BETWEEN GAME AND TSETSE-FLIES. 115 



reduced the buffalo to two herds, probably together not reaching a couple of 

 hundred individuals. During all this time there seems to have been no perceptible 

 general diminvition of the fly, though it imdoubtedly fluctuated, disappearing 

 without apparent cause from some parts of its range, and reappea)-ing in others. 



It certainly existed in very large numbers right up to the outbreak of rinder- 

 pest, and in one of the areas buffalo had long ceased to exist, though other kinds 

 of game, especially waterbuck, sable antelope and wildebeest, were numerous. 

 During the early stages of the rinderpest, that is during the cold weather of 

 1896 (the disease having been most likely introduced into the game country by 

 the cattle of the farmers coming for the winter grazing), fly was observed to be 

 present on the Sabi some miles below my present station. The game was dying- 

 fast about October, when the fear of fever induced the usual abandonment of the 

 low country by Europeans. In the following December, that is to say in the 

 height of the hot weather, a low country resident, Mr. Ingle, visited the Sabi 

 (where fly had been observed in the previous June), and was surprised to find 

 none present. When early in the following healthy season the High Veld 

 hunters arrived once more, it soon became apparent that the fly had wholly or 

 nearly disappeared from all the low country, having apparently done so between 

 October, 1896, and June, 1897. Since the latter year there has been no tsetse 

 reported in the Transvaal. That it has I'eally gone is shown clearly, in other 

 parts, by the imnuxnity with which domestic animals can be taken into any part 

 of the country, while in the district of which I am speaking, I have myself lived 

 since 1902 in the middle of one of the old fly-areas, with cattle, horses and 

 donkeys, and have probably, at various times, marched through and camped in 

 nearly every square mile of the country with my transport. Moreover the five 

 white rangers employed by Government, all stationed at different points within 

 the district, have been similarly employed at all seasons of the year in pursuance 

 of their duties. We have never lost a single animal or seen a fly, and the local 

 natives now keep stock where formerly it was impossible. I think it may 

 reasonably be concluded therefore, so far as it is possible to speak of anything 

 with certainty, that no species of Glossina now exists in the eastern Transvaal. 

 The bare rocky hills of the Lebombo Kange separate this low country from 

 Portuguese territory, and the investigations of the Entomological Department at 

 Lourenco Marquez have not shown the presence of any kind of tsetse-fly in the 

 southern part of the Province adjoining the Transvaal, though it formerly existed 

 there in great numbers. Cattle are also kept by natives on both sides of the 

 border. This, I think, precludes the possibility of fly having migrated from the 

 Transvaal into the southern part of Mozambique. 



After the rinderpest, it was found that the last of the eland in the North-East 

 Transvaal had disappeared, and that the bufl'alo were reduced to a herd of about 

 twenty, which remained in the densest part of the Sabi Bush — the heart of the 

 former fly country. A small nimiber of kudu and bushbuck survived in the same 

 locality, Impala, wildebeest and other species, native to the district, appeared 

 much as formerly. 



It seems to be the case that from some hitherto unexplained cause, tsetse-fly, 

 in the north-eastern Transvaal, became quite extinct during the rinderpest. This 



