280 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



and seat of chairs, and when so prepared may be given 

 with a sense of pleasure to one's best enemy on his 

 marriage. Several attempts have been made and a 

 good deal of money — most of it, luckily, German — 

 expended with the object of breaking in zebra as 

 beasts of burden. Such attempts have all ended in 

 failure ; chiefly owing to the lack of heart shown by 

 the animal ; the moment the work goes at all against 

 the collar it is chucked. He is also savage as well as 

 delicate in captivity. In German East Africa attempts 

 have also been made to cross zebra with a stallion. 

 The result, a zebroid, is a beautiful and more satis- 

 factory animal, but the proceeding is hardly likely to 

 prove a commercial success. Zebra are showing a 

 marked and satisfactory decrease throughout the 

 inhabited portions of the Highlands. 



Hippopotamus should be really included in this class, 

 because while he provides nothing useful or sporting, he 

 is absolutely ruinous to any cultivation. At the 

 present moment there is very little European agri- 

 cultural farming near his haunts, but as soon as that 

 time comes the " hippo " in the vicinity will be given 

 short shrift. He is, of course, no danger to stock 

 farmers, and being a most interesting and inoffensive 

 beast will be probably preserved in streams and lakes 

 in their neighbourhood. Thus the farmers round 

 Lake Naivasha preserve the species there, where he is 

 a most peaceable inmate for the most part, though 

 capable of having a disturbing influence on a boating 

 party. The finest specimens are found in Lake Vic- 

 toria or in the Tana, but most rivers or lakes of any 

 size contain hippo in greater or smaller quantities. 

 Among such, I recall the Naivasha, Nakuru and Rudolf 



