RETROSPECT AND CONCLUSION 



and rhinos with horns of even twenty-four inches and 

 more hardly ever encountered, unless the hunter goes 

 very far away from the ordinary hunting districts. In 

 certain localities, where large elephant herds with magnifi- 

 cent tuskers used to roam around only a few years ago, not 

 an elephant is seen to-day, and where the mighty pachy- 

 derms still exist in British East Africa, as on Mt. Kenia, 

 the Aberdare Mountains, Mt. Elgon, and in the south- 

 western part of the Protectorate, they are very shy and 

 wary, and even tuskers with ivory of one hundred pounds 

 a pair are scarce. The lion is getting more and more rare 

 and shy, and is much less frequently encountered during 

 the daytime than only a few years ago, and big black-maned 

 ones are extremely hard to secure. This is also the case 

 with the cunning leopard, which seems to have learned by 

 experience to distinguish between the black savage and the 

 white man with his far-reaching and destructive guns. 



I do not believe that the native hunters are a menace 

 to the wild game, for even in centuries past, when they 

 did exactly what they pleased without any restrictions or 

 control on the part of the white man, the game increased 

 all the time. Although some of the tribes are extremely 

 fond of hunting and live chiefly from the game they 

 secure, yet even they do not seem to be able to check the 

 natural increase of the game. The African is, with few 

 exceptions, much too lazy to be very destructive to the 

 animals, for he will only kill what he needs for food and 

 his scanty clothing, or to secure the coveted ivory for 

 trading purposes. Yet his methods of hunting and his 

 armament are so primitive and poor that without fire- 

 arms he never could do much harm to the game. In 

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