THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 115 



I picked a kongoni at 237 yards after missing one at 

 180, buck and doe oribi at 50 and 120 yards, and a 

 wildebeeste at 353 yards. 



Never have I seen anything like that game. It 

 covered every hill, standing in the openings, stroUing 

 in and out among the groves, feeding on the bottom 

 lands, singly, or in little groups. It did not matter in 

 what direction I looked, there it was; as abundant one 

 place as another. Nor did it matter how far I went, 

 over how many hills I walked, how many wide pros- 

 pects I examined, it was always the same. During my 

 stay at the next two camps I looked over fifty square 

 miles. One day I counted 4,628 head! And sud- 

 denly I realized again that in this beautiful, wide, 

 populous country', no sportsman's rifle has ever been 

 fired. It is a virgin game countr}', and I have been 

 the last man who will ever discover one for the sports- 

 men of the world. There is no other available possi- 

 bility for such a game field in Africa unexplored. I 

 moved among those hordes of unsophisticated beasts 

 as a lord of Eden would have moved. 



But to get back to the day: the animals were on this 

 afternoon a little curious and a little shy. At moments 

 they were as tame as cattle, again they were as wild as 

 horses in pasture. In some circumstances the most 

 conspicuously marked animals seemed quite invisible; 

 and in others the most craftily neutral tinted stood out 

 as plainly as striped banners in a breeze. At times 



