GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



with fleas from the goats. They, the men, had a 

 huge drinking bout which finally resulted in his 

 death at Nakuru ; his live stock, to wit the goats 

 having lived on the island ever since unmolested. 

 I had heard that there was a herd of waterbuck 

 also living there — we saw nine does galloping about 

 in front of us several times ; then I was told that 

 an A.D.C. of the late commissioner had shot the 

 only buck ; it quite saddened me to think that a 

 man could be so unsportsmanlike, dooming those 

 does to years and years of solitary state, finally to 

 die out altogether, as it seemed to me unlikely that 

 a gallant and solitary buck would venture to swim 

 the long distance across the lake to reach the 

 island, good swimmers as they are. At any rate 

 no buck has done so so far. Why won't men be 

 more generous as sportsmen and think a little of 

 the animals who are harmless, and give them only 

 a mild pleasure in chasing ; for there cannot be 

 much honour attached to hunting a beast as big as 

 a waterbuck, which forms a fair-sized bull's eye at 

 any range, and cannot be lost or escape as it circles 

 round an island of that small size. The chances 

 are all in the man's favour, therefore it amounts to 

 butchery, not sport. 



We saw none of the hippo which are supposed 

 to lie under the island, but hundreds of birds of all 

 sorts — it is a water-birds' paradise, and there is a 



176 



