340 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



diminished almost to a vanishing point in the station. 

 Alas ! Mr. Ainsworth, while gaining so signal a victory- 

 over fever, fell a victim himself to the insidious disease 

 of golf, and its devotees now include no firmer adherent. 

 The game itself, therefore, enjoyed a double triumph. 

 The courses at Nyeri and Mweru are at present 

 somewhat rough, and being situated in what are still 

 somewhat unfrequented districts suffer from lack of 

 funds and players. They possess, however, an asset 

 in which they need fear comparison with no course 

 in Africa, their turf. This is of the most splendid 

 description, short, thick, and crisp, and when we add 

 to this the magnificent scenery of mountains, forest, 

 and river amid which they are situated, also the 

 splendid air coming straight from the snows of Kenia, 

 one can have little doubt that not only is their future 

 assured, but that it will be most prosperous. 



There remains Nairobi, the principal course in the 

 country, on which the championship is now annually 

 decided. It owed its conception to the energy of 

 the late Mr. Bell, who formed the club and laid out 

 the original course in 1907. Naturally it has been 

 gradually improved from year to year, and its present 

 excellence is undoubtedly due to the great care and 

 perseverance of the present secretary, Mr. A. E . Gardner. 

 It must be confessed that the course represents, as in 

 most African courses, the triumph of the game over 

 natural obstacles. The soil is mostly clay and the 

 grass somewhat sparse and rank ; but, as elsewhere, 

 regular play is rapidly improving it, and as year after 

 year it is fed down by sheep the turf gets shorter, 

 crisper, and thicker. The greens are of sand-covered 

 earth, very true but naturally forming a very difficult 

 space on which to remain. (There can be no question 



