12 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



if all wild animals were allowed to increase unchecked. 

 There must be recognition of the fact that almost any wild 

 animal of the defenceless type, if its multiplication were 

 unchecked while its natural enemies, the dangerous carni- 

 vores, 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 else- 

 where 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 jeopard 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 Government has 

 conferred a boon upon mankind, and no less in the enact- 

 ment 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 throve so under protection as 

 to become sources of grave danger not only to the crops but 



