In Africa Part 29

These can be taken out for ten pounds each and ent.i.tle the holder to kill or capture:

Elephant with tusks over thirty pounds, each, 1; Bull Giraffe in certain districts, 1.

A second elephant is allowed on payment of a further fee of twenty pounds, this fee being returnable in the event of the elephant not being obtained.

Lions and leopards are cla.s.sed as vermin, and consequently no license to kill them is required.

The Season for Shooting

"Practically any time of the year will do for shooting in British East Africa, but the season of the 'big rains' from the end of January to the end of April, is not one to choose willingly from the point of view of comfort. There is also a short spell of rainy weather about October and November which, however, is not looked upon as an obstacle to a _safari_, and we may say that from May to February const.i.tutes the shooting season."

The foregoing is quoted from a pamphlet on East Africa game shooting. In our own experience the weather between September and February was perfectly delightful and I judge, from reading accounts of Colonel Roosevelt's trip, that his operations between April and December were never seriously hampered by bad weather. From the experiences of these two _safaris_, one might reasonably conclude that any time is good except February, March and April, the season of the "big rains."

Heat

On the Athi Plains in September, we found the heat in the middle of the day to be very ardent, to say the least. But with the exception of fewer than a dozen days in all, we never were obliged to consider this phase of the hunting experience as an objectionable feature. We found the cold of the high alt.i.tudes to be severe in the evenings and in contrast to it, the warm days were most welcome. Along the coast, of course, the heat is intense, but all of the shooting is done at alt.i.tudes exceeding thirty-five hundred feet and one merely pauses at the coast town long enough to catch his train. In September even Mombasa was delightful, but in January it was very hot.

In conclusion, I might say that all one needs for an African hunting trip is sufficient time, sufficient money, and a fair degree of health.

Also the services of a reliable outfitting firm which will furnish enlightenment upon all subjects not specifically included in the foregoing chapter of advice and information.

_With the exception of the photographs, all of which are here reproduced for the first time, a great part of this material appeared originally in The Chicago Tribune, and is now published in book form by the courtesy of that paper._