138 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



of mud, the brushing off of dew or raindrops, hairs or fur left on thorns and stumps, 

 froth, saliva, chewed grass or leaves, the marks of browsing, and many other 

 small signs. 



It is not my intention here to go into this subject at any length, as I have done 

 so elsewhere,* and, moreover, this is not so much the country of the tracker pare and 

 simple. I will, however, briefly note a few of the signs to be looked for in different 

 kinds of country. 



Taking first the sandy desert with scattered thorn-bushes and mimosas, it is 

 there that tracking is nearly entirely performed by following actual footmarks, which 

 are usually quite easy to see. It is through that sort of country that you have 

 generally to follow giraffe and oryx. Whilst following spoor, occasionally a few leaves 

 dropped during browsing or a piece of stripped bark may be seen at a distance in 

 front and the intervening tracking missed out. In desert or other easily traversed 

 countries the watercourses and river-beds are generally shut in by a dense belt of 

 bush. When the track descends into these, time and trouble may sometimes be 

 saved by keeping to the open and picking it up further on where it comes up again. 

 The sportsman will have to judge for himself as to whether the animal has gone down 

 and up again on the same side or crossed to the other side of the river-bed. If the 

 stream is a fair-sized one and the animal has gone down for its morning drink 

 the chances are in favour of its coming up on the same side by another route. If 

 it has been disturbed and is in flight the probability then is that it has crossed 

 the stream. 



In a dry watercourse, or in a watercourse with pools at intervals, there will 

 generally be periodic breaks in the bush-belt, or, at any rate, necks of thinner 

 bush affording an easier crossing. 



Where grass is found in a dry sandy, or dry red earth soil, it is usually 

 in tufts and clumps of long and coarse grasses, while between the tufts is bare 

 or sandy soil. Anything passing through such a country naturally finds it easier 

 to push between these tufts, rather than through them. For this reason, following 

 spoor there must be done by following the actual hoofmarks, with but occasional 

 help from signs of trodden grass. 



In thick bush-country the path taken by the animal is generally the only 

 feasible one to follow except where other tracks join or cross it, and in such 

 country the fresh track must be distinguished from the older by the freshness 

 or otherwise, of the breaks or bruises in the broken undergrowth, and by 



* " Central African Game and its Spoor," by Captain C. H. Stigand and D. D. Lyell. 



