68 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



to make a little detour to try to pass close to a herd near the line of march. If this 

 is done it will be found, where game is plentiful, that a shot almost invariably offers 

 itself some time during the course of the day, so that the march is not thereby 

 delayed. F"or game is less suspicious of anyone passing on or near a path than it is 

 when one leaves the track, which, as a rule, seems a signal for any herd near to get 

 well out of range. 



Such is the necessary " meat-shooting " of the plains — uninteresting enough. 

 Some people, however, call this big-game hunting, and go to camp out on the plains 

 for this purpose alone, returning with as many hartebeests and Grant's heads as their 

 licences allow. 



In places where the homely Coke is rather wild and difficult to approach a 

 pretence at a stalk often allows one to get considerably nearer than one could do 

 otherwise. There is no doubt that the animal either feels flattered at being thought 

 worthy of anything in the nature of a stalk or else it is intensely curious about one's 

 movements. For although the stalker may be perfectly visible the whole time he can 

 generally get within range by the exercise of a little trouble. 



Game vary very much on the plains as to the distance to which they allow 

 anyone to approach. Sometimes a particular spot is crowded with game ; at other 

 times there are only a few animals scattered around. Sometimes game are 

 extraordinarily tame and one is able to walk up to within range of any animal 

 selected. At other times, for no apparent reason, all the game is wild and it is 

 impossible to approach anything. This state of things seems to be unaffected by the 

 amount they have been shot at, as far as I can see. I remember someone telling me 

 about a special part of the Rift Valley he had just come from and how wild the game 

 was. Even zebra, he stated, it was impossible to approach within many hundreds 

 of yards. Some ten days or a fortnight later I had occasion to pass the very part 

 referred to, and I just trekked through on the path. I heard shooting going on 

 on both sides of me and saw two dead animals being eaten by vultures, both of 

 which I judged had died of wounds and had not been killed by beasts of prey. In spite 

 of all this, I do not think I have ever seen game tamer in my life. Some of the little 

 Thomson's gazelle which strolled out of my way wagging their tails I believe I 

 could have hit with a stone. Zebra, hartebeest, and Grant's stood staring at me 

 from every side, many of them allowing me to pass at a hundred yards' distance. 



With the exception of the poor old rhino of the plains zebra are, as a rule, the 

 easiest animals to approach, then come the Coke or kongoni. As the zebra's 

 flesh is strong and unpleasant, the Coke's hartebeest is generally requisitioned to 

 replenish the larder. Grant's and Thomson's gazelles are a trifle more difficult to 



