66 THE SOCIETY FOE THE PEESEEVATION OF 



Bulbar, in great numbers. In tbe bill tracts tbe wild animals, 

 sucb as kudu, with tbe exception of wbat is really prairie game, 

 are local, and keep to their own particular hills and valleys. 



' There are no rivers or railways, and the only well-used routes 

 from which tbe supervision of game could be facilitated are tbe 

 caravan tracks used by the troops between Berbera and Hargeisa 

 and between Berbera and Burao. On both of these routes, how- 

 ever, tbe movements of troops have driven the game away. At 

 present, there is no game to speak of near the road worth pro- 

 tecting. 



' My brother and I were employed in exploration surveys for 

 the Government of India in 1891-1892. Times have much changed 

 since then. The numbers of wild animals formerly in the country 

 were astonishing. I remember in the rainy season of 1891 enter- 

 ing the rolling western plains, where, at an altitude of five thousand 

 to six thousand feet, we came upon a bushless tract one thousand 

 square miles in area, covered by short succulent grass. The whole 

 ground was covered with immense herds of bartebeeste, oryx, and 

 Soemmering's and Speke's gazelles, and troops of ostriches loomed 

 up and disappeared in the folds of the prairie. On firing a shot 

 the whole mass stampeded, one herd communicating its fears to 

 another, until right up to the horizon there was a crowd of gallop- 

 ing animals. I counted four hundred oryx in one herd, and 

 roughly dividing the masses as well as I was able into groups of 

 the same size, I estimated that the total number of animals I then 

 saw could not have been less than ten thousand. In the midst 

 of the veldt we shot two out of three lions. ^ They were lying out 

 on the short grass in full view, and had been clearly seen by us 

 when yet two miles off. In the bush country south of the grassy 

 plains lions were numerous. In two days' surveying my brother 

 and I killed, besides other game, two lions and five rhinoceroses. 

 Every night we heard the roar of lions. They would frequently 

 roar around our camp trying to stampede the camels, and they 

 would continue roaring long after dawn. We frequently came 

 on herds of elephants, and easily managed to shoot a few of tbe 

 biggest bulls. I have known of several parties of sportsmen who 

 have shot from twenty to thirty lions in a three months' trip, and 

 I know of two sportsmen at least who shot as many as eight lions 

 before breakfast. 



' It was the same in the bill tracts, the home par excellence 

 of the kudu, both the lesser and the greater variety, and klip- 

 springers. No day passed that kudu were not seen, and there was 

 no temptation to shoot moderate-sized heads, which now would 

 be considered good. Elephants roamed about Waggar Mountain, 

 forty-five miles south of Berbera, and had tunnelled a path through 

 tbe cedar forests and underwood right up to the tops of the moun- 



* My brother was unfortunately badly mauled. — E. S. 



I 



