October 4, 1900J 



NATURE 



551 



in the Conference have bound themselves to provide 

 similar^Reserves where they have not already done so, 

 and to maintain them as such with strictness, and much 

 depends upon the interpretation of that word. Now this 

 is just what we had not until recently done in the case of 

 the Kenia Reserve. 



One of the regulations provides "That public officers 

 may be specially authorised to kill, &c." in that Reserve. 

 Unfortunately the words " may be authorised " in this 

 regulation were interpreted by many of the Protectorate 

 and railway officers stationed at Nyrobe, Kikuyu and 

 elsewhere as " are authorised," and thus as making them 

 free of the Reserve. This laxity of interpretation had a 

 tendency to spread, and large quantities of game were at 

 first killed there after the arrival of the railway. A 

 Reserve is no true Reserve which is subject to personal 

 exceptions, and in the circumstances which I have 

 detailed was a delusion and of little value. We may rest 

 assured that, now that this defect has been pointed out, 

 the Foreign Office will not be backward to remedy it ; 

 and even if it were not so, they are under an international 

 obligation to make the Reserve a reality. We may, there- 

 fore, confidently expect that the words I have quoted, 

 which admit of a serious leakage, will disappear. It 

 must not be thought that the officers to whom I have 

 referred are indifferent to the preservation of game. It is 

 in their interest, above all others, that these regulations 

 should be maintained, and I am confident that the good 

 sportsmen, of whom there are many among them, are 

 anxious to be protected against those who cannot be so 

 described. Nothing can be stronger than their repro- 

 bation of the worst transgressors, as, for instance, of a 

 gentleman wearing her Majesty's uniform, who, I was 

 told, killed approximately a score of wildebeest in a day, 

 and left them rotting on the ground. The author of this 

 disgusting butchery was brought to book, but he passed 

 into Uganda, and thus, sheltered by a technicality, 

 escaped the payment of the fine. It is to be hoped that 

 the long arm of the autocratic committee which governs 

 both territories will ultimately reach this glaring 

 offisnder. 



It remains to be considered in what respects the re- 

 commendations of the Convention will strengthen the 

 game laws in their present form. The principal recom- 

 mendations of the Conference may be summarised as 

 follows. A special and select list of animals are to be 

 absolutely protected at all times. Another schedule com- 

 prises the species which are to receive protection for 

 immature animals and breeding females. The sale of 

 tusks of elephants weighing less than eleven pounds is 

 forbidden, and finally each Power undertakes to establish 

 adequate Reserves and to protect them from encroach- 

 ment. It will be seen that these recommendations im- 

 pose upon them certain obligations, and we may thus 

 expect that the new regulations for the British territories 

 will include a schedule of animals as sacred from molesta- 

 tion as the bulls of Apis. The giraffe, eland and buffalo 

 are, at any rate, among those which are sure to enjoy 

 this royal distinction. It is a little difficult to see why 

 vultures, owls and rhinoceros birds, which are exceedingly 

 useful, but are not sought for food, should have been 

 added by the Conference to such a distinguished list. 

 The second list, of which the breeders and young are to 

 be protected, will doubtless include such animals as 

 rhinoceros, hippopotamus, waterbuck, sable, greater and 

 lesser koodoo. The importance of this will be seen when 

 it is remembered how slowly these larger animals breed. 

 Apart from these restrictions a limit will doubtless be 

 placed on the numbers of all the game animals allowed 

 to be killed under each license, a high limit being given 

 for the common species, and a nmch lower one, probably 

 not exceeding two specimens, for those in most danger 

 of disappearance. 



Infractions of this rule may be somewhat difficult to 



NO. 1614, VOL. 62] 



detect, but every licensee, at the expiry of his license, 

 should be required to furnish a return of what he has 

 killed. This would impose a certain restraint on thought- 

 less sportsmen, and when the returns are collated would 

 form a basis for a valuable tabulation of the numbers of 

 each species killed from year to year, and serve as an 

 indication of the increase or diminution of any species 

 in a given area. A small export duty on skins and horns 

 would be a useful assistance to such a return. 



The maintenance of Reserves is of the highest import- 

 ance for the preservation of the various species. In my 

 opinion, the position and boundaries of the Kenia 

 Reserve, which is perhaps the most important of all, 

 should be reconsidered. These boundaries were selected 

 because they happened to be the defined limits of a 

 Province, and not because they represented the real 

 needs of the game. A large portion of the area is 

 densely populated and cultivated. Another considerable 

 area is at a high elevation and covered with forest 

 which harbours some elephants ; but is of no use to the 

 great families of grass feeders, such as the zebras, the 

 numerous kinds of antelope and gazelle, the rhinoceros 

 and ostrich. The great bulk of these are confined to 

 the grass plains along the Athi River, and unfortunately 

 its left bank only is within the Reserve. This feeding 

 area is thus but a small fraction of the whole Reserve, 

 and is quite inadequate to feed the vast herds ; nor does 

 it, as a matter of fact, cover their frequent migrations 

 in search of fresh grazing, which extends to both sides 

 of the Athi, and southwards to the plains of Kilimanjaro. 

 The limited belt of grazing ground within the Reserve 

 has been still further curtailed by the location of the im- 

 portant railway centre of Nyrobe in the midst of it, 

 since the Reserve was constituted. This will necessarily 

 drive the game from that part of the protected plains. 

 It is therefore desirable that the boundaries of the 

 Reserve should be reconsidered by competent officers on 

 the spot, not forgetting the important assistance which 

 would be rendered by the railway in safeguarding and 

 watching it, provided it traverses it or skirts its boundary 

 on one side. 



Then as to the difficult question of elephants, difficult 

 because of the high money value of their tusks. • I am 

 personally opposed to the destruction of elephants at all, 

 on the ground that, valuable as they are for their ivory, 

 that will soon come to an end at the present rate of 

 destruction, and that they might be still more valuable as 

 weight-carriers. That is, perhaps, a counsel of per- 

 fection, but that they require some far more effective 

 protection is obvious to every one who has studied the 

 subject. Recently an Englishman sold in Mombasa the 

 produce of his trip in ivory for 8000/. The hundreds of 

 elephants necessary to produce this amount were, of 

 course, not in the main killed by his own rifle. Some of 

 the ivory may have been bought, but numbers of native 

 hunters were said to have been hired for this purpose 

 and attached to his staff, and were sent far and wide 

 over the country. Thus this caravan must have left a 

 broad trail of destruction for hundreds of miles. When 

 the wealthy and powerful set such an example, how can 

 the law be enforced against those who have the excuse of 

 poverty. It is to be hoped that the Foreign Office will 

 be able to devise means for the arrest of wholesale 

 destruction like this. Although the Convention has not 

 recommended it, is it too much to hope for the imposition 

 of an adequate export duty, uniform at all the ports of 

 exit, to whatever Power they may belong, and the total 

 prohibition of the export of cow ivory ? 



The question of bringing resident natives under the 

 prohibition which extend to Europeans requires to be 

 carefully weighed. In my opinion, it is neither possible 

 or just to stop their hunting so long as they are confined 

 to their primitive weapon, the poisoned arrow. From 

 time immemorial the destruction caused by the indigenous 



