Introduction -♦) 



the soul of Major Powell Cotton, that, while the institu- 

 tion of the game-reser\e rigidly excludes the cautious 

 European naturalist from the killing of one " protected " 

 bird or beast, in and out of that reserve At'riccUi natives 

 or half-castes apparently pursue their game-destruction 

 unchecked. 7 he reason ot this is want of money to pay 

 for close supervision and gamekeeping. These African 

 Protectorates and Colonies, under no matter what Bag, 

 are poor. They yield as yet a local revenue which leaves 

 ii considerable gap when compared with their narrowest 

 expenditure. To maintain an efficient control over these 

 vast game-reserves needs the expenditure, not of a few 

 hundreds of pounds annually, but of a few thousands. Yet 

 this control over these future National Parks could be 

 maintained efficiently for a relatively small sum of money. 

 Will not the growth of education, the dawning aesthetic 

 sense amongst the (>overninc{ authorities in Britain, France, 

 Germany, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, P^gypt, Spain, and 

 Liberia bring about the pro\ision ot sufficient funds to 

 preserve for the delight and wonderment of our descendants 

 the vestiges of the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene 

 faima of Alrica ? 



It may be said without exaggeration that only one 

 other such work of real African natural history, as that 

 in which Ilerr Schillings describes the wild lite ot h.astcrn 

 I^quatorial Atrica, has hitherto been prcs('nted to the 

 stay-at-home reatler, and that is Mr. ]. G. Millais' 

 Jh-ealk froDi the W'ldl. 'Phe writer ot this Introduction 

 subscribes with pleasure to the remarkable accuracy of 



X \' i i i 



