PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 483 
more efliciently under the autocratic control of a highly educated body of per- 
manent officials, central and local, than any other country in the world, has no 
provision for the protection of its fauna simply as animals, 
The conditions in Africa are very different from those in India. The land is 
portioned out amongst many Powers. The settled population is much less dense 
and the hold of the white settler and the white ruler is much less complete. The 
possibility of effective control of native hunters and of European travellers and 
sportsmen is much smaller, and as there are fewer sources of revenue, the tempta- 
tion to exploit the game for the immediate development of the struggling 
colonies is much greater. Still, the lesson of the extinction of the South African 
fauna is being taken to heart. I have had the opportunity of going through the 
regulations made for the shooting of wild animals in Africa by this country, by 
our autonomic colonies, by France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Belgium, and, 
with the limitation that they are directed almost solely towards the protection 
of animals that can be regarded as game, they afford great promise for the future. 
But this limitation is still stamped upon them, and even so enthusiastic a 
naturalist as Major Stevenson-Hamiltun, the Warden of the Transvaal Govern- 
ment Game Reserves, who has advocated the substitution of the camera for the 
rifle, appears to be of the opinion that the platform of the convention of 1900 is 
sufficient. It included the sparing of females and immature animals, the estab- 
lishment of close seasons and game sanctuaries, the absolute protection of rare 
species, restrictions on the export for trading purposes of skins, horns and tusks, 
and the prohibition of pits, snares and game traps. Certainly the rulers of Africa 
are seeing to the establishment of game reserves. As for British Africa, there are 
two in Somaliland, two in the Sudan, two in Uganda and two in British East 
Africa (with separate reserves for eland, rhinoceros and hippopotamus), two 
in Nyasaland, three in the Transvaal, seven in Rhodesia, several in Natal and 
in Cape Colony, and at least four in Nigeria. These are now administered by 
competent officials, who in addition are usually the executive officers of the game 
laws outside the reserved territory. Here again, however, the preservation of 
game animals and of other animals of economic value and of a few named species 
is the fundamental idea. In 1909 I had the honour of being a member of a 
deputation to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, arranged by the Society 
for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire, one of the most active 
and successful bodies engaged in arousing public opinion on the subject. Among 
the questions on which we were approaching Lord Crewe was that of changes in 
the locality of reserves. Sometimes it had happened that for the convenience of 
settlers or because of railway extension, or for some other reason, proposals were 
made to open or,clear the whole or part of a reserve. When I suggested that the 
substitution of one piece of ground for another, even of equivalent area, might 
be satisfactory from the point of view of the preservation of large animals, but was 
not satisfactory from the zoological point of view, that in fact pieces of primeval 
land and primeval forest contained many small animals of different kinds which 
would be exterminated once and for all when the land was brought under cultiva- 
tion, the point was obviously new not. only to the Colonial Secretary, who very 
courteously noted it, but to my colleagues. 
This brings me to the general conclusion to which I wish to direct your atten- 
tion and for which I hope to engage your sympathy. We may safely leave the 
preservation of game animals, or rare species if these are well known and interest- 
ing, and of animals of economic value, to the awakened responsibility and the 
practical sense of the Governing Powers, stimulated as these are by the enthusiasm 
of special Societies. Game laws, reserves where game may recuperate, close 
seasons, occasional prohibition and the real supervision of licence-holders are 
all doing their work effectively. But there remains something else to do, some- 
thing which I think should interest zoologists particularly, and on which we 
should lead opinion. There exist in all the great continents large tracts 
almost empty of resident population, which still contain vegetation almost 
undisturbed by the ravages of man, and which still harbour a multitude 
of small animals, and could afford space for the larger and better-known animals. 
These tracts have not yet been brought under cultivation, and are rarely traversed 
except by the sportsman, the explorer and the prospector. On these there should 
be established, in all the characteristic faunistic areas, reservations which should 
not be merely temporary recuperating grounds for harassed game, but absolute 
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