With Flashlight land Rifle ^ 



of these beautiful animals. I succeeded with several young, 

 and especially with female, specimens, but never in pre- 

 serving the whole skin of a verv old bull undamaged. 



o ^ o 



The reason lies in the fact that it is an impossibility to 

 obtain vessels large enough to contain the skin, or to 

 take the necessary quantities of salt and alum into the 

 wilderness. 



I soon saw the uselessness of my efforts, and after 

 having spoilt three skins I left the old bulls undisturbed. 

 This was doubly hard, because I knew that soon it would 

 be too late ! No gold on earth would then be able to 

 re-create these rare creatures ! The female specimens to 

 be found in the museums of Stuttgart, Munich, Karlsruhe, 

 and other places, which live again under the hands of the 

 masterly taxidermist, show in a satisfactory manner that I 

 was successful at least in bringing them to Europe in 

 the best condition, thus retaining them for posterity. 



It is much to be deplored that competent men are 

 not subsidised to enable them to secure specimens of 

 some of the largest mammals. Perhaps it will not be 

 very long before large sums will be offered for single 

 specimens. Already a single egg of the Great Auk costs 

 more than ^300, and it is not so very long since this 

 bird died out. The prices of many other zoological 

 rarities are equally high. In the near future the skins 

 of giraffes now exhibited in the museums as rare objects 

 will be valued at the highest figure. But no money can 

 bring back to life a species that has died out. 



Mr. H. A. Bryden informs us that some ten years ago 

 certain native hunters in the service of European traders 



320 



