144 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



cattle track, whilst the female and young of eland have a much more pointed spoor, 

 and in this depart from the pure cattle type. An oryx's spoor shows traces of both 

 cattle and hippotragus-like spoor. It is too narrow to be a cattle spoor and too 

 broad to be like that of the roan. The bongo spoor is a type of cattle spoor. 



The hippotragus spoor is much narrower than the class above, more pointed 

 than that of the kudu, but not so pointed as that of the hartebeest. The roan's is 

 like that of the sable's, only much larger. 



Of the waterbuck type, but differing from each other, are the waterbucks, kobs, 

 and reedbucks. 



As all the ordinary and common kinds of game inhabiting the plains of East 

 Africa may be obtained with ease without having to resort to tracking or troubling to 

 recognise their spoors, plate examples of their spoors are hardly necessary, The 

 majority of them are more slender and pointed than the types given. The gerenug 

 especially is very pointed and very slender near the tips. 



I have given an example of a pig-like spoor, to which class belongs the forest- 

 hog, the warthog, and the bushpig. The spoor of the little klipspringer is like a 

 miniature of these. 



Of pachyderms, the elephant's spoor can hardly be mistaken because of its size. 

 It is as well to remember that an elephant's spoor is practically never worth following 

 if it measures less than eighteen inches in diameter ; if possible, it ought to be 

 twenty inches. 



In Uganda, if time is no object, and you want a really big elephant, you 

 should look about till you find a spoor of twenty-two inches or over. A small roll 

 steel tape carried in a ticket-pocket will be found convenient for this purpose. 

 Failing this, or in the event of its being lost, then measure by the span from your 

 thumb to little finger, or, what is perhaps even more convenient, measure by the 

 length of your boot. This last method of measurement saves stooping down at 

 intervals, which latter process is tiring when a hot sun is playing on your back 

 and neck. Also make your tracker measure by putting the heel of one foot 

 touching the back of the spoor, and the other foot in front of the first with its 

 heel touching the toe of the first foot. A native can generally get both feet like 

 this inside a really big elephant's spoor, with an inch or two to spare in front of 

 the toe of his foremost foot. 



Even if the spoor has not been measured before, and the elephant is come upon 

 and only wounded, it would be as well to measure the spoor carefully before 

 settling down to track him up. For if a mix-up of spoors takes place, as nearly 

 always happens at some point when following an elephant, and there are no 



