-* Rhinoceros-hunting 



But on this occasion the precaution proves needless. The 

 bullet has done its work, and I become the possessor of 

 two very fair specimens of rhinoceros horns. 



It was scarcely to be imagined that in the course of 

 this same day I was to get within ran^e of eight more 



J <J O Cj 



rhinoceroses. It is hard to realise what numbers of them 

 there are in these mountainous regions. It is a puzzle 

 to me that this fact has not been proclaimed abroad in 

 sporting books and become known to everybody. But 

 then, what did we know, until a few years ago, of the 

 existence of the okapi in Central Africa ? How much 

 do we know even now of its numbers ? For that matter, 

 who can tell us anything definite as to the quantities 

 of walruses in the north, or the numbers of yaks in the 

 Thibetan uplands, or of elks and of bears in the impene- 

 trable Alaskan woods ? 



It seems to be the fate of the larger animals to be 

 exterminated by traders who do not give away their 

 knowledge of the resources of the hunting regions which 

 they exploit. English and American authors, among them 

 so high an authority as President Roosevelt, bear me 

 out in this. 1 remember reading as a boy of a traveller, 

 a fur-trader, who happened to hear ot certain remote 

 northern islands well stocked with the wild life he wanted. 

 He kept the information to himself, and made a fortune 

 out of the game he bagged ; but when he quitted the 

 islands their entire fauna had been wiped out. The same 

 thing is now happening in Africa. Our only clue to the 

 extent of the slaughtering of elephants now being carried 

 on is furnished by the immense quantities ot ivory that 



453 



