16 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
open woods a couple of hundred yards to the right of the 
train. Again, still closer, four waterbuck cows, their big 
ears thrown forward, stared at us without moving until 
we had passed. Hartebeests were everywhere; one herd 
was on the track, and when the engine whistled they bucked 
and sprang with ungainly agility and galloped clear of the 
danger. A long-tailed straw-colored monkey ran from one 
tree to another. Huge black ostriches appeared from 
time to time. Once a troop of impalla, close by the track, 
took fright; and as the beautiful creatures fled we saw now 
one and now another bound clear over the high bushes. A 
herd of zebra clattered across a cutting of the line not a 
hundred yards ahead of the train; the whistle hurried their 
progress, but only for a moment, and as we passed they 
were already turning round to gaze. The wild creatures 
were in their sanctuary, and they knew it. Some of the 
settlers have at times grumbled at this game reserve being 
kept of such size; but surely it is one of the most valuable 
possessions the country could have. The lack of water in 
parts, the prevalence in other parts of diseases harmful to 
both civilized man and domestic cattle, render this great 
tract of country the home of all homes for the creatures of 
the waste. The protection given these wild creatures is 
genuine, not nominal; they are preserved, not for the 
pleasure of the few, but for the good of all who choose to 
see this strange and attractive spectacle; and from this nur¬ 
sery and breeding-ground the overflow keeps up the stock 
of game in the adjacent land, to the benefit of the settler 
to whom the game gives fresh meat, and to the benefit of 
the whole country because of the attraction it furnishes to 
all who desire to visit a veritable happy hunting ground. 
