THROUGH THE PLEISTOCENE 11 



tracts of wild nature, with thereon the wild things the de- 

 struction of which means the destruction of half the charm 

 of wild nature. The English Government has made a large 

 game reserve of much of the region on the way to Nairobi, 

 stretching far to the south, and one mile to the north, of the 

 track. The reserve swarms with game; it would be of little 

 value except as a reserve; and the attraction it now offers 

 to travellers renders it an asset of real consequence to the 

 whole colony. The wise people of Maine, in our own 

 country, have discovered that intelligent game preservation, 

 carried out in good faith, and in a spirit of common sense as 

 far removed from mushy sentimentality as from brutality, 

 results in adding one more to the State's natural resources 

 of value; and in consequence there are more moose and 

 deer in Maine to-day than there were forty years ago; there 

 is a better chance for every man in Maine, rich or poor, pro- 

 vided that he is not a game butcher, to enjoy his share of 

 good hunting; and the number of sportsmen and tourists 

 attracted to the State adds very appreciably to the means 

 of livelihood of the citizen. Game reserves should not be 

 established where they are detrimental to the interests of 

 large bodies of settlers, nor yet should they be nominally 

 established in regions so remote that the only men really 

 interfered with are those who respect the law, while a pre- 

 mium is thereby put on the activity of the unscrupulous 

 persons who are eager to break it. Similarly, game laws 

 should be drawn primarily in the interest of the whole peo- 

 ple, keeping steadily in mind certain facts that ought to 

 be self-evident to every one above the intellectual level of 

 those well-meaning persons who apparently think that 

 all shooting is wrong and that man could continue to exist 



