2O8 TALES OF A NOMAD. 



capital. The Government seem to be blind to this, and 

 do no more than grasp at the immediate dollar. 



There was a place within easy reach of Kudat. It 

 was much frequented by deer and wild cattle. A couple 

 of hours' rowing on a flood-tide sufficed to reach it. As 

 many as four or five deer could be shot there in an 

 afternoon, and there was a small house in which sports- 

 men could encamp for the night. 



Natives continually persecute the game there ; and 

 many of them have obtained guns, so that before long 

 there will be no game to persecute. 



In a country of dense jungles it is very difficult to 

 get sport. Game exists in the jungles, but the hardships 

 incurred in getting at it deter most sportsmen. There 

 are no opportunities of stalking, excepting when the 

 game emerge from cover morning and evening to feed 

 in the clearings. It is impossible to use a horse. Even 

 if the nobler varieties of game existed in large numbers, 

 the conditions under which they would have to be pur- 

 sued are such as to rob sport of three-fourths of its 

 charms. 



South Africa is, or rather was, facile princeps the 

 paradise of sportsmen ; for there the climate and the 

 nature of the country all aided in enabling one to pur- 

 sue sport under the pleasantest conditions. But South 

 Africa is nearly shot out ; and the next generation will 

 have the bare satisfaction of reading accounts of the 

 great game which, like Fenimore Cooper's heroic Indians, 

 once were, but are no more. 



i 



FINIS. 



