12 THE PLEISTOCENE AGE [ch. i 



intellectual level of those well-meaning persons who 

 apparently think that all shooting is wrong, and that 

 man could continue to exist if all wild animals were 

 allowed to increase unchecked. There must be recog- 

 nition of the fact that almost any wild animal of the 

 defenceless type, if its multiplication were unchecked, 

 while its natural enemies — the dangerous carnivores — 

 were killed, would by its simple increase crowd man off 

 the planet ; and of the further fact that, far short of 

 such increase, a time speedily comes when the existence 

 of too much game is incompatible with the interests, or, 

 indeed, the existence, of the cultivator. As in most 

 other matters, it is only the happy mean which is healthy 

 and rational. There should be certain sanctuaries and 

 nurseries where game can live and breed absolutely 

 unmolested ; and elsewhere the laws should, so far as 

 possible, provide for the continued existence of the game 

 in sufficient numbers to allow a reasonable amount of 

 hunting on fair terms to any hardy and vigorous man 

 fond of the sport, and yet not in sufficient numbers to 

 jeopardize the interests of the actual settler, the tiller of 

 the soil, the man whose well-being should be the prime 

 object to be kept in mind by every statesman. Game 

 butchery is as objectionable as any other form of wanton 

 cruelty or barbarity ; but to protest against all hunting 

 of game is a sign of softness of head, not of soundness 

 of heart. 



In the creation of the great game reserve through 

 which the Uganda Railway runs the British Govern- 

 ment has conferred a boon upon mankind, and no less 

 in the enactment and enforcement of the game laws in 

 the African provinces generally. Of course, experience 

 will show where, from time to time, there must be 

 changes. In Uganda proper buffaloes and hippos 



