ABUSES S59 



here these slayers, with a perseverance which to 

 me seems devilish, and wholly unchecked by the 

 Mozambique Company, shot daily. Every morn- 

 ing there arrived by train, as also by boat from 

 the Pungwe River, numbers of carcases of antelopes 

 of all kinds, some for immediate consumption and 

 some probably for transformation into " biltong." 

 What is the result ? Eight years later, in Sep- 

 tember 1906, 1 came down by train from Salisbury 

 to Beira, and crossed once more the enormous 

 expanses surrounding Fontesvilla, which in my 

 previous recollection were full of game. On the 

 whole journey, however, I did not see one single 

 living animal. 



Twelve years ago Beira was full of skins and 

 heads and horns of game beasts. If you were a 

 buyer you could secure any specimen you desired 

 for next to nothing. Four European professional 

 hunters conducted parties to the interior, each of 

 these netting £100 a month for his services upon 

 the trip. It is evident, therefore, that, as their 

 patrons never were heard to complain of ineffi- 

 ciency on the part of these men, the return on 

 their investments must have been a large one. 



But what has Beira and its formerly populous 

 game districts to show to-day for all this wanton 

 heedlessness of big game butchery ? A few 

 ancient, worm-eaten horns hang from the ceilings 

 of one or two deserted stores, growing more and 

 more unsaleable year by year. None of the old- 

 time European hunting cicerones remain, nor 

 have others come to take their places. 



The whole fact of the matter is that the 



