XXIV 
BIG GAME SHOOTING 
235 
would imply that the day of the sportsman in East 
Africa is over ; on the contrary, probably more real 
genuine sportsmen visit the Protectorate than ever 
before, among whom, indeed, many of the very best 
are Americans ; but merely that the diminution of 
discomfort has caused a far greater admixture than was 
the case even four or five years ago. There still 
remain, however, two classes of shooters whose name 
is almost synonymous with sportsmen ; one, of course, 
is the British officer and the other is the Austrian. It 
is, perhaps, a pity that all our sporting visitors are not 
made after the same model. 
What, however, of the future of the sport ? It 
must be obvious that so grand and fertile a country 
as this Protectorate cannot long remain a sportsman’s 
paradise in the sense that it is now. Indeed, signs 
are not wanting that the zenith is already past. For 
many years the pastoralist and agriculturist has been 
steadily occupying areas which were formerly given 
over to game alone. Till recently it is true that new 
tracts were opened to the sportsmen as fast as, if not 
faster than, the encroachment on his former haunts. 
Thus as the Athi plains were taken up for settlement 
and to a great extent shot out, Likipia was opened up; 
as the same thing happened to Likipia, the Uasin 
Guishu plateau, abounding in elephant, waterbuck, 
reedbuck, and black-maned lions, was discovered. 
When again this tract was given up as a settlement 
for indigent Boers, pioneer sportsmen crossed the 
waterless tract to the West of the Kedong Valley and 
another splendid virgin shooting ground on the Loieta 
and Lemmik plains was disclosed. But now, alas! 
the day of new and most delightful surprises has gone 
by. To the north of the Guaso Nyero river or at 
