166 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



CHAPTER VII 



GAME DISTRICTS AND ROUTES 

 BY !'. J. JACKSON 



AT particular seasons of the year there is a considerable 

 migration of game beasts, and though all the lines of their 

 migration are not ascertained, it is quite certain that great 

 numbers work their way towards the coast between April 

 and July ; instinct in all probability impelling them in that 

 direction, where the grass and all other vegetation are 

 abundant. It would consequently be advisable for the sports- 

 man to choose the time for his contemplated trip to a certain 

 district when game is most likely to be plentiful there. 

 Regard should also be had to a place suitable and convenient 

 for head-quarters, where surplus baggage, trophies, &c., can 

 be stored, and where food for the caravan is procurable. The 

 Kilimanjaro district, with Taveta as a depot, was at one time, 

 and perhaps is still, one of the best game districts in East 

 Africa. Here game of nearly every variety is to be found, with 

 the exception of Kobus defassus, Kobus Kob, Jackson's harte- 

 beest, sable antelope, Damalis Senegalensis, and the oribi. 

 Elephants, though they are numerous in the wet weather, are 

 confined almost entirely to German territory, at the base of the 

 mountain below Mochi and Kiboso, and it would be necessary 

 to get a permit to shoot them, either from the German Com- 

 missioner at Bagamoyo on the coast, or from the officer in 

 charge of the district at Mochi. From about August to April 

 the elephants are confined to the belts of dense forest on the 



