302 
ON SAFARI 
I began by saying that tbeir apparent abundance 
was in the nature of a menace to big game. So it is; 
for they cannot exist in face of excessive shooting. All 
experience the world over clinches that fact. Compare 
the physical conditions of large game with small. The 
latter, with their large broods and early maturity, 
increase by three- or four-fold each year; and of that 
increase the greater proportion is available for human 
use. Large animals, on the contrary, with their single 
young, or perhaps two at a birth, and their years of 
immaturity, increase but slowly ; while of that increase 
-at least two-thirds (in Africa) is needed for the support 
of lions, leopards and other carnivora. The proportion 
remaining for the use (or sport) of man is necessarily 
small. It certainly cannot exceed five per cent., and I 
would not myself estimate it at more than three per cent, 
per annum on the entire stock. A recognition of these 
facts by hunters and settlers would go far towards 
perpetuating the big game of British East Africa. If 
regarded merely as targets for rifle-practice, the game 
will go, and that soon. 
The future of the game depends largely on the 
settlers. Now most Britishers possess (more, at least, 
than any other race) imbued in their hearts the true 
spirit of a sportsman. Latent it may be, but true none 
the less, and I venture to ask them to accept from me 
this definition of a sportsman :—“ One who loves game 
ns though he were the father of it.” 
i 
