-^ New Light on the Tragedy of Ci\ihsati()n 



We organise, at an extremely high cost, expeditions 

 to survey and explore far-off regions. We sink into the 

 greatest depths of the sea our cunningly devised trawl- 

 nets, and study with ceaseless diligence the smallest 

 organisms that they bring up into the light of day. W^e 

 consider the course of the stars, and calculate with precision 

 their remote orbits. We daily discover new secrets, and 

 have almost ceased to feel surprised at each day bringing 

 us something new, something yet unheard of. Much that 

 is thus done to secure the treasures of the past luight 

 equally well be done in coining years. Bnt much that zue 

 neglect to do can never again be made good, for we are 

 permitting the slaughter, up to the point of extinction, of 

 the most remarkable, the most interesting, and the least 

 known forms among the most highly organised of the 

 creatures that dwell with us on our earth ! 



An example that appeals to us with terrible force is 

 that of South Africa (taking the country in its widest 

 limits), a region now so largely peopled by Europeans. 

 There has been an almost complete disappearance of the 

 larger animals that once lived in their millions on its wide 

 plains. If one studies the trustworthy narratives of the 

 earlier explorers, one reads that, hardly a century ago, it 

 was not a rare sight to see in one day a hundred, or even 

 a hundred and fifty rhinoceroses, hundreds of elephants 

 that showed little fear of man, and countless antelopes ; 

 and one asks oneself, How can it be possible that all this 

 abundance of life has vanished in so short a time ? A 

 specimen of the "white" rhinoceros; which in those times 

 was still living in large numbers, is in our day worth a 



VOL. I 113 8 



