Africa 271 



the bark off trees as well as destroy herbaceous vegetation 

 is, I beheve, the probable reason why so large a portion 

 of the shores of the Mediterranean basin are now desert. 



John Phillips met Major Hobley in London and thus 

 became interested in the Society for the Preservation of 

 the Fauna of the British Empire, feeling that some similar 

 organization should exist in the United States. He and 

 some of his friends established the American Committee 

 for International Wild Life Preservation. This committee 

 is active to this day, and has gathered together and pre- 

 pared much interesting information concerning the his- 

 tory and the causes which have caused the extinction of 

 so many forms of animal life. To know more in detail 

 concerning what had been done in South Africa and to 

 encourage the conservationists in that part of the world 

 we made a second trip there in 1936. We sailed from New 

 York to Gibraltar, spent about ten days motoring through 

 southern Spain, and then took the ship from Gibraltar to 

 Cape Town via Dakar. 



My wife and I are fond of visiting markets. I can close 

 my eyes and see again the brilliantly costumed Negresses 

 of Dakar, the Bugi fishermen at Macassar in the Celebes, 

 the fish market at Beira in Portuguese East Africa, and 

 heaven knows how many others. 



Once or twice, however, my conspicuous size has made 

 these visits amusing as well as interesting. I remember an 

 old woman in the market in Cienfuegos, which I have 

 visited hundreds of times, who said, "Look at the walking 

 ceiba." It was no compliment. The ceiba is that enormous 

 and ungainly tree with a leprous-looking bark — certainly 



