THE PRESERVATION OP GAME. Hg 



preservation, and furthermore if we were to have the former anxious to conform to a 

 stringent code of sporting rules, failing the observation of which he would be con- 

 sidered not a sportsman, but a poacher, we would then have gone a long way in the 

 right direction. The main essence of this code of sporting rules ought to be the 

 same in all countries, but for the actual preservation of different species special rules 

 should, of course, be drafted for different countries. 



Such special rules or game regulations, I am glad to say, are already in force in 

 most countries, and in British East Africa a very wise set has been framed. They 

 chiefly concern game reserves and licences. 



As to game reserves, there is the Southern Reserve and the Northern Reserve 

 (including the Sogota Reserve). The Southern Reserve contains the following 

 game : — Rhino, hippo, giraffe, buffalo, eland, oryx (fringe-eared), gnu, lesser kudu, 

 bushbuck, roan, waterbuck (common), hartebeest (Coke's), gazelles (Grant's, Peter's, 

 Waller's, Thomson's), reedbuck (Chanler's), oribi (Haggard's), impala, duiker, 

 klipspringer, steinbuck, dikdik, lion, leopard, cheetah, zebra (Chapman's). 



The Northern Reserve contains many of the above, and also elephant, oryx 

 (Beisa), gazelles (Grant's northern form, Soemering's, and Waller's), greater kudu, 

 waterbuck (Sing-sing), oribi (Abyssinian), reedbuck (Bohor), topi, zebra (Grevy's). 



Although the Northern Reserve has never been more than a reserve in name, but 

 too often a happy hunting-ground for Somalis, Baluchis, Abyssinians, and all manner 

 of straying peoples, it was thought that the move of making this country a reserve 

 was good and sound. Although this country was not occupied by us, and the 

 idea of a reserve was by many considered premature, the making of this reserve 

 (on paper) was a guarantee that whenever the country should be occupied this 

 reserve should stand ; but, now that the administrated portions of the country 

 show signs of expanding towards this reserve, there is an outcry to abolish this 

 Northern Reserve before it has ever become anything more than the reserve in name 

 which it now is. 



Nor is this all, for in some quarters there is dissatisfaction that there should be 

 a Southern Reserve, and it is urged that the game should be killed off and the whole 

 country thrown open to settlers. Probably most of the people who cry out loudly 

 that the reserves should be abolished have given but little thought or study to the 

 question, and they seem to imagine that the advisers of the Government in this 

 matter have given even less. 



In both the Northern and Southern Reserves there is a great scarcity of water, 

 and in addition to this a large part of the country is covered with dense thorn, and 

 has been proved unsuitable for settlers. 



