1894. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 331 



suggests that a great game park should be estabhshed in or near 

 Mashonaland, where 100,000 acres should be fenced in as a preserve. 

 The enforcement of game laws in unsettled districts he admits to be 

 impossible, while the regulations of the British South Africa Com- 

 pany show that it thinks those laws unjust. While prospectors, 

 explorers, and natives are continually killing for food, and while 

 cattle disease sweeps at intervals through a country, destroying every 

 animal of certain species within it, the toll levied by sportsmen is a 

 very unimportant factor in extermination. The sportsmen, too, as 

 Mr. Bryden admits, have done such good work as explorers and 

 pioneers, and have left among the natives so high a respect for 

 British pluck, truth, and fairness, that it is very ungrateful to blame 

 them. It is true that they may have helped in the extermination of 

 some species, but it is also true that, except for their efforts, many 

 species now exterminated by natives and settlers for skins or for the 

 pot would never have been known to science. 



Current African Exploration. 



After considering the past destruction of the game of the Cape, 

 it is natural to turn to the work of modern hunters in those parts of 

 Africa where great herds of game still survive. With the return of 

 winter the usual shooting excursions into Africa have started, or are 

 preparing to start. Somali-land is, as usual, the favourite district. Sir 

 Henry Tichborne and Mr. Seton-Karr have left for Berbera, whence 

 they march at once across the Hand to Milmil ; thence they hope 

 to make excursions southward and westward, and finally shoot 

 slowly back to the coast. Prince Boris, well-known from his daring 

 expedition to Mount Meru, which he was one of the first Europeans 

 to reach, is preparing to attempt a march from Berbera across the 

 Galla country to Lake Rudolph: his trip in the winter of 1892-3 

 with the Due d'Orleans across Somali-land into the northern 

 borders of the Galla country, will have served as a most useful 

 training. It is greatly to be hoped that he will reach his goal, for 

 knowledge of this country is the greatest desideratum in African 

 geography. The last effort in this direction has not been very 

 successful, if the native rumours are to be trusted ; for, according to 

 one of these, the expedition of Dr. Donaldson Smith, which left 

 Bulbar in July, has been refused permission to cross the Galla 

 frontier. Apparently Dr. Smith either did not feel strong enough to 

 use force, or did not think himself justified in doing so. We must 

 hope that the rumour is false, for it will be very disappointing, both 

 to Dr. Smith, his companion Mr. Gillett, and those at home in- 

 terested in African exploration, if his generous expenditure of time 

 and money fails to reap the reward it deserves. 



Mr. Greenfield, whose arm was so badly mangled by a wounded 



