Spooring the Game. 3 



treated like Europeans, so they demand, and receive, all 

 kinds of luxuries such as flour, tea, sugar, ghee, salt, 

 seasonings, rice, etc., not to mention European clothing, 

 such as boots, putties, hats, shooting coats, and other things. 



What a difference such a swaggering specimen of 

 humanity presents to the Nyasaland or Northern Rhodesian 

 tracker, with his yard or two of cloth or a skin round his 

 loins, who tramps about on bare feet, and can often track 

 game as well as a Bushman of the Kalahari Desert, and 

 who is charmed if he is presented with an old worn out 

 blanket and an empty flour tin to cook his porridge in. 



The Central African gunbearer or tracker does not ask 

 a tent, water bottle, cooking pot, or any of the luxuries 

 expected by the Somalis, and neither does he get from 50 

 to 100 rupees a month, but is pleased with a humble fee of 

 from four to six shillings and a yard of cloth, or some salt 

 every week to buy food, though the old hand gives his 

 men meat to barter with the villagers for their flour, sweet 

 potatoes, ground nuts, etc. 



It is known that the natives of British East Africa are 

 the poorest trackers or hunters in any territory in Africa ; 

 so I cannot understand why people praise them ; but then 

 such Europeans cannot have hunted with really good native 

 trackers in a bushed country or they would know better. 



In Central Africa the game has often to be spoored, 

 especially large antelopes such as eland, kudu, sable, and 

 roan ; and of course big game like elephants, rhino, and 

 buffalo are nearly always tracked, as they are not often 

 come on by chance. 



This spooring work lends the chief interest to big game 

 hunting, as anyone who is a fair shot can align a rifle barrel 

 straight and kill game if he only keeps cool and gets close 

 enough. In Central Africa most shots will be obtained at 

 a distance of 150 yards or less, and I have not often found 

 it necessary to fire at 300 yards or over, unless in the case 

 of following up a wounded beast. This is, I think, the only 

 excuse for long-range shooting, as all men deplore losing a 

 hit animal, which will go off and be shunned and turned out 



B 2 



