WITH THE BIG-GAME HUNTERS
Kenya Colony is in the land of big game, and Nairobi is the chief place
where parties are fitted out for hunting. As I write this chapter several
large parties are here preparing to go out “on safari,” as such hunts are
called. The Norfolk Hotel is filled with hunters and behind it are scores
of black, half-naked porters and tent boys, packing sporting goods into
boxes, laying in provisions and arranging things for the march. There
are headmen rounding up the porters and giving each his load. There are
gunbearers seeing to the arms and ammunition, and there are the sportsmen
themselves, some clad all in khaki, some wearing riding breeches and
leggings, and all in thick helmets.
First in the normal personnel of a _safari_ comes the headman, who is
supposed to be in full charge, except for the gunbearers and tent boy,
who are personal servants and under the immediate direction of their
masters. The _askaris_ are armed soldiers to guard the camp at night and
look after the porters on the route. There is one _askari_ to every ten
or twenty porters. The cook has a staff of assistants. Each sportsman’s
tent boy must look after his tent and clothing and serve him at meals.
The _syces_, or pony boys, look after the horses and equipment.
In the big yard upon which my hotel rooms look I can see piles of tusks,
heads, horns, and skins brought in by parties which have just returned,
and in one corner is the baby lion whose roars have pestered my sleep.
Among the hunters are several eminent and titled English men and women,
some of the latter having come out to try a shot at a lion or so. During
this last year two women have shot lions here, and one of the biggest
man-eaters ever killed in East Africa came down through a bullet from a
gun in the hands of an American girl.
There is so much game that almost any one who goes out can bring back
something. Last year’s bag, numbering many thousand head, was shot
by sportsmen from England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, India,
Australia, North America, and New Zealand. We have all read the stories
of Theodore Roosevelt who shot lions and elephants here and in Uganda,
and we know that British East Africa has supplied the Chicago Museum and
the National Museum at Washington with some of their finest zoölogical
specimens.
The hunting laws here are rigid. No one can shoot without a license,
and the man who kills young elephants, cow elephants, or baby giraffes
will pay a big fine and spend a long term in jail. Shooting big game is
regulated by license.
The sportsman’s license, with certain restrictions, gives the right
to shoot or capture two bull buffaloes, four lions, one rhinoceros,
two hippopotami, ten Colobi monkeys, four marabout, and a limited and
specified number of other game, such as antelope, bongos, reedbucks,
and cheetahs. A special license costing a hundred and fifty rupees,
about fifty dollars, is required for one elephant, while the privilege
of killing two elephants costs three times as much. Only two elephants
are allowed every year. It costs fifty dollars to get a permit to
kill or capture a giraffe and the hunter is allowed only one a year. A
traveller’s license, available for a month, costs five dollars and gives
the right to kill or capture four zebra and not over five antelopes out
of eight named varieties. Animals killed on private land on either the
traveller’s or sportsman’s license do not count in the total authorized.
A register must be kept of all kills or captures under license. As for
leopards and crocodiles, no permit is required to shoot them.
[Illustration: “Some of the zebras are within pistol shot of my train.
Their black and white stripes shine in the sunlight. They raise their
heads as the train passes, then continue their grazing.”]
[Illustration: While game is abundant it is also protected by rigid laws.
Every hunter must have a license and none may shoot more than four lions.
A special license is required to kill the maximum of two elephants a
year.]
[Illustration: Sportsmen of a dozen different nationalities come here
every year to hunt the giraffes and all sorts of other big game, which
is so plentiful that almost any one can get something. Women are often
included in the hunting parties.]
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.
One of the best places to shoot an elephant is through the eye or halfway
between the ear and the eye. Another good shot is just back of the flap
of the ear, and a third is in a place on one side of the tail so that
the ball will run along the spine and enter the lungs. Large bullets and
heavy guns are used. When the animal is close it is exceedingly dangerous
to shoot and not kill. When injured the elephant is very revengeful. He
will throw his trunk into the air, scream, hiss, and snort and rush after
the hunter, knocking him down with a blow of his trunk and charging upon
him with his great tusks. If the man falls, the huge beast is liable to
kneel upon him and mash him to a jelly.
One of the difficulties of hunting elephants is the fact that it is not
easy to distinguish them in the woods, as they are of much the same
colour as the trees. A traveller here tells me that he once almost walked
into a big elephant while going through the forest. He was stooping down
and looking straight before him when he saw the beast’s legs and took
them for tree trunks.
The average elephants of this region can easily make six miles an hour
while on the march. They usually travel in herds, young and old moving
along together. Notwithstanding their enormous weight, the animals can
swim well, and can cross the largest rivers without any trouble.
Most of those which used to overrun these plains have been driven
away and must now be hunted in the woods; but there are plenty in the
forests between here and Uganda, and about the slopes of Mt. Kenya and
Mt. Kilimanjaro. There are also many in the south near the Zambezi, and
west of Lake Tanganyika, in the forests along the Congo. Some years ago
they were being killed off at such a rapid rate, and the ivory output
was decreasing so fast, that strict rules for their preservation were
inaugurated and are being enforced.
As for hippos and rhinos, there are plenty of them still left along the
streams and about the great lakes of the tropical parts of the continent.
There are rhinoceroses almost everywhere in the woods between Nairobi
and Uganda. I have seen a number of hippos, and were I a hunter, which
I am not, I could, I venture to say, bag enough of their hides to make
riding whips for all the hunt clubs of Virginia. The settlers tell me
the animals come in and root up their gardens, and that it is almost
impossible to fence against them.
Both rhinos and hippos are hard to kill. Each has a skin about half an
inch thick, and there are only a few places upon them where a ball will
go through. Hippos can be hunted in boats on the lakes, but they swim
rapidly and dive deep, remaining under the surface a long time. They
move along through the water, showing only their ears and nose. They are
so wary that it is difficult to get a shot at just the right place. One
of the best points at which to aim is under the eye or back of the head
between the ears. These animals are sometimes harpooned, but such hunting
is dangerous, as they are liable to crush one’s boat.
The rhinos also have to be approached very carefully. They have a keen
sense of smell, although they cannot see to any great distance and their
hearing is not good. They are usually hunted on foot, and one must be
careful to get on the windward side of them. A rhinoceros does not
hesitate to charge an enemy. He uses the great horn on his nose, which is
a terrible weapon, and enables him to kill a horse at one blow. Most of
these beasts are black, but now and then a white one is found. I met a
man the other day who claimed to have killed a white rhinoceros.
Since I have been in Africa I have received a number of letters from
American sportsmen asking the cost of shooting big game in this part of
the world. The question is hard to answer. It depends on the man and to
some extent on the bargains he makes. There are business firms in Nairobi
and in Mombasa which specialize in outfitting hunting parties, making
all arrangements for guides, food, and porters somewhat as Cook does for
tourists. The prices, in such cases, depend upon the length and character
of the tour and the size of the party. There is a young American here now
whose mother calls him “Dodo,” who paid five hundred dollars for a three
days’ hunt after leopards, and this did not necessitate a permit, as
they are on the free list. The young man tramped about with his porters
through the tall grass, and was given a shot or so at two leopards, both
of which he missed. Had he tried for big game it would have cost him at
the least two hundred and fifty dollars more.
On a long hunt the expenses of all kinds can be considerably reduced,
and I should think that forty dollars a day for each sportsman in the
party would be a fair estimate. I am told that a man can be fitted out
with porters, gunbearers and personal servants for two hundred and fifty
dollars a month. One can get a good cook for from five to eight dollars a
month, a gunbearer for about ten dollars, and a personal servant for from
eight to ten dollars.
The question of provisions for the trip depends much upon the tastes of
the individual sportsman. There are native villages almost everywhere
at which some fresh food can be bought at cheap rates. Chickens are
plentiful at eight cents a pound and meats cost the same. In the streams
and lakes there are fish; the guns of the party ought to supply plenty of
game; and one need never suffer for the want of antelope or zebra steak.
Other food should be packed up in boxes of sixty pounds each; and in
case the outfit is prepared at Nairobi, each box will have sufficient
for one man’s requirements for one week. Most of the stuff is in tins,
and usually includes plenty of Chicago canned beef, Canadian bacon, and
London biscuits, jams, and marmalades. Such boxes are labelled with
numbers, No. 1 containing the first week’s supply, No. 2 the second
week’s, and so on. Each box weighs just sixty pounds, as no more than
that can be carried on the head of one porter.
I would advise the American sportsman who intends coming out here to
shoot, to stop off on the way in England for most of his supplies.
Several London firms make a specialty of outfitting for African travel
and for hunting expeditions. One should have double-roofed tents, the
square tents being the best. It will be well to bring a mackintosh or
rubber blanket, one foot wider all around than the floor of the tent, for
many of the camps may be soggy and marshy. One should also have a folding
bedstead, a cork bed, and warm blankets. A folding chair and table will
not be found amiss.