THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIBE 77 



This seems to have been the first really effective step towards 

 sparing the fauna of Africa. The English authorities saw great 

 obstacles against the establishment of such sanctuaries in our own 

 territory, but happily wo have followed the German example. 

 There are now several large sanctuaries, such as the splendid 

 ' Southern Reserve ' of British. East Africa. The train passes 

 along the whole length of this sanctuary, and it is worth travelling 

 thousands of miles to see, if only from the window of a railway 

 carriage, the great masses of noble game which to-day roam the 

 district. It is a kind of Yellowstone Park, save that the precau- 

 tions against poaching are not so complete here or in the other 

 great game preserves as those in America. A larger staff and 

 more generous help from the Treasury are greatly needed if these 

 sanctuaries are to be made as inviolate as that of the United 

 States. In 1905 and again this year the Secretary for the Colonies 

 met deputations on the subject from the Society for the Preservation 

 of the Empire's Fauna; but has much been done since Mr. 

 Lyttelton expressed his sympathy with the movement last year ? 

 The Blue-book is not very encouraging in this. Lord Elgin has 

 directed the Commissioner of Somaliland to discontinue the special 

 licences for bunting in the reserves, and apparently the proposal of 

 the Society to extend the Hill Eeserve there or to form, a fresh 

 reserve in the Gadabursi Mountains is ' under consideration.' 

 This is something, but we should like to hear of progress on a 

 larger scale. Lord Curzon, we believe, is opposed to treating this 

 question as one of financial gain and loss ; he prefers the more 

 patriotic view that whether the policy of game preservation on a 

 large scale pays the Government or not, it should be carried out 

 as a duty to 'the Empire and to posterity. Frankly, we do not 

 believe with some of the advocates of these reserves that the 

 nation can make money out of the policy. To do the thing to 

 real, lasting effect, the nation must make up its mind to spend 

 more than it makes. America is nothing if not money-making, 

 yet even the Americans, when they found their wild fauna being 

 destroyed, did not hesitate to spend money freely on what re- 

 mained. They were too late to save the bison, but what they have 

 done in saving many other wild animals, including the summer 

 duck in peril of extinction, Yellowstone, the grandest sanctuary in 

 the world, testifies. It is a shame that we should have lagged 

 behind America and Germany, even Norway. A large vote for 

 frame preservation in Africa would be popular in the country and 

 in Parliament. Somaliland in particular deserves more protection. 

 For many years it has been the unhappy hunting-ground of 

 those who care for nothing but trophies, to whom the growing 

 rarity or extinction of a species is matter of no concern provided 

 they can satisfy their own greed. Swayne's hartebeeste is in 

 actual danger of extinction throughout the Protectorate. Clarke's 

 gazelle and the beisa are also greatly diminished, thanks to tribes- 

 men with rifles and selfish white hunters. And these animals are 

 not known to exist outside Somaliland ! 



