Related article: public money, and sorrowfully
refused the outlay. The authorities
then found themselves confronted
with the inevitable question : —
Shall we sacrifice these planters,
payers of taxes, employers of
labour, pioneers of civilisation
and commerce, or must we sacri-
fice our cherished hippopotami,
the last living relics o\ the times
that have been ? There could be
but one answer, and early in 1898
the herd was exterminated.
The Cyclogyl 1 sad case of the Natal
hippos shows the difficulty of
developing a new country and of
preserving its distinctive fauna at
one and the same time. The latter
must give way, and the only
feasible method of contenting the
claims of zoology is by maintain-
ing representatives of the species
in large captivity. How long a
sp)ecies like the hippo or rhinoceros
might endure under such condi-
tions it is hard to suggest : the
numbers must necessarily be re-
stricted, and we know that when
a species is reduced below a cer-
tain numerical strength extinction
follows in obedience to the work-
ings of a natural law. Neverthe-
less the evil day may be postponed
by the timely establishment of
game parks, reserves or sanctu-
aries, as you please to call them,
on a large scale in judiciously
chosen districts. That the areas
for reservation must be selected
with peculiar care will be apparent
from the number and variety of
species it may be considered de-
sirable to protect. This is the
list of game included in Schedule
II. of the British Central African
Game Regulations ; the first four
species may be shot only by the
holder of the £1^ licence ; for the
others a £}, licence only is required.
Elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, gnu or
wildebeest, zebra, wart-hog, bush -pig and
buflfdlo ; antelope : — eland, koodoo, sita-
tunga, inyala, bush-buck, duiker, oribi,
Sharpe*s antelope, kleipspringer, reed buck,
pookoo, Senga pookoo, lech we, Craw-
shay's cobu*, waterbuck, impila, harte-
beesi, tscuc!>e, sable and roan antelope.
Major Gibbon's scheme, con-
templating a fenced park, did not
touch such heavy game as ele-
phant, rhino and buffalo ; his list
of antelope numbered thirty-one
species, including all of those in
the foregoing list which are found
south of the Zambesi.
Assuming, therefore, that a re-
serve in any part of the Continent Cyclogyl Price
must provide suitable quarters for
between twenty and thirty species
of game, many of them differing
widely from others in their way of
life and choice of habitat, it will
be admitted that the ideal tract
required as a sanctuary is not to
be found everywhere. It must
embrace every variety of country
from stone kopje to marsh-land ;
meadow, bush, park, heavy jungle
and hill and vale. The essentials
are only to be found by chance
within an area of reasonable
dimansions, and where found must
be appropriated at once with the
natural stock of game. The de-
marcation of such proclaimed
reserves would be a simple matter
so far as law-abiding European
sportsmen are concerned : small
boundary pillars placed at inter-
vals would suffice to warn these,
but the enterprise of less reputable
white hunters and natives Cyclogyl Eye Drops could
only be checked by the attach-
ment of a staff of native boundary
riders whose business would be to
keep trespassers out and game, as
far as might be, in. Where the
chosen sanctuary were furnished
with natural boundaries in the
shape of streams — Buy Cyclogyl like ** the Ele-
phant Marsh " in British Central
Africa, which lies in the fork of
268
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
[Ap|riL
Shire and its confluent the Ruo
river — the work of guarding the
game would be immensely simpli-
fied. In less favoured sanctuaries
it might be found advantageous
to create all round the reserve
proper a ** neutral belt '* of per-
haps three miles in width, whereon
neither shooting nor cultivation
should be permitted. In the
absence of fencing, which is
impossible on the score of expense,
and not wholly desirable as calcu-
lated to keep out welcome refugees
from persecution, this neutral zone
would serve a valuable purpose in
keeping zoological and agricul-
tural interests literally apart. It
will be many generations ere the
value of land in regions where
game is now plentiful reaches a
level which would render the
liberal allotment of lands for this
purpose a matter for consideration
from the economic standpoint,
and it would be well to establish
the Reserves while the needful
space may be had for the taking.
What the International Confer-
ence would have to do were the
Reserve system adopted is to
agree concerning the species to be
preserved in various localities, and
to agree that any Reserve, by
whatever Power created, is to be
respected by the subjects of all.
That the Game Park system
answers its purpose of preserving
from extinction animals that would
otherwise have perished from the
face of the earth, we have abun-
dant proof in the United States.
In the Yellowstone Park, Wyom-
ing, we have a splendid example
of the game preserve on a gigantic
scale. True, the administration
of the Park is not perfect, and
every Fall sees poachers at work
among the bison still to be found
there ; but as a game reserve, the
tract so wisely set aside by the
States Legislature is admirably
chosen, affording lands of every
description required by the ani-
mals inhabiting it. In a valley in
Western Montana, the late Mr.
Charles Allard, in 1879, located a
herd of bison, now said to number
250 individuals, and, therefore,
the largest in existence. This
herd serves our purpose as' an
illustration of the comparatively
restricted unfenced park. The
spot was evidently well selected,
for the herd has now been in
existence for twenty years, and
there appears to be no difficulty
in keeping the bison within the
desired limits. In New Hamp-
shire, Mr. Austin Corbin, some
years ago, established a park of
26,000 acres, which he fenced
with barbed wire, and stocked
with bison, moose, and other
game. This park has been in
existence, we believe, for some
ten years, and in this area — small
by comparison with the tracts
desirable for preservation in
Africa — the several species con-
fined breed freely and thrive.
If it were possible to achieve
the end desired by regulations
limiting the number of head any
traveller or sportsman might kill
in a specified time, that unques-
tionably would be the simplest
method of saving the threatened
species of African game from
extermination ; but he were san-
guine who believed that fear of
fine would stay pressure of finger
on trigger when a good trophy
offered, or when followers clam-