With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



termed one of the grandest spectacles in all the animal 

 world. 



According to statistics published at Dar-es-Salaam 

 there are about fifty thousand zebras in German West 

 Africa. I cannot conceive how any one has the courage to 

 give such figures. A reckoning is so difficult ; personally 

 I should reckon it at a much higher figure at quite several 

 hundred thousand head ! However this may be, the 

 fifty thousand is much too low. 



It is a curious fact that the striking black-and-white 

 striped colouring- of the zebras does not in any way 

 render them noticeable in the surrounding landscape. 

 According to the light, zebras seem quite differently 

 coloured, even to looking grey all over ; but even when 

 their black-and-white colouring can be discerned close at 

 hand it seems to harmonise in a remarkable manner with 

 the colouring of the velt. 



A curious example of protective resemblance is brought 

 before our eyes when zebras are taking their noonday 

 rest under the shady trees and bushes ; the fluttering 

 shadows made by the motion of the foliage mingle strangely 

 with the stripes of the zebras. The assertion that wild 

 asses are to be found in German West Africa is 

 entirely founded on this fact. Moreover zebras very 

 often roll in the dust, and then appear quite brown or 

 red coloured. 



The traveller over the East African deserts has no 

 difficulty in understanding that the wild horses of Europe 

 in times long past belonged to the most coveted wild 

 game of the then primitive hunting-people. The East 



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