Impressions of North-East Rhodesia 



Lions were neither seen nor heard by us in 

 North- East Rhodesia. This fact is not surprising, 

 for there were no cattle and not sufficient game 

 to attract them to the country we traversed. We 

 subsequently heard, however, that lion frequented 

 native tracks to the south-west of Fort Jameson. 



A trip to Lake Bangwelo would probably have 

 given us lechwe and situtunga, both of which we 

 were most anxious to secure as new and curious 

 specimens, but want of time did not allow of this 

 divergence. 



I do not think that the shortage in numbers of 

 the larger varieties of antelope was due to the native 

 population ; they are hunters and meat eaters 

 certainly, but I believe that they confine their 

 depredations principally to the smaller sorts, such 

 as reedbuck, oribi, and duiker, also the situtunga, 

 which they spear from their canoes. It is possible 

 that during the grass-burning season they do 

 occasionally ring a herd of eland or hartebeest, 

 but I fancy that if they do it gets pretty soon to 

 the ears of the authorities. 



Though we generally managed to camp near a 

 village at the end of our day's march, these villages 

 were few and far between, and situated, as a rule, 

 at the river crossings. Moreover, it was generally 

 in the vicinity of a village that we actually found 

 large game, notably the sable antelope on October 

 1 1 thin the neighbourhood of Chetande, the eland 

 near Kopas, and the herd of sassaby at Malamas, 

 which we gathered live there year in and year out. 

 The game we failed to see had not been frightened 



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