Cairo to Kisumu : $b Egypt—The Sudan—Kenya ColonyCarpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
History
Cairo to Kisumu : $b Egypt—The Sudan—Kenya Colony
Carpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Egypt -- Description and travel; Kenya -- Description and travel; Sudan -- Description and travel
There is such a great variety of game that there is no need of chasing
over the swamps or tramping about over the plains for days before one
gets a shot. One sees a dozen different kinds of beasts on the plains at
the same time, and can change his sport from day to day. The sportsman
will find antelopes almost everywhere and will not infrequently be in
sight of an ostrich or so. These birds are big game and are hunted
largely on ponies. They are very speedy, and, however it may be
elsewhere, here they do not poke their heads down in the sand and wait
for the hunter to come. On the other hand, they spread out their wings
and go off on the trot, swimming, as it were, over the ground. They can
run faster than a horse, but they actually run in large circles and the
hunters catch them by cutting across the arcs of the circles or running
around in smaller circles inside. It is a great thing here to shoot a
cock ostrich in order that you may give your sweetheart or wife the
beautiful white feathers from his wings.
And then there is the zebra! His black and white stripes shine out so
plainly in the brilliant sun that he is to be seen by the thousand on
the Athi plains, and not far from the railroad all the way from Voi to
Uganda—a distance greater than from New York to Pittsburgh. Had it not
been against the law, I could have picked off some with my revolver as
I rode through on the cars. The zebra is rather shyer when found far
from the railroad, but on the whole he is easy to kill. Away from the
game reservations on the railroad he will run like a deer, and as zebras
usually go in droves the excitement of following them over the plain is
intense. Zebra skins tanned with the hair on are fine trophies, and I am
told that zebra steak is excellent eating. The flesh tastes like beef
with a gamier flavour. The animals are so beautiful, however, and so much
like horses, that only a brute would kill them for sport.
In hunting elephants many a sportsman makes enough to pay a good share
of his African expenses. He can shoot only two bull elephants, but if
he gets good ones their four tusks may bring him fifteen hundred or two
thousand dollars. The African elephants have the largest tusks of their
kind. I have seen some which weighed one hundred and fifty pounds each,
and tusks have been taken which weigh up to two hundred pounds. African
ivory is the best and fetches the highest prices. It is difficult to get
the tusks out. The porters may be half a day chopping away the meat, and
it will take about four men to carry a tusk of the size I have mentioned.
There are men here who hunt elephants for their ivory, but most of the
licenses are issued to sportsmen, who care more for the honour of having
made a good shot than anything else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account