ie BIG GAME SHOOTING 
help considerably to save the tinned provisions and to recon- 
cile a man to the miseries of the first few days in the wilderness, 
after the fleshpots of Mombasa. The first day of getting 
under way will perhaps be found the most trying of any to the 
patience and temper, unless some little trouble is taken to 
minimise the confusion generally attending the start of a 
caravan for ‘up-country.’ To effect this, the whole of the men 
should have at least two days’ notice beforehand of their 
master’s decision to start on a certain day, and the night 
before the start the whole caravan should be told, when they 
come for their posho, to muster and fall in in the morning at 
least a couple of hours before they are actually wanted. The 
whole of the loads should then be laid out in lots of ten. The 
porters having fallen in to their respective companies with 
their askari, and having answered to the roll-call, the rifles and 
cartridge-belts should be distributed amongst them. Their posho 
in rice should then be issued to them, and may varyin quantity 
according to the destination of the safari; but should it be — 
anywhere along the Teita route, ten days’ posho is usually given, 
which will last them well over the Maungu wilderness, till 
Teita is reached, where food of various kinds is procurable. _ 
Ten days’ food is as much as a porter can be expected to — 
carry on leaving the coast, when he is soft and out of training, 7 
though up country, in places like the Masai district, where no — 
vegetable food is procurable, he will not only carry twelve to — 
fifteen days’ food, but also an extra heavy load into the 
bargain. Each company should then be told off to a lot of ten 7 | 
loads, and every man should be ordered to put some private — 
mark of his own on his allotted load so as to recognise it — 
again. This is important, as it not only prevents confusion, — 
but a good deal of quarrelling amongst the men when moving — 
camp each morning, sometimes in the dark, should there be 
a long waterless march ahead. : 
should, when feasible, be bought by the headman and collected 
in bulk, as it is much cheaper to buy it so; but when on the ~ 
