With Fhishli-ht and Rifle ^ 



fencing- many kinds of deer, for instance, have been ex- 

 terminated in America. In Australia the kangaroos fall 

 victims to the snares of the farmers. In Asia the annihila- 

 tion of many kinds of wild beasts proceeds apace. The 

 Indian rhinoceros, wild goats, wild horses, and wild sheep 

 of the Asiatic hill countries of the interior are being 

 recklessly exterminated. In Germany the aurochs, which 

 figures so largely in our old legends, has long disappeared. 

 It is scarcely possible now to form a clear idea of this 

 splendid animal, so scanty is the material at hand tor 

 the purpose. The bison (Bison />o//ass//s), its power- 

 ful cousin, only exists now in small herds, which are 

 degenerating through breedini^-in. The steinbock has 

 been exterminated in the Alps, only a small number 

 surviving in the valleys of the Aosta, and that under 

 royal protection. The elk [A Ices a Ices) disappeared from 

 Germany long ago, and is now to be found only in 

 small numbers under royal jjrotection, like the bison, and 

 like the beaver also in the Elbe district. 



But the way in which wild lite is annihilated nowadays 

 in South Atrica is simply terrible. A short time ago 

 there were countless herds ot splendid animals in Cape 

 Colony. The Boers, trekking into the interior, had to 

 light their way step by step by slaughtering the animals 

 they found grazing in their path. 



Cixilisation l)rought aljout only the checking of the 

 growth ot the native races, not their extermination like 

 the American Indians. And the nalixcs applied them- 

 selves to the work of destroying tlu; wild lite with the 

 help of the arms brought in b}' the luiropeans, and on 



6 



