6 EXTENSION OF GAME RESERVES 



of the more tangible sport which one seeks 

 with a cordite rifle. 



But to return for a moment to the question 

 of reserves. What is required now is a rigorous 

 safeguarding of existing beasts by an extended 

 system of game reserves, so selected as, in the 

 first place, to prove suitable centres for the 

 conservation and propagation of many widely 

 differing groups, and, in the second, sufficiently 

 far removed from occupied centres as to eliminate 

 the probability of their encroaching upon agri- 

 cultural or other pursuits. It seems to me that 

 for centuries to come the portions of the African 

 continent which present the most suitable appear- 

 ance for being thus utilised are those which can 

 best be spared for the purpose. The slow tide 

 of European immigration now setting sluggishly 

 towards these vast waste places of the earth is 

 not likely, for many generations to come, to 

 have much effect upon the game-carrying capacity 

 of the districts as a whole; and although con- 

 ditions occasionally change rapidly in such 

 centres as British East Africa, for example, and 

 in others to which public attention is directed 

 for some specific reason, or for the exploitation 

 of some form of industry capable of great 

 extension, still it must not be forgotten that 

 British East Africa fortunately stands in a very 

 unique position, not only in regard to her 

 enormous extent, but to the immense areas of 

 healthy uplands with which she is endowed. 

 Did we seek for a further reason for our con- 

 gratulations, it would doubtless be found to 



