40 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



in my judgment built by the government, and paid for 

 by the water-users in the shape of water-rents and irriga- 

 tion ditches; with the water stored and used there would 

 be an excellent opening for small farmers, for the settlers, 

 the actual home-makers, who, above all others, should be 

 encouraged to come into a white man's country like this of 

 the highlands of East Africa. Even as it is, many settlers 

 do well; it is hard to realize that right under the equator 

 the conditions are such that wheat, potatoes, strawberries, 

 apples, all flourish. No new country is a place for weak- 

 lings; but the right kind of man, the settler who makes a 

 success in similar parts of our own West, can do well in 

 East Africa; while a man with money can undoubtedly do 

 very well indeed; and incidentally both men will be lead- 

 ing their lives under conditions peculiarly attractive to a 

 certain kind of spirit. It means hard work, of course; 

 but success generally does imply hard work. 



The plains were generally covered only with the thick 

 grass on which the great herds of game fed; here and there 

 small thorn-trees grew upon them, but usually so small 

 and scattered as to give no shelter or cover. By the occa- 

 sional watercourses the trees grew more thickly, and also 

 on the hills and in the valleys between. Most of the trees 

 were mimosas, or of similar kind, usually thorny; but there 

 were giant cactus-like euphorbias, shaped like candela- 

 bra, and named accordingly; and on the higher hills fig- 

 trees, wild olives, and many others whose names I do not 

 know, but some of which were stately and beautiful. Many 

 of the mimosas were in bloom, and covered with sweet- 

 smelling yellow blossoms. There were many flowers. On 

 the dry plains there were bushes of the color and size of 

 our own sage-brush, covered with flowers like morning- 

 glories. There were also wild sweet-peas, on which the 

 ostriches fed; as they did on another plant with a lilac 

 flower of a faint heliotrope fragrance. Among the hills 

 there were masses of singularly fragrant flowers like pink 

 jessamines, growing on bushes sometimes fifteen feet high 



