WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



steppe around the Kilimanjaro and in the mountainous 

 regions. Elephants have been known to climb moun- 

 tains over ten thousand feet high, and to remain upon 

 them for a considerable length of time. The profession- 

 al hunters, who enjoy a monopoly, have reduced the 

 number of these animals, which a few yf ars ago amount- 

 ed to many thousands, to a mere handful. According 

 to my careful calculation, there are to-day not more 

 than one thousand elephants in the area around the 

 Kilimanjaro. These may be preserved if the govern- 

 ments of the colonies, the English and German in par- 

 ticular, agree to enforce a systematic protection of the 

 animals. They must, above all, abolish the institu- 

 tion of the "ivory fines" which the natives can only 

 pay by killing a certain number of animals. The gov- 

 ernment of Cape Colony has succeeded in preserving 

 large herds of elephants in the Zitzikamma and Knysna 

 forests. Why should this be impossible in German 

 East Africa ? The region of the Kilimanjaro is not fit 

 for Europeans or even natives to live in, therefore it 

 might be left to the elephants. 



Before the settlement of South and East Africa, 

 during the last half of the nineteenth century, the ele- 

 phants ranged over every part of the country in sur- 

 prising abundance. The early settlers and European 

 hunters tell us of herds consisting of many hundreds 

 of animals, which were soon to be slaughtered for the 

 sake of their tusks. 



88 



