More Lions 



having had their day, they should meet with 

 a sudden end by the rifle ! Even if a buck be 

 killed in the pride of his strength, and surrounded 

 by his admiring wives, still there are plenty more 

 backs at hand waiting to take his place. It is the 

 same idea as the killing off of cock pheasants, and 

 even keeping down of cocks among common fowls. 

 There are always too many bucks, and the killing 

 of some, so far from diminishing the increase of 

 the species, has, I believe, the opposite effect. 



Again, in our case, we saved the lives of far more 

 than we killed. A lion will, I suppose, kill at least 

 one fat buck a week, if he can't happen on a camel 

 or a man. Thus each lion killed would represent 

 fifty-two bucks a year, at which computation we 

 saved the lives of many thousand. I do not, how- 

 ever, by this mean any reflection on the excellent 

 game laws that are fairly general in Africa now, 

 game laws that I regret to say are, in many parts, 

 more honoured by the breach than by the observ- 

 ance, the unfortunate part being that the sports- 

 man who never would do harm if he could help it 

 rigidly observes, while the wretches whom they 

 are meant to check contrive to evade them. 



South Africa always held a good lead for 

 butchery, though little is left to butcher south 

 of Ehodesia in the extreme East, where, I 

 believe, game is now well looked after. As 

 an example of how not to do it, I may here 



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