THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIRE. 69 



Outside these two reserves all sportsmen will 

 be allowed to shoot, save where restrictions are 

 imposed for reasons other than those based on the 

 desirability of preserving game. 



The official returns show that 1072 head of 

 game were shot during the year ending the 30th 

 September, 1903. Of these, 175 were shot by 

 visitors, and the remainder by Sudan officials. 

 The detail is given in Inclosure 1 to this dispatch. 

 Mr. Butler, who directs this Department, thinks 

 that, except as regards ariel and gazelle, the 

 official return represents about 90 per cent, of the 

 game killed. He estimates that, in addition to 

 these, about 200 ariel and 300 gazelle were killed. 



The following remarks, which I quote from 

 Mr. Butler's Keport, arc of interest : — 



" The present condition and the outlook for the 

 near future of the game appears to me very satis- 

 factory. But time will, I fear, bring about a change 

 in the state of the country which, however desirable 

 in other respects, must gradually, but surely, drive 

 the game from many districts. There are, however, 

 large areas in the Sudan which arc not likely ever 

 to become thickly populated, and where the con- 

 tinued existence of game in abundance can be 

 assured by adequate protection. In such districts 

 there is no reason why large game should not con- 

 tinue to exist for centuries ; but from others, as the 

 country becomes repopulatcd, and chains of pros- 

 perous villages spread along the river banks — the 

 favourite haunts of the game — it is bound in time 

 to disappear. I believe that this must come about, 



F 2 



