NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



damage. The amount of damage specifically testi- 

 fied to before us is necessarily only a small proportion 

 of the total committed, but even that fraction must 

 run into thousands of pounds, and no compensation 

 has yet been obtained. 



" Assuming that it is imperative that means shall 

 be adopted for the future security and protection 

 of the inhabitants, their farms, their cattle and their 

 industry, the possible steps which can be taken resolve 

 themselves into either extermination of the entire 

 herd, or its reduction to such a number as v^ill on 

 the one hand be sufficient to ensure preservation, 

 and on the other hand not too large for confinement 

 within the Reserve. Your Committee may say at 

 once that mere reduction of numbers without con- 

 finement will, in its opinion, not be an adequate step, 

 and that suggestions put forward to remove the 

 Elephants to some other habitat, or to some artificial 

 place of confinement, or to domesticate them, appear 

 not to be feasible. 



" Your Committee is extremely averse to re- 

 commending extermination. The South African 

 Elephant, now apparently restricted to a small rem- 

 nant in the Knysna forests, and to those in the Addo 

 Bush, while not specifically distinct from the Central 

 African Elephant, does constitute a distinct variety, 

 the extinction of which would be a loss to the world. 

 The deliberate extermination of these Elephants 

 would, upon grounds of deeply-felt general sentiment, 

 and in the interests of science, be received by not 



270 



