2S THE SOCIETY FOE THE PRESERVATION OF 



My Lord, I submit that is a good example for us in Africa. 

 Sometimes it is alleged that we cannot afford to spend the money,, 

 and that it is useless to try to enforce the regulations in. a 

 great wild country like parts of Africa. I point to the example 

 of the United States : they spend what correspond to Imperial 

 funds — from the Exchequer of the United States and not of 

 the particular State — in enforcing those regulations. There is 

 always an adequate force kept at the National Park to prevent 

 any poaching : it does not matter who a man may be — he may bo 

 a European Potentate, but he would never be allowed to fire a 

 shot inside the National Park ; its sanctity is absolutely enforced. 

 They do not care what they spend in preserving it, so long as the 

 thing is absolutely and properly done. I submit that what they 

 have done we can do in Africa if we take the trouble, and if we 

 spend the money. I again emphasise and urge what Mr. Whit- 

 bread has said, that time is absolutely the essence of the question. 

 If we delay, certain species may be extinct, and then wo shall, be 

 exactly in the same position as the American people were in — we 

 shall wake up to the importance of preservation, and we shall find 

 that some valuable species are absolutely extinct and cannot be 

 replaced. 



Mr. E. N. Buxton : Mr. Gillott is very familiar with the state 

 of things in Somaliland. 



Mr. Ebkdemck Gillett : My Lord, I do not know that I am 

 prepared to say very much about Somaliland, except that the fauna 

 there are, a great many of them, not found elsewhere, and it is 

 very important, I think, that they should be carefully protected. 

 I have here a map, which I made out for myself, showing the 

 various species and how very local they are. (Mr. Gillett exhibited 

 the map to his Lordship.) There are a great many animals which 

 are extremely local, and are only found in. Somaliland, and it 

 would be a very great pity indeed if, in a country which can be so 

 very easily protected, these animals should be allowed to die 

 out. 



With regard to the tsetse fly, I should like to say that at a 

 scientific meeting of the Zoological Society last month, Dr. L. W. 

 Sambon exhibited a large series of diagrams of insects carrying 

 these diseases, and I took the opportunity to ask him, as so much 

 was being written in the papers on the subject, whether, in his 

 opinion, the game was responsible for the existence of these flies, 

 and he stated most emphatically that from the result of his 

 researches he came to the conclusion that the game was not 

 responsible ; that in districts, as has already been said, these flies 

 existed where there was practically no game at all. He put 

 forward an opinion, but I do not know that he was absolutely 

 satisfied upon it himself, that certain fish which burrow into the 

 muddy banks of the river were responsible for the flies. Of that 

 he was not quite certain, but at any rate he felt quite certain that 

 the game was not responsible. 



Lord Elgin : I understand that when you were received by 



