236 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



all events of Marsabit is desert right up to the 

 Abyssinian frontier, to the west and south-west lie 

 the borders of Uganda and German East Africa, 

 while to the coast and south-east lies a stretch of 

 country much of which holds plenty of game, but 

 which is at the same time nearly all full of thorns, 

 fever, and discomfort. In the existing areas where 

 shooting may be enjoyed in health and comfort, where 

 even an invalid accompanied by his wife and daughters 

 can share the sport, the game is slowly but surely 

 disappearing. People look round with wonder and 

 search for the cause. Need they look further than 

 the fact that for the last two or three years some 

 thirty or forty parties of sportsmen have in this small 

 area accounted for 300 head each ? There are many 

 who talk largely of thousands or tens of thousands of 

 head in a herd of game. Let them climb to the top 

 of a knoll and try conscientiously to count such a 

 herd. They will be astonished no longer at the 

 numbers but rather at the sparseness of a herd they 

 had thought uncountable. It is true that a great 

 proportion of this slaughter is of common game and 

 is to a certain extent counterbalanced by the killing of 

 vermin such as lions and leopards, which would of 

 itself have been responsible for much destruction ; 

 still the rarer varieties suffer as well, and with regard 

 to them it is perhaps worth noting the devastation 

 that is done in the name of or on behalf of museums. 

 Do those nine white rhinoceros ever cause ex- Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt a pang of conscience, or a restless 

 night ? I for one venture to hope so. It is un- 

 fortunate that we have no close season either enforced 

 or natural. But the former is almost impossible, as 

 calving time is never constant, but varies both 



