CH. xiv] GAME PUESERVATIOX 393 



through the nostrils. The long grass was traversed in 

 all directions by elephant trails, and there was much 

 fresh sign of tlie huge beasts — their dung, and the 

 wrecked trees on whicli they liad been feeding ; and 

 there was sign of buffalo also. In Middle Africa, thanks 

 to wise legislation, and to the very limited size of tlie 

 areas open to true settlement, tliere lias been no such 

 reckless, wliolesale slaughter of big game as that which 

 has brought the once wonderful big game fauna of 

 South Africa to the verge of extinction. In certain 

 small areas of Middle Africa, of course, it has gone ; 

 but as a whole it has not much diminished, some species 

 have actually increased, and none is in danger of im- 

 mediate extinction, unless it be the white rhinoceros. 

 During the last decade, for instance, the buffalo have 

 been recovering their lost ground throughout the I>ado, 

 Uganda, and British East Africa, having multiplied 

 many times over. During the same period, in the 

 same region, the elephant have not greatly diminished 

 in aggregate numbers, although the number of bulls 

 carrying big ivory has been very much reduced ; indeed, 

 the reproductive capacity of the herds has probably been 

 very little impaired, the energies of tlie hunters having 

 been almost exclusively directed to the killing of the 

 bulls with tusks weighing over thirty pounds apiece ; 

 and the really big tuskers, which are most eagerly 

 sought after, are almost always past their prime, and 

 no longer associate with the herd. 



But this does not apply to the great beast which was 

 the object of our comhig to the Lado, the square- 

 mouthed, or, as it is sometimes miscalled, the white, 

 rhinoceros. Africa is a huge continent, and many 

 species of the big mammals inhabiting it are spread 

 over a vast surface ; and some of them offer strange 



