36 THE SOCIETY FOE THE PEESEBVATION OF 



Intelligence Department, sp.ent some months searching the Eeserve 

 for alleged buried treasure. This, having now got abroad, has 

 •created a perfect furore in the country, and parties of treasure- 

 seekers appear almost weekly, coming from all parts of the 

 Transvaal ; they have no credentials, and each party appears to 

 think that it alone is in possession of the secret. The game is, of 

 oourse, disturbed considerably by all this kind of thing. 



' Lydenbubg. 

 ' Game,. 

 ' I have to report a substantial increase of game in this Eeserve ; 

 again I should place the net increase at quite one-third. 

 ' In numbers game exists as follows :— 



1. 



3. 



5. 



7. 



9. 

 11. 

 13. 

 15. 

 17. 



Duiker. 



Eeedbuck. 



Waterbuck. 



Impala. 



Sable antelope. 



Warthog. 



Klipspringer. 



Kudu. 



Buffalo. 



2. Steinbuck. 



4. Bushbuck. 



6. Wildebeesto. 



8. Zebra. 

 10. Sassahy. 

 12. Bushpig. 

 14. Eooi rhebuck. 

 16. Giraffe-. 

 18. Hippopotamus. 



' Ostriches. 

 ' Birds exist much as in the Barberton section, except that the 

 proportion of ostriches is much greater; I should estimate the 

 number in the eastern districts as over one thousand. 



' Carnivora. 

 'All carnivora are relatively less numerous than in the Barberton 

 section. The country being more open and tin; game harder to 

 catch causes them to favour this district less than that south of 

 the Sabi. Lions are distributed throughout, as are leopards and 

 cheetahs, but wild dogs are extremely scarce, and in the larger 

 portion of the district do not exist at all. 



' Hunting. 



' There have been occasional depredations from Portuguese 

 territory by natives, but they never venture far from the protec- 

 tion of the border, and one or two minor cases against the inhabi- 

 tants of the Eeserve. Trapping and snaring went on in the 

 western portion until I placed some police there. So far, there 

 has been no trouble with white men in the district, except the 

 tearing down of notice-boards by some evil-disposed persons. 



' Prospecting, So. 

 ' We have been a little troubled by prospectors and treasure- 

 hunters in the south-east corner, but, so far, not elsewhere. There 

 are police posts at the drifts on the Oliphants Eiver, with Govern- 



