124 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



more nor less than a civilised kind of refined cruelty, 

 and I hope the day is not far distant when all zoological 

 gardens and parks will have to be abandoned by an Act 

 of Parliament. Doubtless there are many who will not 

 agree with the last sentence, but I let it stand, for I know 

 that many sportsmen consider the imprisonment of wild 

 creatures a species of slow torture, and a pandering to the 

 noxious taste of crowds of the lower population of Euro- 

 pean countries. I have seldom met an intelligent and 

 humane-minded man who did not deplore the shutting up 

 of wild animal life in cages, and, when we consider the 

 roving instincts of man alone, we can have some slight 

 idea of the misery of such animals' lives, accustomed, as 

 they are, to an unlimited freedom in their own countries. 



The young which happen to be born in confinement 

 doubtless also feel the constraint to some extent, for one 

 cannot expect that the longing for liberty will leave such 

 creatures in one or two generations. 



Only a few species breed freely when in confinement, 

 and the young are generally weak and feeble compared to 

 pure wild stock of the same species which are born in their 

 natural haunts. But enough of this subject for the present, 

 for the writings of a single individual will never have an 

 effect in the discontinuance of such refined cruelty by 

 people who ought to know better. In its wild state game 

 known as dangerous very seldom harms man unless it is 

 interfered with or wounded, and certainly no man can 

 object to any wounded beast trying to avenge its injuries 

 on the person who inflicted them, and there would be little 

 interest in big-game shooting if there were no chance of a 

 " scrap " with an animal occasionally. There is really 

 nothing very difficult in shooting harmless game ; although 

 the discomforts and hard work this may entail may be as 

 great as the work necessary to find a lion or buffalo. 



With regard to hard work, elephant hunting comes 

 under a separate category, as no sport in the world will 

 take more out of a man ; especially if it be undertaken 

 in October or November, just before the rains, when the 



