1 98 THE LAND OF THE LION 



set out for the farther country are generally more experi- 

 enced, men who have studied the dangerous game against 

 which they pit their lives. Here accidents keep happening 

 because anyone who can borrow a gun and take out a 

 licence fancies himself capable of elephant hunting. Tak- 

 ing little notice of wind or cover as they do, the marvel is 

 that so many escape. A man is a fool to take any liberty 

 with an elephant. 



So long as ivory fetches the price it does, and it must 

 increase rather than diminish in value, it will prove a sore 

 temptation to a poor man, finding himself in elephant 

 country, not to attempt to pay off at one stroke the heavy 

 price of his shooting licence. It is for that reason that 

 I think sportsmen should welcome any legislation that 

 places the elephant in a class by himself, and makes 

 the man who wants to shoot one or two in British East 

 Africa, where they do no damage, and are not too plenti- 

 ful, pay heavily for the privilege. (Uganda elephants 

 are another matter.) It seems rather a hardship, on the 

 other hand, to prevent the native hunter who for ages 

 has taken his modest toll of the herds, and certainly 

 has not destroyed them, from doing as his fathers before 

 him have done, just because rich sportsmen want all the 

 fun, and the ivory too. 



Allow him to trade his occasional tusk if it is sizable. 

 Forbid him otherwise to trade at all. Employ the right 

 sort of traders to trade with him, and grant licences for 

 such trade. Do this and the law will enforce itself, and 

 small ivory and cow ivory will not be killed. Instead of 

 prohibiting all ivory trading, which can never be stopped, 

 give an opening to honest men to do the trading. There 

 will be no difficulty in finding them, for there is money 

 in the business. At present the Kikuyu, N'dorobo, and 

 other tribes have hundreds of tusks of buried ivory only 

 waiting the coming of the unscrupulous ivory runner. 



