THE LAST FRONTIER 



own. Whatever toll the sportsman or traveller takes 

 is as nothing compared to what he might take if he 

 were an unscrupulous game hog. If his cartridges 

 and his shoulder held out, he could easily kill a 

 hundred animals a day instead of the few he re- 

 quires. In that sense, then, no man slaughters in- 

 discriminately. During the course of a year he 

 probably shoots from two hundred to two hundred 

 and fifty beasts, provided he is travelling with an 

 ordinary sized caravan. This, the experts say, is 

 about the annual toll of one lion. If the traveller 

 gets his lion, he plays even with the fauna of the 

 country; if he gets two or more lions, he has some- 

 thing to his credit. This probably explains why the 

 game is still so remarkably abundant near the rail- 

 road and on the very outskirts of the town. 



We were now much in need of a fair quantity of 

 meat, both for immediate consumption of our safari, 

 and to make biltong or jerky. Later, in like cir- 

 cumstances, we should have sallied forth in a busi- 

 nesslike fashion, dropped the requisite number of 

 zebra and hartebeeste as near camp as possible, and 

 called it a job. Now, however, being new to the 

 game, we much desired good trophies in variety. 

 Therefore, we scoured the country far and wide for 

 desirable heads; and the meat waited upon the ac- 

 quisition of the trophy. 



64 



