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.

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.