Lilongwe to Fort Jameson 



is the big game shooter who is responsible for the 

 diminution of African game; natives spare neither 

 age nor sex, and one of these drives will often do 

 more damage than fifty shooters would have done. 

 Some districts are entirely denuded of game, owing 

 to the sale of cheap guns and powder to the natives.^ 



By the time the caravan had arrived the ground 

 was bare, except for here and there some smouldering 

 remains ; but overhead occasional branches still burnt 

 — dead wood that had been caught by the fierce 

 flame as it passed among the trees — and these had 

 to be sawn off, when in the neighbourhood of the 

 tents or the men's shelters. In assisting at this 

 work one of my boys damaged himself rather 

 badly, falling from a dead branch, and sprained his 

 ankle. 



A young lemur was caught, and I was sorry 

 that in capturing it it was killed. The small hands 

 and feet of a lemur are more human than a 

 monkey's. I had great difficulty in preserving the 

 skin, as there was now a heavy dew at night, which 

 saturated everything. My men also brought me a 

 jumping shrew (nasilio brachyurus) — a curious little 

 beast with a pointed snout, and its hind legs longer 

 than the fore legs. 



Everything was black, of course, and minute 

 particles of charred grass flew about everywhere. 



On October 3rd we made a good march to 

 K'alolo village, rising gradually, so that our 

 aneroids again marked four thousand feet. Game 



1 Of course this is forbidden by the authorities, only native 

 weapons being allowed. 



81 



