PROTECTION OF BIG GAME 299 



there) that some may even wish to settle on waterless 

 Eeserves with an idea of getting superior shooting 

 what time that " moderate capital " lasts ! 



The chief Game-Eeserve attacked in these ad 

 captandum lucubrations (indeed, the only one, since 

 the others are as yet merely nominal tracts far beyond 

 any present question of white occupation) is the great 

 Athi Plains Reserve. Now the contention that white 

 men are prohibited, in the interests of game, from 

 settling upon these Athi Plains is childish nonsense, 

 designed in most instances to deceive the ignorant, or 

 — worse still — to create prejudice. For the Athi 

 Plains are uninhabitable by man, whether white or 

 black, by reason of the absence of water. They extend 

 over upwards of 100 miles in length east and west, and 

 throughout that vast stretch there is no permanent 

 water between Makindu at mile 209 and the Athi River 

 at mile 311. 



What is the sturdy immigrant going to do here ? 

 He could not survive for a week, nor could his cattle. 

 Then how, you ask, do those vast herds of game survive ? 

 The bulk of these, I reply, rec[uire no water. Nature 

 has so designed her creatures that, for many, the 

 abundant night-dews suffice to quench thirst. These 

 never drink, though some have means of Cjuenching 

 thirst in certain bulbous water-bearing roots that they 

 dig up from underground. The others migrate. The 

 blue wildebeest, for example, and the zebra drink twice 

 daily. Both these species may be seen thousands 

 strong on the Athi Plains one week or one month ; the 

 next they have disappeared. Hardly one remains. 

 They have moved away — perhaps hundreds of miles 

 across country — to the nearest permanent water. The 

 sturdiest settler cannot do this. He must stay where he 

 is — and die. 



We will assume that our friend the immigrant 

 admits these simple facts as regards the Athi Plains. 

 He abandons that waterless downland, but still contends 

 that he is prohibited from settling in the bush-country 



