THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIEE 21 



affecting Game Reserves, restricting traffic within the latter to 

 certain routes and giving certain special powers to the warden and 

 his staff. 



In June 1903 a small Eeserve which had also been formed by 

 the previous Government, consisting of some 100 square miles, was 

 declared between Swaziland, and Zululand, followed shortly after 

 by the addition to the Sabi Eeserve of some 5,000 square miles on 

 the north and the Singwitzi Eeserve of approximately similar area 

 to the north of that again. 



Thus at present the Transvaal Game Eeserves run in a con- 

 tinuous line along the Portuguese border for some 300 miles, with 

 an average width of between 40 and 60 miles. The animals found 

 consist of all those indigenous to the country with the exception of 

 the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the eland, which it was unfortu- 

 nately too late to save. But buffalo, giraffe, hippopotamus, sable 

 and roan antelope, zebra, waterbuck (common) tsessobe, _ kudu, 

 impala, and reedbuck, besides wild pig, ostriches, and all kinds of 

 smaller antelope, are found in fair numbers and have all increased 

 considerably in two and a-half years of practically complete pro- 

 tection. 



As regards the carnivora, lions, though not in any numbers, are 

 well distributed, leopards and cheetahs are numerous, the wild 

 dog (Lycaon pictus) is unfortunately very plentiful, together with 

 the saddle-backed and the ordinary jackal, the striped hyena., 

 caracal, cerval, civet, and genet cats. 



The actual native inhabitants of the Eeserves are under 5,000 

 (men, women, and children), but there is a large population on all 

 sides outside their limits; and though guns are forbidden in British 

 territory, the natives on the Portuguese side of the border are all 

 armed in this manner, and one of our greatest difficulties is the 

 protection of the frontier from their inroads. During the past the 

 natives inhabiting this part of the country have lived almost 

 en irely on the game; they have been more or less migratory m 

 their habits, have been in'tho habit of barely sowing enough crops 

 to last them till the next season, and have never made any pretence 

 at maintaining livestock; they are of mixed race. 



In the Transvaal generally the same game laws hold good for 

 natives as for white men— i.e., no game, may be killed within the 

 Eeserves, nor outside of them without a licence, by any person, be 

 he white man or Kaffir. All trapping and snaring of game is 

 strictly forbidden throughout the country, as is the sale of eggs of 

 game birds without special permission. These strict rules work 

 admirably as regards the Kaffirs, who, instead of spending their 

 days in the pursuit of game or loafing in their villages, are now 

 induced to devote more time to the cultivation of the land, the 

 rearing of livestock, and, as regards the younger men, to (she 

 earning of wages in the service of Europeans, either as private 

 servants or on public works. A very dry and barren season 

 immediately after the inception of the new game laws showed that 

 the prevention of game destruction had by no means, as was in 



