GAME PRESERVES 159 



sirable to establish merely nominal game reserves so far 

 distant from civilization that it is impossible to enforce 

 the law in them. It is always bad to have a law which 

 honest men and good sportsmen regard as binding, while it 

 offers no check to the game butcher and to unconscientious 

 men generally. Game reserves should be established only 

 where there is such opportunity of supervision over them 

 as to offer a reasonable guarantee of genuine protection. 

 Moreover, the natives should not be given European weap- 

 ons. These weapons do them no permanent good what- 

 ever, and simply put a premium on the ruthless slaughter 

 of all forms of animal life, especially of the females and 

 young. 



We wish to insist upon one point, which is, that the day 

 of the mere collector, if not past, has, at least, become of 

 much less relative importance than formerly. On the whole, 

 better work can now be done with the camera than with the 

 rifle. Better work still can be done by the competent and 

 patient observer who studies the life-histories of the great 

 and strange creatures of the wilderness. The joy of hunting 

 is entirely legitimate, and we sympathize warmly with the 

 man who kills dangerous game or by fair chase gets a 

 trophy worth having. Yet, after all, the exact size of 

 this trophy is a matter of unimportant personal vanity. 

 Whether a good pair of waterbuck or koodoo or oryx horns 

 measures half an inch more or less than a similar pair shot 

 by somebody else is supremely unimportant, whereas a bit 

 of first-hand observation concerning the life-history of any 

 species of big game is very important indeed. We sympa- 

 thize with and admire the big-game hunter, but the time 

 has passed when he can be taken very seriously if he is 



