I turn now to the big game of the country.
I know no more interesting and wonderful sight than that we often witnessed, and that may be to-day witnessed, on the Kajiado Plains, and in the neighbourhood of the Guaso Nyero valley. Not even the wonderful migration of the vast bands of caribou in the far Canadian North can surpass the sight of game one will see here in a day. In a single day’s march herd after herd of game may be passed feeding plainly in view in the open grass veldt—herds of wildebeeste, hartebeeste, zebra, and Grant’s gazelle, are the most plentiful; and small groups of Thomson’s gazelle, oryx antelope, giraffe, and ostrich. While in the Guaso Nyero valley it may be your good fortune to sight a large herd of buffalo.
Ostriches.
Eland antelope I only remember seeing in two localities—at Maktau on the frontier, and in the Rufiji valley.
Within German territory no such vast numbers of game were encountered: but that may have been because we did not again travel through open veldt of the same nature as contained the herds on the frontier. Most game, in German territory, were seen in the low-lying Mgeta and Rufiji valleys. At Tulo and Kissaki, some species of game were plentiful. At Tulo, reedbuck, waterbuck, mpala, and wart-hog were numerous, while a number of hippopotamus haunted the sluggish Mwuha River. At Kissaki, bushbuck, Harvey’s duiker, and wart-hog were the principal small game, while here, and out to the great Ruaha and Rufiji Rivers, the territory was renowned for elephant.
Elephant tracks, old and new, were everywhere in the neighbourhood of Kissaki, but animals were seldom seen, since they were very wary, and extraordinarily quick in scenting danger. If they detect human scent—which they will pick up a mile or more down-wind—they are at once alarmed and fast travel away from the danger, very often covering great distances before reassured that they have reached a zone of safety.
HIPPOPOTAMUS, RHINOCEROS
At the Rufiji River a remarkable number of hippopotamus were seen. North of Kibambawe village there is a chain of lakes no great distance apart, and I have passed one of those lakes, Lake Tágalala, when there have been scores of hippo, visible in the water. I should think the marsh-banked Rufiji River throughout its course teems with those strange, cumbersome, uncomely animals.
Rhinoceros were perhaps most plentiful on the frontier, and were often encountered when patrolling the thick bush, or bush-covered hill-country. During the many times I have met those animals at close quarters—and I have stumbled across as many as four separate animals in a single night when on particular reconnaissance—I have never known them to charge seriously when not wounded. I have experienced them rush straight on to the sound of a stick crackling underfoot, but, when they drew close and got my wind, they veered off instantly to one side, and escaped in the bush rapidly and fearfully. I remarked my experiences to Selous, for they were not what I had been led to expect, and he corroborated them by saying that he also had never seen one charge a man when unmolested.