158 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



a paradise into a mournful and lifeless waste. Unfortu- 

 nately, the settlers are often so short-sighted and improvi- 

 dent that they wish to go into this butchery, although their 

 own children would suffer from its effect more than would 

 any one else. The game laws are especially in their inter- 

 ests. I believe that in Africa this will more and more be 

 recognized as time goes on, just as it is now recognized in 

 various States in our country. In Maine, for instance, 

 there are more moose and deer than there were fifty years 

 ago; and, indeed, throughout New York and New England 

 the deer are far more plentiful than fifty years ago. This 

 is due to wise laws honestly enforced, and the citizens 

 living in the neighborhood are, in each case, the chief bene- 

 ficiaries. 



Game-preserving in Africa has been so well treated by 

 Major Stevenson Hamilton that it is needless to go into the 

 subject minutely. What he says of South Africa applies 

 just as well to game-preserving in East Africa. As we 

 have said, it must not be carried to the extent of interfering 

 with settlement; and in many places, as the lions are killed 

 off, it is necessary to permit the killing of large bags of the 

 common game animals, such as zebras and hartebeest, in 

 order to prevent their excessive and detrimental multiplica- 

 tion. Of course, where, as sometimes happens, elephants, 

 buffalo, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros have grown so nu- 

 merous and bold as to be a menace not only to the crops 

 but to the lives of the inhabitants, their numbers must be 

 thinned. But these are exceptions. Speaking generally, 

 the one need is to protect the game. The game laws in 

 British Africa have been most wise and their enforcement 

 most beneficial to everybody. It is, however, very unde- 



