A ROYAL BEAST MUST BE ROYAL GAME 377 



and trophies, and by his very zeal will destroy his 

 future and better profit, and one of the real resources 

 of the country. The small Portuguese merchant 

 has now learnt the value of this trade in skins, 

 native hunters are everywhere collecting them, 

 and unless the Government steps in, the exter- 

 mination of Angolan game is assured. 



By forming game preserves or even giving it 

 protection through proper licences, animal life 

 would increase again, and the Boer will always 

 have his sport and a far greater profit from hiring 

 his transport wagons to the rich man who comes 

 shooting to Angola, than he could have obtained 

 by hunting himself. The country will gain 

 greatly, for this type of hunter, who has come 

 to shoot, may invest or settle and develop the 

 colony. There is one animal that I hope will be 

 saved by new game laws : the wonderful giant 

 sable of Angola. 



For many years the origin of a single sable 

 horn, 61 inches long, which hangs in the Florence 

 Museum, has been a puzzle to big-game hunters. 

 It is now probable that it was brought to Europe 

 in those far-off days when the Italian Missions 

 travelled and taught the way of the Cross in the 

 country. 



Easy to shoot, a prize to the needy hunter, 

 and largely if not entirely confined to a narrow 

 watershed between two deep rivers, a few herds of 

 the giant sable await certain extermination unless 

 shielded. Only such protection as is afforded to 

 royal game can, and should, save a beast which is 

 so truly royal. 



