284 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



consists in matching the intelligence and knowledge 

 of the hunter against the instinct and cunning of the 

 quarry. No very great quantity of elephants are 

 killed nowadays in the Protectorate — in 19 10 and 191 1 

 it was forty-six — but nearly all these are old bulls. 

 Indeed the real veterans are by now mainly extermin- 

 ated, and hunters are turning their attention to the 

 breeding bulls. It is as hard to-day to get a 70 lb. 

 tusker as three or four years back it was to get a 

 hundred pounder. In view of the huge herds of 

 cows which exist, it is a question whether, instead of 

 the second bull, two cows might not be placed on the 

 licence. 



In addition to those animals killed and accounted 

 for on licence, the elephant has the following 

 enemies to contend with in the Protectorate. The 

 Wandorobo and Wakamba hunter kill a small 

 and decreasing number yearly; Somalis kill all that 

 they can in the neighbourhood of the Lorian swamp ; 

 Abyssinian hunters from over the border make 

 periodical and at times very destructive raids into our 

 territory. Indian traders are always ready to buy 

 undersized bull and cow ivory and to ask no ques- 

 tions. It is satisfactory to know that on all these de- 

 predations the Game Department is keeping a vigilant 

 eye. 



Herds of elephant are found in the following 

 localities among others — it being borne in mind that 

 they are by nature very migratory : The Mau forest, 

 Kenia forest, the Aberdares and especially round 

 Thompson's Falls, Lake Marsabit and its neighbour- 

 hood, where there are hundreds of cows, but very few 

 bulls ; Mohoroni and Kisii, where the cows are apt to 

 charge at sight ; the lower waters of the Tana and all 



