-^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation 



last refuge this most wonderful wave of life is rapidly 

 ebbing away. Everything contributes to this result — 

 human progress, human folly, and even disease among the 

 animals themselves." 



To give an example : Through the trifling fact that 

 we have ivory balls for billiards, the African elephant 

 goes to destruction. The individual cannot stop this ; 

 but what he can do is to secure more material for each 

 special branch of science before the door is closed, and 

 to once more observe in their primeval surroundings the 

 last elephants, wild buffaloes, giraffes — those last living 

 vestiges of the Tertiary period. 



But above all, the sketches of Le Vaillant, a French 

 explorer, who, about 1780, set out from Cape Town on 

 his travels into the interior, are of great importance for 

 our study of the former abundance of animal life in South 

 Africa. They are all the more interesting for German 

 readers because he traversed part of what is now 

 German South-West Africa, and gives in his book an 

 account of its condition at that time. He, too, tells of 

 absolutely incredibly great multitudes of wild animals ; on 

 the banks of the Orange River he comes upon great herds 

 of elephants and giraffes, and he cannot find enough to 

 say of the astonishing wealth of animal life. For those 

 who know German South-West Africa, his narrative is 

 of special interest. He formed large collections which 

 he brought back with him to his native country, and to 

 all appearance is a fairly trustworthy authority, though 

 at the same time, like many contemporary and later 

 travellers, here and there he makes assertions that are 



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