CHAPTER XXIX 
ANIMALS OF THE BACK BLOCKS 
We come finally to the category of those animals 
with which the ordinary settler, or farmer, but rarely 
comes into direct contact. He cannot fail, however, 
to hear of many of them from big game shooters and 
others, and it is not improbable that he may, either 
during leave or on some trading or cattle-buying 
expedition, have opportunities of obtaining a specimen 
of many of the more interesting species. On this 
account, therefore, a brief notice of the chief varieties 
is here appended. 
The Elephant formed at one time the main source 
from which the early pioneers could refill their defleted 
coffers. When most other more legitimate enterprises 
were experimental, the elephant was in a position to 
supply in person or through the teeth of his ancestors 
the sinews of war for such experiments. Until the 
advent of the railway and all that it stood for—such as 
game licences, fines and export duties—large herds of 
elephants containing many magnificent tuskers roamed 
through the forests and bush and over the plains of the 
Highlands and were plentiful round Nairobi and in the 
Ngong forest. Nowadays, the numbers are hardly if 
at all reduced, but the proportion of fine bulls has 
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