WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



their soil. Moreover, they often joined the European 

 invaders in their work of destruction, becoming ac- 

 quainted with the use of fire-arms — they became hunt- 

 ers, either on their own account or in the service of the 

 white trader. 



So disappeared from South Africa the gnu, the quag- 

 ga, the bontebok, the mountain zebra, the beautiful 

 bluish horse - antelope, the Cape buffalo, the elephant, 

 the powerful white rhinoceros, the black rhinoceros, 

 the giraffe, the hippopotamus, and the ostrich. Thirty 

 to forty years ago these animals were still plentiful; a 

 hundred years ago their number was simply fabulous. 

 They were to the natives of South Africa what the buf- 

 faloes were to the American Indians — the chief source 

 of food; and, like the Indians, they used the surplus, 

 but did not eat up or destroy the main supply. 



Personally I am willing to accept the story of the 

 lion in paradise lying peacefully beside the lamb as 

 gospel truth. Are we not told by trustworthy explorers 

 of the Arctic world that there the intelligent sea-lions, 

 the seals, the reindeers, and many birds approach man 

 without a sign of fear? This may have been the rule 

 among animals before man, the homo sapiens, began to 

 assert his supremacy over all creation. 



The experience of those men in the polar desert has 

 also been my own in the vastness of tropical Africa, in 

 the heart of the continent which, though full of light, 

 is commonly called the "dark." Often I have seen 



8 



