56 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
elephant too much for them and finally gave up the 
attempt. Now they are being shot only as they come 
out to molest the natives, with the result that they 
are able to persist in the bush in limited numbers. 
Uganda also has official elephant killers wherever 
the elephants make trouble in the natives’ gardens. 
In British East Africa and in Tanganyika a similar 
situation exists. The game must eventually disappear 
as the country is settled, and with it will be wiped out 
the charm of Africa. 
We had heard much of Ruindi Plains in the Belgian 
Congo as the wonderful game country that it no doubt 
used to be. Tomeitseemsavast graveyard. ‘There, 
too, commercialism has played its part in exterminat- 
ing the animals and, while we found two or three 
species of antelope and many lions, other large game 
is very rare. I suppose that the Ruindi Valley was 
discovered among the last of the great game pockets 
and that ivory poachers are responsible for the disap- 
pearance of much of the other game as well as of the 
elephant. The forested valley, which I went through 
for perhaps ten miles, carried every evidence of having 
been a wonderful game country in the past, but only 
a pitiful remnant of the splendid animals who once 
made it their home remains. Along great elephant 
boulevards, all overgrown, weaving through the 
forest, one may occasionally track a single elephant 
or a small band. A small herd of buffalo grazes 
where a few years ago there were great numbers. 
In our journey north from Cape Town by rail we 
saw not a single head of game until we reached the 
