CHAPTER XXIII 



FASCICULA 



I. Retrospective 



It may amuse after a completed ventm^e to return 

 to the distant standpoint whence a promised land was 

 first surveyed, and to " reconstitute " the original ideas 

 and frame of mind. This is the way my brother 

 regarded an East-African expedition when first proposed 

 to him in April 1904 — 



"I have just re-read 'Jackson' [Badminton — 'Big 

 Game '], and admit to be a bit disconcerted, though of 

 course the railway has modified things since that time. 

 Still he doesn't speak of the Kilimanjaro country being 

 altogether healthy, and warns against ' flies,' which, 

 as you know, are death to me. No doubt there was 

 any amount of game — though, mind, I draw a very 

 distinct line of demarcation between big game and 

 dangerous game. Elephant, rhino, lion, bufli"alo and all 

 such Noah's Ark beasts are outside my schedule. The 

 more subtle and venomous beasts of the field, I must 

 just trust to Providence to escape the vengeance of. 

 The giraff'e I regard it as a shame to kill at all, and that 

 only leaves me the antelopes. To get the bigger kinds, 

 we shall have to trekk a long way in from the railway, 

 and I do not think either of us can now do very hard 

 work in such tropical heat ; and if you go up too high, 

 there is nothing but elephant and they in impenetrable 

 forest ! Jackson speaks of the labour [after elephants] 

 being utterly exhausting. Now, I love big game, and 

 can sit on a log and watch for it all day, but . . . 



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