Introduction -* 



the soul of Major Powell Cotton, that, while the institu- 

 tion of the game-reserve rigidly excludes the cautious 

 European naturalist from the killing of one " protected " 

 bird or beast, in and out of that reserve African natives 

 or half-castes apparently pursue their game-destruction 

 unchecked. The reason of this is want of money to pay 

 for close supervision and gamekeeping. These African 

 Protectorates and Colonies, under no matter what flag, 

 are poor. They yield as yet a local revenue which leaves 

 a considerable gap when compared with their narrowest 

 expenditure. To maintain an efficient control over these 

 vast game-reserves needs the expenditure, not of a few 

 hundreds of pounds annually, but of a few thousands. Yet 

 this control over these future National Parks could be 

 maintained efficiently for a relatively small sum of money. 

 Will not the growth of education, the dawning aesthetic 

 sense amongst the governing authorities in Britain, France, 

 Germany, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Egypt, Spain, and 

 Liberia bring about the provision of sufficient funds to 

 preserve for the delight and wonderment of our descendants 

 the vestiges of the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene 

 fauna of Africa ? 



It may be said without exaggeration that only one 

 other such work of real African natural history, as that 

 in which Herr Schillings describes the wild life of Eastern 

 Equatorial Africa, has hitherto been presented to the 

 stay-at-home reader, and that is Mr. J. G. Millais' 

 Breath from the Veldt, The writer of this Introduction 

 subscribes with pleasure to the remarkable accuracy of 



xviii 



