16 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



In the creation of the great game reserve through which 

 the Uganda Railway runs the British Government has 

 conferred a boon upon mankind, and no less in the enact- 

 ment and enforcement of the game laws in the African 

 provinces generally. Of course experience will show where, 

 from time to time, there must be changes. In Uganda 

 proper buffaloes and hippos throve so under protection as 

 to become sources of grave danger not only to the crops but 

 to the lives of the natives, and they had to be taken off the 

 protected list and classed as vermin, to be shot in any num- 

 ber at any time; and only the great demand for ivory 

 prevented the necessity of following the same course with 

 regard to the elephant; while recently in British East 

 Africa the increase of the zebras, and the harm they did to 

 the crops of the settlers, rendered it necessary to remove a 

 large measure of the protection formerly accorded them, 

 and in some cases actually to encourage their slaughter; 

 and increase in settlement may necessitate further changes. 

 But, speaking generally, much wisdom and foresight, highly 

 creditable to both government and people, have been 

 shown in dealing with and preserving East African game 

 while at the same time safeguarding the interests of the 

 settlers. 



On our train the locomotive was fitted with a comfort- 

 able seat across the cow-catcher, and on this, except at meal- 

 time, I spent most of the hours of daylight, usually in com- 

 pany with Selous, and often with Governor Jackson, to 

 whom the territory and the game were alike familiar. The 

 first afternoon we did not see many wild animals, but birds 

 abounded, and the scenery was both beautiful and interest- 

 ing. A black-and-white hornbill, feeding on the track, rose 

 so late that we nearly caught it with our hands; guinea-fowl 

 and francolin, and occasionally bustard, rose near by; brill- 

 iant rollers, sun-birds, bee-eaters, and weaver-birds flew 

 beside us, or sat unmoved among the trees as the train 

 passed. In the dusk we nearly ran over a hyena; a year 

 or two previously the train actually did run over a lioness 



