CHAPTER XXIX 



ANIMALS OF THE BACK BLOCKS 



We come finally to the category of those animals 

 with which the ordinary settler, or farmer, but rarely 

 comes into direct contact. He cannot fail, however, 

 to hear of many of them from big game shooters and 

 others, and it is not improbable that he may, either 

 during leave or on some trading or cattle-buying 

 expedition, have opportunities of obtaining a specimen 

 of many of the more interesting species. On this 

 account, therefore, a brief notice of the chief varieties 

 is here appended. 



The Elephant formed at one time the main source 

 from which the early pioneers could refill their defleted 

 coffers. When most other more legitimate enterprises 

 were experimental, the elephant was in a position to 

 supply in person or through the teeth of his ancestors 

 the sinews of war for such experiments. Until the 

 advent of the railway and all that it stood for — such as 

 game licences, fines and export duties — large herds of 

 elephants containing many magnificent tuskers roamed 

 through the forests and bush and over the plains of the 

 Highlands and were plentiful round Nairobi and in the 

 Ngong forest. Nowadays, the numbers are hardly if 

 at all reduced, but the proportion of fine bulls has 



