292 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CH. XI 
The magnificent hunting-grounds of British Somaliland have 
lost some of their value now that so many lions have been 
shot and the elephants driven away. But no one who has 
lived long among the natives subject to their depredations 
can have much sympathy for the lions, whether male, female, 
or young ; and as regards the elephants, we have only ourselves 
to blame for not having made the slightest attempt to tame 
them, which if successfully accomplished would have saved their 
lives, and might perhaps have solved the transport problem on 
many of the African routes where camels cannot go and 
elephant-fodder grows wild. Ancient evidence in North Africa 
and the modern experience of menageries seem favourable to 
the possibility of successful domestication. 
The other game—the beautiful forms of antelope life—are 
likely to survive long, for the Somalis possess no firearms, 
And when the lions and elephants have quite disappeared, 
there will be fewer shooting parties; so that for men who 
shoot for variety rather than for heavy bags, and who are 
chiefly attracted by the wandering life on these healthy desert 
steppes and fertile plateaux, the Somali country will lose but 
little of its interest and attraction. 
