28 o 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CHAP. 
and seat of chairs, and when so prepared may be given 
with a sense of pleasure to ones best enemy on his 
marriage. Several attempts have been made and a 
good deal of money—most of it, luckily, German— 
expended with the object of breaking in zebra as 
beasts of burden. Such attempts have all ended in 
failure; chiefly owing to the lack of heart shown by 
the animal; the moment the work goes at all against 
the collar it is chucked. He is also savage as well as 
delicate in captivity. In German East Africa attempts 
have also been made to cross zebra with a stallion. 
The result, a zebroid, is a beautiful and more satis¬ 
factory animal, but the proceeding is hardly likely to 
prove a commercial success. Zebra are showing a 
marked and satisfactory decrease throughout the 
inhabited portions of the Highlands. 
Hippopotamus should be really included in this class, 
because while he provides nothing useful or sporting, he 
is absolutely ruinous to any cultivation. At the 
present moment there is very little European agri¬ 
cultural farming near his haunts, but as soon as that 
time comes the “hippo” in the vicinity will be given 
short shrift. He is, of course, no danger to stock 
farmers, and being a most interesting and inoffensive 
beast will be probably preserved in streams and lakes 
in their neighbourhood. Thus the farmers round 
Lake Naivasha preserve the species there, where he is 
a most peaceable inmate for the most part, though 
capable of having a disturbing influence on a boating 
party. The finest specimens are found in Lake Vic¬ 
toria or in the Tana, but most rivers or lakes of any 
size contain hippo in greater or smaller quantities. 
Among such, I recall the Naivasha, Nakuru and Rudolf 
