In Wildest Africa -^ 



I appeal once more to the authority of President 

 Roosevelt. He expresses the opinion that it is now not 

 so much the question of preserving great supplies of 

 any one species as of maintaining the primitive beauty 

 of the forest in its wild life. 



I think with pleasure ot my youth, when, at a time 

 when my father, in union with other game-preservers, 

 founded the fagdschutzvereiu (" Association for the Pro- 

 tection of Game") of the Rhine Province, I had the 

 opportunity of making myself acquainted with the old 

 state of things in this department. My native district. 

 the Eifel, still sheltered boars, eagle-owls, wild cats, and 

 many other rare animals living in wild freedom. The 

 ear of the boy learned to know and to love every cry 

 of our native fauna. Roosevelt rightly remarks that 

 many of the cries of American animals, such as the hoot 

 of the owl, are falsely described as unpleasant. He who 

 knows them well comes to love them, and would not 

 like to miss them from the treneral concert of animal 

 sounds. Here in Germany, too, we have evidence ot this 

 to a gradually increasing extent. 



The German sportsman ought to give a shining 

 example to those of other lands in this matter ot the 

 protection of all the dwellers in his hunting grounds. 

 To his care is entrusted the whole Cicnuaii fauna in its 

 widest extent. To secure the preser\'ation ot this splendid 

 work ot nature here in G(,'rman\ is an enterprise that 

 will earn the gratitude of every lover of nature, the 

 thanks ot millions of men. The (lerman sportsman, as 

 the chosen guardian and keeper of the wild lite of his 



194 



