14 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



infuriated wild animals, many of them ending 

 in the sportsman's death, others involving 

 escapes little short of miraculous. No one, 

 after reading these stories, is likely to plead for 

 the protection of lions and tigers, at any rate, 

 though there are, no doubt, people who hold it 

 wicked to kill a flea. 



Again, it must be borne in mind that those 

 who travel in the heart of a country like Africa, 

 even where sport is not the primary object of 

 their expedition, must provide meat for their 

 native followers as well as for themselves, and 

 the negro eats a deal of meat when on the 

 march. It would be ridiculous to forbid the 

 shooting of antelopes, or even ot an occasional 

 giraffe or hippopotamus, with so many mouths 

 to feed. It is easy for stay-at-home folk, with 

 a butcher's shop round the corner, to preach 

 such comfortable doctrine, but out in the wild 

 places life is measured by other standards than 

 those that suffice the complacent folk of cities. 



Last, but not least, there is the freedom of 

 sport. I am not going to insist, in the thrilling 

 language of a florid prospectus recently issued 

 with a sporting work of reference, that "our 

 national games make national heroes," for I 



