178 THE EXTINCTION OF WILD ANIMALS 



LXX 



Company promotion, one would have said, had long 



since touched every corner of every field of enterprise, 



but it has been reserved for the autumn of 



The Extinc- 

 tion of Wild 1895 to witness the launch of a scheme not 



likely to have many rivals. The arena of 

 operations is South Africa, yet this project has nothing 

 to do with mining, agriculture, or colonisation. It is 

 not philanthropic either, but philozootic ; its object 

 being to preserve from extinction some of the nobler 

 forms of life which are disappearing so fast before 

 advancing civilisation. It is announced that the 

 British South Africa Company have placed two hundred 

 thousand acres in Mashonaland at the disposal of the 

 Society for a big game preserve, as soon as they can 

 show themselves in a financial position to enclose and 

 maintain it. 15,000 are offered in 1 shares, and the 

 names of those gentlemen who have joined the council 

 are a sufficient guarantee that the money will be rightly 

 applied. 



In truth, it is a sorrowful story that comes to us from 

 South Africa. The orgies of slaughter that finished off 

 the magnificent herds of bison in North America were 

 more speedy in effect than the steady retreat of the 

 South African fauna before the white settlers ; but the 

 total suppression of some of the most interesting species 

 cannot be far off, unless our people follow the example 

 of the United States Government in providing sanctuary 

 for them. Already, it seems, that the great white rhino- 

 ceros is beyond recall ; at most not more than half a 



