34 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch. ii 
The naturalists caught shrews and mice in their traps ; 
molerats with velvety fur, which burrowed like our 
pocket gophers; rats that lived in holes like those of 
our kangaroo rat ; and one mouse that was striped like 
our striped gopher. There were conies among the 
rocks on the hills ; they looked like squat, heavy wood¬ 
chucks, but their teeth were somewhat like those of a 
wee rhinoceros, and they had little hoof-like nails 
instead of claws. There were civets and wild-cats, and 
things like a small mongoose. But the most interesting 
mammal we saw was a brilliantly-coloured yellow and 
blue, or yellow and slate, bat, which we put up one day 
while beating through a ravine. It had been hanging 
from a mimosa twig, and it flew well in the strong sun¬ 
light, looking like some huge parti-coloured butterfly. 
It was a settled country, this in which we did our 
first hunting, and for this reason all the more interesting. 
The growth and development of East and Middle 
Africa are phenomena of such absorbing interest, that I 
was delighted at the chance to see the parts where settle¬ 
ment has already begun before plunging into the 
absolute wilderness. There was much to remind one of 
conditions in Montana and Wyoming thirty years ago ; 
the ranches planted down among the hills and on the 
plains still teeming with game, the spirit of daring 
adventure everywhere visible, the hope and the heart¬ 
breaking disappointment, the successes and the failures. 
But the problem offered by the natives bore no resem¬ 
blance to that once offered by the presence of our 
tribes of horse Indians, few in numbers and incredibly 
formidable in war. The natives of East Africa are 
numerous ; many of them are agricultural or pastoral 
peoples after their own fashion; and even the bravest 
of them, the warlike Masai, are in no way formidable 
