XXIV 
BIG GAME SHOOTING 
237 
according to locality and different species of game. 
Nor does the grass ever grow long enough to enforce 
a natural close season as it does in British Central 
Africa, Uganda, and other countries. Still, diminish¬ 
ing though the game undoubtedly is, it would probably 
stand in quite sufficient numbers for many years to 
come. There is one factor, however, which will end 
the present phase of big game shooting long before 
that period ; this is the settler, who in the next two 
or three years will have reclaimed and occupied the 
whole of the present and healthy part of the game 
country which is not otherwise specially reserved. 
Let us therefore look ahead and try to sum up what 
portion of this great sport is likely to be indefinitely 
preserved to us. In the first place, the settlers them¬ 
selves are likely to preserve a great deal of game. 
Not certainly, except in rare instances, the huge herds 
of zebra and hartebeeste which are responsible for 
nine-tenths of the damage and for ninety-nine-hun¬ 
dredths of the outcry against preservation of game; 
indeed this would be unreasonable to expect, but with 
the further exception of the rhinoceros and the large 
carnivora, distinctly undesirable residents on a farm, 
we may, I think, calculate on the preservation of all 
other species. The present farmers have, indeed, 
already shown a strong tendency this way, even to 
their own disadvantage, as witness the entire preserva¬ 
tion of hippo in Lake Naivasha, and of eland through¬ 
out the Rift Valley. Assuredly in the future we may 
look to the presence on many farms of eland, water- 
buck, wildebeeste, impalla, bushbuck, Thomson’s 
gazelle, reedbuck, etc., which will afford the owner and 
his guests both excellent sport and welcome change of 
food. Of course, from such pleasant anticipations our 
