302 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



of even the protected Indians, themselves 

 likely to share the fate of the buffalo they slew 

 so mercilessly on the rolling prairie, the forma- 

 tion of these Game Reserves offers little or no 

 difficulty beyond the expense of their main- 

 tenance and policing. In Africa, on the con- 

 trary, where there are still many millions of 

 negroes who have to live by their bow and 

 spear, constant trouble arises, and the authori- 

 ties are confronted with protests and objections, 

 chiefly on the ground that these Reserves 

 encourage two very different enemies of man, 

 the lion and the tsetse-fly. There is, it is true, 

 much difference of opinion regarding the actual 

 connection between this terrible insect and the 

 preservation of buffalo and other big game, 

 but, until at any rate the truth has been estab- 

 lished beyond all doubt by scientific inquiry, 

 public opinion will be hard to convince. The 

 dread of the tsetse-fly arises from the fact that 

 it is Nature's appointed carrier not only of 

 rinderpest, a cattle disease ruinous to the 

 farmers, but also of sleeping-sickness, that 

 mysterious and hitherto incurable malady 

 which does not even spare white men, and 

 which inflicts terrible damage on the natives. 

 As regards the lion, however, there can be no 

 two opinions. The king of beasts is invested 

 with a good deal of romance in story-books, 

 and, viewed from a disinterested standpoint, 



