in a heap on the safe side of the donkey, while the snake, which seemed to be about ten feet long, slipped away through the scrub at an astonishing pace, with head still raised, as snakes will when they put on the pace. When it grew too hot on the marsh, one could generally find a cooler climate by pressing through the tall reeds to the edge of the river and sitting in the breeze which blew pretty constantly up the stream, though the air remained still and oppressive a few yards off. I also resorted thither in the hope of securing pictures of crocodiles, for these amphibians lay about wherever there was a bit of bare bank, but I never succeeded, owing to the noise necessarily made in passing through the reeds. Though they appear to be so life- less when lying on shore, their sense of hearing is extremely acute, and I think their sight also. They are sensitive to the slightest vibration, and wake to extreme activity, disappearing instantly below water. If I sat close in the shadow of the reeds their presence was quickly revealed by their ugly black snouts, which kept showing on the surface of the water, but they a o THE WHITE NILE 109 are too sharp to leave it under such circumstances. Even more tantalising than the crocodiles as subjects for the photographer were the monkeys. To a person sitting still, they would approach quite unconcernedly within a few yards, often trotting across the open ground or seeking for scraps, if they had got used to the ways of the camp, but they were desperately afraid of the camera, and as soon as they thought I was aiming at them or paying attention to them they would jump into the densest foliage. I also failed to get pictures of ostriches, although I saw them on two occasions from my most southerly camp, which was near Kaka, but they are the wariest of all the wild creatures, and I should regard it as a very high certificate of stalking ability in anybody who succeeds in obtaining a fair portrait of these birds in the wild state. As they are decidedly scarce they were very properly placed in the prohibited list. I regret to say that this restriction appears to have been removed in the latest shooting regulations which have been issued. This I think is a great pity, as, if they increased in number, they might open a profitable industry for the natives. There is no reason why these people should not keep tame birds, as is done in Somaliland and elsewhere. At this time an incident occurred which might have had a tragic termination. The Boy had had his fair share of luck, and nothing would now satisfy him but he must encounter and slay a buffalo. With some hesita- tion, for they are vindictive brutes, I lent him my heaviest rifle and Ali Barali, on whose staunchness I could rely. Thus equipped, he sought out the buffalo 110 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS for a week on end regardless of all else. I forget how often he saw them, but nothing happened until one day he got up to four bulls and wounded one of them in the leg. The rifle played him the same trick as it had to me. The cartridge stuck, and then, instead of waiting till it was extracted, he rashly followed up the bull, armed only with a small-bore rifle. At length the animal was perceived lying under a bush. The tracks afterwards showed that he had returned up wind, and lay in wait for his persecutors near his own trad, which is the agreeable habit of those animals. Another shot was fired, after which the story is slightly confused, but it appears that both Boy and bull were so eager to get at one another, that they met in mad career on a narrow path. The Boy fired once more into the shoulder of the brute and then tried, at least he thinks so, to jump clear of the horns, but, not being a matador, failed to avoid them. There is no doubt that he was caught full and fair on the flat horn plate which covers the forehead of the bulls. The next thing he remembers is a vision of hoofs passing over him. Of course if the bull had turned and satisfied his feelings, as they generally do, it would have been soon over. As a matter of fact this bull passed on, and presently lay down at no great distance under a tree, where Ali followed him and pumped lead into him till he died. The Boy suffered no further inconvenience than that his rifle was tossed several yards and he himself knocked out of time. I am convinced that Ali did all he could to pull him out of the way of the charge. There are not many people who have felt THE WHITE NILE 111 the horns of a buffalo, at least not many who remember it. This one didn't want any more buffaloes that trip. And now the day came when we should begin to expect the returning steamer, though the date of its actual arrival must remain uncertain. The four weeks we had spent between Jebel Achmet Agha and Kaka had flown very rapidly, and we would willingly have extended it, but we could not afford to wait for the next monthly mail. The fate of another party which we had met on the way up, monotonously drifting with the stream and broiling on their nuggar, having been accidentally over- looked by the gunboat, was a warning to us, and we omitted no precaution to avoid such durance vile. Never- theless we were kept a whole week on tenter-hooks, and suffered agonies of suspense lest this ship should have "passed in the night." At length one morning its approach was heralded by the dull beat of the stern wheel. Then we hastily struck our tents and packed our trophies on the nuggar — a precious cargo but not a fragrant one. The final act was to pay off the camel men, and this produced the stormiest scene we had yet faced. Not that we had any difficulty in satisfying them, as we added a liberal baksheesh to their strict wage. It was the sheikh who was the author of the discord. He schemed to intercept our largesse for his own benefit, and then escape the vengeance of his men by taking a free passage on the steamer, but we defeated his game by arranging that if he stuck to the money he should march with those he had robbed, in which case his chance of a safe return to his home was remote. The navigation on the return voyage was slow and 112 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS difficult, with the Nile at its dead lowest, but the company was good and the voyage was eminently pleasant, except that I was suffering from a Nile throat and other minor ills, which perhaps kept off something worse. I may here mention some points of equipment which it is very desirable for any traveller who intends to leave the banks of the White Nile and camp even a few miles from it, to provide for beforehand. An important thing to consider is means of fetching water from the river. For this well-seasoned water-skins, which are the water- carriers of the country, and unbreakable, should be brought from Cairo. Our genius Hassan had had tbe most positive instructions on this point weeks before our arrival, but had neglected it, which, if we had not discovered it in time, might have gone far to wreck our expedition altogether. As it was, owing to the scarcity of these zanzimeers in Omdurman, it was with the greatest difficulty that we procured about three-quarters of the required number, and these were of poor quality, several being useless from the first. We were thus in straits all the time, and could not, however much we might have wished to do so, have camped far from the river. If the traveller is intending to use camels, rope saddle-bags are of great importance. These are rectangular pieces of netting made of strong cordage with a large mesh. They are laid across the hump of the camel and the ends brought together over the luggage, which is thus packed more readily, and carried with less injury, than if rope alone be used ; but this does not dispense with packing cord, a large quantity of which should be carried. > I- E < 1 EC D THE WHITE NILE 113 Some people prefer donkeys as baggage animals to camels, and they have many advantages as being much more readily conveyed in a boat and being hardier feeders. In this case some suitable form of pack-saddle should be carefully considered, and thick felt numnahs, which prevent sore backs, should not be forgotten. In any case a certain number of donkeys should be taken for one's own riding. We took three horses as well, but grain must be carried for these the whole time, and they are so much more delicate that we regretted having done so. The Soudanese have little experience in the care of horses or donkeys, and the syces whom we engaged at Omdurman at first grossly neglected their charges, and stole most of their ropes, so that when they were picketed they had not length enough to feed themselves. If the use of the courbatch is ever justified, it would be in such a case. Every traveller should decide for himself whether he can content himself with biscuits and dispense entirely with bread. A small sheet -iron oven, such as are very well made in Cairo, was one of the things which the universal provider was to have brought thence. He failed to do so, and there was no time to supply the deficiency. Of course with time and a stationary camp, a ground oven, domed over with mud, can be made, but in my experience the result is not satisfactory. Ill BIG GAME PRESERVATION At the risk of being tiresome I have endeavoured in the foregoing chapters to enumerate the varied forms of life which I was privileged to encounter on the Kihmanjaro- Kenia plateau and iri the Soudan, these being two of the best game districts remaining in Africa. I propose to add a brief chapter dealing with the preservation of big game in Tropical Africa, a subject in which I have taken a great interest for many years. It is important that people at home should realise the urgency of this question, and I should be glad if I succeeded in stimulating the wholesome public opinion which undoubtedly exists on the subject. That this feeling is not universal, and that education is still needed in true sportsmanship, reckless shooting by individuals and the disappearance of the game make only too manifest. A single instance will suffice, and any one familiar with those countries could multiply them. I culled the following a short time ago from the advertisement of a gunmaker, who quotes a gentleman described by him as "a well-known African big game sportsman " (Heaven save the mark !) The 115 116 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS latter writes as if the blood fever were still on him. " The morning before ... I shot twenty-three head — pookoo, reedbuck, and zebra." That is meat enough to feed a regiment ! The man seems to be actually proud of his wantonness. Perhaps the author of this butchery was very young and inexperienced — such people generally are — and he may even by now have become a tolerable sportsman. But the strange thing is that when an other- wise sane man runs amuck like this, nobody seems openly to resent it. It must not be thought that the officers generally, stationed in these territories, are indifferent to the destruction of the herds. It is obviously in their interest, above all others, that the game should be " played fair," and I am confident that the good sportsmen, of whom there are many among them, are anxious to be protected against those who cannot be so described, though a feeling of clannishness keeps them silent. But in the meanwhile it is bloodthirstiness like this, and not honest sport, which is responsible for the depletion of so many game fields. Superfluous massacre ought to call forth the strongest reprobation from those who, like King James, " love the great game " as a precious inheritance of the Empire to be most jealously safeguarded, like a unique picture — something which may easily be lost, but which cannot be replaced. It is important to remember that the principal assembly grounds of the large game in the central provinces of Africa are restricted. The game is concentrated. Hence the danger. The feeding-grounds constitute but a frac- tion of the whole territory, the remainder, which is the preponderating area, being forest, cultivation, desert, or L^ r P \0i i - . " ' -li. wjjjgj • Kg o 3 Q < 5 in o Q BIG GAME PRESERVATION 117 land covered with thorn jungle, and inhabited by a very limited fauna. As far as British East Africa is concerned, to take one example, the best feeding -grounds are con- tained in a belt of country lying between the great peaks of Kilimanjaro and Kenia and a few similar grassy plains. These are unequalled in the world as a natural game preserve, for they nourish about thirty species of big game, but they are a small part of that Protectorate. Owing to the arrival of the railway and other means of communication, and all which that implies, they were at first seriously threatened, and it is to be hoped that all necessary sacrifices will be made to preserve them while there is yet time, even though the process costs money. Past experience in America and South Africa shows how rapidly the teeming millions born of the soil may be shot out. Writers of half a century ago describe on the veldt in South Africa a paradise of varied life, which is now irretrievably lost, through the carelessness and waste- fulness of white men. Some species have absolutely dis- appeared, never to be seen again on the face of the earth. Others are so scarce that it is doubtful whether their power of reproduction can save the race. There are, how- ever, signs of a determination to protect what remains. The fact that an International Conference, attended by delegates from Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, and the Congo Free State, on the subject of the preservation of the game from destruction in Africa, met early in 1899 in London, under the auspices of our Foreign Office, shows that a widespread interest is now taken in this subject. Let us see how the matter stood previous to the meet- ing of the Conference — at least as regards British territory. 118 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS Excluding the settled parts of South Africa, which were outside the purview of the Conference, we may observe in the first place that the officials of our Foreign Office, although, when they first took over the Central Provinces, they naturally lacked the experience necessary to achieve the best result, appear to have been, since 1895, thor- oughly alive to the urgency of the question. In those territories under their jurisdiction in British Central Africa, British East Africa, and Uganda they had enacted game regulations, the intentions of which were excellent, and some of which were effective for their purpose ; and for Somaliland the India Office had done the same. A heavy licence was imposed upon travellers, and a much lower one upon residents and officials, as a neces- sary condition of shooting, while the licencees were, in some Protectorates, limited as to numbers permitted to be killed, in the case of rare or slow-breeding animals, such as elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, buffalo, and giraffe. Above all, a beginning was made in setting out reserves. Some regulations were also in force in the German territory. As regards those enacted in most of the territories, experience has revealed defects which have since been remedied, as I shall presently show. It remains to be considered in what respects the recommendations of the Convention will strengthen tin- Game Laws in British territories. The principal proposals of the Conference may be summarised as follows : — A special and select list, or class, is to be constituted, com- prising species in danger of extinction, and which are to be absolutely protected at all times. Immature animals and breeding females are also to receive protection. The BIG GAME PRESERVATION 119 sale of tusks of elephants weighing less than 11 lbs. is forbidden, and finally, and most important of all, each Power undertakes to establish adequate reserves, and to protect them from encroachment. It will be seen that these recommendations impose upon the Powers certain obligations. P have added to this volume an Appendix containing the latest Game Laws for the Soudan, British East Africa, Uganda, British Central Africa, and Somaliland, together with regula- tions, such as they are, which are in force in German East Africa. The latter I received from the Colonial Office at Berlin, but as, with slight exceptions, they seem of a date anterior to the Conference, the engage- ments then entered into do not as yet appear to have been completely carried out. By an examination of these it will be seen how far the British Government, at any rate, have complied with the undertakings upon which we entered with the other Powers. We find at once that the new regulations for British territories include in each case a schedule of animals as sacred from molestation as the bulls of Apis. These schedules vary somewhat with the different territories, but such animals as the giraffe, eland, and, in East Africa, the buffalo, are at any rate among those which enjoy this royal dis- tinction. It is a little difficult to see why vultures, owls, and rhinoceros-birds, which are eminently useful in their respective spheres, but are found in enormous numbers and not sought for food, and are therefore in no danger, should have been recommended by the Conference for places in these distinguished lists. It seems to me rather to weaken the character of these "protected" schedules. 120 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS The second schedule, of species of which the breeders and young are to be protected, speaking generally, include the larger animals, such as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, water-buck, sable and roan antelopes, and greater koodoo. The importance of this will be seen when it is remembered how slowly these animals breed. At the same time the average sportsman is under no temptation to shoot immature animals, and the larakin hunter who kills breeding females is happily rare. There is another measure of even greater urgency which the Conference appears to have lost sight of, but the importance of which has fortunately been recognised by the English authorities in their respective territories. This is to place a limit on the numbers of each species of game animal allowed to be killed under a licence, a high limit being given for the common species, and a much lower one for those in greater danger of disappearance. This rule is the very kernel of the question, provided only it is faithfully carried out, and not enacted merely for home consumption. I fear it is not everywhere strictly enforced, at least not equally against all sportsmen. In- fractions of it may be somewhat difficult to detect, but there is a further safeguard, which I am delighted to observe now finds a place in every set of regulations under consideration. Every licencee is now required, at the expiry of his licence, to furnish a return of what he has killed. This is also of the highest importance, in my opinion, for the future of the preservation of the game. It will impose a certain restraint on thoughtless sports- men, and, when the returns are collated, will form a basis for a valuable tabulation of the numbers of each BIG GAME PRESERVATION 121 species killed from year to year, and serve as an indica- tion of the increase or diminution of any species in a given area. It is obviously essential that this return should be required from all sportsmen, whether official or not, as even one or two omissions would vitiate the accuracy of the totals, and I would strongly urge upon the authorities to enforce the rule without favour. This has not always been the case, even since this rule was formally enacted. The legitimate sportsman has no reason to fear it, and the mere butcher ought to be gibeted. I now proceed to consider, in some detail, the methods by which the above recommendations have been carried out in the regulations and restrictions which are in force in the various British territories in Central Africa. The maintenance of reserves, or sanctuaries, is the first essential for the preservation of the various species. I have therefore prepared a map showing all the reserves at present constituted in the territories of Central Africa, as closely as I can ascertain the boundaries. The areas selected for this purpose in the first instance were not always chosen with sufficient knowledge or regard to the surrounding conditions and the needs of the game, especially their periodical migrations. This is important, because if the animals leave the reserve and congregate on certain chosen spots outside of it, where food and water are abundant at certain times of the year, they may be decimated there. The position and boundaries of the Kenia reserve, for instance, in British East Africa, were defective in several respects, and have been reconsidered. The new reserve comprises all the territory from the Tsavo River to the Uganda boundary, situated between the rail- 122 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS way and the German Protectorate, but extending to the north of the railway in the neighbourhood of Nairobe. I wish it could have included the whole Athi basin as far as Donyo Sabuk, as that area is well watered at all times, and is certain to be resorted to by the game in excep- tionally dry seasons, the reserve itself not being especially fortunate in that respect. The fact that the railway either borders or traverses the longest axis of the reserve greatly facditates inspection, and is an immense advantage. In 1899 the Kenia reserve, as then constituted, was not properly regarded by officers on the spot. At that time one of the regulations provided that " public officers may be specially authorised to kill, etc.," in that reserve. Unfortunately the words " may be specially authorised " in this regulation were interpreted by many of the Protectorate and railway officers as if they were " are authorised," and thus as making the whole of them free of the reserve. In fact, some came long distances for the purpose of shooting in it. This laxity of interpretation had a tendency to spread, and large quantities of game were at first killed there, after the arrival of the rail- way. A reserve is no true reserve which is subject to personal exceptions, and in the circumstances which I have detailed was a delusion and of little value. Now that this defect has been pointed out, the Foreign Office have been prompt to remedy it, and indeed they are under an international obligation to make the reserve a reality. No exception whatever is allowed, except that the European Protectorate officer quartered in the district comprising a game reserve may be granted a special z < a o BIG GAME PRESERVATION 123 licence authorising him to hunt. I regard this, therefore, and other reserves where the same strict rule has been adopted, as the best protected of any according to their regulations. The great area lately constituted a reserve to the north of Mount Kenia is too far out to have much practical importance at the present moment, and I doubt the expediency of marking out protected areas in regions which are still so remote that they cannot, for some time to come, be brought under any effective supervision. In British Central Africa two reserves have been established — one, the Lake Shirwa reserve, quite recently ; the other, the Elephant Marsh reserve, in 1896. The history of the latter, as extracted from the Government reports, is somewhat interesting, especially as showing that such small reserves are useless for the preservation of elephants and other large animals in the habit of covering long distances in their search for food. In the early part of 1896 Sir II. H. Johnston, then Commissioner, quoted from Consul Sharpe a long report on the game, from which I extract the following passage : — " When first I came to this country in 1887 to shoot big game, I found elephants numerous in what is known as the ' Elephant Marsh,' immediately north of Chiromo. I have even known them to have been shot from the little river steamer, the Lady Niasa, when the latter was moored in that part of the Shire running through the Elephant Marsh. Since 1889, however, the bulk of these beasts have moved away from this part of the Protectorate, and only return in occasional and fleeting visitations." 124 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS In September of the same year Acting Commissioner Sharpe reported as follows : — " I propose to form immediately what may be called, perhaps, a ' small sanctuary.' There is on the Shire River, immediately above Chiromo, a large extent of flat plains, marshy during the rains, but dry at this time of the year. These used, years ago, to be tenanted by large herds of elephants. They are still frequented by large quantities of buffalo, water-buck, and zebra. Nature has provided a close season here, as for six months in the year it is im- possible for Europeans to traverse these plains, owing to the water lying upon them. During the dry season, however, and especially after the grass is burnt, there is no protection for the game, and large quantities are killed every year. "During the last two months I have had reason to complain to, and expostulate with, a number of so-called sportsmen, whose ambition it is to slaughter as many buffalo, etc., as they can. I have only a day or two ago received a number of letters from residents in this country asking that some steps may be taken to preserve the game in these plains, which are known in existing maps as ' the elephant marsh.' " As I have already stated to your Lordship, I do not think that these small ' sanctuaries ' can be taken to have any effect upon the general question of the disappearance of game in Tropical Africa, but at any rate this preserve which I propose to make will be of interest in future years, and will cost little or nothing to protect, as it lies in close proximity to two of our river stations." As regards the last paragraph one is tempted to ask why a larger reserve, adequate for its purpose, should not have ■ ^ p :— » ■ " — ■ — ■ — V '^fc" ^ '•- to * j ■ 1 * t •* 9* »w >•>* gTnl |p ■ ' 4U iJf.a, *^* *%^ ^/nferir-^ ■ i -"-■* * *durr- ^ . *-»j^ *^t <^~a l _p ..^.wrfvv - "•' ^WFitrain - ^Tr^TT^ffv ' ^Vtf. F ,# "-^P* - V ^E.^B^DL' ' '#>v H^ ^i**T»v>A^»» «^ ** - J : «- ■-> J5»*lM- "->-»%S^^H .^Kffv a jf iJta^-w. ^^ SU. 53mS"'--'x" v flfc . -J*J»CT r . J T" *«r -21 - v -..4'3ss! ittH flK3KwUt^*t ^^3 3SBkV^^^ ^ ^il"« L •* .• ^a** *^^E2H p . ^^| i V **"^9 nSIBBvwr^ ^XrP -^9 K^i' ^SW; - : *^>^';* • ^fiyfc " " ' ■^** 'irffflfl BIG GAME PRESERVATION 125 been formed. However, one must be thankful for small mercies. In March 1897 Mr. Sharpe reports as follows : — "Regulations were passed in the month of September proclaiming a tract of country, locally known as the ' Elephant Marsh,' to be a game preserve. Within the limits of the defined preserve no shooting of game whatso- ever is allowed without permission from the Commissioner. The carrying out of these Regulations has had an excellent effect. Buffalo, zebra, and other game, which were formerly hunted to death in the elephant marsh, are now free from molestation ; and game from the Cholo hills have also come into the marsh, finding there a sanctuary. Recently a small troop of elephants was seen there, a thing which has not occurred since the year 1889 ; and I have great hopes that by strictly carrying out the clauses of the Regulations, we may have in a few years elephants wandering free and unmolested in the elephant marsh." Three years later (1900) Mr. M'Donald, collector, wrote as follows, that being apparently the last report which has been received : — "''As compared with last year there is no appreciable difference in the game in the reserve on the right bank of the Shire, with the exception perhaps of hartebeeste, which are not as plentiful as formerly. One specimen of the rare and beautiful inyala antelope, a female, was shot there last year " [Why ?— E.N.B.] ; " a small herd of seven is seen occasionally. "The game in the "'Elephant Marsh' reserve (i.e. the left bank of Shire) has increased very much since the marsh was proclaimed a reserve. This unfortunately also applies to lions, which are very troublesome at certain 126 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS seasons of the year. Buffalo, water-buck, and zebra are perhaps the only animals which frequent the reserve in numbers. Eland, sable antelope, duiker, bush-buck, etc., are fairly plentiful in the bush on the outskirts of the marsh. Elephants have not been seen in the marsh since April last year." The last remark shows what a pity it is not to enlarge this reserve so as to include the ground frequented by the eland, sable, and other antelopes here mentioned so as to protect them as well as the buffalo, water-buck, and zebra, which inhabit the marsh itself. As regards the recent disappearance of the elephant, is there not enough to account for it ? If the rarity and beauty of the inyala does not protect it within the reserve, why should not the value of the ivory also serve as an excuse ? Have not the elephants also, hearing the shots, good reason to fear ? In Uganda the new reserves have been so recently constituted that there are no reports about them as yet. The Sugota reserve ought to be well watched from Eldoma Ravine Station, and will depend for its security upon the officer in charge there. In Somaliland two small new reserves have been constituted in lieu of the old one — one near Hargeisa, another in the Mirso on the Golis Hills. In comparison with others they cover a very small area, especially the latter, which is designed to protect the greater koodoo. That splendid antelope stands greatly in need of it, but I doubt if such a tiuy sanctuary will be effective for the purpose. Turning now to the Soudan, it would appear that the reserve, which has been constituted there since my visit, and is that part of the "Ghezireh" which lies to the a z o DC u I III h I 5 BIG GAME PRESERVATION 127 south of Jebel Ain, and is included between the White Nile, the Sobat, aud the Abyssinian frontier, is passing through the same stage of imperfect recognition as an inviolable sanctuary as was at first the case with the Kenia reserve. I regret to say that an exception is here definitely made in the rules in favour of " all officers and civilian officials serving under or with the Soudan Government, and residents approved by the Governor- General," all of whom are permitted to shoot there as by right. The Notes for Sportsmen in the Soudan, prepared in Cairo by Count Gleichen, the Civil Secretary of the Soudan Government, and issued " by authority," go further than this, and an- nounce the extension of the same liberty to the officers of the Egyptian Army, which obviously opens the door far wider. An officer in the civil department writes to me justifying this regulation on the ground that when officers visit the villages within the reserve they must shoot meat for their men. I admit that there may be cases where necessity is the first law. But, in the first place, it is obvious that it is only a few of the officers who need visit the reserve in an official capacity, and even in those cases it would be a simple matter for the Government to provide "walking meat" for them. The authorised Notes, on the other hand, do not mince matters at all, but describe the White Nde reserve as a "large officers' game reserve (practically a sanctuary)." The words in brackets are a matter of opinion. Personally I should say that a sanctuary where people are allowed to shoot is a contradiction in terms. A vestal virgin should not be allowed to have, even two or three, lovers. 128 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS It is a reserve with a reservation, and experience shows that such reservations are fatal to it as a harbour for game. In this connection I may mention the Aden reserve in Somaliland, which until lately was, in the same way, confined to the use of officers quartered at Aden. It has been constituted for about fifteen years, and it was obviously very much to the interest of the Aden garrison that the game should not be unduly destroyed. Nevertheless experience has shown that within those limits the game has been almost shot out. It is, as I under- stand, abandoned as a reserve, and now officers as well as civilians must traverse it to districts farther south, either within or beyond the British Protectorate. Again, it was a matter of common report that in certain parts of the Sud district in Southern Soudan the game had been greatly reduced, and the rare and beautiful Mrs. Grey's water-buck had become, within those limits at least, very scarce. An Egyptian officer, who had killed thirteen water-buck in one place, informed a friend that he did not consider that the regulations applied to an officer like himself. I cite these cases to show that the game may disappear before the official uniform as well as the unprivileged traveller, especially if the limitation as to numbers is not regarded. I have, however, heard it stated, in mitigation, that such distant places have not yet been annexed, and are not, therefore, subject to the laws of the country. I give the excuse for what it is worth. In making these remarks I express no opinion against officers' reserves in principle, provided they are of reason- able dimensions, and kept for officers quartered in the district. But a private deer forest larger than Scotland BIG GAME PRESERVATION 129 is quite another matter, especially as no part of it is a sanctuary. I shall perhaps be told that these privileges are necessary in the interest of the Service ; but has the interest of the Service five or ten years hence been con- sidered ? When the game has gone the way of that in the Aden reserve it will be too late to talk about the Service. Several of my friends in the Soudan have urged that very few officers really make use of their liberty to shoot in the reserve, but in that case they cannot need 40,000 square miles. One-fourth of that area, which would be more than twice the size of the Eastern Counties, would be sufficient. The remainder could then be con- stituted a true reserve. If reference be made to the map it will be seen that besides the White Nile reserve enormous territories, in fact almost the whole of Darfur, Kordofan, and the whole of the Soudan south of the Sobat and the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and also the well-known hunting districts in the upper waters of the Blue Nile and Atbara, are declared to be closed for the present. These areas are therefore in much the same position as the so-called reserve, i.e. closed to out- side travellers, but open to officers or civil servants on the spot. Those regions which remain open to all are, for the most part, desert, or densely populated riverine districts, and contain little game, while nearly all the good game areas are within the " closed " territories. Such classic ground as the Settite and Salaam rivers, famihar to readers of Baker's Nile Tributaries, which were open to all travellers in the old days of semi- barbarous Egyptian authority, are thus closed to them under the present civilised regime. No doubt it is K 130 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS urged that our frontiers with Eritrea and Abyssinia have not yet been delimited. Such a delimitation has been contemplated for a long time, for two years ago the Governor- General reported that "the general basis of a frontier arrangement had already been settled with the Emperor Menelek." At present the practical effect is to create a " no man's land " or buffer state of these famous hunting-grounds. If this exclusion is determined on in deference to the jealousies of the Abyssinians, one would think that the visits of officers would be more likely to excite suspicion than those of private individuals. If, on the other hand, it is intended to create an additional officers' reserve, I venture to think that that intention should be definitely stated. As regards the other great territories the official reports seem designed to encourage traders to enter, and one fails to see why explorers and sportsmen may not follow. I am referring to Darfur, Kordofan, and the vast regions lying to the south of the Sobat and Ghazal rivers as far south as the Uganda frontier — an area of at least 400,000 square miles. Throughout these regions the natives are given to agricultural pursuits, wish to be friendly, and have no guns, at any rate no modern ones, while there are no political questions with powerful neighbours. These closures are in the discretion of the Governor- General, and he is doubtless in possession of information which, in his opinion, justifies them, but I must confess that when I marked out these forbidden districts on the map, which I have reproduced with this book, I was tempted to ask where the mere British citizen, fond of travelling and hunting, comes in. BIG GAME PRESERVATION 131 I have no desire to make a merely partial statement, and will therefore give the case for the closures in the words of one in high authority. He writes that sports- men and other travellers " say they are prepared to take all the risk and responsibility themselves, and think that the matter ends there. It does not. For the sake of prestige of the Government an attack on a European party has to be made a Government matter, and a row between the natives and a shooting party may lead to a costly and undesirable punitive expedition. That such rows may arise without any fault on the part of the European is exemplified in the recent treacherous murder of Bimbashi Scott Barbour in the Bahr-el- Ghazal." These considerations are entitled to the utmost weight, but I hope I shall not be thought to be a mere partisan if I urge some reasons, on the other hand, why this policy of exclusion should be modified at no distant date. With regard to the unhappy incident referred to, scarcely any details have reached home through the ordinary channels, so far as I have observed, nor is it even mentioned in Lord Cromer's report just issued (April 1902), so that we know nothing of the cause or of the punishment inflicted. In the brief newspaper report the murder was said to have been committed by Dinkas, who, as a tribe, are certainly most friendly to the British rule, so that I hope it will prove to be an altogether exceptional and isolated incident, due to some cause of which we are at present ignorant. If armed Soudanese troops accompanied the Bimbashi, it is perhaps not far to seek. Experience shows that it is often difficult for one or two European officers to control 132 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS the propensities for loot of African soldiers, whether Swahilis, Goanese, Soudanese, or Arabs, and most, if not all of the tribal hostility to white men has been caused in this way. In the previous annual report the Governor- General stated that " during the past year complete tranquillity has prevailed throughout all the districts administered by the Soudan Government," and this opinion I think has been generally confirmed by travellers and officers who have been brought into contact with the tribesmen, whether Dinkas, Shilluks, Nuers, or others. The reports from the Mudirs show that " crime is rare, and confidence in the methods of Government is growing daily among the outlying populations," while one of them wrote, " The more British officials move about the country, the better it will be ; the Soudan is not very difficult to rule, pro- vided that intercommunication is facilitated.' The reason is obvious, and I venture to think that the presence of responsible civilians, even if they are unconnected with the Administration, equally desirable, while the attacks which are dreaded by my correspondent would be at least as damaging to our prestige if they happened to an official. Although the conditions as regards natives, and the risk of attacks by them, have been much the same in the past throughout our vast Central African possessions, such closures have nowhere else been found necessary, at any rate on this scale. I must, however, admit that the rights of unofficial persons to travel have been challenged in the most pronounced form by the late Chief Commissioner in Uganda, but on totally different grounds, EIG GAME PRESERVATION 133 and perhaps as a member of that troublesome class I am unduly sore and suspicious from the castigation which the travellers and sportsmen received in the despatch which he wrote to the Government a few months ago. I do not know how far the spirit of the crusade against unofficial persons has floated down the Nile and been un- consciously imbibed by the Administration at Khartoum, but I think it has a general bearing on the subject of this chapter, and I may perhaps be pardoned if I here remind my readers of the position assumed by Sir Harry Johnston, which I regard, from the imperial point of view, as an impolitic one. After protesting that " this Protectorate (Uganda) no longer stands in need of exploration at the hands of persons not connected with the Administration," he reminds the Secretary for Foreign Affairs that, " as regards researches into the natural history, mineralogy, meteorology, and anthropology of the country, the investio-ation ... is now so well organised that not only do we not require help from outside effort, but such efforts tend to be even a hindrance, as they are, more often than not, carried on by persons who wish to acquire a knowledge of the products of the country for purely selfish purposes, or who wish to enrich the museums of countries outside the British Empire with new or remark- able natural history specimens, or merely to drive a lucrative trade in such specimens." Finally, he calls upon the Foreign Office " to discourage, as far as is consistent with its views, any more exploring, sporting, or amateur scientific expeditions to these Protectorates," and the chief ground he gives for this sweeping exclusion is that these individuals "invariably end by living like 134 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS parasites on one official or another." Now I do not deny that the Chief Commissioner and some of his officers may have suffered at the hands of a few ill-conditioned individuals who have acted unwarrantably, but the con- clusions which he draws would seem to be inconsistent with the free traditions of the Empire. I do not suppose that that distinguished official would adhere literally to all the expressions of the despatch, but I think the claim here made for the practical exclusion of travellers and a monopoly of research, which in some cases would mean merely an exclusive right of hunting, to be vested in the paid officials of the Government, not all of whom are well equipped for the purpose, does not tend towards the development of these portions of the Empire. I am sure that he cannot think that to his lieutenants alone, able as many of them are, would be revealed all the mysteries of the land and water. It must be remembered that it is to such independent travellers for whom I plead "not connected with the Administration," of which class Sir H. Johnston was at one time a most conspicuous example, that we owe the original exploration, and much of what we know, of these lands. Besides, it is not even necessary that such travellers should have a definite scientific object. It is the inherent right of every well- conducted British subject to travel within the Empire, even if his only object is to enjoy himself. You cannot build a zareba round any part of it. Moreover, the spirit of enterprise is an asset in the national character, and I know no reason why it should be thwarted or confined in bonds. I also think that from the point of view of game- preservation the admission of the traveller-sportsman, BIG GAME PRESERVATION 135 who devotes a holiday to a trip in Africa, and who, as a rule, is a man of experience and responsibility, while he generally respects native feeling, is not harmful, but the reverse. I do not pretend that this type are all immaculate, but few tales of indiscriminate slaughter can be brought against them. I believe the visits of the best class of travellers are acceptable to the officials, especially those in remote positions ; and even if these visitors occasionally indulge in criticism of the Administrations, as I am doing in this chapter, I hope, in a judicial spirit, is any Govern- ment the worse for that ? I have roughly squared out the areas of the various reserves as follows : — Square Miles. White Nile Reserve .... 40,000 Sugota Reserve ..... 15,000 Budonga Forest Reserve (boundaries indefinite) 2000 Toro Reserve ...... 2500 Jubaland Reserve ..... 20,000 Athi Plains Reserve ..... 11,500 Hargeisa Reserve ..... 2100 Mirso Reserve ...... 204 Elephant Marsh Reserve .... 900 Lake Shirwa Reserve .... 410 It will be seen that they differ enormously in size. A small area where the food and water are abundant may be effective, and is much more easily supervised, but it is unlikely that animals which cover long distances in their migrations, such as elephants or giraffes, would remain within a restricted area for the whole year. Some- what varied elevations, which are known to produce successional feeding, are desirable for the same reason. 136 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS As regards the first schedule — that is, animals having absolute protection — the species most favoured in this way- are the giraffe, eland, mountain zebra, and white-tailed gnu. The Soudan is divided into districts, in which the protected list varies according to the distribution of the animals. As I have already said, the ostrich has been removed from the list, though in my opinion it stands as much in need of protection as any four-footed animal. In Somaliland there has been some want of discrimination, for the list is made to include mountain zebra, giraffe, eland, white-tailed gnu, and buffalo, none of which animals exist in the territory ; while the greater koodoo, which is in danger of extinction, is excluded. Besides the species included in this sacred list, others, as I have said, receive protection by a limit being placed on the number allowed to be killed. Of all the game regulations dealing with this subject the best model seems to be the third schedule of those in force in Uganda and British East Africa, which avoids too many distinctions, but divides the protected animals into those of which two only may be killed, and the commoner kinds, whose limit is ten. This is better than multiplying arbitrary limits. Then as to the difficult question of elephants, difficult because of the high money value of their tusks. In no territory do they receive complete protection. The number allowed to be killed by one sportsman is generally limited, and the export of tusks under 1 1 lbs. in weight is prohibited. Most of the reserves are too small to afford protection to such a traveller as the elephant, and in the largest of them, the White Nile reserve, where it is getting rare, it is allowed to be killed by officers. I am personally opposed BIG GAME PRESERVATION 137 to the destruction of elephants at all, on the ground that, valuable as they are for their ivory, that will soon come to an end at the present rate of destruction, and that they might be still more valuable as weight-carriers. That is, perhaps, a counsel of perfection, but that they require some far more effective protection is obvious to every one who has studied the subject. Some years ago an Englishman sold, on his return to the coast, the produce of his trip in ivory for £8000. The hundreds of elephants necessary to produce this amount were, of course, not in the main killed by his own rifle. Some of the ivory may have been bought, but numbers of native hunters were said to have been hired for this purpose and attached to his staff, and were sent far and wide over the country. Thus this caravan must have left a broad trail of destruction for hundreds of miles. When the wealthy and powerful set such an example, how can the law be enforced against those who have the excuse of poverty ? It is to be hoped that the Foreign Office will be able to devise means for the arrest of wholesale destruction like this. Although the Conven- tion has not recommended it, is it too much to hope for the imposition of an adequate export duty, uniform at all the ports of exit, to whatever Power they may belong, and the total prohibition of the export of cow ivory ? In all cases a heavy licence is required from sportsmen intending to shoot in British territories. The usual cost is from £25 to £50, while a material reduction is very properly allowed to officers quartered in the country, who receive the same privilege for a payment of from £2 to £10. In some cases, as in the Soudan, extra payments have to be made for each specimen killed of certain animals, e.g. in 138 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS the Soudan £6 for a buffalo, £8 for a male elephant, £12 for a female elephant, £2 for a roan antelope, £3 for Mrs. Grey's water-buck, and according to the terms of the regulations these are exacted from all licencees alike. It is obvious that to any fairly successful hunting party this greatly enhances the cost of the licence. Very heavy export duties are also imposed on trophies taken from the Soudan, but it does not appear that these are exacted in the case of travellers who have taken out a hunting licence. In some cases a special licence may be granted, at the discretion of the Commissioner, to kill, even in a game reserve, any of the species named in any of the schedules, whose presence is detrimental to its purpose, under such conditions as to fees which the Commissioner may prescribe. The prohibition of the sale of horns is strongly enforced in the Soudan. In Somaliland the sale is prohibited within the Protectorate. I venture to think it would be wise to extend the prohibition to such sales at Aden. Every passenger on a liner calling there must have noticed that horns of koodoo and oryx are pressed upon them by the Somalis who crowd round in boats. The Midgans kill large numbers of these two species, tempted by the money value of the trophies. In Somaliland there is an official list of headmen, and every party of travellers is required to take one of them. There is competition among the Somalis to be included in this list. These select men are responsible to the Govern- ment and discourage infractions of the law. The plan might usefully be adopted elsewhere. Up to the present time the returns of game killed in BIG GAME PRESERVATION 139 the Protectorates do not appear to have been generally received at headquarters, though an approximately com- plete return from the Soudan is given in the latest official report, and I have appended it in Schedule III. It is earnestly to be desired that the Foreign Office should press upon the Chief Commissioners the importance of reporting these returns in the completest form for the reasons I have already given. There can be no good reason for withhold- ing them. The question of bringing resident natives under the prohibition which extends to Europeans requires to be care- fully weighed. In my opinion, it is neither possible or just to stop their hunting so long as they are confined to their primitive weapons, the poisoned arrow and spear. From time immemorial the destruction caused by the indigenous inhabitants has not appreciably diminished the stock. The land and the animals upon it are their birthright, and to interfere with it would surely cause trouble. We are not bound, however, to furnish them with civilised weapons, and every precaution should be taken to prevent their obtaining them. It is very much to be regretted that in defiance of conventions the French have poured military rifles through Jibouti into Abyssinia, and it is to be feared that they will find their way into the adjoining territories. Indeed, it is almost incumbent on us to allow the Somalis to have them, as they are powerless to defend themselves against the raids of their neighbours. A curious and suggestive state of things has resulted from contact with civilisation on the Athi Plains. Owing to their dread of the Masai, who do not hunt themselves, the hunting tribes used not to venture there in any 140 TWO AFRICAN TRIPS numbers, but the raiding propensities of that tribe are now restrained, and they no longer exercise an unconscious protective influence over the game. Hundreds of Waki- kuyu now come there to hunt, and are said to be rapidly reducing the herds. It has been suggested that the Masai might be used as a kind of game police, and, under proper supervision, it might well be tried. Finally, the best of rules are useless without two things — a sound public opinion among the resident whites whom they chiefly affect, and a firm and knowledgable man to carry them out. The first exists, and I am convinced is on the increase. How should it be otherwise, unless one presupposes the most shortsighted selfishness ? As to enforcing the rules, that which is the business of several officials, all of whom are engaged in office work, is practi- cally no one's business. Let there be one man on the spot — that is to say one in each great game district, and especially in each reserve — whose duty it is to know and to act. All this will cost money, and our Administrators are properly anxious to avoid expense, but this may be carried too far. When a nation " pegs out claims " it must incur cost to justify its right, and will not grudge whatever may be necessary to preserve that which is more precious, and less replaceable, than any catalogued collec- tion, alive or dead. MEETING THE HOMEWARD BOUND. APPENDIX I EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE QUEEN'S REGULATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 45 OF "THE EAST AFRICA ORDER IN COUNCIL, 1897," AND ARTICLE 11 OF "THE EAST AFRICA ORDER IN COUNCIL, 1897." Preservation of Game ] . In these Regulations — "Hunt, kill, or capture " means hunting, killing, or capturing bv any method, and includes every attempt to kill or capture : " Hunting " includes molesting. " Game " means any animal mentioned in any of the Schedules. " Public Officer " means a European officer in the public service of the East Africa or L'ganda or Zanzibar Protectorates, or on the Superior Establishment of the Uganda Railway, or an officer of one of Her Majesty's ships on the East Africa station. " Native " means any native of Africa, not being of European or American race or parentage. " Settler " means a person for the time being resident in the Pro- tectorate not being a public officer or a native. " Sportsman " means a person who visits the Protectorate wholly or partly for sporting purposes, not being a public officer, settler, or native. " Collector " means the principal civil officer in charge of a district of the Protectorate. " Schedule " and " Schedules " refer to the Schedules annexed to these Regulations. 142 GAME LAWS General Provisions 2. No person, unless he is authorised by a special licence in that behalf, shall hunt, kill, or capture any of the animals mentioned in the First Schedule. 3. No person, unless he is authorised by a special licence under these Kegulations, shall hunt, kill, or capture any animal of the kind mentioned in the Second Schedule if the animal be (a) immature, or (b) a female accompanied by its young. 4. No person, unless he is authorised under these Regulations, shall hunt, kill, or capture any animal mentioned in the Third Schedule. 5. The Commissioner may, if he thinks fit, by Proclamation, declare that the name of any species, variety, or sex of animal, whether beast or bird, not mentioned in any Schedule hereto, shall be added to a particular Schedule, or that the name of any species or variety of animal mentioned or included in one Schedule shall be transferred to another Schedule, and, if he thinks fit, apply such declaration to the whole of the Protectorate, or restrict it to any district or districts in which he thinks it expedient that the animal should be protected. 6. No person shall within the Protectorate sell, or purchase, or offer or expose for sale, any ostrich eggs or any head, horns, skin, feathers, or flesh of any animal mentioned in any of the Schedules, unless the ostrich or animal has been kept in a domesticated state, and no person shall knowingly store, pack, convey, or export any part of any animal which he has reason to believe has been killed or captured in contravention of these Regulations. 7. If any person is found to be in possession of any elephant's tusk weighing less than 11 lbs., or any ivory being in the opinion of the Court part of an elephant's tusk which would have weighed less than 1 1 lbs., he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regula- tions, and the tusk or ivory shall be forfeited unless he proves that the tusk or ivory was not obtained in breach of these Regulations. 8. No person shall use any poison, or, without a special licence, any dynamite or other explosive for the killing or taking of any fish. 9. Where it appears to the Commissioner that any method used for killing or capturing animals or fish is unduly destructive, he may, by Proclamation, prohibit such method or prescribe the conditions under which any method may be used ; and if any person uses any method so prohibited, or uses any method otherwise than according EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE 143 to the conditions so prescribed, he shall be liable to the same penalties as for a breach of these Regulations. 10. Save as provided by these Regulations, or by any Proclama- tion under these Regulations, any person may hunt, kill, or capture any animal not mentioned in any of the Schedules, or any fish. Game Reserves 11. The areas described in the Fifth Schedule hereto are hereby declared to be game reserves. The Commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary of State, may by Proclamation declare any other portion of the Protectorate to be a game reserve, and may define or alter the limits of any game reserve, and these Regulations shall apply to every such game reserve. Save as provided in these Regulations or by any such Proclama- tion, any person who, unless he is authorised by a special licence, hunts, kills, or captures any animal whatever in a game reserve, or is found within a game reserve under circumstances showing that he was unlawfully in pursuit of any animal, shall be guilty of a breach of these Regulations. Licences to Europeans, etc. 1 2. The following licences may be granted by the Commissioner or any Collector, or such person or persons as may be authorised by the Commissioner, that is to say : — (1) A sportsman's licence ; (2) A public officer's licence ; and (3) A settler's licence. The following fees shall be payable for licences, that is to say, for a sportsman's licence, 750 rupees, and for a public officer's or a settler's licence 150 rupees. Every licence shall be in force for one year only from the date of issue. Provided that a public officer's licence may be granted for a single period of fourteen consecutive days in one year on payment of a fee of 30 rupees. Every licence shall bear in full the name of the person to whom it is granted, the date of issue, the period of its duration, and the 144 GAME LAWS signature of the Commissioner, Collector, or other person authorised to grant licences. The applicant for a licence may be required to give security by bond or deposit, not exceeding 2000 rupees, for his compliance with these Regulations, and with the additional conditions (if any) con- tained in his licence. A licence is not transferable. Every licence must be produced when called for by any officer of the Protectorate Government, or by any officer of the Uganda Railway specially authorised in writing by the Commissioner. In granting licences under these Regulations, a Collector or any person authorised to grant licences shall observe any general or particular instructions of the Commissioner. 1 3. A sportsman's licence, and a public officer's licence respectively, authorise the holder to hunt, kill, or capture animals of any of the species mentioned in the Third Schedule, but unless the licence other- wise provides, not more than the number of each species fixed by the second column of that Schedule. The holder of a sportsman's or public officer's licence granted under these Regulations may by the licence be authorised to kill or capture additional animals of any such species on payment of such additional fees as may be prescribed by the Commissioner. 14. A settler's licence authorises the holder to hunt, kill, or capture animals of the species and to the number mentioned in the Fourth Schedule only. 15. A public officer's licence shall not be granted except to a public officer, and a settler's licence shall not be granted except to a settler ; but a sportsman's licence may be granted to a settler. 16. When a licence similar to a public officer's licence under these Regulations has been granted in the Uganda Protectorate, that licence shall authorise the holder to hunt, kill, or capture game in the East Africa Protectorate, in all respects as if the licence had been granted in the East Africa Protectorate, provided that such licence shall be first indorsed by a Collector or other authorised officer of the East Africa Protectorate : provided also that any authority to kill or capture additional animals or any animals not permitted under the corresponding East Africa licence shall be void. 17. Where it appears proper to the Commissioner for scientific or administrative reasons, he may grant a special licence to any person, EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE 145 not being a native, to kill or capture animals of any one or more species mentioned in any of the Schedules, or to kill, hunt, or capture, in a game reserve, specified beasts or birds of prey, or other animals whose presence is detrimental to the purposes of the game reserve, or, in particular cases, to kill or capture, as the case may be, in a game reserve, an animal or animals of any one or more species mentioned in the Schedules. A special licence shall be subject to such conditions as to fees and security (if any), number, sex, and age of specimens, district and season for hunting, and other matters as the Commissioner may prescribe. And in the Uganda Railway zone, whether included in the game reserve or not, it shall be lawful to kill or capture any beast of prey. When the Collector or Assistant Collector, or other European officer of the Protectorate Government, in a district comprising a game reserve, is the holder of a public officer's licence, the Commissioner may grant a special licence authorising the officer to hunt, kill, or capture, in the game reserve, such animals as may be allowed by his public officer's licence. Save as aforesaid, the holder of a special licence shall be subject to the general provisions of these Regulations, and to the provisions relating to holders of licences. 18. Every licence-holder shall keep a register of the animals killed or captured by him in the form specified in the Seventh Schedule. The register shall be submitted as often as convenient, but not less frequently than once in three months, to the nearest Collector or Assistant Collector, who shall countersign the entries up to date. Any person authorised to grant licences may at any time call upon any licence-holder to produce his register for inspection. Every person holding a sportsman's licence shall likewise, before leav- ing the Protectorate, submit his register to the Deputy-Commissioner. If any holder of a licence fails to keep his register truly he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations. 19. The Commissioner may revoke any licence when he is satisfied that the holder has been guilty of a breach of these Regulations or of his licence, or has connived with any other person in any such breach, or that in any matters in relation thereto he has acted otherwise than in good faith. 20. The Commissioner may, at his discretion, direct that a licence under these Regulations shall be refused to any applicant. L 146 GAME LAWS 21. Any person whose licence has been lost or destroyed may obtain a fresh licence for the remainder of his term on payment of a fee not exceeding one-fifth of the fee paid for the licence so lost or destroyed. 22. No licence granted under these Eegulations shall entitle the holder to hunt, kill, or capture any animal, or to trespass upon private property without the consent of the owner or occupier. 23. Any person who, after having killed or captured animals to the number and of the species authorised by his licence, proceeds to hunt, kill, or capture any animals which he is not authorised to kill or capture, shall be guilty of a breach of these Eegulations, and punishable accordingly. 24. Persons in the employment of holders of licences may, -without licence, assist such holders of licences in hunting animals, but shall not use fire-arms. The holder of a sportsman's or public officer's licence while engaged in hunting animals mentioned in the Schedules shall not be accompanied by more than one person provided with a settler's or native's licence. In any case of a breach of this Regulation, the licence of every licence-holder concerned in the breach shall be liable to forfeiture, and such licence-holder shall be guilty of an offence. 25. The Commissioner or any person authorised by him in that behalf may, at his discretion, require any person importing fire-arms or ammunition that may be used by such person for the purpose of killing game or other animals to take out a licence under these Eegula- tions, and may refuse to allow the fire-arms or ammunition to be taken from the public warehouse until such licence is taken out. Save as aforesaid, nothing in these Eegulations shall affect the provisions of "The East Africa Fire-arms Eegulations, 189G." Restrictions on Killing of Game by Natives 26. When the members of any native tribe or the native inhabitants of any village appear to be dependent on the flesh of wild animals for their subsistence, the Collector of the district may, with the approval of the Commissioner, by order addressed to the Chief of the tribe or Headman of the village, authorise the tribesmen or inhabitants, as the case may be, to kill animals within such area, and subject to such conditions as to mode of hunting, number, species, and sex of animals and otherwise, as may be prescribed by the order. EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE 147 An order under this Regulation shall not authorise the killing of any animal mentioned in the First Schedule. The provisions of these Regulations with respect to holders of licences shall not apply to a member of a tribe or native inhabitant of a village to which an order under this Regulation applies. Save as aforesaid, the general provisions of these Regulations shall apply to every native who is authorised under this Regulation, and a breach of any order shall be a breach of these Regulations. 27. The Collector of a district may, with the approval of the Commissioner, grant a licence, similar to a sportsman's or settler's licence, to any native, upon such terms as to fees and other conditions as the Commissioner may direct. Lgul Procedure 28. "Where any public officer of the East Africa Protectorate thinks it expedient for the purposes of verifying the register of a licence- holder, or suspects that any person has been guilty of a breach of these Regulations, he may inspect and search, or authorise any subordinate officer to inspect and search, any baggage, packages, waggons, tents, building, or caravan belonging to or under the control of such person or his agent, and if the officer finds any heads, tusks, skins, or other remains of animals appearing to have been killed, or any live animals appearing to have been captured, in contravention of these Regulations, he shall seize and take the same before a Magistrate to be dealt with according to law. 29. Any person who hunts, kills, or captures any animals in contravention of these Regulations, or otherwise commits any breach of these Regulations, shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine which may extend to 1000 rupees, and, where the offence relates to more animals than two, to a fine in respect of each animal which may extend to 500 rupees, and in either case to imprisonment which may extend to two months, with or without a fine. In all cases of conviction, any heads, horns, tusks, skins, or other remains of animals found in the possession of the offender or his agent, and all live animals captured in contravention of these Regulations, shall be liable to forfeiture. If the person convicted is the holder of a licence, his licence may be revoked by the Court. 148 GAME LAWS 30. "Where in any proceeding under these Regulations any fine is imposed, the Court may award any sum or sums not exceeding half the total fine to any informer or informers. Repeal, etc. 31. All previous Regulations as to the killing of game in the Protectorate are hereby repealed. 32. The forms of licences appearing in the Schedule hereto, with such modifications as circumstances require, may be used. 33. These Regulations may be cited as "The East Africa Game Regulations, 1900." 34. These Regulations are hereby declared urgent. (Signed) ARTHUR HARDINGE, Her Majesty's Commissioner and Consul- General. Mombasa, October 7, 1900. Approved : (Signed) LANSDOWNE, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. SCHEDULES * FIRST SCHEDULE A nimals not to be hunted, killed, or captured by any person, except under Special Licence. 1. Giraffe. 2. Mountain Zebra. 3. Wild Ass. 4. White-tailed Gnu (Connochcetes gnu). 5. Eland {Taurotragus). 6. Buffalo. 7. Elephant (female or young). 8. Vulture (any species). 9. Secretary-bird. 10. Owl (any species). 11. Rhinoceros-bird or Beef-eater (Buphaga), any species. 1 2. Ostrich (female or young). 1 These Schedules may contain the names of some species or varieties not found, or only occasionally found, in East Africa. EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE 149 SECOND SCHEDULE Animals, Hie females of which are not to be hunted, killed, or captured when accompanied by their young, and the young of which are not to be captured, except under Special Licence. 1. Rhinoceros. 2. Hippopotamus. 3. Zebra (other than the Mountain Zebra). 4. Chevrotain (Dorcatlwrium). 5. All Antelopes or Gazelles not mentioned in the First Schedule. THIRD SCHEDULE Animals, limited numbers of which may be killed or captured under a Sportsman's or Public Officer's Licence. Kind. Number allowed. 1. Elephant (male) ........ 2 2. Rhinoceros ........ 2 3. Hippopotamus ........ 2 4. Zebras (other than the Mountain Zebra) 2 5. Antelopes and Gazelles — Class A— Oryx (Gemsbuck Colotis or Beisa) . 2 Hippotragus (Sable or Roan"i . 2 Strepsiceros (Kudu) 2 6. Colobi and other fur-Monkeys 2 7. Aard-Yarks (Orycteropus) 2 8. Serval .... 2 9. Cheetah (Cynalarus) . 2 10. Aard-wolf (Proteles) 2 11. Smaller Monkeys of each species 2 12. Ostrich (male only) 2 13. Marabous .... 2 14. Egret .... 2 15. Antelopes and Gazelles — Class B— Any species other than those in Class A . 10 16. Chevrotains (Dorcatherium) . 10 17. Wild Pig, of each species 10 18. Smaller Cats . " . 10 19. Jackal 10 150 GAME LAWS FOURTH SCHEDULE Animals, limited numbers of which may be killed or captured under a Settler's Licence. Kind. 1. Hippopotamus ..... 2. (i.) Warthog (Phacochcerus) (ii.) Bush Pig (Sus chceropotamus) (iii.) Senaar Swine (Sus senaarensis) . 3. The following Antelopes and Gazelles only :— (i.) Grant's Gazelle .... (ii) Thomson's Gazelle (iii.) Hartebeest (Bubalis and Damaliscus) (iv.) Impala (.'Epyceros) (v.) Reedbuck (Cervicapra) . (vi.) Duiker (Gephalophus) . (vii.) Klipspringer (Oreotragus) (viii.) Steinbuck (Rhaphiceros) (ix.) Waterbuck (Cobus) (x.) Wildebeest (Gnu) Connocluctes (ex- cept the white-tailed species) Number of Animals allowed. 2 10 10 10 animals in all in any calendar month, made up of animals of a single species or of several. FIFTH SCHEDULE Game Reserve The areas bounded as follows : — I. An area bounded by — 1. The north-eastern limit of the Uganda Railway zone from the Tsavo River to the Athi River. 2. By the left bank of the Stony Athi River from the point where it is crossed by the Uganda Railway to the point intersecting a line drawn from the summit of Donyo Sabuk to the summit of Kijabi Peak. 3. By a line drawn from the summit of Donyo Sabuk through the summit of Kijabi Peak to its point of intersection by the eastern boundary of the Uganda Protectorate. 4. By the eastern boundary of the Uganda Protectorate from the last-named point to its point of intersection by the frontier of the German East Africa Protectorate. 5. By the Anglo-German frontier from its point of intersection EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE 151 by the Uganda Protectorate boundary to the point where it is intersected by the southern boundary of the Massai- land district. 6. By a line drawn from the last-named point to the source of the Tsavo River. 7. By the left bank of the Tsavo River from its source to its intersection by the Uganda Railway. II. An area bounded by — On the north by the 3rd parallel of north latitude. On the east by the 39th meridian of longitude. On the south by the northern boundary of the Kenia district of the Province of Ukamba. On the west by the boundary between the East Africa and Uganda Protectorates. SIXTH SCHEDULE Xo. 1. — Sportsman's Licence (Fee 750 rupees), or Public Officer's Licence (Fee 150 rupees). A. B., of , is hereby licensed to hunt, kill, or capture, wild animals within the East Africa Protectorate for one year from the date hereof, but subject to the provisions and restrictions of "The Game Regulations, 1900." [The said A. B. is authorised, subject to the said Regulations, to kill or capture the following animals in addition to the number of the same species allowed by the Regulations, that is to say : — Fee paid (Rupees). Dated this day of , 1900. (Signed) Commissioner [or Collector]. No. 2. — Settler's Game Licence (Fee 150 rupees). C. D., of , is hereby licensed to hunt, kill, or capture wild animals within the district of the East Africa Protectorate for one year from the date hereof, but subject to the provisions and restrictions of "The Game Regulations, 1900." Dated this day of , 1900. (Signed) Commissioner [or Collector]. 152 GAME LAWS SEVENTH SCHEDULE Game Register Species. Number. Sex. Locality. Date. Remarks. I declare that tire above is a true record of all animals killed by me in the Protectorate under the Licence granted me on the , 19 (Signed) Passed 190 (Signature of examining officer.) THE SUDAN 153 AN ORDINANCE FOE THE PRESERVATION OF WILD ANIMALS AND BIRDS It is Hereby Exacted as follows : — Sliort Title 1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Preservation of Wild Animals' Ordinance, 1901. Commencement 2. It shall come into force, so far as it affects persons who are not natives of the Sudan, immediately, but, so far as it affects natives of the Sudan, it shall come into force only as to such sections thereof, in such districts, and as regards such classes of natives as shall from time to time be notified. Repeals 3. The Wild Animals' Preservation Ordinances 1900 and 1901, are hereby repealed. Interpretation Clause 4. In this Ordinance, unless there be something repugnant in the context: — "Hunt," "capture," "kill," and "injure" include respectively hunting, capturing, killing, and injuring by any methods, and also attempting or aiding to hunt, capture, kill, and injure. " The Licensing Officer " denotes any Officer authorised by the Governor-General to grant licences under this Ordinance, but includes the Governor-General. "Notified" and "prescribed" mean respectively, notified and prescribed by the Governor-General in the Sudan Gazette. " This Ordinance " includes any regulation or matter duly notified or prescribed under the provisions of this Ordinance and for the time being in force. Division of Animals and Birds into Classes 5. (1) For the purpose of this Ordinance, wild animals and birds are divided into four classes, namely, three classes called respectively, Class I., Class II., and Class III., and a fourth class which will include all animals and birds not for the time being included in any of the other classes. 154 GAME LAWS Classes to Comprise tlie Animals and Birds specified therein (2) Classes I., II., and III. shall respectively comprise the animals and birds from time to time notified to be comprised therein. Power of Governor-General to include Animals and Birds in any Class (3) The Governor-General may, from time to time, by notice published in the Sudan Ga~cttc, declare as to any animal or bird specified in such notice (a) that it shall be included in any class ; or (b) that it shall be removed from any class. Certain Animals and Birds to be absolutely Protected 6. (1) Subject to Section 12, and 21, 1, e, hereof, no person, whether he is the holder of a licence or not, shall kill, injure, or capture any wild animal or bird for the time being included in Class I. Female and Young of certain other Animals to be absolutely Protected (2) Subject to Section 12, and 21, 1, e, hereof, no person, whether he is the holder of a licence or not, shall kill or injure any female or immature animal of any of the kinds for the time being included in Class II. Persons Killing Protected Female Animals unknowingly (3) Provided that if a person having unknowingly killed or injured a female animal included in Class II., gives notice thereof upon the first opportunity to the Licensing Officer, and pays such fee as may be prescribed he shall not be liable, on account of such animal being female, to any penalty under this Ordinance. Issue of Licences — Licences A, B, and C 7. (1) Licences for the hunting, capturing, and killing of wild animals for the time being included in Class II. and III. shall be issued under this Ordinance. They shall be of three kinds, and shall be called respectively, Licence A, Licence B, and Licence C. (2) Licence A and B may be granted by the Licensing Officer in his discretion to any person applying for the same. Licence C shall be granted to natives of the Sudan only. THE SUDAN 155 What Animals may be Hunted under Licences A and B 8. (1) Licence A will empower the holder to hunt, capture, and kill animals and birds for the time being included in Class II. and Class III. Licence B will empower the holder to hunt, capture, and kill animals and birds for the time being included in Class III. Limit on Number of Animals which may be Killed (2) The numbers of the several kinds of animals and birds, which will be authorised under any Licence A or Licence B to be killed or captured, may from time to time be limited by notice in the Sudan Gazette, but the Governor-General shall have power to increase or decrease such numbers under special circumstances. Fees (3) Such annual fees shall be payable for Licence A and B respectively, and shall from time to time be prescribed. There shall be payable also by the holder of a Licence A or a Licence B, in respect of every such animal as may, from time to time, be notified which he captures or kills, such fee as may from time to time be prescribed. In any scale of fees prescribed under this sub-section lower rates may be fixed in favour of public servants and officers of the military forces stationed in the Sudan, and any other classes of persons who, in the opinion of the Governor-General, ought to receive favourable treat- ment in this respect. Terms of Licences (4) Every Licence A and Licence B shall be in force for one year from the date when it was granted and shall then expire. Signature by Licence Holder — Licences not transferable — Lost Licences (5) Every Licence A and Licence B shall contain a statement, to be signed by the licence-holder, that he agrees to conform to the provision of this Ordinance. Xo licence shall be transferable. If an original licence is lost, or 156 GAME LAWS destroyed, a duplicate licence may be obtained upon proof of such loss or destruction and payment of the sum £E.l. Huntsmen and Assistants (6) All huntsmen, beaters, and other assistants aiding the holder of a Licence A or a Licence B to hunt, capture, or kill any animal or bird which such licencee is authorised by his licence to hunt, capture, or kill, shall be covered, while so acting, by the said licence. Account of Animals killed (7) Every holder of a Licence A or B shall keep an account of all animals and birds killed or captured by him of the kind included in Class II. or III., and of any other animal and bird which may be demanded in the licence, giving details of their sex and the date when and place where they were captured or killed, and shall produce such account when called for by any officer of the Government, and upon the expiration of his licence or previously to his leaving the Sudan, whichever first happens, shall deliver a copy of such account signed by him to the Licensing Officer. Taking of Security (8) Previously to granting a Licence A or a Licence B to any person, the Licensing Officer may require such person to make a deposit of the sum of £E.100, or such smaller sum as may be considered sufficient, as a security for his compliance with the provisions of this Ordinance. Exchange of Licence B for Licence A (9) At any time while a Licence B continues in force, it may, with the consent of the Licensing Officer, be exchanged for a Licence A, upon payment of the difference between the fees chargeable for such respective licences, but the substituted licence shall expire upon the same day as the original licence would have expired. What Animals may be Hunted under Licence C and terms upon which such Licence issued 9. Licence C may be granted by the Governor-General, or any Officer authorised by him for the purpose, to any native of the Sudan, THE SUDAN 157 or to any body of such, natives, upon such conditions and for such periods as may be thought to be warranted by the circumstances. Licence C will empower the holder to hunt, capture, and kill any of the animals and birds, for the time being included in Class II. Production of Licences 10. Every holder of a licence must produce the licence when called for by any Magistrate, Police Officer, or Military Officer engaged in Civil Administration. Hunting of certain Animals and Birds without a Licence prohibited 11. Subject to Section 12 and to Section 21, 1, e, hereof: — (1) No person not being a native of the Sudan, unless he is a holder of or is covered by a Licence A, and no native of the Sudan, unless he is the holder of or is covered by a Licence A or a Licence C, shall hunt, capture, or kill any wild animal or bird for the time being included in Class II., and no person holding or covered by a Licence A or a Licence C shall capture or kill a greater number of any wild animal or bird for the time being included in Class II. than is authorised by the licence. (2) No person not being a native of the Sudan, unless he is the holder of or is covered by a Licence A or a Licence B, shall hunt, capture, or kill any wild animal or bird for the time being included in Class III., and no person holding or being covered by a Licence A or a Licence B, shall capture or kill a greater number of any wild animal or bird for the time being included in Class III. than is authorised by the licence. Animals causing Damage to Cultivated Property 12. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Ordinance, the owner or occupier of cultivated property, and any one authorised by him, may capture or kill any wild animals or birds causing serious damage to such property, if no other means of prevention can reason- ably be adopted. Animals and Birds for the Hunting of which no Licence is required 13. (1) Any person, whether he is or is not the holder of a licence, may hunt, capture, and kill any wild animals and birds which are not for the time being included in Class I., II., or III. 158 GAME LAWS Animals and Birds which may be Hunted by Natives without a Licence (2) Any native of the Sudan, whether he is or is not the holder of a licence, may hunt, capture, and kill any wild animals and birds which are not for the time being included in Class I. or II. Export of Animals and Birds 14. (1) The export of any animal or bird other than such wild animals or birds as may, from time to time, be excepted from this provision by notice in the Sudan Gazette, and the skins, feathers, horns, trophies of any such animal or bird in an unmanufactured condition (other than elephant tusk, rhinoceros horn, or ostrich's feathers) is hereby prohibited except under a Government permit. (2) Provided nevertheless that animals and birds, and the skins, feathers, horns, and trophies of animals and birds, which have been killed or captured under an A or B Licence, may be exported without a Government permit upon production of evidence of the fact that they have been so killed or captured. (3) There shall be payable for a Government permit such fees as shall, from time to time, be prescribed. Export Tax 15. The Governor-General may, from time to time, by notice published in the Sudan Gazette, permit the export of any wild animals or birds, and of the skins, feathers, horns, and trophies of any wild animals and birds, and may impose a tax at such rates as he thinks fit upon the export of any wild animals or birds, and the skins, feathers, horns, and trophies of any wild animals and birds, the export whereof may, for the time being, be permitted. Ostrich Eggs not to be Hemmed 16. No person, whether he is the holder of a licence or not, shall remove, or disturb, or injure the eggs of an Ostrich, or of any other bird which may, from time to time, be notified, without the written permission of a Licensing Officer. Shooting from Steamers and Poisoning Fish Forbidden 17. No person shall shoot from a steamer either at rest or in motion, at any bird or at any animal except the crocodile, and no THE SUDAN 159 person shall use any poison or dynamite or other explosive for the taking of any fish. Special Permission to Capture or Kill Animals and Birds 18. The Governor-General or any Officer authorised by him may, by special endorsement on a licence, permit the capture of a limited number of the animals and birds included in Class I., and the Governor- General may dispense from the observation of such regulations of this Ordinance, as may be thought expedient, any person whom he is satisfied requires such disjiensation for the purpose of scientific study. Any such special permission or dispensation may be withdrawn at any time. Confiscation of certain Elephant Tusls 11. All cow ivory, and any elephant tusk weighing less than 10 lbs. or such other weight as may be notified in this behalf, is liable to be confiscated and may be seized by any Magistrate, Police Officer, or Military Officer engaged in Civil Administration, without any adjudication of confiscation, subject to a right of appeal to the Mudir or to a Magistrate of the First or Second Class against the confiscation. Game Reserve 20. The Governor-General from time to time may proclaim any territory as a game reserve, and may by proclamation extend or restrict the limits of or abolish any game reserve, and may make special regulations with regard to any such reserve. Subject to such regulations, no person, whether a native, or not a native, may hunt or kill any wild animal or bird within a game reserve without a written permission from the Governor-General, or an officer authorised by him for the pm'pose. The Governor-General, and any officer authorised by him for the purpose, may in his discretion grant leases of the sporting rights over or permissions to sport in any game reserve upon such terms and upon payment of such sums as he may think proper, and any such lease or permission may enable the holder to hunt, capture, or kill wild animals and birds within the game reserve free from the obligation to take out a licence under this Ordinance. Matters which may be notified lij the Governor-General 21. (1) The Governor-General may, from time to time, as regards 160 GAME LAWS matters mentioned in Clauses a, b, c, d, and / below, by notice published in the Sudan Gazette, and as regards matters mentioned in Clause e below, by notice published as aforesaid or by written permission, exercise all or any of the following powers, that is to say : — a. Notify or prescribe any matter, which is left by this Ordinance, to be notified or prescribed. b. Declare a close time, or close times, during which any wild animal or bird specified in such notice shall not be hunted, captured, or killed, nor the flesh thereof sold or offered for sale. c. Forbid or restrict the use of nets, pitfalls, or other destructive methods of capture. d. Extend or limit any of the provisions of this Ordinance so as to exclude therefrom or include therein any wild animal or bird specified in such notice, or suspend any of the provisions of this Ordinance. e. Exempt from any of the provisions of this Ordinance public servants and military officers serving in the Sudan, and also, to the extent of permitting them to kill wild animals and birds for food, persons on a journey. /. Revoke, alter or suspend any such notice. (2) Any such notice or permission may apply to the whole or to any specified part or parts of the Sudan, and may impose conditions or make regulations consistent with this Ordinance. (3) Upon the publication of any such notice, this Ordinance and such notice shall together take effect as if the matter contained in the notice had been incorporated in this Ordinance. Penalties 22. (1) Persons who contravene this Ordinance shall on conviction be liable to the following penalties, that is to say : — a. Whoever contravenes Sub-Section 1 of Section 6, or Sub-Section 1 of Section 2, or Section 17, or is found within a game reserve under such circumstances as to show that he is unlawfully in pursuit of a wild animal or bird, shall be liable for a first offence to a fine not exceeding £E. 100, or to imprisonment which may extend to three months, and for a second or subsequent offence to a fine not exceeding £E.200, or to imprisonment which may extend to six months. b. Whoever contravenes Sub-Section 2 of Section 6, whether knowingly or unknowingly, or contravenes Sub-Section 2 of Section 2, or the provisions of any notice issued under Sub-Section 1, b, of THE SUDAN 161 Section 21, or commits any breach of this Ordinance in respect of which no special penalty has been prescribed, shall be liable for a first offence to a fine not exceeding £E.25, or to imprisonment which may extend to six weeks, and for a second or subsequent offence to a fine not exceeding £E.50, or to imprisonment which may extend to three months, subject nevertheless in the case of a contravention of Sub- Section 2 of Section 6 to the proviso in Sub-Section 3 of the same Section. c. Whoever contravenes Sub-Section 7 of Section 8, or Section 10, shall be liable for a first offence to a fine not exceeding £E.10, or to imprisonment which may extend to two weeks, and for a second or subsequent offence to a fine not exceeding £E.20, or to imprisonment which may extend to a month. (2) Persons contravening this Ordinance shall also be liable for all fees, which should have been paid by them for or under any licence, which they have or should have taken out under this Ordinance, and upon conviction the amount of such fees shall be determined by the Court, and shall be recoverable as a fine in addition and without prejudice to any fine or imprisonment which may be awarded under the preceding Sub-Section. In ichat Courts Prosecutions may be Tried 23. Prosecutions for a contravention of any of the provisions of this Ordinance may be tried by the Court of a Magistrate of the Second Class or by any Court of greater power. Forfeiture of Licence 24. The licence of any person convicted of an offence under this Ordinance shall be liable to be forfeited. Confiscation of Trophies 25. Ail animals, birds, skins, horns, tusks, feathers, trophies, eggs and carcases of all animals or birds captured or killed in contravention of this Ordinance shall be liable to be confiscated, and may be seized by any Magistrate, Police Officer, or Military Officer engaged in Civil Administration, without any adjudication, subject to a right of appeal to a Magistrate of the First or Second Class against the confiscation. M 162 GAME LAWS Obligation to take out Licence for carrying Fire-arms 26. Nothing in this Ordinance shall be deemed to relieve any person from the obligation to take out any licence which for the time being is required to be taken out for carrying fire-arms. (Signed) REGINALD WINGATE, Governor-General. NOTICE ISSUED UNDER THE PEESERVATION OF WILD ANIMALS ORDINANCE 1901 The following notice is hereby issued by the Governor-General in exercise of the powers vested in him by the Preservation of Wild Animals Ordinance 1901, and of every other power enabling him : — 1. The notices issued under the Wild Animals Preservation Ordinances 1900 and 1901 are hereby repealed. 2. The Preservation of Wild Animals Ordinance 1901 shall from and after the publication of this notice come into force as regards all the natives of the Sudan. 3. Classes I., II., and III. shall respectively comprise the animals and birds specified therein respectively in the Schedule hereto for the respective districts therein mentioned. The holder of a Licence "A" shall be authorised to capture or kill of the several animals and birds specified in Classes II. and III., and the holder of a Licence " B " of the several animals and birds specified in Class III. the numbers stated with reference to such animals and birds respectively in the Schedule hereto, subject to the power of the Governor-General to increase or decrease such numbers under special circumstances. If the holder of a Licence " A " hunts in two or more districts, the total number of any of the animals or birds mentioned in the Schedule hereto which he captures or kills in any one district must not exceed the number laid down for such district in the said Schedule, and the total number of any such animal or bird which he captures or kills in any two or more districts must not exceed the number laid down in the said Schedule in respect of such animal or bird in the district for which the limit is higher. THE SUDAN 163 4. The annual fees for Licence " A " and Licence " B " shall be in accordance with the following scale : — Description of Licence. Description of Licence. Annual Fee £E. Licence " A " An Officer or Official serving under or with the Sudan Government, or a resident approved by the Governor-General .... ' Any other person ..... Licence " B " An Officer or Official serving under or with the Sudan Government, or a resident approved by the Governor-General .... Any other person ..... 3 25 Licence " B " may also be granted at the discretion of the Licensing Officer for one or more days at a daily charge of P.T.25. 5. The holder of a licence not being an Officer or Official serving under or with the Sudan Government, nor being such resident as aforesaid, shall also pay, in respect of every animal or bird killed or captured by him of the kinds mentioned in Part V. of the Schedule hereto, the fees therein specified. 6. From and after the publication of this notice an export tax, according to the scale set forth in Part VI. of the Schedule hereto, shall be levied on each specimen alive or dead, and on j>arts of specimens of the animals or birds set forth in the said part of the said Schedule, but such tax will not be levied on skins or trophies of ungulata (hoofed animals), carnivora, or bustard killed by the holder of a game licence, under and in accordance with the terms thereof, nor on any live animals or birds which any Officer or Official serving under or with the Sudan Government wishes to export, if he declares the game to be his own property and not intended for sale. This exemption will not extend to the royalties on ivory, rhinoceros horn, and ostrich feathers. 7. From and after the publication of this Notice, the tract of country between the Blue and White Nile and the Sobat River, bounded on the North by a line from Jebelain to Karkoj, on the East by the left bank of the Blue Nile and the line of the Abyssinian boundary southward to the Sobat River, on the South by the right bank of the Sobat River from the Abyssinian frontier to the White Nile, and on 164 GAME LAWS the West by the right bank of the White Nile from the Sobat junction to Jebelain, shall be a Game Reserve. 8. No person other than Officers or Officials serving under or with the Sudan Government or a resident approved by the Governor-General shall hunt, capture, or kill any wild animal or bird within such Game Reserve. 9. Licences are issued and fees are payable at the head office of every Mudiria, and at the Khartoum Office of the Superintendent, Preservation of Wild Animals Department. Licences are also issued at the Civil Secretary's Office, Cairo. 10. The issue of a licence to any person does not necessarily confer on him a right to proceed to every part of the districts named in Part I. of the Schedule hereto, and in particular no person not authorised by Clause 8 hereof may hunt, capture, or kill any animal or bird in the parts of these districts which form the Game Reserve hereinbefore constituted. THE SCHEDULE Part I District No. I All the Sudan north of a line drawn from Jebelain to El-Obeid and produced both ways to the frontiers except any portion of the Kassala and Sennar Mudirias. Class I.— Animals not allowed to be Killed, Hunted, or Captured Elephant, Hippopotamus, and the animals and birds mentioned in Part II. of this Schedule (page 166). Clans II. — Animals, a limited number of which may be Hunted, Killed, or Captured by an " A " Licence Buffalo, 2 ; Ostrich, 2 ; and the animals and birds mentioned in Part III. of this Schedule (page 166). Class III. — Animals, a limited number of which may be Hunted, Killed, or Captured by an "A " or " B " Licence The animals and birds mentioned in Part IV. of this Schedule (page 167). THE SUDAN 165 District No. II With the exception of the Sennar Mudiria all the Sudan south of a line drawn from Jebelain to El-Obeid and produced both ways to the frontiers as far south as the Bahr-El-Arab and the waterway, thence via Lake No to the junction of the Sobat and White Nile, thence to the Abyssinian frontier. Class I The animals and birds mentioned in Part II. of this Schedule. Class II Elephant, 4 ; Buffalo, 4 ; Ostrich, 2 ; Hippopotamus, 6 (of which not more than 2 may be shot down-stream from the Sobat junction) ; and the animals and birds mentioned in Part III. of this Schedule. Class III The animals and birds mentioned in Part IV. of this Schedule. District No. III. — Kassala Mudiria Class I Hippopotamus, and the animals and birds mentioned in Part II. of this Schedule. Class II Elephant, 2 ; Buffalo, 2 ; Ostrich, 2 ; Hippopotamus, 1 : and the animals and birds mentioned in Part III. of this Schedule. Class III The animals and birds mentioned in Part IV. of this Schedule. District No. IV. — Sennar Mudiria Class I The animals and birds mentioned in Part II. of this Schedule. Class II Elephant, 2 ; Buffalo, 2 ; Hippopotamus, 1 ; Ostrich, 2 ; and the animals and birds mentioned in Part III. of this Schedule. Glass III The animals and birds mentioned in Part IV. of this Schedule. 166 GAME LAWS District No. V All the Sudan south of District No. II. Class I The animals and birds mentioned in Part II. of this Schedule. Class II Elephant, 4; Buffalo, 2; Hippopotamus, 10; Ostrich, 2; and the animals and birds mentioned in Part III. of this Schedule. Class III The animals and birds mentioned in Part IV. of this Schedule. Part II Class I. — Animals and Birds which may not be Hunted, Killed, or Captured within the limits of the Sudan Rhinoceros. Zebra (Equus). Shoebill (Balamiceps rex). Ground Hornbill (Bucorax). Chimpanzee (Anthropopithecus). Crowned Crane. Giraffe. Wild Ass (Equus asinus). Secretary Bird (Serpentarius). Rhinoceros Bird. Eland (Taurotragus). Part III Class II. — Animals and Birds of which a limited number may be Hunted, Killed, or Captured by the holder of an " A " Licence, and the number authorised. Roan Antelope (Hippotragus) White Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) Beisa (Oryx beisa) Waterbuck (Cobus defassa) . Mrs. Gray's Waterbuck (Cobus Maria) .... White-eared Cob (Cobus leucotis) . Thomas and other Cob (Cobus Thomasi) .... Kudu (Strepsiceros capensis) Addax (Addax nasomaadatus) Reedbuck (Cervicapra) Bushbuck (Tragelaphm) Hartebeest (Bubalis) . 3 6 Addra Gazelle Pelican . [Gazel a rufi collis) 5 2 2 4 Egret Heron Night Heron 2 2 2 2 Bittern . 2 4 Stork Marabou 2 3 3 3 Spoonbill Flamingo 2 2 6 Ibis 2 4 4 Hammerhead (Scopus) Crowned Crane 2 2 5 THE SUDAN 167 Part IV Class III. — Animals and Birds of which a limited number may be Hunted, Killed, or Captured by the holder of an "A" or " B " Licence, and the numbers authorised Each species of Antelope and Gazelle not mentioned in Part III Ibex (Capra nubiana) . .10 Wart Hog (Phacochwrus africanus) 1 Large Bustard . . .10 Part III. . Wild Sheep . . . .10 Note. — The limit as to such antelopes and gazelles will not apply to Officers and Officials serving under or with the Sudan Government or residents approved by the Governor-General. Part V Fees payable for Killing or Capturing the following Animals and Birds Fee. Buffalo (Bos caffer) Elephant (EUphas africanus) . Hippopotamus .... Ostrich ..... Roan Antelope (Hippotragus equinus) Beisa (Oryx beisa) .... White Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) Mrs. Gray's Waterbuck (Cobus Maria) Waterbuck (Cobus defassa) White-Eared Cob (Cobus leucotis) Kudu (Strepsiccros capensis) Beedbuck (Cervicapra bohor) Bushbuck (Tragelaphus) . Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) . Thomas and Allied Cobs Hartebeest (Bubalis) The payment of fees in respect of elephant and ostrich is in addition to any royalties payable on ivory and ostrich feathers. Male. Female £E. £E. 6 C 8 12 1 1 2 4 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 10 5 5 1 5 5 5 1 1 1 Part VI Export Taxes payable on Specimens, living or dead, or Parts of Specimens of the following Animals and Birds £E. Mill. Chimpanzee (Anthropopithecus troglodytes) .... 25 Guereza and other long-haired Monkeys (Colobus guereza, etc.) 2 Grivets, Patas Monkeys, Baboons, etc. (Cercopithecus, Papio, etc.) . . . 500 Lion (Felis leo) ........ 5 Leopard (Felis pardus) ....... 3 168 GAME LAWS Cheetah (Cynalurus jiibatus) .... Aard-Wolf (Proteles cristatus) .... Serval, Lynx, and Wild Cats (Felis eerval, Felis caracal, etc.) Genet (Genetta) ...... Hysenas ....... Wolf, Hunting Dog, Jackal, Fox and Fennec (Canida:) Elephant (Elephas africanus) .... Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros bicornis, B. simus) Wild Ass (Equus asinus) ..... Zebra (Equus) ...... Buffalo (Bos caffer) ...... Hartebeests (Bubalis tora, jacksoni, etc.) Tiang (Damaliscus tiang) ..... Waterbuck (Cobus defassa) .... Mrs. Gray's Waterbuck (Cobus Maria) White-Eared Cob and other species of Cobus (Cobus leucotis, etc, Roan Antelope (Hippotragus equinus) . White Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) .... Beisa (Oryx beisa) ...... Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) .... Kudu (Strepsiceros capensis) .... Eland (Taurotragus) . ... Reedbuck (Cervicapra bohor) Bushbucks (Tragelaphus) ..... Speke's Antelope (Tragelaphus spekei) . Addra Gazelle (Gazclla ruficollis) Loder's Gazelle (Gazella leptoceros) Ariel and other Gazelles ..... Duiker, Dig-Dig (Cephalophus, Madoqua, etc.) Klipspringer (Oreoiragus saltator) Oribi (Ourebia montana, etc.) Ibex (Capra nubiana) Wild Sheep (Ovis lervia) ..... Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) . Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) . Wart Hog and Wild Swine (Phacocluerus africanus, Sus, etc.) Aard Vark (Orycteropus ccthiopicus) Shoe Bill (Balmiiceps rex) .... Secretary Bird, Large Ground Hornbill, and Rhinoceros Bird Ostrich ........ Crowned Cranes ...... Pelicans, Egrets, Herons, Night Herons, Bitterns, Storks, Marabous, Spoonbill, Ibis, Flamingo, Geese, Cranes, Bustard ......... £E. Mill. 5 5 500 500 500 250 50 50 25 25 25 10 10 10 25 25 10 10 10 25 25 25 10 10 10 10 10 500 500 500 500 10 10 25 25 2 2 10 5 3 2 500 (Signed) REGINALD WINGATE, Governor-General. THE SUDAN 169 NOTICE OF LIMITS OF DISTRICTS FOR 1901-1902 H.E. the Governor-General has approved the following being observed during the years 1901-1902 as the limits of the Shooting Districts in the Sudan. No one will be allowed to shoot outside these limits unless he has been granted special permission to do so by H.E. the Governor-General : — District 1. — Western limit — longitude Kaga Wells. District 2. — Western limit — 50 miles from river bank along White Nile up to Sobat (i.e. beyond Sobat prohibited). District 3. — From the point on River Rahad where a line from Roseires to Gedaref crosses it, to Khashm-el-Girba and thence along Sudan-Eritrea frontier. District 4. — Southern limit — the line from Roseires to Gedaref. District 5. — Closed. By Order of the Governor-General, (Signed) C. F. HAROLD, Bimbashi, Assistant Civil Secretary. KhaKTOUM, October 16, 1901. SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 171 SOMALILAND PEOTECTOEATE NOTICE The following Eegulations made by His Majesty's Consul-General, and allowed by the Secretary of State, are published for general information. (Signed) J. HAYES SADLEE, His Majesty's Consul-General. Berbera, July 10, 1901. KING'S EEGULATIONS UNDEE AETICLE 32 OF "THE SOMALILAND OEDEE IN COUNCIL, 1899" No. 3 of 1901 Preservation of Game 1. In these Eegulations — " Hunt, kill, or capture " means hunting, killing, or capturing by any method, and includes every attempt to kill or capture. " Hunting " includes molesting. " Game " means any animal mentioned in any of the Schedules. " Public officer " means a European officer in the public service of the Somaliland Protectorate, or an officer of one of His Majesty's ships visiting the coast. " Native " means any native of Africa not being of European or American race or parentage. " Settler " means a person for the time being resident in the Protectorate not being a public officer or a native. " Sportsman " means a person who visits the Protectorate wholly or partly for sporting purposes, not being a public officer, settler, or native. " Consular Officer " means the Principal Consular Officer in charge of a district of the Protectorate. " Schedule " and " Schedules " refer to the Schedules annexed to these Eegidations. 172 GAME LAWS General Provisions 2. No person, unless he is authorised by a special licence in that behalf, shall hunt, kill, or capture any of the animals mentioned in the First Schedule. 3. No person, unless he is authorised by a special licence under these Regulations, shall hunt, kill, or capture any animal of the kinds mentioned in the Second Schedule if the animal be — (a) Immature ; or (b) A female accompanied by its young. 4. No person, unless he is authorised under these Regulations, shall hunt, kill, or capture any animal mentioned in the Third Schedule. 5. The Consul-General may, if he thinks fit, by Proclamation, declare that the name of any species, variety, or sex of animal, whether beast or bird, not mentioned in any Schedule hereto, shall be added to a particular Schedule, or that the name of any species or variety of animal mentioned or included in one Schedule shall be transferred to another Schedule, and, if he thinks fit, apply such declaration to the whole of the Protectorate or restrict it to any district or districts in which he thinks it expedient that the animal should be protected. 6. No person shall within the Protectorate sell, or purchase, or offer, or expose for sale any ostrich eggs or any head, horns, skin, or flesh of any animal mentioned in any of the Schedules, unless the ostrich or animal has been kept in a domesticated state ; and no person shall knowingly store, pack, convey, or export any part of any animal which he has reason to believe has been killed or captured in contravention of these Regulations. 7. If any person is found to be in possession of any elephant's tusk weighing less than 11 lbs., or any ivory being, in the opinion of the Court, part of an elephant's tusk which would have weighed less than 11 lbs., he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations, and the tusk or ivory shall be forfeited unless he proves that the tusk or ivory was not obtained in breach of these Regulations. 8. Where it appears to the Consul-General that any method used for killing or capturing animals is unduly destructive, he may, by Proclamation, prohibit such method or prescribe the conditions under which any method may be used ; and if any person uses any method so prohibited, or uses any method otherwise than according to the SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 173 conditions so prescribed, he shall be liable to the same penalties as for a breach of these Regulations. 9. Save as provided by these Regulations, or by any Proclamation under these Regulations, any person may hunt, kill, or capture any animal not mentioned in any of the Schedules. Game Reserves 10. The areas described in the Fifth Schedule hereto are hereby declared to be game reserves. The Consul-General, with the approval of the Secretary of State, may, by Proclamation, declare any other portion of the Protectorate to be a game reserve, and may define or alter the limits of any game reserve, and these Regulations shall apply to every such game reserve. Save as provided in these Regulations, or by any such Proclama- tion, any person who, unless he is authorised by a special licence, hunts, kills, or captures any animal whatever in a game reserve, or is found within a game reserve under circumstances showing that he was unlawfully in pursuit of any animal, shall be guilty of a breach of these Regulations. Licences to Europeans, etc. 11. The following licences may be granted by the Consul-General or any Consular officer or such person or persons as may be authorised by the Consul-General, that is to say : — (1) A sportsman's licence ; (2) A public officer's licence ; and (3) A settler's licence. The following fees shall be payable for licences, that is to say, for a sportsman's licence, 500 rupees, and for a public officer's or a settler's licence, 100 rupees. Every licence shall be in force for one year only from the date of issue. Provided that a public officer's licence may be granted for a single period of 14 consecutive days in one year on payment of a fee of 30 rupees. Every licence shall bear in full the name of the person to whom it is granted, the date of issue, the period of its duration, and the 174 GAME LAWS signature of the Consul- General, Consular officer, or other person authorised to grant licences. The applicant for a licence may be required to give security by bond or deposit, not exceeding 2000 rupees, for his compliance with these Regulations, and with the additional conditions (if any) contained in his licence. A licence is not transferable. Every licence must be produced when called for by any officer of the Protectorate Government. In granting licences under these Regulations a Consular officer or any person authorised to grant licences shall observe any general or particular instructions of the Consul-General. 12. A sportsman's licence and a public officer's licence respectively authorise the holder to hunt, kill, or capture animals of any of the species mentioned in the Third Schedule, but unless the licence other- wise provides, not more than the number of each species fixed by the second column of that schedule. The holder of a sportsman's or public officer's licence granted under these Regulations may by the licence be authorised to kill or capture additional animals of any such species on payment of such additional fees as may be prescribed by the Consul-General. 13. A settler's licence authorises the holder to hunt, kill, or capture animals of the species and to the number mentioned in the Fourth Schedule only. 14. A public officer's licence shall not be granted except to a public officer, save that the Consul-General may issue a limited number of public officer's licences to military officers of the Aden Garrison. A settler's licence shall not be granted except to a settler, but a sportsman's licence may be granted to a settler. 15. Where it appears proper to the Consul-General for scientific or administrative reasons, he may grant a special licence to any person, not being a native, to kill or capture animals of any one or more species mentioned in any of the Schedules, or to kill, hunt, or capture in a game reserve specified beasts or birds of prey, or other animals whose presence is detrimental to the purposes of the game reserve, or in particular cases, to kill or capture, as the case may be, in a game reserve, an animal or animals of any one or more species mentioned in the Schedules. A special licence shall be subject to such conditions as to fees and SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 175 security (if any), number, sex, and age of specimens, district and season for hunting, and other matters as the Consul -General may prescribe. When the Consular officer, or other European officer of the Pro- tectorate Government, in a district comprising a game reserve, is the holder of a public officer's licence, the Consul-General may grant a special licence authorising the officer to hunt, kill, or capture, in the game reserve, such animals as may be allowed by his public officer's licence. Save as aforesaid, the holder of a special licence shall be subject to the general provisions of these Regulations, and to the provisions relating to holders of licences. 1 6. Every licence-holder shall keep a register of the animals killed or captured by him in the form specified in the Seventh Schedule. The register shall be submitted as often as convenient, but not less frequently than once in three months, to the nearest Consular officer, who shall countersign the entries up to date. Any person authorised to grant licences may at any time call upon any licence-holder to produce his register for inspection. Every person holding a sportsman's licence shall likewise before leaving the Protectorate submit his register to the Consular officer of the port from which he embarks. If any holder of a licence fails to keep his register truly he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations. 1 7. The Consul-General may revoke any licence when he is satisfied that the holder has been guilty of a breach of these Regulations or of his licence, or has connived with any other person in any such breach, or that in any matters in relation thereto he has acted otherwise than in good faith. 18. The Consul-General may at his discretion direct that a licence under these Regulations shall be refused to any applicant. 19. Any person whose licence has been lost or destroyed may obtain a fresh licence for the remainder of his term on payment of a fee not exceeding one-fifth of the fee paid for the licence so lost or destroyed. 20. No licence granted under these Regulations shall entitle the holder to hunt, kill, or capture any animal, or to trespass upon private property without the consent of the owner or occupier. 21. Any person who, after having killed or captured animals to 176 GAME LAWS the number and of the species authorised by his licence, proceeds to hunt, kill, or capture any animals which he is not authorised to kill or capture, shall be guilty of a breach of these Regulations, and punishable accordingly. 22. Persons in the employment of holders of licences may, without licence, assist such holders of licences in hunting animals, but shall not use firearms. In any case of a breach of these Regulations, the licence of every licence-holder concerned in the breach shall be liable to forfeiture, and such licence-holder shall be guilty of an offence. 23. The Consul-General or any person authorised by him in that behalf may, at his discretion, require any person importing firearms or ammunition that may be used by such person for the purpose of killing game or other animals to take out a licence under these Regula- tions, and may refuse to allow the firearms or ammunition to be taken from the public warehouse until such licence is taken out. Save as aforesaid, nothing in these Regulations shall affect the provisions of "The Somaliland Firearms Regulations, 1900." Restrictions on Killing Game by Natives 24. Except as regards the animals mentioned in Schedule 1, and larger and lesser kudu, the killing of which by natives will be pro- hibited, the provisions of these Regulations as to the killing of animals other than in the reserve will not for the present be applied to the inland tribes who have hitherto been accustomed to depend on the flesh of wild animals for their subsistence. Legal Procedure 25. Where any public officer of the Somaliland Protectorate thinks it expedient for the purposes of verifying the register of a licence- holder, or suspects that any person has been guilty of a breach of these Regulations, he may inspect and search, or authorise any sub- ordinate officer to inspect or search, any baggage, packages, waggons, tents, building, or caravan belonging to or under the control of such person or his agent ; and if the officer finds any heads, tusks, skins, or other remains of animals appearing to have been killed, or any live animals appearing to have been captured, in contravention of these SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 177 Regulations, he shall seize and take the same before a Magistrate to be dealt with according to law. 26. Any person who hunts, kills, or captures any animal in con- travention of these Eegulations, or otherwise commits any breach of these Regulations, shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine which may extend to 1000 rupees, and, where the offence relates to more animals than two, to a fine in respect of each animal which may extend to 500 rupees, and in either case to imprisonment which may extend to two months, with or without a fine. In all cases of conviction, any heads, horns, tusks, skins, or other remains of animals found in the possession of the offender or his agent, and all live animals captured in contravention of these Regulations, shall be liable to forfeiture. If the person convicted is the holder of a licence, his licence may be revoked by the Court. 27. Where in any proceeding under these Regulations any fine is imposed, the Court may award any sum or sums not exceeding half the total fine to any informer or informers. Repeal, etc. 28. All previous Regidations as to the killing of game in the Protectorate are hereby repealed. 29. The forms of licences appearing in the Schedule hereto, with such modifications as circumstances require, may be used. 30. These Regulations may be cited as "The Somaliland Game Regulations, 1901." (Signed) J. HAYES SADLER, Sis Majesty's ConsiU-General. Beebeea, July 10, 1901. Allowed : (Signed) LANSDOWNE, Sis Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. N 178 GAME LAWS SCHEDULES 1 FIRST SCHEDULE Animals not to be hun ted, killed, or captured by any person, except under Special Licence 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Mountain Zebra. Giraffe. Eland. White-tailed Gnu. Wild Ass. Buffalo. 7. Elephant, female or young. 8. Vulture, any species. 9. Secretary-bird. 10. Owl, any species. 11. Rhinoceros-bird, or Beef- eater (Buphaga), any species. 12. Ostrich, female or young. SECOND SCHEDULE Animals, the females of wlrich are not to be hunted, killed, or captured when accompanied by their young, and the young of which are not to be captured, except under Special Licence 1. Rhinoceros. 2. Zebra, other than the Mountain Zebra. 3. All Antelopes and Gazelles. THIRD SCHEDULE Animals, limited numbers of which may be killed or captured under a Sportsman's or Public Officer's Licence Kind. Number allowed. 1. Elephant, male ........ 2 2. Rhinoceros ........ 2 3. Zebras, other than the Mountain Zebra 2 4. Antelopes and Gazelles — - Class A — Oryx (Oryx beisa) ... 2 Strepsiceros (Kudu) 2 Strepsiceros Imberbis . 2 5. Cheetah (Oynmlurus) . 2 6. Aard-wolf (Proteles) 2 7. Smaller Monkeys of each species 2 8. Ostrich, male only 2 9. Marabous .... 2 10. Egret .... 2 1 1. Antelopes and Gazelles — Class B — Any species other than those in Class A 10 1 2. Wild Pig, of each species ...... 10 13. Smaller Cats . " 10 1 These Schedules may contain the names of species or varieties not found, or only occasionally found, in Somalilaud. SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 179 FOURTH SCHEDULE Animals, limited numbers of which may be killed or captured under a Settler's Licence Kind. Number of Animals allowed. 1. TVarthog (Phacochcerus) .... 2. The following Antelopes and Gazelles only:— (i.) Grant's Gazelle . (ii.) Thomson's Gazelle (iii.) Hartebeeste (Bicbalis swaynei) (iv.) Klipspiinger (Oreotragus) (v.) Clarke's Gazelle (Ammodorcas clarlcci) .... (vi.) Waller's Gazelle (Lithocrani ivalleri) 10 animals in all in any calendar month, made up of animals of a single species or of several. FIFTH SCHEDULE Game Reserve 1. The area known as the "Mirso" lying to the north of the Golis range between a line drawn from Lower to L T pper Sheikh on the east to Hafafa on the west. 2. The area bounded by a line running from Laferug through Mandeira and the Jerato Pass to Syk, Talawa Yer, and Hargaisa, thence following the line of the Hargaisa River to Haraf, thence to Sattawa at the intersection of the 10th meridian with 44° east longitude, and thence along the 10th meridian to its starting-point at Laferug. SIXTH SCHEDULE No. 1. — Sportsman's Licence (Fee, 500 rupees); or Public Officer's Licence (Fee, 100 rupees) A. B., of , is hereby licensed to hunt, kill, or capture wild animals within the Somaliland Protectorate for one year from the date hereof, subject to the provisions and restrictions of "The Game Regulations, 1901." 180 GAME LAWS The said A. B. is authorised, subject to the same Regulations, to kill or capture the following animals in addition to the number of the same species allowed by the Regulations, that is to say : — Fee paid, Dated this rupees. day of , 1901. (Signed) Consul-General (or Consular Officer). No. 2. — Settler's Game Licence (Fee, 100 rupees) C. D. t of , is hereby licensed to hunt, kill, or capture wild animals within the district of the Somaliland Protectorate for one year from the date hereof, but subject to the provisions and restrictions of "The Game Regulations, 1901." Dated this day of , 1901. (Signed) , Consul-General (or Consular Officer). SEVENTH SCHEDULE Game Register Species. Number. Sex. Locality. Date. Remarks. SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 181 I declare that the above is a true record of all animals killed by me in the Protectorate under the Licence granted me on the , 190 . Passed, , 190 . (Signature of Examining Officer.) The following Rules fok the Guidance of Persons intending to travel in the somaliland protectorate for sporting or other Purposes have also been issued somaliland protectorate General Provisions 1. No shooting, exploring, or other party is allowed to enter the Protectorate without the previous permission of the Consul-General, to whom timely application should be made in writing, stating the proposed time, scope, duration, and object of the tour. Game Licences 2. (a) Under "The Somaliland Game Regulations, 1901," visitors travelling for the purpose of sport are required to take out a sports- man's licence, for which a fee of 500 rupees is charged. (b) Exception is made in the case of military officers of the Aden garrison, to whom a limited number of "public officers' licences" may be issued on payment of a fee of 100 rupees. It is also provided that a " public officers' licence " may be granted for a single period of fourteen consecutive days in one year on payment of a fee of 30 rupees. (c) A copy of the Game Regulations may be seen at Messrs. Cowasjee, Dinshaw's, Aden, and may be obtained on application to the Foreign Office or to the Protectorate authorities. Customs Duty 3. An import duty of 7 per cent ad valorem is charged on all stores and provisions imported, with the exception of bond fide wearing apparel and articles of personal use, which are passed free. 182 GAME LAWS Guns and Ammunition 4. All consignments of arms and ammunition must be preceded, at least a week before the arrival of such consignments, by a declara- tion signed by their owners and addressed to the agents of the latter in Aden, of the number and description of arms and ammunition, and also by a copy of the permission accorded them to enter the Pro- tectorate, failing which, the said arms and ammunition are liable to be overcarried, as, under the provisions of the Indian Arms Act and the Explosives Act, the Aden authorities will be unable to grant a licence for their import or transhipment. 5. (a) "The Somaliland Firearms Regulations, 1899," provide that : — (i.) All firearms and ammunition must be imported either at Zeyla or Berbera, and at no other place in the Protectorate. (ii.) They must be deposited in the Customs warehouse, and cannot be withdrawn without a permit in writing signed by Consular officer. (iii.) Previous to withdrawal they must be stamped and registered. (J) Forms of application for game licences and for permits of with- drawal may be previously obtained and filled in at Messrs. Cowasjee, Dinshaw's, Aden. Escort and Followers 6. (a) Every party intending to travel in the interior is required to take an escort in sufficient number, and so armed as to satisfy the Consul-General, according to the district to be visited. (b) Arms and ammunition for escorts must be provided by the parties themselves ; none can be lent by the Administration. 7. Each caravan must be under a Headman. A list of Headmen, at present qualified, is given in Schedule I. annexed hereto, and none but men entered on this list, or who may hereafter be added thereto by the Consul-General, will be permitted to accompany parties in that capacity. 8. Men composing the escort, personal servants, and other followers may be selected by the traveller, but must be approved and registered by the Consular officer of the district in which they are engaged, and the provisions of "The Native Labour Regulations, 1901," shall be complied with in all respects. Copies of these regulations can be obtained from Messrs. Cowasjee, Dinshaw. SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 183 9. To prevent imposture and disappointment, visitors are recom- mended to engage their servants and followers locally in consultation with the local officials, who will be competent to advise them in their selection. Schedule II., annexed hereto, gives the recognised scale of wages. Miscellaneous 10. There is no desire to make hampering conditions, but it is evident that the molestation of British subjects travelling in the interior would be most injurious to Great Britain's position in Somali- land, and the necessary precautions must be taken with this view : (i.) A thorn zariba should, where possible, be made round the camp. (ii.) Night watch should be strictly kept. (iii.) Interference in tribal disputes must be avoided. When travellers find themselves at a distance from the coast in the vicinity of tribes between whom an affray appears imminent, they should confine their action to advising the parties to keep the peace and to send deputations to the nearest Protectorate official, to whom a report in the matter should at once be made. 11. The giving of firearms and ammunition to natives is strictly forbidden. 12. It is essential that information as to the whereabouts and welfare of any party should be communicated to the District Officer not less frequently than once a fortnight. 13. Travellers must make their own arrangements for supplies, camels, ponies, etc. This cannot be done by the local officials, though the latter will be glad to assist with advice as far as possible. Travellers are also reminded that they must make their own arrangements for the safe custody of any money they may leave behind them at the coast towns, for the payments of any cheques they may draw thereon, and for the keeping of their accounts, in which matters the Protectorate officials are forbidden to interfere. Messrs. Cowasjee, Dinshaw, and Brothers have an agent in Berbera who will receive deposits and act as a general agent for touring parties. 14. As there are no hotels or rest-houses at either Zeyla or Berbera, visitors should be prepared to camp out in tents during their stay on the coast. A camping-ground is set apart for this purpose. Berbera, January 1, 1902. 184 GAME LAWS SCHEDULE I Ali Kaar Ahmed Warsama Egeh Naleya Mohamad Hirsi Ad an Yusuf Abdi Adan . Abdi Atteya Robleh Awaleh Jama Yusuf Aysa Osman Abi Yusuf . Elmi Hirsi . Nur Adan Ali Nur List of Qualified Headmen Habr Toljaala, Adan Madoba. Habr Yunus, Musa Arreh. Habr Toljaala, Sambur. Dolbahanta, Ea-Arsama. Habr Yunus, Musa Arreh. ., Musa Ismail. ,, Saad Yunus. Habr Toljaala, Adan Madoba. Habr Yunus, Musa Arreh. is >j Habr Toljaala, Adan Madoba. ,, Yusuf Robleh. SCHEDULE II Headman . 1st Shikari 2nd „ • Personal servant . Scale of TVagik Rupees. 35 to 45 35 to 45 25 to 35 25 to 35 {■per Mensem) Camelman Cook Syce Donkey-boy Rupees. 15 20 to 30 12 ■ . 10 N.B. — The higher rate of wages covers an expedition within, but not beyond the Protectorate. UGANDA PROTECTORATE 185 UGANDA PROTECTORATE QUEEN'S REGULATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 99 OF "THE AFRICA ORDER IN COUNCIL, 18S9" These regulations, being practically identical with those for British East Africa, are omitted except the schedules. SCHEDULES ' FIRST SCHEDULE Animals not to be hunted, hilled, or captured by any person, except under Special Licence 1. Giraffe. 2. Mountain or Grevy's Zebra. 3. Wild Ass. 4. White-bearded, brindled, or any other species of Gnu (Connocha'tes). 5. Eland (Taurotragus). 6. Buffalo. 7. Speke's Tragelaphus (Tragelaphus spekei). 8. Elephant (female or young). 9. Ostrich (female or young). 10. Secretary-bird. 11. Vulture (any species). 12. Owls (any species). 13. Whale-headed Stork (Balvniccps rex). 14. Saddle-billed Stork (Ephippiorhyncus sencgalensis). 15. Crowned Crane (Balearica). l(i. Marabou Stork (Leptoptihts). 17. Egrets or White Herons. 1 These Schedules may contain the names of some species or varieties not found, or only occasionally found, in Uganda. 186 GAME LAWS SECOND SCHEDULE Animals, the females of which are not to be limited, killed, or captured when accompanied by their young, and the young of which are not to be hunted, killed, or captured, except under Special Licence 1. Rhinoceros. 2. Zebra (other than the Mountain Zebra). 3. Chevrotain (Dorcatherium). 4. All Antelopes or Gazelles not mentioned in the First Schedule. THIRD SCHEDULE Animals, limited numbers of which may be killed or captured under a Sportsman's or Public Officer's Licence Number Kind. allowed. 1. Elephant (male) ........ 2 2. Rhinoceros ........ 2 3. Hippopotamus ........ 10 4. Zebras (other than the Mountain Zebra) 2 5. Antelopes and Gazelles — Class A — Oryx (Gemsbuck or Beisa) ..... 2 Hippotragus (Sable or Roan) 2 Strepsiceros (Kudu) 2 6. Colobi and other fur-Monkeys 2 7. Aard-Varks (Orycteropus) 2 8. Serval .... 10 9. Cheetah (Gynmlurus) . 2 1 0. Aard-wolf {Proteles) 2 11. Smaller Monkeys of each species 2 12. Ostrich (male only) 2 13. Antelopes and Gazelles- Class B — Any species other than those in Class A . 10 14. Chevrotains (Dorcatherium) . 10 1 5. Wild Pig, of each species 10 16. Smaller Cats . . 10 17. Jackal .... 10 18. Chimpanzee 1 UGANDA PROTECTORATE 187 FOURTH SCHEDULE Animal", limited numbers of which may be hilled or captured under a Settler's Licence Kind. Number of Animals allowed. 1. Hippopotamus ..... 2. (i.) Warthog (Phacochoerus) (ii.) Bush Pig (Sits chceropotamus) (iii.) Senaar Swine (Sus senaarensis) . 3. The following Antelopes and Gazelles only : — (i.) Grant's Gazelle .... (ii.) Thomson's Gazelle (iii.) Hartebeest(.Bi*Ww and Damaliscus) (iv.) Impala (^-Epyceros) (v.) Reedbuck (Cervicapra) (vi.) Duiker (Cephalophus) . (vii.) Klipspringer (Oreotragus) (viii.) Steinhuck (Raphiceros) (ix.) Waterbuck (Cobus) . (x.) Bushbuck (Tragelaphus) 4. Serval and smaller cats ; jackal : of each kind 10 10 10 10 animals in all in any calendar month, made up of animals of a single species or of several. 10 FIFTH SCHEDULE Game Reserves 1. The Sugota Game Reserves, defined as follows : — Starting from the mouth of the river Turkwell where that river enters Lake Rudolf, the boundary of the Sugota Game Reserve shall follow the coast of Lake Rudolf southwards until it reaches the south-easternmost point of the lake. From this point the boundary shall be carried south-eastwards to the western flank of Mount Nyiro, and thence shall continue southwards along the western face of the Laikipia Escarpment, until it reaches the source of the small stream which flows into the north-easternmost gulf of Lake Baringo. Following this stream, down stream, the boundary of the said Game Reserve shall continue along the north coast of Lake Baringo, and shall thence be drawn north-westward to the westernmost source of the river Oron in the Kamasia mountains. From this point the boundary shall be carried in a north- westerly direction along the northern flanks of the Kamasia and Elgeyo plateaux, till it reaches the right bank of the river Weiwei or Turkwell, 188 GAME LAWS and thence shall follow ihe right bank of the Weiwei or Turkwell down stream to where the said river enters Lake Rudolf. 2. A circle, 9 miles in diameter, measured round the following places, the centre of the circle being the Collector's house : — Naivasha, Eldama Ravine, Mumia's, Iganga, Entebbe, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Hoima, and Wadelai. 3. The western portion of the Toro district, bounded on the west by the frontier of the Congo Free State, on the north by Lake Albert Nyanza, on the east by a line drawn due west from the Musisi River to the Eource of the Mpanga, and thence by the Mpanga River down to its entrance into Lake Dueru (Ruisamba), and on the south by the northern shores of Lake Dueru and Lake Albert Edward. 4. The Eudonga Forest, Unyoro, bounded on the west by the Albert Nyanza, and on the east, north, and south by the present limits of that forest as locally denned, this Reserve to include the circle of 9 miles diameter measured round the station of Hoima. SIXTH SCHEDULE No. 1. — Sjwrtsmun's Licence (Fee 750 rupees), or Public Office)' s Licence (Fee 150 rupees) A. B., of , is hereby licensed to hunt, kill, or capture wild animals within the Uganda Protectorate for one year from the date hereof, but subject to the provisions and restrictions of " The Games Regulations, 1900." [The said A. B. is authorised, subject to the said Regulations, to kill or capture the following animals in addition to the number of the same species allowed by the Regulations, that is to say : — Fee paid (Rupees). Dated this day of , 1900. (Signed) Commissioner [or Collector]. No. 2. — Settler's Game Licence (Fee 150 rupees) C. D., of is hereby licensed to hunt, kill, or capture wild animals within the district of the Uganda Protectorate for one year from the date hereof, but subject to the provisions and restrictions of "The Game Regulations, 1900." Dated this day of , 1900. (Signed) Commissioner or [Collector]. UGANDA PROTECTORATE 189 SEVENTH SCHEDULE Gams Register Species. Number. Sex. Locality. Date. Remarks. I declare that the above is a true record of all animals killed by me in the Protectorate under the Licence granted me on the , 19 . (Signed) Passed 190 (Signature of examining officer.) BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE 191 BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE NOTICE The following Regulations, made by His Majesty's Commissioner and Consul-General, and allowed by the Secretary of State, are published for general information. (Signed) ALFRED SHARPE, His Majesty's Commissioner and Consul-General. Zosiba, January 31, 1902. KING'S REGULATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 99 OF "THE AFRICA ORDER IN COUNCIL, 1889" No. 1 of 1902 Preservation of Game 1. In these Regulations — "Hunt, kill, or capture" means hunting, killing, or capturing by any method, and includes every attempt to kill or capture ; " hunting " includes molesting. " Game " means any animal mentioned in any of the Schedules. " Person " means an individual of any nationality whatsoever. " Native " means any native of Africa, not being of European or American race or parentage. " Schedule " and " Schedules " refer to the Schedules annexed to these Regulations. General Provisions 2. No person, unless he is authorised by a special licence in that behalf, shall hunt, kill, or capture any of the animals mentioned in the First Schedule. 3. No person, unless he is authorised by a special licence under 192 GAME LAWS these Regulations, shall hunt, kill, or capture any animal of the kind mentioned in the Second Schedule if the animal be (a) immature, or (b) a female accompanied by its young. 4. No person, unless he is authorised under these Regulations, shall hunt, kill, or capture any animal mentioned in the Third, Fourth, or Fifth Schedules. 5. The Commissioner may, if he thinks fit, by Proclamation, declare that the name of any species, variety, or sex of animal, whether beast or bird, not mentioned in any Schedule hereto, shall be added to a particular Schedule, or that the name of any species or variety of animal mentioned or included in one Schedule shall be transferred to another Schedule, and, if he thinks fit, apply such declaration to the whole of the Protectorate, or restrict it to any district or districts in which he thinks it expedient that the animal should be protected. 6. No person shall within the Protectorate sell, or purchase, or offer or expose for sale any head, horns, skin, feathers, or flesh of any animal mentioned in any of the Schedules, unless the animal has been kept in a domesticated state, and no person shall knowingly store, pack, convey, or export any part of any animal which he has reason to believe has been killed or captured iu contravention of these Regulations. 7. If any person is found to be in possession of any elephant's tusk weighing less than 1 1 lb., or any ivory being, in the opinion of the Court, part of an elephant's tusk which would have weighed less than 11 lb., he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations, and the tusk or ivory shall be forfeited unless he proves that the tusk or ivory was not obtained in breach of these Regulations. 8. No person shall use any poison, or, without a special licence, any dynamite or other explosive for the killing or taking of any fish. 9. Where it appears to the Commissioner that any method used for killing or capturing animals or fish is unduly destructive, he may, by Proclamation, prohibit such method or prescribe the conditions under which any method may be used ; and if any person uses any method so prohibited, or uses any method otherwise than according to the conditions so prescribed, he shall be liable to the same penalties as for a breach of these Regulations. 10. Save as provided by these Regulations, or by any Proclamation under these Regulations, any person may hunt, kill, or capture any animal not mentioned in any of the Schedules, or any fish. BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE 193 Game Reserves 1 1 . The areas described in the Eighth Schedule hereto are hereby declared to be game reserves. The Commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary of State, may by Proclamation declare any other portion of the Protectorate to be a game reserve, and may define or alter the limits of any game reserve, and these Regulations shall apply to every such game reserve. Save as provided in these Regulations or by any such Proclamation, any person who, unless he is authorised by a special licence, hunts, kills, or captures any animal whatever in a game reserve, or is found within a game reserve under circumstances showing that he was unlaw- fully in pursuit of any animal, shall be guilty of a breach of these Regulations. Licences to Europeans, etc. 12. The following licences may be granted by the Commissioner or such person or persons as may be authorised by the Commissioner, that is to say : — (1) A "Licence 'A.'" (2) A " Licence ' B.' " (3) A "Licence 'C.'" The following fees shall be payable for licences, that is to say, for "Licence 'A,'" £25, for "Licence 'B,'" £4, for "Licence 'C,'" £2. Every licence shall expire on the 31st March, and no licence shall remain in force for more than twelve calendar months. Every licence shall bear in full the name of the person to whom it is granted, the date of issue, the period of its duration, and the signature of the Commissioner, or other person authorised to grant licences. The applicant for a licence may be required to give security by bond or deposit, not exceeding £100, for his compliance with these Regulations, and with the additional conditions (if any) contained in his licence. A licence is not transferable. Every licence must be produced when called for by any officer of the Protectorate Government. In granting licences under these Regulations, a person authorised to grant licences shall observe any general or particular instructions of the Commissioner. 194 GAME LAWS 13. Licence "A" authorises the holder to hunt, kill, or capture animals of any of the species mentioned in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Schedules, but unless the licence otherwise provides, not more than the number of each species fixed by the second column of those Schedules. 1 4. Licence " B " authorises the holder to hunt, kill, or capture animals of the species and to the number mentioned in the Fourth and Fifth Schedules only. 1 5. Licence " C " authorises the holder to hunt, kill, or capture animals of the species and to the number mentioned in the Fifth Schedule only. 16. The holder of a licence "A," "B," or "C," granted under these Regulations, may by the licence be authorised to kill or capture additional animals of any such species on payment of such additional fees as may be prescribed by the Commissioner. 17. Where it appears proper to the Commissioner for scientific, administrative, or other reasons, he may grant a special licence to any person to kill or capture animals of any one or more species mentioned in any of the Schedules, or to kill, hunt, or capture, in a game reserve, specified beasts or birds of prey, or other animals whose presence is detrimental to the purposes of the game reserve, or, in particular cases, to kill or capture, as the case may be, in a game reserve, an animal or animals of any one or more species mentioned in the Schedules. A special licence shall be subject to such conditions as to fees and security (if any), number, sex, and age of specimens, district and season for hunting, and other matters as the Commissioner may prescribe. Save as aforesaid, the holder of a special licence shall be subject to the general provisions of these Regulations, and to the provisions relating to holders of licences. 18. Every licence-holder shall keep a register of the animals killed or captured by him in the form specified in the Seventh Schedule. The register shall be submitted as often as convenient, but not less frequently than once in six months, to the nearest Collector, who shall countersign the entries up to date. Any person authorised to grant licences may at any time call upon any licence-holder to produce his register for inspection. If any holder of a licence fails to keep his register truly, he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations. 1 9. The Commissioner may revoke any licence when he is satisfied that the holder has been guilty of a breach of these Regulations or of BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE 195 his licence, or has connived with any other person in any such breach, or that in any matters in relation hereto he has acted otherwise than in good faith. 20. The Coinniissioner may, at his discretion, direct that a licence under these Regulations shall be refused to any applicant. 21. Any person whose licence has been lost or destroyed may obtain a fresh licence for the remainder of his term on payment of a fee not exceeding one-fifth of the fee paid for the licence so lost or destroyed. 22. No licence granted under these Regulations shall entitle the holder to hunt, kill, or capture any animal, or to trespass upon private property without the consent of the owner or occupier. 23. Any person who, after having killed or captured animals to the number and of the species authorised by his licence, proceeds to hunt, kill, or capture any animals which he is not authorised to kill or capture, shall be guilty of a breach of these Regulations, and punish- able accordingly. 24. No person shall employ a native to hunt, kill, or capture any game. A licence-holder, however, when hunting animals may employ natives to assist him, but such natives shall not use firearms. 25. The Commissioner or any person authorised by him in that behalf may, at his discretion, require any person importing firearms or ammunition that may be used by such person for the purpose of killing game or other animals to take out a licence under these Regula- tions, and may refuse to allow the firearms or ammunition to be taken from the public warehouse until such licence is taken out. Restrictions on Killing of Game hy Xaticcs 26. When the members of any native tribe or the native inhabi- tants of any native village appear to be dependent on the flesh of wild animals for their subsistence, the Collector of the district may, with the approval of the Commissioner, by order addressed to the Chief of the tribe or Headman of the village, authorise the tribesmen or in- habitants, as the case may be, to kill animals within such area, and subject to such conditions as to mode of hunting, number, species, and sex of animals and otherwise, as may be prescribed by the order. An order under this Regulation shall not authorise the killing of any animal mentioned in the First Schedule. 196 GAME LAWS The provisions of these Regulations with respect to holders of licences shall not apply to a member of a tribe or native inhabitant of a village to which an order under this Regulation applies. Save as aforesaid, the general provisions of these Regulations shall apply to every native who is authorised under this Regulation, and a breach of any order shall be a breach of these Regulations. 27. The Collector of a district may, with the approval of the Commissioner, grant a licence, similar to licence " A " or licence " B," to any native, upon such terms as to fees and other conditions as the Commissioner may direct. Legal Procedure 28. Where any public officer of the British Central Africa Protec- torate thinks it expedient, for the purposes of verifying the register of a licence-holder, or suspects that any person has been guilty of a breach of these Regulations, he may inspect and search, or authorise any subordinate officer to inspect and search, any baggage, packages, waggons, tents, building, or caravan belonging to or under the control of such person or his agent, and if the officer finds any heads, tusks, skins, or other remains of animals appearing to have been killed, or any live animals appearing to have been captured, in contravention of these Regulations, he shall seize and take the same before a Magistrate, to be dealt with according to law. 29. Any person who hunts, kills, or captures any animals in con- travention of these Regulations, or otherwise commits any breach of these Regulations, shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine which may extend to £50, and where the offence relates to more animals than two, to a fine in respect of each animal which may extend to £25, and in either case to imprisonment which may extend to two months, with or without a fine. In all cases of conviction, any heads, horns, tusks, skins, or other remains of animals found in the possession of the offender or his agent, and all live animals captured in contravention of these Regulations, shall be liable to forfeiture. If the person convicted is the holder of a licence, his licence may be revoked by the Court. 30. Where in any proceeding under these Regulations any fine is imposed, the Court may award any sum or sums not exceeding half the total fine to any informer or informers. BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE 197 Repeal, etc. 31. All previous Regulations as to the hunting, killing, or cap- turing of game in the Protectorate are hereby repealed. 32. The forms of licences appearing in the .Schedule hereto, with such modifications as circumstances require, may be used. 33. These Regulations may be cited as " The British Central Africa Game Regulations, 1902." They shall come into operation on the 1st April, 1902, but any licences may be previously granted, appointed to come into force on that day. (Signed) ALFRED SHARPE, His Majesty's Commissioner and Consid-Generdl. Zomba, January 31, 1902. Allowed : (Signed) LANSDOWNE, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. SCHEDULES ] FIRST SCHEDULE Animals not to be hunted, kilUd, or captured by any person, except under special licence 1. 2. Giraffe. Mountain Zebra. 7. 8. Elephant (female or young). Vulture (any species). 3. 4. Wild Ass. White - tailed Gnu (Connocha'tes gnu). 9. 10. 11. Secretary-bird. Owl (any species). Rhinoceros- bird or beef- eater 5. 6. Eland (Taurotragus). Buffalo. (Buphagd), any species. SECOND SCHEDULE Animals, the females of which are not to be hunted, killed, or captured ichen accompanied by tluir young, and the young of which are not to be captured, except under special licence 1. Rhinoceros. 2. Hippopotamus. 3. Zebra (other than the Mountain Zebra). 4. Chevrotain (Dorcatherium). 5. All antelopes or gazelles not mentioned in the First Schedule. 1 These Schedules may contain the names of some species or varieties not found, or only occasionally found, in British Central Africa. 198 GAME LAWS THIRD SCHEDULE Animals, limited numbers of which may be hunted, killed, or captured under Licence " A " only Kind. Number allowed. 1. Elephant (male) ..... 2. Rhinoceros ...... 3. Wildebeest Gnu (except white-tailed species) FOURTH SCHEDULE Animals, limited numbers of which may be hunted, killed, or captured, under Licences " A " and " B" Kind. Number allowed. 1. Hippopotamus ........ 2. Zebras (other than the Mountain Zebra) 3. Antelopes and gazelles — Class A — 6 2 Hippotrayus (Sable or Roan) Strepsiceros (Kudu) 4. Colobi and other fur-monkeys 5. Aard-Varks (Orycteropus) 6. Serval 6 6 6 2 2 7. Cheetah (Cyiuelurus) . 8. Aard-wolf (Proteles) 9. Smaller monkeys of each species 10. Marabous .... 2 2 2 6 11. Egret .... 12. Antelopes and gazelles — Class B— 2 Any species other than those in Class A 13. Chevrotains (Dorcatherium) .... 14. Wild Pig, of each species .... 15. Smaller Cats .... . . 15 10 10 10 16. Jackal of each species ..... 10 BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE 199 FIFTH SCHEDULE Animals, limited numbers of which may be hunted, killed, or captured under Licences "A," «B," and"C" Kind. 1. Hippopotamus 2. Warthog 3. Bush Pig 4. The following antelopes Hartebeest . Impala Reedbuck . Duiker Klipspringer Steinbuck . TVaterbuck . Bushbuck . Number allowed. 30 animals in all, under 1 licence, made up of animals of a single species or of several. SIXTH SCHEDULE No. I.— Licence "A" (fee £25), or Licence "B" (fee £4), or Licence "C" (fee £2). A. B., of , is hereby licensed to hunt, kill, or capture wild animals within the British Central Africa Protectorate for the period from the date hereof until the 31st March, 19 , but subject to the provisions and restrictions of "The Game Regulations 1902." The said A. B. is authorised, subject to the said Regulations, to kill or capture the following animals in addition to the number of the same species allowed by the Regulations, that is to say : — Fee paid (£ ). Dated this dav of 19 (Signed) Commissioner. 200 GAME LAWS SEVENTH SCHEDULE Game Register Species. Number. Sex. Locality. Date. Remarks. I declare that the above is a true record of all animals killed by me in the British Central Africa Protectorate under the Licence No. " A," " B," or " C " granted me on the ,19 . (Signed) Passed 19 (Signature of examining officer.) EIGHTH SCHEDULE Game Reserves 1. The Elephant Marsh Reserve Commencing at the junction of the Ruo and Shirt? Rivers, the boundary of the Elephant Marsh Reserve shall follow the right bank of the river Ruo as far as the Zoa Falls, and shall thence be carried along a straight line in a north-westerly direction until it strikes the left bank of the river Shire opposite the junction of the Mwanza with the Shire" ; the boundary shall then cross the river Shir6 and follow the right bank of the Mwanza River up-stream to a point distant from the Shire 12 miles in a straight line ; BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE 201 thence the boundary shall run in a southerly direction, keeping always at a distance of 12 miles from the right bank of the Shire River until it reaches the boundary line dividing the Lower Shire district from the Ruo. It shall then follow that boundary line in an easterly direction until it strikes the right bank of the Shire River ; the boundary shall then follow the right bank of the Shire River up-stream to a point opposite the point of commence- ment, namely, the junction of the Shire and the Ruo Rivers. 2. The Lake Chilwa Reserve Commencing at the source of the river Palombe in the Mlanje district, the boundary of the Lake Chilwa Reserve shall be carried in an easterly direction to the source of the most southern affluent of the river Sombani, and from this point shall be carried along a straight line in an easterly direc- tion to the Anglo-Portuguese frontier, which it shall follow to the shores of Lake Chilwa. The boundary shall continue along the shore of the lake southward, westward, and northward, as far as the confluence of the Likan- gala River. It shall then follow the course of the Likangala River up-stream as far as the easter boundary of Messrs. Buchanan Brothers' Mlungusi estate, thence along the said eastern boundary of the said estate southwards to a point on the left bank of the Ntondwe River. It shall then follow the northern boundary of Mr. Bruce's Namasi estate eastwards until the said boundary reaches the Palombe River, thence along the right bank of the Palombe River up-stream to its source. GERMAN EAST AFRICA 203 GERMAN EAST AFRICA I have received a memorandum from the German Colonial Office, from which it seems that, following on the negotiations of the International Conference for the protection of wild animals, a draft for new regulations was prepared ; but the form of some of them is still under consideration, and they appear to have been submitted to the newly appointed Imperial Governor to give him an opportunity to revise them by the light of further experi- ence and information obtained on the spot. The creation of reserves is left to the decision of the Imperial Governor, and no particulars as to the area or limits of reserves already established have as yet been received. A report upon this subject is shortly expected. I append previous ordinances by successive Imperial Governors. It is expected that the new regulations will be published in a few months' time. E. N. B. Regulations for the Protection of Wild Animals in German East Africa Sec. 1. Every one wishing to shoot game must have an official permit, good for a year, valid for the whole Colony. Sec. 2. For a European a permit costs 20 rupees. Sec. 3. Persons not natives of the Colony who are professional hunters, or who go into the interior with an expedition equipped for hunting wild game, must pay 500 rupees for each member of the caravan not a native. Sec. 4. For natives the charge is 5 rupees ; if he is a professional elephant or rhinoceros hunter he must pay 500 rupees, or (if he only hunts rhinoceros) 200 rupees. Sec. 5. If animals are only shot for food no licence is necessary ; but caravans on arriving where there is a German official must give an 204 GAME LAWS account of the animals shot, with particulars as to their nature and number, and proof of the necessity of shooting them. Sec. 6. Nor is it necessary to have a licence in order to shoot animals trespassing on cultivated ground ; but the approval of the local official must be obtained. Sec. 7. Nor is a licence necessary to shoot apes, beasts of prey of all kinds, wild pigs, all birds except ostriches and secretary-birds, and reptiles. Sec. 8. It is forbidden to shoot all young, calves, foals, young elephants (without tusks, or with tusks less than 3 kilog. in weight), females so far as distinguishable as such, except of the species named in section 7. Sec. 9. It is permitted to catch young animals in order to send them to zoological gardens and scientific institutions. If this is pursued as a trade, permission must be obtained on payment of a suitable sum. Sec, 10. Without express permission from the Imperial Governor it is forbidden to shoot zebras in the Moschi district, eland, antelopes, giraffes, buffalo, ostriches, and secretary-birds. Sec. 11. Without express permission it is forbidden to use nets, fire-drives, or drives on a large scale. If there is imminent danger of damage from the depredations of wild animals, provisional leave can be obtained from the local official. Sec. 1 2. The following charges are levied on non-natives : — 100 rupees for the first and 250 rupees for every subsequent elephant bagged, and 50 rupees for the first rhinoceros, and 150 for every subsequent rhinoceros killed. Sec. 13. Special game preserves will be established and special Regulations made therefor. Sec. 1 1. Infractions of the above Regulations are punishable with a fine of 50 to 1000 rupees, in case of fraud by a five- fold to twenty- fold licence fee. The animals unlawfully killed, or parts of them (tusks, horns, etc.), are confiscated. In cases of repetition of the offence the right to shoot can be with- drawn for a time or altogether. Sec. 15. This Order comes into force from to-day. (Signed) DR. VON WISSMANN, The Imperial Governor. Dar-es-Salaam, May 7, 1896. GERMAN EAST AFRICA 205 No. 45 Circular of the Imperial Governor of German East Africa to the District and Sub-District Offices and Stations in the Interior (Translation.) By the enclosed amended Game Ordinance, which is based upon the results of practical experience, the Ordinance of the 7th May 189G respecting the protection of game in German East Africa, and its supplements, are repealed. This is to take effect from the day of public notification in each district. I empower the local administrative authorities, especially in frontier districts, to issue provisional Regulations altering this Ordinance when necessity arises ; they must, however, in this case apply for confirma- tion of their decisions by the Government without delay. For the establishment of game reserves the sanction of the Government must be previously obtained. Those already existing remain. It may at times also be found necessary to refuse the issue of hunt- ing licences to natives altogether, or to forbid entirely the killing of certain species of game. In view of the diversity of the conditions of existence of game in the several districts of the Protectorate, and the small knowledge of the subject which we at present possess, it is impossible to introduce a general close time. I shall be glad to receive reports without delay as to the feasibility and desirability of the following measures : — 1. Licences to hunt elephants shall no longer be issued to natives. 2. The Station shall grant to one or more trustworthy " fundi " the exclusive light of elephant-hunting in the district. 3. Guns and ammunition shall be supplied to these men by the Station, for themselves and for their followers, in return for which they shall enter the service of the Station as forestei's and gamekeepers. 4. Of each elephant killed they shall deliver one tusk — to be chosen by the Station. These privileged hunters will be induced by their own interest to report every case of unlawful killing of an elephant ; and, above all, they will learn to hunt in a sportsmanlike manner. Dak-es-Salaam, January 17, IE (Signed) LIEBERT, The Imperial Governor. 206 GAME LAWS No. i& Ordinance respecting the Protection of Game in German East Africa | 1. Every person who wishes to kill game must provide himself with a game licence, which is issued by a District or Sub-District Officer, or by a Station, for a particular person and for a period of one year from the date of issue. Such licences are valid for the whole Protectorate. § 2. The fee for a licence for Europeans is 10 rupees. If they are professionally engaged in hunting, the fee is 500 rupees ; and if they proceed into the interior with an expedition specially organised for hunting, the fee shall be 800 rupees for each non-native partici- pator. For native members of such an expedition, the lesser game licence described in § 3 must be obtained. § 3. A game licence for natives is subject to a fee of 5 rupees. If they are professionally engaged in hunting elephants or rhinoceros, they must pay 500 rupees in order to obtain a licence. If the people are trustworthy, the payment of this fee may be deferred. | 4. For hunting Associations, the native leader or entrepreneur (" fundi ") must take out one greater game licence under § 3, and also one lesser licence under § 3, for each native member of the Associa- tion. These assistants, whose number must be determined when the greater game licence is issued, and must not exceed thirty, are subject to the provisions of § 10. § 5. A licence is not required when the game is killed merely for the purpose of obtaining food on the march. § 6. No game licence is required for killing monkeys, all carnivora, wild boar, amphibians, and reptiles. For the killing of adult lions a premium of 30 rupees, for adult leopards a premium of 20 rupees, will be paid on application by the competent local authorities. | 7. The killing of sucking elephants is prohibited. § 8. The capture of young animals for breeding purposes, or for transmission to zoological gardens and scientific institutions, is permitted. If this kind of capture is carried on professionally, the greater game licence must be taken out. This permission can at any time be revoked if its exercise results in a considerable reduction of the head of game. GERMAN EAST AFRICA 207 § 9. Without express permission, game may not be hunted with nets, fire, or large battues. In case the game is causing considerable damage to crops in migration, the local authorities may grant this permission. § 10. A tax of 100 rupees shall be levied for every elephant killed. The hunter may avoid the payment of this tax by the surrender of one tusk, and the total amount of such taxes paid by any one hunter during the year shall not exceed the fee paid for the greater game licence. § 11. In districts where great Chiefs have a customary claim to one of the tusks of each elephant killed by a native hunter, the tusk surrendered shall in future be due alternately to the Station and to the Chief, so that if two elephants are killed, the hunter will get two tusks, the Station and the Chief one each. | 12. Infractions of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be punished by fines up to 500 rupees, or, in case of non-payment, by imprisonment up to three months. In case the dues are fraudulently withheld, from twice to twenty-five times the amount of such dues shall be levied as a penalty. Of all moneys received in consequence of this Ordinance, one-half shall be paid in to the Government, the other half shall be devoted to the purposes of the public service at the District Office or Station where the licence is issued or the fine levied. Game unlawfully obtained, or parts of the same, may be confiscated. In case of a repetition of the offence, the permission to hunt may be withdrawn for a time, or permanently. Dar-es-Salaam, JamiMry 17, 1898. (Signed) LIEBERT, The Imperial Governor. ORDER OF THE IMPERIAL GOVERNOR RELATING TO THE SHOOTING OF ELEPHANTS IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA § 1. The export of elephant tusks which weigh less than 11 ratli (5 kilog.) is prohibited from the 1st April 1901. § 2. On and after the 1st April 1901 elephant tusks as above 208 GAME LAWS specified are no longer to be brought into the market in German East Africa. § 3. The Customs and Administrative authorities are instructed, in cases of contravention of the present Decree, to confiscate the ivory in question. (Signed) DR. STUHLMANN, The Imperial Governor. Dares-Salaam, Xovember 22, 1900. APPENDIX II EETURN OF GAME KILLED IN THE SOUDAN For the year 30th September 1900 to 30th September 1901 Game killed Game killed , ,-.„„„ i „ "SSfisH S "- be™ who have not ^Vt *2*? - under Licences Totals. and returns ";. J™ 1 aly detected ; , sentinreturns J . ' sent in. ti 1 Li. ' more impor- sence on lea\ e, „„i„\ death, etc. OBl ^- Elephant .... 20 10 30 Buffalo .... 34 1 35 Hartebeest (Bubalis) 34 34 Tiang (Damaliacus) 83 83 Waterbuck (Gobus defassa) 78 ... 78 Mrs. Gray's Waterbuck (C maria) .... 16 16 White-eared Cob (0*. leucotis) . 107 ... 107 Uganda Cob (C. thomasi) 6 6 Roan Antelope {Hippotragitx) . 39 "2 41 Oryx leucoryx 2 ... 2 Oryx beisa .... ... Addax ..... ... Kudu (Strepsiceros) 1 1 Reedbuck (Cervicapra) 22 22 Bushbuck (Tragelaphus) . 31 31 Speke's Antelope (Limnotragus) Addra Gazelle (Gazella ruficollis) Ariel (G. sammerringi) . 61 5 66 Other Gazelles 123 123 Duiker (Cephalophiis) 7 1 '.'.'. 8 Dig-Dig (Madoqiui) 1 Klipspringer (Oreotragus) Oribi . . . " . 42 1 43 Ibex (Capra) 2 2 Wild Sheep (Ow) ::: Hippopotamus 18 1 19 Wart Hog (Phatochcerus) 14 1 15 Wild Boar (Sus) . 2 2 Lion ..... 21 2 23 Leopard .... 5 ... 5 Cheetah .... 1 1 2 Ostrich .... 4 ... 34 38 Rhinoceros .... 4 ... 4 Giraffe .... 4 ... 11 15 Tora Hartebeest . 7 1 8 Totals 785 26 48 859 Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh. '"'""•"""'■ ' . M Jt >:.-.' ■ ■ ( C 1: S E D (1902 j ICJ) 1.1,, | i .. ,..,*- v = / rf* f ^p ^-VVr-ry- ■ I) A I! i i I? D I S t R , f^r. , , , * /? l*j A MAP OF PART OF EAST AFRICA SHEWING THE GAME RESERVES AND CLOSED DISTRICTS IN THE SOUDAN I902 Rngtiih Hilei 1<>. HI, Boundar ) nil vi... /^f hi... I.,. I «▼ > VDI Ai """""■!• .IvV.v ■; 1 i.l. 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