^ The Preservation of African Game 



of a myth, is now at least regarded no longer as the 

 sole cause of the disappearance of the African fauna, 

 the guilt having- been brought home at last to the 

 chief — culprits the traders, pseudo-colonists, Boers, 

 Askaris, armed natives, and all the other pioneers of 

 civilisation. 



For many years a collector of natural-history speci- 

 mens, who went out quite unselfishly on behalf of German 

 museums and who spent ^5,000 in the colony, was 

 regarded as a very undesirable and unwelcome visitor. 

 Both in German and British East Africa the game was 

 reserved for other kinds of sportsmen. When caravans 

 reached the coast with a load of five hundred elephant- 

 tusks, these were " merchandise "; but if a private traveller 

 killed a few elephants he was a slaughterer of wild 

 animals ! 



From the very nature of the case it is impossible to 

 establish anything like complete control over the hunting 

 of big game, but it is a matter for much satisfaction that 

 the Governments have now taken the matter strenuously 

 in hand. 



How difficult it is always to settle the question as 

 to what constitutes " harmfulness " is shown in Ger- 

 many by the great dispute carried on in regard to the 

 utility of crows, in which the judgments of recognised 

 authorities are so absolutely at variance, while the matter 

 in dispute is probably one for the use of common 

 sense. 



One of the most notable provisions enacted by the 

 International Conference was that which forbade the 



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