36 THE SOCIETY FOB THE PKESEEVATION OF 



contact of a civilising agent, was the cause of the tremendous 

 diminution of the game of South Rhodesia, and that the disease 

 having now died out, or become enzoic, the game is increasing, 

 even under conditions which are generally recognised as detri- 

 mental to the preservation of big game. 



The fact that game had become so scarce after the rinderpest 

 was the means of preserving it automatically. 



Hunting parties were disappointed, Southern Rhodesia became 

 unfashionable as a hunting ground; it was not worth anyone's 

 while to hunt there. 



Also the rapid extension of railways and the decrease in the 

 number of transport riders, caused not only by the building of 

 railways, but also by the death of the transport oxen by rinder- 

 pest, were factors in favour of the wild game in their struggle for 

 existence. 



Then there was the prospector, who wandered through the 

 wild places of the land and yearly shot large quantities of game 

 as food for himself and his boys. As the years went on he too 

 disappeared, and his prospecting camps were replaced by per- 

 manently established mines. 



Lastly, the effective disarmament of the entire native popula- 

 tion was perhaps the greatest aid towards the preservation of the 

 remnant of wild game. 



The result of these conditions was that the game left the 

 vicinity of the mines, the railways, and the waggon roads, where 

 they were liable to constant disturbance, and took up their habita- 

 tion in remote localities, where they were not followed (for, indeed, 

 there were no longer any hunters), and where their presence was 

 scarcely suspected, except perhaps by a few native commissioners 

 or others in whose districts such havens were located, and whose 

 business caused them to travel through such unfrequented country. 



Sportsmen who visit the country, and who are disappointed in 

 their sport, are often responsible for the reports that game in such 

 a country or of such and such a species is in danger of extinction. 



The commonest reasons for such failure to obtain good sport 

 are that the information at their command is faulty or that the 

 time at their disposal is too limited. 



Such men, often men of position living in the mid-stream of 

 life, are more apt to make their views public, and more likely to 

 be listened to than are obscure officials, hidden away in native 

 districts in far-off lands, passing their life in its back-waters. 



One is sometimes inclined to believe that the extinction of 

 game and the decrease in the number of good shooting grounds are 

 two phases of this question which are liable to confusion. 



Natives. 

 With regard to the natives, the preservation of big game in 

 Southern Rhodesia is greatly simplified by the fact that they are 



