-* Zebras 



troops upon zebras is merely Utopian, still I should 

 like emphatically to uphold the opinion that experiments 

 ought to be undertaken in the direction of interbreeding 

 zebras with horses and donkeys in the hope of producing 

 useful domestic animals in the course of some generations. 

 But I believe that such an undertaking must be in the 



O 



hands of the State. I am a declared opponent to the 

 attempted development of the colonies by means of State 

 money, and much wish that private capital and private 

 enterprise would develop our colonies over the seas so 

 far as possible ; still, I believe that in zebra-breeding 

 lies a fruitful task for the State. 



It is a pity that we should have lost the faculty of 

 making useful domestic companions for ourselves out of the 

 rich stores of the animal world (such exceptions as canaries 

 and turkeys are hardly worth mentioning). While the 

 primeval races of w r ild horses on the high plains of Asia, 

 the Eqmis przevalskii, are rapidly approaching extinction, 

 we have in these zebras of East Africa an incalculable 

 supply of what might prove splendid substitutes ready to 

 our hand. The duty waxes imperious, I may well say, 

 for those in power to make the trial whether, after a certain 

 number of years, the zebra cannot be rendered suitable, in 

 the hands of man, to enter the ranks of domestic animals. 

 Only thus can it be preserved from entire destruction. 



Whether it be a race susceptible of development, or 

 whether, like many human races, it be calculated to resist 

 all outside influences, preferring to go under rather than 

 change, is a matter which will take the breeder many 

 decades of repeated trials to decide. Quite recently I 



