CHAPTER II. 



ANIMAL LIFE OF THE COUNTRY. 



BRITISH EAST AFRICA is, as everyone knows, that large block of British 

 territory which lies astride of the equator on the east coast of Africa. Its 

 boundaries are, roughly, Ethiopia and Somaliland to the north, Uganda to 

 the west, German East Africa to the south-west, and the Indian Ocean to the 

 south-east. 



Of this country, the area of which is, roughly, about 200,000 square miles, less 

 than half is administrated at present, while the remainder is still little known and 

 much as it was before the British occupation. The administrated portion consists, 

 roughly, of the south-western part and the coast line. In this part is a game 

 reserve of about 10,000 square miles called the Southern Game Reserve. In the 

 unadministrated portion are game reserves the areas of which are together about 

 double the extent of the former. At first sight it might seem that the game 

 reserves, consisting as they do of about a sixth of the whole country, occupy too 

 extensive an area. This is by no means the case, however, for reasons that will be 

 gone into in another chapter. Suffice it to say here that the smaller, or southern, 

 reserve is the only thoroughly administrated reserve, for at present it is impossible 

 to subject the northern reserves to any careful supervision. 



The greater part of British East Africa is, or was, rich in game, of which there 

 is a great variety. The completion of the Uganda Railway, which renders the 

 country, or at any rate the south-western portions of it, so accessible to the tourist 

 and sportsman, must eventually change this state of affairs. Moreover, large 

 tracts of this country have been found suitable for colonisation. So, with the 

 immense numbers of sportsmen who visit the country year by year and the settlers 

 who pour into the country and take up unoccupied land in all directions, the fate 

 of the game is as good as sealed. It must eventually become an alternative of 

 settlers or game, and there is little doubt that the former will win the day. 



Already large areas of the country which used to be full of game are now but 

 poorly stocked. That wonderful sight of miles and miles of game, seen from the 

 carriages of the Uganda Railway, is confining itself year by year more to the 

 south-west side of the line, that of the game reserve. This is more marked with the 

 less common of the plain animals, such as rhino, eland, oryx callotis, and gnu, and 



