EDITOBIAL GLEANINGS. 381 



is very seldom seen now in the Upper Shire. It is only a few years ago 

 that these animals rendered navigation by boat positively dangerous on the 

 Shire between Katunga and Chiromo, and there have been many boats 

 upset and much cargo lost through their attacks. Crocodiles seem to be as 

 numerous as ever, and in all parts of the river carry off numbers of people 

 annually. 



A correspondent in Natal draws the attention of the ■ Daily Chronicle' 

 to a point interesting to naturalists. In a lagoon of the river Umgeni, six 

 miles from Durban, there remain, he says, a number of Hippopotami, which, 

 saving a few in Zululand, are the last " Sea-cows " left in British South 

 Africa. They are preserved by a game law of 1891 as " royal game," and 

 permission to shoot them can only be obtained from the Natal Govern- 

 ment between May 1st and August 15th. But the herd devastates the 

 plantations of Messrs. Townsend Brothers, who have asked the Government 

 to put up a fence which will cost £740. This the Government declines to 

 do. It is certainly hard that the Hippos should be preserved at the cost of 

 a private firm, and if the Natal Ministry is anxious, as it declares, to pre- 

 serve them, the cost of a substantial fence, or in the alternative the employ- 

 ment of watchmen, ought not to stand in the way. A herd of Hippos 

 ranging even for one night in a plantation would damage hundreds of 

 pounds' worth, and destroy a hundred times as much as they eat, and if a 

 fence is required for the preserve it ought not to be difficult to get the 

 money voted for the enclosure of a permanent breeding ground. The 

 correspondent, however, raises a larger question. He "advocates the 

 formation on the high veld of a permanent enclosed game preserve, in 

 which might be kept some specimens of the Giraffe and other of the rare 

 and rapidly disappearing South African fauna. In four or five, or at the 

 most ten years, it will be too late to attempt the formation of such a park, 

 as there will be none of the larger game left, and as the country gets settled, 

 land will become more difficult of acquirement. Unless something is done 

 quickly, where will South African animals be got for our menageries and 

 zoological gardens?" 



The Durban correspondent of ' South Africa ' is quite hopeful on this 

 matter. He writes: — "As this is near the election, the fencing will be 

 undertaken, and the ministry will remain in office!" 



' Die Natur ' records that Prof. Rudolf Leuckart, the renowned German 

 zoologist, has been made a Knight of the Order pour le Merite in Science 

 and Art by the German Emperor. 



