34 '■^^^'"' ^'^i<^^^"bers. ['..''■'h.lv 



behind our own valuable skins), in which case an Okapi might be one 

 of the results. But this is anticipating. There will be over 500 camels 

 ready when we get into the desert country from the heights of 

 Abyssinia, to the latter of which we shall avail ourselves of mule 

 transport from Harrar. This will be our actual starting point, the 

 latter being now made accessible by the railway line from Djibontil 

 up some 250 miles, within a two-days' journey." 



Big Bags of Game. 



The Kerang New Times, under date 7/6/04, gives two " record " 

 bags of Quails obtained on the Benjeroop (Murray) stubbles — a 

 party of four shooters in five hours securing 171 brace of birds, 

 and the second party (2 guns) obtaining 98 brace. A thoughtful 

 sportsman is satisfied with 10 brace of birds for his day's enjoy- 

 ment, or, say, an outside limit of 20 brace; but these ardent 

 Kerang shooters have each exceeded by one hundred per cent, 

 the latter number. Surely this is killing " the goose that lays 

 the golden egg." In the near future, in the interest of the 

 birds, as well as the shooters themselves, the law may step in, 

 as it does in America, to " limit " the number of bags. 



Since the above was written, the following clipping has been 

 taken from The Argus, 18/6/04: — "Three well-known sports- 

 men of the Western District — Messrs. De Little, Hood, and 

 .Affleck — left Murtoa on Friday with a bag of 1,003 Quail, the 

 result of three days' shooting." 



In connection with " big bags." attention may be called to 

 the follo\\ing passages from a lecture delivered last year by 

 Mr. E. North Buxton before the British Society of Arts. 

 They have a definite bearing on the subject ; — " While in 

 Vienna the other day I saw, at the taxidermist's, the bag of a 

 sportsman just returned from Somaliland. Amongst other 

 things were 70 heads of Soemmering Gazelle. What can any 

 man want with 70 specimens? But the remarkable thing about 

 them was that nearly the whole were females or immature 

 males. ... I am here to-night to try and focus and unite 

 the growing public sentiment in favour of the restriction of 

 that class of sportsman whose frenzy and ignorance have been 

 responsible for such terrible destruction." Once the fauna of 

 South Africa was the richest in the world ; for many years all 

 the region from the Cape of Good Hope to Orange River has 

 been denuded of game, much of Central Africa as well. Since 

 Lord Milner has been in power some reserves have been pro- 

 claimed ; but is it not a fact that it is almost an impossibilit}- 

 to get anything like the full number of species of bird or beast 

 back to a place where it has been ruthlessly slaughtered ? 

 According to Mr. Buxton, "every British protectorate in Africa 

 has now a series of ordinances for the protection of wild animals 

 and birds." Some of the larger species of game are altogether 



