308 NATUEE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



Turning to the eastward, in Mashonaland the same 

 insatiate destruction is rapidly exterminating the 

 great game. Hunters, diggers, prospectors, passing 

 travellers, natives, all are hard at work. Since the 

 advent of the pioneers in 1890 the fauna of that 

 almost virgin veldt have been terribly decimated. 



Eastward of Mashonaland, again, along the Pungwe 

 river and in other regions, which four or five years 

 since were to be found abounding in game, the same 

 devastation is going on. 



In short, it may be said that, notwithstanding 

 proclamations and attempted game laws, in these 

 remoter portions of the South African interior the 

 great game is disappearing day by day and hour by 

 hour, and apparently will soon be little less than a 

 mere reminiscence. 



It is true that stringent game laws have for some 

 time been proclaimed in Bechuanaland, the Pro- 

 tectorate, the Chartered Company's territories, the 

 Transvaal, Orange Free State, and even Mozambique. 

 The moderate measure of success attending the 

 efforts of preservation in Cape Colony may be cited 

 as proof of what may be done in other countries. 

 But even in the long-settled districts of Cape Colony, 

 where writs run and native gunners are controlled, 

 preservation has been found to be no easy matter. 

 Even there game laws are constantly evaded by Trek 

 Boers and others; and at the present time it is 



