544 EVENING DISCOURSES. 
individuals, was wiped out between 1871 and 1874, and the practical destruction of 
the northern half was completed between 1880 and 1884. During the recent great 
war in Europe more complete destruction had fallen on the remnants of the European 
bison in the forests of Lithuania and the Caucasus and in the private preserves of 
Russian magnates. The American bison had been saved by collecting individuals 
from the remnants of the wild herds and from examples in zoological gardens and 
placing them in the national parks of North America and Canada. A European Bison 
Society had begun a similar task, but the difficulty was much greater as, so far as could 
be ascertained, only a few dozen individuals were still in existence. An instance of 
complete extinction of a species was the Passenger Pigeon. A little more than a 
century ago these birds existed in countless millions, and Audubon relates that for 
four days at a time the skies were black with the streams of their migration. In 1906 
only five individuals were alive, all of them bred in captivity, and before 1912 the 
last survivor died in the zoological gardens at Cleveland. A similar destruction was 
going on all over the world, even at increasing rates, as the wilder regions of the 
globe were being opened up, and as the means of transport were quicker and more 
abundant. 
Fortunately certain measures were being taken in most parts of the world to arrest 
this process. Close seasons were instituted, shooting licences insisted on, and indi- 
vidual species were placed under the protection of the law. Moreover, sanctuaries 
were being formed in increasing numbers. Without doubt much good was being done. 
But the efficacy of all such measures depended on the strictness with which they were 
carried out, and this was the more difficult to secure the more remote the regions were. 
A special difficulty arose in connection with game reserves such as had been established 
in many parts of Africa. Settlers coveted the land or complained that their farms and 
plantations were being damaged by the presence of the sanctuaries. There were 
many cases in which existing reserves were thrown open, suspended or abolished. 
The only safe policy for the permanent preservation of wild animals and plants was 
to dedicate areas absolutely for all time. The areas should be sufficiently large and 
should be surrounded wherever possible with a neutral zone, in which settling was not 
permitted and the wild animals protected. 
In 1912 the best examples of such national parks were in the United States and 
Canada. Much more recently the Union Government of South Africa had turned 
certain reserves into the Kriiger National Park of about 12,000 square miles dedicated 
for all time to the preservation of plants, animals and natural scenery. Still more 
recently, by the decree of the King of the Belgians, an area of 400,000 acres in one 
of the wildest and most beautiful parts of Central Africa, as yet unspoiled by man, has 
been made the Pare National Albert. Adjoining territory of still larger area has been 
turned into a buffer state, a game reserve under very strict regulations. The Pare 
Albert contains three of the finest volcanoes in the world, lakes, forest-clad mountains 
and valleys with a very rich fauna. Above all it contains gorillas, which, unlike those 
of West Africa, have not been persecuted by human beings, and still remain undisturbed 
in a territory they have occupied for hundreds of thousands of years. Gorillas are 
the anthropoid apes nearest to man in structure and psychology; and it is of supreme 
zoological importance that they should be protected for all time. Marching with the 
Pare Albert, but across the frontier in Uganda, is a small area of a few square miles 
of the same natural character, and occupied occasionally, or perhaps permanently, 
by the same race of gorillas. For several years the Zoological Society of London, the 
Society for the Protection of the Fauna of the Empire, have urged that this area be 
turned into a national park on the same lines as those arranged by Belgium. It is 
true that gorillas are protected by the Uganda Government and that recently the 
regulations have been made more strict. But if the shooting of other animals is 
permitted, the gorillas will be disturbed; if settlers should invade the area or 
prospectors find minerals in it, not only will the protection for gorillas inevitably 
cease, but by the destruction of a neutral area the sanctity of the Pare Albert will 
be prejudiced. The Governor of Uganda sees no objection to the transformation of 
the area into an inviolable park ; the Belgian Government, through the Ambassador 
in London, has made a formal request that the step should be taken. But in spite 
of appeals from these and other sources the Colonial Office, on one pretext or another, 
has postponed giving the necessary instructions. Let us hope that before long this 
humiliation to our country will be removed. 
(Published in Journ. Soc. for Protection of the Fauna of the Empire.) 
