Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
General
Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)
Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
Game and game-birds; Hunting
It is supposed by a good many people that the tsétsé fly only exists
where game beasts, especially buffaloes, are most plentiful, and that
the fly disappears as the game is killed off or driven away. This
may be so in South Africa, but it is certainly not the case in East
Africa, as the belts of fly country in East Africa are almost devoid
of game, with the exception of the river Tana. As, however, the open,
undulating, grassy plains of the Masai country, and other places of a
like nature, are the headquarters of by far the greatest quantity and
variety of game, and are entirely free from the tsétsé fly, and as they
are also well adapted to hunting on horseback, the game would very soon
be exterminated if pursuit on horseback were permitted, and I trust
that when the game laws which will doubtless be drawn up for this,
probably the finest game country in the world, are drafted, a clause
will be introduced which will make the pursuit of game in this manner
altogether illegal.
My first trip to East Africa was undertaken in the years 1884 to 1887,
when that country was perhaps at its best with regard to the quantity
of game. Within the last few years, however, since the country has been
opened up, and the terrifying accounts of the dangers of entering the
Masai country have proved to be absurdly exaggerated, various sporting
expeditions have been undertaken, and large bags have been made. Some
of the game is certainly reduced in quantity, especially rhinoceroses,
owing to the ease with which these beasts can be stalked.
Buffaloes, too, have been almost destroyed by a kind of anthrax,
the same disease which carried off nearly all the native cattle in
1891. This disease, I am told, was fatal to other species of game,
including giraffe, eland, and lesser kudu, and even elephants; but as
my informants could not speak from personal knowledge, but only from
native reports, I am unable to vouch for their accuracy. However, game
is still to be found in enormous quantities--indeed few countries,
if any, can offer such a grand or varied field for sport. Within the
limits of British East Africa there are forty-seven species, including
no fewer than thirty-three species of antelopes and gazelles, which
come under the head of big game. In addition to big game there are
a great number and variety of game-birds, including ten species of
francolin, four species of guinea-fowl, four of florican, five of
sand-grouse, and two of quail, as well as enormous hosts of duck and
geese of various kinds on the lakes and large lagoons, together with
two species of snipe. All these add very considerably to the charm of
a shooting trip, and afford a pleasant change from the rifle to the
shot-gun, besides agreeably altering the monotonous menu of antelope
venison or tough rhinoceros or buffalo steak.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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