THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIEE 



51 



bank of the Shire where the Elephant Marsh Eeserve is. Mr. 

 Hynde's remarks, therefore, about buffalo and cotton plantations 

 are apparently a stretch of imagination. On the west side of the 

 river there is a cotton plantation near to Chiromo, but there is no 

 reserve on that side. 



' The Elephant Marsh has never been shot in since its estab- 

 lishment in 1807, except on one occasion when I allowed Lord 

 Waterford to shoot one buffalo for his collection, and Dr. Davey 

 to shoot one head for the purpose of ascertaining if its blood 

 contained any trypanosomes or other germs. 



' Zomba, British Central Afria : October 18, 1900. 



' The reduction of the area of the Elephant Marsh Eeserve was 

 made by me for one or two reasons, comparatively recently. 



' The Elephant Marsh Eeserve included in its original limits a 

 great deal more than the flat river marsh itself. It had within its 

 limits a considerable area of forest and the foot-hills of the Cholo 

 Eange. In the Marsh itself — the open Marsh — there is no tsetse 

 fly at all. As soon as the forest is reached there is a certain 

 amount of tsetse, though not much. In the forest there is very 

 little game. Both my idea and Sir Harry Johnston's with regard 

 to the Elephant Marsh Eeserve was to secure the safety of the 

 one or two herds of buffalo which frequent the Marsh itself . They 

 do not, enter the forest adjoining. By reducing the size of the 

 Eeserve, therefore, I not only lost nothing in. the shape of game 

 protection, but did away with any possibility of reasonable objec- 

 tion on the part of settlers to the continuation of the present 

 Elephant Marsh Eeserve. 



' With regard to the Shirwa Eeserve, this was made by Sir 

 Harry Johnston, and lies in the plain which exists between the 

 Zomba and Mian je Eanges. It was a badly situated Eeserve ; it 

 >s all forest, difficult to control in any way, I may say impossible 

 to control without considerable expenditure, and as a matter of 

 tact next to no game in it at all. At the time Sir Harry Johnston 

 made this Eeserve he did not know much about what game life 

 existed in it. It is not in any way worth reservation, and although 

 the publication of the Shirwa Eeserve has never been publicly an- 

 nulled, I allow any person to shoot there who asks for leave, and 

 therefore to all intents and purposes it is no longer a reserve. 



' The Angoniland Eeserve is a much larger one than either of 

 the. other two, and, as you are aware, has been created by me 

 recently. It has in it some hundreds of elephants and a certain 

 amount of other game. It is quite free from tsetse fly, and in a 

 very nice and pleasant olimate. Ct is almdst uninhabited. 



'With regard to this Protectorate, game licences do not bring 

 Us in anything approaching the revenue mentioned for East 

 Africa. The total amount received by game licences last year 



r>2 



