THE PASSING OF THE WILD 307 



"These are : 



"(i) Trade in ivory, skins, and horns (and, 

 in South Africa, in the dried meat known 

 as * biltong '), mainly supplied by white 

 hunters, professional or semi-profes- 

 sional, though natives armed with guns 

 are also constantly employed in some 

 parts. The extermination of big game 

 in the high veldt really dates from the 

 days when biltong, horns, and hides 

 acquired a value in the coast towns. The 

 Boer farmers would have taken another 

 half-century to extirpate the wild animals 

 if they had killed game only for their 

 own consumption. Professional hunting 

 is still in vogue on a large scale in 

 Portuguese territory, as well as in 

 German East Africa and the Belgian 

 possessions, and there is a section of 

 the settlers in British East Africa and 

 British Nyasaland that desires to see it 

 introduced. 



"(2) Natives equipped with firearms. Nearly 

 all the game in sections of Mozambique 

 and the Zambesi Co.'s territory has 

 been exterminated during the last twenty 

 years without European assistance. 

 Many of the natives are excellent shots. 

 What their firearms lack in quality 

 they make up in number, and the hunters 

 live on the spot. Save when engaged 

 by European traders, this hunting is 



