xxiv BIG GAME SHOOTING 235 



would imply that the day of the sportsman in East 

 Africa is over ; on the contrary, probably more real 

 genuine sportsmen visit the Protectorate than ever 

 before, among whom, indeed, many of the very best 

 are Americans ; but merely that the diminution of 

 discomfort has caused a far greater admixture than was 

 the case even four or five years ago. There still 

 remain, however, two classes of shooters whose name 

 is almost synonymous with sportsmen ; one, of course, 

 is the British officer and the other is the Austrian. It 

 is, perhaps, a pity that all our sporting visitors are not 

 made after the same model. 



What, however, of the future of the sport ? It 

 must be obvious that so grand and fertile a country 

 as this Protectorate cannot long remain a sportsman's 

 paradise in the sense that it is now. Indeed, signs 

 are not wanting that the zenith is already past. For 

 many years the pastoralist and agriculturist has been 

 steadily occupying areas which were formerly given 

 over to game alone. Till recently it is true that new 

 tracts were opened to the sportsmen as fast as, if not 

 faster than, the encroachment on his former haunts. 

 Thus as the Athi plains were taken up for settlement 

 and to a great extent shot out, Likipia was opened up; 

 as the same thing happened to Likipia, the Uasin 

 Guishu plateau, abounding in elephant, waterbuck, 

 reedbuck, and black-maned lions, was discovered. 

 When again this tract was given up as a settlement 

 for indigent Boers, pioneer sportsmen crossed the 

 waterless tract to the West of the Kedong Valley and 

 another splendid virgin shooting ground on the Loieta 

 and Lemmik plains was disclosedc But now, alas ! 

 the day of new and most delightful surprises has gone 

 by. To the north of the Guaso Nyero river or at 



Isfel .3 



lit 



