■w 
AN EAST AFRICAN HUNTING TRIP 
A DESCRIPTION OF A RECENT JOURNEY INTO A LAND STILL 
RICH IN A VARIETY OF INTERESTING GAME ANIMALS 
By E-. A. SYKES 
F orest and stream and my- 
self quite naturally gravitated to- 
wards each other shortly after my 
I arrival on a visit to this country 
I recently. As an Englishman who has 
i been devoted to shooting for many years 
past, in different parts of the world, it 
■ has been intensely interesting to me to 
learn through its pages of game animals 
new to me, of the different conditions 
under which they arc hunted and of the 
different weapons used. The war has 
made Britons realize — or such few of 
I them that did not do so before — that 
there are but few essential differences 
between our American cousins 
; and ourselves and certainly 
i none that ought not to he eas- 
: ily bridged over, with a little 
good will. There is plenty of 
good will as far as we are 
'concerned and if we can get 
into closer touch with each 
other over subjects like sport, 
I so much the better. 
I was told the other day by 
an American friend that he 
[believed the English lived 
i; anywhere but in England. The 
“ wandering instinct certainly 
: has a very firm grip on us but 
1; we have no monopoly in that 
c respect, and it has been my 
i' privilege to meet many Ameri- 
I cans, the world over, who pos- 
II sessed that and the hunting in- 
’ stinct as well. 
Perhaps of all gamc-coun- 
i! tries. East Africa holds the 
palm for quantity and variety 
and perhaps, too, no country 
!i has been so exhaustively writ- 
ten about, so I feel duly apolo- 
i getic in offering your readers 
the following brief description 
of a shoot I was fortunate enough to 
have in British East Africa in the au- 
' tumn of last year. 
"T^HE particular district in which I 
hunted was the Laikipia Plateau, 
from south of Rumuruti to the junction 
of the Guaso Nyiro and the Guaso 
Narok, and although most of it is di- 
rectly on the equator, the high altitude 
(from 5,700 to 8,000 feet) gives it a 
climate which almost entitles it to be 
called a “white man’s country.” It is 
mainly uninhabited except for a sprink- 
ling of recently-arrived soldier settlers, 
and a few Samburu and forest-dwelling 
Wanderobo. On certain prescribed routes 
one may meet an occasional Somali 
trader, bringing cattle and ponies from 
the north ; otherwise it belongs so far 
to the game and the hunter. 
The country is of a \aricd nature, 
bare open plains alternating with im- 
penetrable tropical forest, rocky gullies 
and thick thorn scrub, the latter very 
trying to clothes and temper. The South 
African Dutchman knew what he was 
about when he christened the "wait-a- 
bit” thorn. Deep-sea fish hooks are the 
only things that bear comparison for 
holding capacity'. The lofty Aberdare 
range bounded one-quarter of the hori- 
son, and on clear days we could generally 
see Kenia, a snow-capped peak of over 
18,000 feet. \’ery' rarely could any of 
the landscape be described as "typically 
African,” and most assuredly the climate 
was not typically equatorial. 
At one or two camps we roast- 
ed in the day-time and woke 
up to find a white frost on the 
ground. 
Each variety of country 
possesses its own particular 
form of animal life. The 
forests hold the shy l)ush 
buck and shyer bongo, the 
grassy opens are the haunt of 
the hartebecst. Grant’s and 
Thomson’s gazelles and the 
eland ; long grass and sparse 
cover Iiarbor duiker, reed 
buck and the graceful impalla. 
A prowl along a stream bed 
or -swampy bottom generally 
rewards one with a sight of 
the waterbuck, one of the 
handsomest of the antelope 
kind. Streams of any depth, 
with papyrus, reed or r)thcr 
suitable growth on their banks, 
are the home of the hippo. 
Buffalo in these days are cov- 
ert-loving animals, and for the 
most part are never found in 
the open except when feeding 
in the late afternoon and very- 
early- m o r n i n g. The rhino 
seems indifferent as to his habitat 
and T have found him in thick cover 
as well as on open plains. Lion, 
On the way to the game country 
