8 SPORT IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 



object, who would be glad to get away from civilisa- 

 tion upon such terms for such a long time, and to 

 them in particular this book is addressed, so that 

 they may alike profit by my mistakes, which were 

 many, and benefit by my successes, which were less 

 numerous. Throughout my trip I did my best to 

 note down the exact numbers of all sorts of game that 

 I came across, and since no further railway extension 

 in the Eastern Sudan is to be expected at present, 

 for some time to come any sportsman who visits the 

 country is likely to find during the particular months 

 of which I treat the distribution of game pretty 

 much the same as I have set down in my journal. 

 It is, however, well to warn him that at other seasons 

 the distribution may be totally different. For in- 

 stance, in perfect good faith, I was told not to touch 

 the numerous elephants on the Settit, owing to the 

 poorness of their ivory, but to shoot my elephants 

 upon the Eahad, Binder, or Blue Nile. Unluckily, I 

 arrived on the Binder just as the seasonal rains were 

 commencing, and all the elephants forthwith left 

 the big rivers and scattered over the interior. The 

 result of this was that a patient search of nearly 

 three months failed to reveal even a single fresh track 

 of an elephant, and that particular species found no 

 place in my African bag. However, the seasons in 

 the Sudan follow each other with such unvarying 

 regularity that it is almost a matter of certainty that 



