176 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



once its form has been found, and the eye has 

 learned where Kihmanjaro ends and the higher 

 clouds begin, the proud crest, so lofty and 

 majestic, seems to grow and increase in grandeur 

 and sublime beauty, and vision leaves it with a 

 caressing and regretful farewell. 



East and Central Africa are two of the very 

 few remaining portions of the world wherein 

 man may pursue and slay wild animals under 

 somewhat similar conditions to those obtaining 

 in Western Europe many hundreds of years ago, 

 when our forefathers lived by hunting, robed 

 themselves in skins, and recognized in " spoor " 

 the hors d'oeuvre of their next meal. Although 

 the East African Protectorate is now traversed 

 by a railway line, and can pride itself on pos- 

 sessing important towns, well laid-out farms and 

 a large settler population, it can still boast of an 

 extraordinary plenitude of great game — indeed, 

 the big game of the East African Protectorate 

 seems to be on the increase rather than on the 

 decline. Passengers in the comfortable coaches 

 of the Uganda Railway may still gaze out in 

 wonder on enormous herds of zebra, gazelle, 

 wildebeeste, and hartebeeste. They may see 

 wild ostriches within a stone's-throw of the 

 screeching locomotive, and the ungainly giraffe 

 may be observed from nearly every train that 

 travels from the coast to Nairobi. Sometimes, 

 too, a lion may be seen bounding away from the 

 paths of man, his mortal enemy, and within 

 recent years more than one stupid, blundering 

 old rhinoceros has defiantly charged the cow- 

 catcher ! 



Such scenes naturally create in the sportsman 

 a longing to be away in the wilds and outside of 

 the boundaries of the game reserves which the 



