INTRODUCTION 



CAPTAIN DICKINSON has asked 

 me to write an introduction to his 

 notes on Sport in East Africa, and I 

 have much pleasure in complying with 

 his request, although I am not a sportsman my- 

 self and have no qualification for speaking about 

 sport in our Equatorial African possessions. 

 But I know the country well, and can bear wit- 

 ness to the extraordinary and almost incredible 

 quantity of big game which it contains. Tropical 

 Africa is remarkable for the number and variety 

 of large Ungulata contained in its fauna, and all 

 the conditions are favourable to the sportsman 

 and even to the mere sightseer. The country is 

 open, and hence whatever game there is can be 

 seen without difficulty, whereas in neighbouring 

 countries, such as Uganda, it is hidden by forests 

 and high grass ; also legislation has intervened 

 in time to stop the havoc wrought by the unre- 

 strained energy of private sportsmen, and re- 

 serves of considerable extent have been estab- 

 lished within whose precincts no animal may be 

 killed. The Uganda Railway passes through 



