106 THE LAND OF THE LION 
of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec. So I have 
had some experience in hunting. But African hunting is 
a thing apart. It differs from all other forms of sport. 
You may, with good reason, believe yourself capable of 
holding your own in the Rockies or the Alps, and yet you 
may find yourself unsuccessful or only moderately successful 
here. My first trip to the country was unsatisfactory to 
me. Though I was a fair shot, and capable of standing 
pretty well the fatigue of a long day in the sun, I didn’t 
get what I hoped to get. I was confused with the great 
variety of game, and couldn’t tell a good head from a poor 
one. I did not understand the make-up of a sefari, and 
had no idea at all of how much one’s comfort depends on 
getting together before leaving the starting place such 
men as shall make the expedition successful. I could 
see my trophies well attended to while in America, but 
African trophies and African climate are so utterly differ- 
ent that experience gained in other lands is here of slight 
value. J had not one single man that could hunt, or knew 
anything about the habits of the game. One of my gun- 
boys’ feet gave out, owing to his insisting on a foolish 
habit they have of wearing a wretched sham ammunition 
boot, served out to sefaris at Nairobi, which, by the way, 
an immutable custom obliges you to give to your tentboys 
and gunbearers. The other was an utter coward. I 
tried, too, to march all day, and hunt in the afternoon 
and evening, a great mistake always. And last, but not 
least, I knew really nothing of the country. 
These ignorances I have enumerated are, as anyone 
can see, sufficiently serious, but I am sure that very few 
ever coming for the first time to Africa, know even as 
much about the country of their hope, as I did. 
How then, you may say, do any first trips succeed even 
measurably ? 
In the first place, a great majority do not succeed. 
