284 
THE GUASO NYERO 
[CH. XI 
havoc among the cattle, and in consequence decimated 
by starvation many of the cattle-owning tribes ; it killed 
many of the large bovine antelopes, and it wellnigh 
exterminated the buffalo. In many places the buffalo 
herds were absolutely wiped out, the species being 
utterly destroyed throughout great tracts of territory, 
notably in East Africa; in other places the few 
survivors did not represent the hundredth part of those 
that had died. For years the East African buffalo 
ceased to exist as a beast of the chase. But all the 
time it was slowly regaining the lost ground, and during 
the last decade its increase has been rapid. Unlike the 
slow-breeding elephant and rhinoceros, buffalo multiply 
apace, like domestic cattle, and in many places the 
herds have now become too numerous. Their rapid 
recovery from a calamity so terrific is interesting and 
instructive. 1 Doubtless for many years after man, in 
recognizably human form, appeared on this planet, he 
played but a small part in the destruction of big 
animals, compared to plague, to insect pests, and 
microbes, to drought, flood, earth upheaval, and change 
of temperature. But during the geological moment 
covering the few thousand years of recorded history 
man has been not merely the chief, but practically the 
sole, factor in the extermination of big mammals and 
birds. 
At and near Meru Boma we spent a fortnight hunt¬ 
ing elephant and rhinoceros, as described in the pre¬ 
ceding chapter. While camped by the boma, white¬ 
necked vulturine ravens and black-and-white crows 
came familiarly around the tents. A young eland bull, 
1 On our trip along the Guaso Nyero we heard that there had 
been a fresh outbreak of rinderpest among the buffalo. I hope it 
will not prove such a hideous disaster. 
