THE WILD FAUNA 017 THE EMPIRE 17 



possessed firearms for some time : they were all in possession of 

 flint-locks when I went up there thirty years ago, which they got 

 from the Portuguese, Game was never very plentiful on the high 

 plateau of Rhodesia : the natives kept it down too much. But 

 still I think the game is quite plentiful, and all my friends_ in 

 Salisbury and Buluwayo inform me that game is not decreasing 

 at all. ' 



The Colonial' Secretary : Someone told me last night that 

 it Was not substantially decreasing. 



Mr. P, C. Selous : ' Yes ; in fact, after the first Matabole War, 

 when the natives had to bury their firearms, we found that they 

 had a lot of guns a couple of years later which they were afraid to 

 show, and therefore they buried them, but they used them after- 

 Wards. But the antelope and big animals of that kind I saw 

 myself within thirty miles of Buluwayo, and twenty years before 

 °ue would not see a sign of an antelope within a very much 

 greater distance. The game was all beginning to come up again 

 then. 



Colonel Delmb Radcliffb : I should like, if I may, to make 

 one or two remarks on the subject of the protection of elephants. 

 First of all, I think the minimum sizefor ivoryis too low— too small. 

 I think that in East Africa the minimum should be something 

 about 40 lbs., which would show that nothing but bulls had 

 heen killed, and which would protect the females entirely, and 

 also protect the smaller bulls. " The result would be that people 

 would only go for the very biggest bulls, which ought to be killed 

 off, and not the smallest ones. 



Another point :— Mr. Buxton said he thought the natives 

 should not be interfered with when they killed game in accord- 

 ance with their ancestral customs, which should not bo touched. 

 I do not agree on that point, because the spread of the Pax 

 Britannica in East Africa has given facilities to natives for killing 

 game in a way in which they did not have the means before. In 

 Past Africa, for instance, in the old days the natives never entered 

 tlie area which is now called the Reserve, because the Masai were 

 there. When I was in the Athi Plains three years ago the whole 

 country was covered with Wakamba at every water-hole, and they 

 Were killing the game in all directions ; everything that walked 

 Was killed with poisoned arrows. Therefore I think that, really, 

 as we allow the natives to kill game to a certain extent by 

 preventing fighting amongst them, we should also prevent their 

 trapping and killing on a large scale. 



The Colonial Seobhtaby: I will not say much beyond 

 thanking you for having given me very much valuable information 

 on this point. I may perhaps say that I do not think there is any 

 chance at the present moment of getting any money from the 

 Imperial Exchequer, but I think we must endeavour— I certainly 

 will endeavour so far as I am concerned — to look carefully into 

 the question of Reserves all over the African Colonies, and that 

 we must endeavour to bring them within such areas as you have 



