President Roosevelt’s Plan. 
When he leaves the White House at the end 
of his second term as President, Mr. Roosevelt 
purposes to make a hunting trip to Africa for 
the purpose of killing some of the big game that 
still abounds there. 
With this plan in mind he is in correspondence 
with Mr. F. C. Selous, the celebrated African 
hunter, and with Mr. Edward North Buxton, a 
well known big-game hunter, and the author of 
that most delightful book, “Short Stalks.” 
Mr. Selous, who went to Africa in 1871, was 
a professional ivory hunter there for many years 
and knew the old hunting grounds of South 
Africa probably better than any other man. Mr. 
Buxton’s experience covers big-game hunting in 
many lands. It is expected that one of Mr. 
Roosevelt’s boys will accompany his father. 
In these days hunting in Africa is of course 
very different from what it was a generation 
ago. Then one started at the coast, and on 
foot or with slow ox teams wearily marched 
into the country, hunted and returned, being 
gone perhaps a year on the trip and being ex¬ 
posed to all sorts of perils and discomforts. 
Now the hunter can step on board a railroad 
train and be carried directly to the haunts of 
the big game, or at least so near them that a 
few days’ tramp will carry him into the country 
where game is abundant. With the modern 
game laws now in force in South Africa and 
East Africa, there is a wide reserved zone on 
both sides the railroad where no hunting is per¬ 
mitted, and traveling through that zone much of 
the game of old times may be seen from the 
window of the car in which one is riding. 
Among the species so to be seen are zebra, 
kongoni, water buck, eland, otsriches, hyena, 
wild pigs and many sorts of antelope. 
Elephants, lions, buffaloes and rhinoceros 
being the largest game and the most difficult to 
secure, naturally seem also the most desirable. 
But even now there is usually no great trouble 
about procuring these, though the limitations as 
to the number of animals to be killed makes the 
securing of good specimens much more difficult. 
To reach British East Africa, which is now 
the most accessible big-game hunting ground 
of Africa, takes a comparatively short time. 
About a week from America, nine days from 
England to Marseilles and eighteen days from 
Marseilles to Mombasa is all that is required, 
and this time can be somewhat cut down by 
going from England to Marseilles, Brindisi or 
Naples by rail. The single first class fare from 
England to Mombasa is about $250 and the re¬ 
turn ticket about $375. The shooting season is 
from May to February, which corresponds with 
the northern winter. From Mombasa to Lake 
Victoria Nyanza the journey is wholly by raff. 
Nairobi is the most important town between the 
coast and the lake. Its climate is dry. 
The license fee for this East African shoot¬ 
ing, which permits the killing of about 200 ani¬ 
mals, representing thirty-five or forty species of 
mammaH and birds, is £50, or $250. An extra 
fee of about $75 permits the killing of another 
bull elephant in addition to the two covered by 
the ordinary license, while an extra fee of £5 
permits the killing of a bull giraffe or an extra 
rhinoceros or bull eland. An additional fee of 
£2 permits the killing of two additional zebra 
or wildebeest or waterbuck. Lions and leopards, 
classed as vermin, may be killed without a license. 
It is sometimes stated that this East African 
country has been shot out, but this is by no 
means the fact. On the contrary, since the put¬ 
ting in force of the modern game laws, game 
has been increasing; lions are frequently seen 
from the train, and last season, 1907-08, there 
was killed one of the largest East African ele¬ 
phants ever recorded, carrying tusks that weighed 
124 pounds and 135 pounds. 
Letters recently received from hunters now in 
East Africa tell us of the herds of zebras “like 
slick ponies frisking and kicking up their heels,” 
of hartebeest in vast numbers, of bands of gnu, 
which at a distance look like buffalo, and gazelles 
and antelope of different sorts seen from the 
train. Curious among these antelope are the 
impala which bound in the most extraordinary 
manner, seeming to shoot up into the air and 
stay there, and to float along rather than to run. 
Again, in a day’s journey of seventeen miles, 
were seen eland, waterbuck, ostriches, wild pigs, 
steinbuck, reedbuck, ouribi and zebra. 
Travel through this country is chiefly on foot. 
Provisions and baggage are carried for the most 
part on the backs of native porters, although 
donkeys are employed to some extent. The 
natives employed on a safari or hunting ex¬ 
pedition are divided into a number of classes, 
such as head men, gun bearers, cooks and per¬ 
sonal servants, overseers and porters. The head¬ 
man manages the caravan; the duties of the 
others are expressed in their names. The por¬ 
ters are expected to carry loads of about 60 
pounds each. The amount and quality of the 
food and clothing, which must be supplied to 
them, is established by government regulation, 
but wages of course vary. Usually the gun 
bearer is paid about £5 a month, while the por¬ 
ter receives only $3 or $4 monthly. Within the 
past few years there has grown up a class of 
white men who speak the language and are 
familiar with the country, its people and its 
game, who sometimes accompany safari and re¬ 
lieve the hunter of much detail labor. 
To anyone who goes to Africa to hunt, the 
care of his heads, skins and other trophies is of 
course an important matter, and this is a subject 
which should be well looked up in advance. 
Wide differences of climate will be met with, 
and these changes necessitate constant attention 
to trophies, which must be protected from decay 
and from the attacks of insects. 
To make an African hunting trip with the 
maximum of success and a minimum of dis¬ 
comfort, requires much planning. Yet such trips 
are now so much easier than formerly that they 
are likely to grow in favor with Americans. If 
Mr. Roosevelt makes his trip he will give us the 
story of his adventures. 
The Vanishing Game. 
Philadelphia, Pa., June 29 .'—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Several years ago there was much 
discussion in the sporting papers about having 
the National Government pass and enforce laws 
for the protection of migratory birds like the 
wild ducks and geese and the beach birds. The 
protection of them by State laws is manifestly 
a failure. No State laws of this sort are en¬ 
forced. The system is a perfect farce, and in¬ 
numerable instances of this could be given. But 
if the National Government could take it up, the 
laws would be enforced uniformly all over the 
Union, in the West and South as well as on 
the Atlantic seaboard, and in five or ten years 
we would have an enormous increase of game. 
This sort of game has increased in recent years 
in northern Europe in spite of advancing civili¬ 
zation, and our game would have an even greater 
increase if we only had the wit to take care of it. 
I have always been of the opinion that noth¬ 
ing short of an amendment to the constitution 
would give Congress the power to protect the 
wildfowl. But Mr. Shiras introduced a bill in 
Congress giving the power and prepared a very 
interesting brief to show that it would be en¬ 
tirely constitutional without an amendment. I 
was delighted with this movement and hoped 
that the brief would prove to be correct. 1 
wrote last winter to the Bureau of Biological 
Survey at Washington to learn the fate of the 
bill and received the following reply from Dr. 
C. Hart Merriam, its chief: 
Your letter of the 25th is just at hand. The bill in¬ 
troduced by Mr. Shiras in regard to the protection of 
waterfowl never came out of committee. It was claimed 
to be unconstitutional, and nothing further has been 
heard of it. 
The conditions you describe as to the destruction of 
ducks along the coast are most deplorable. The only 
remedy appears to be the creation of an enlightened 
local sentiment, and this is extremely difficult. Existing 
local sentiment is said to be in favor of violation of the 
game laws. The members of sportsmen’s clubs and 
others interested can help by their influence, but there 
is no law by means of which the Government can inter¬ 
fere in matters of this kind—the execution of the laws 
being in the hands of the individual States, except 
when interstate shipment of game illegally killed sub¬ 
jects the offenders to prosecution under the Eacey Act. 
I write now to ask the sportsmen, naturalists 
and nature lovers of the country what we are 
to do. As it stands we are letting the wildfowl 
perish. They are doomed. The only thing that 
will be really effective is an amendment to the 
constitution giving the National Government 
power to protect them. That is of course a very 
difficult undertaking. The Republican party 
would have to be persuaded to put a plank to 
that effect in its platform and an immense 
amount of agitation and work would have to 
be done. The only other alternative is to create 
a monster organization composed of people from 
every part of the Union to bring pressure to 
bear on the individual States and teach them 
how to enforce their laws, and this seems about 
as difficult as the amendment. 
Sydney G. Fisher. 
