404 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



myriads of bones, skulls, and horns of Wildebeeste and Blesse- 

 bok, bearing witness to the wholesale slaughter which took place 

 only a few years ago, when the Boers first found out the value of 

 the skins, we did not come across any bok, although we saw 

 plenty of fresh spoor. The massacres which then took place 

 have thinned the game — to an almost incredible extent for so 

 short a time — throughout the greater part of South Africa. In 

 many parts the veld is literally speckled all over with the white - 

 bleached bones of the bok killed only for their hides, and when 

 stripped left to rot away."* Alas ! there is no zoological Ezekiel 

 hardy enough to prophesy that there shall be a shaking and coming 

 together of these bones. Man has indeed had dominion over the 

 beasts of the earth in this neighbourhood, and these primi- 

 tive Boers have proved Attilas to the South African mammalian 

 fauna. The Elephant is gradually disappearing in British Central 

 Africa ; this, according to Mr. Sharpe, is not due to the number 

 killed by Europeans, but to the fact that the natives throughout 

 the country are constantly destroying them.t After the perusal of 

 many African books on sport and travel one cannot help 

 remarking on the amount of needless suffering inflicted on the 

 Elephant by the inexperience of the sportsman in not striking 

 the animal's head where the bullet will penetrate the brain, 

 thus not only ensuring instant death but also the safety of the 

 destroyer. As an illustration, it is easy to cite from numerous 

 records, and accounts of the unnecessary sufferings entailed on 

 these creatures may be found in Von Hohnel's ' Discovery of 

 Lakes Budolf and Stefanie,' or in Andersson's ' Okavango Biver,' 

 compared with the more skilful and effectual slaying described 

 by Mr. Faulkner in his ' Elephant Haunts.' Dr. Junker quotes 

 Westendorp to the effect that the enormous destruction of Ele- 

 phants to supply the civilized world with ivory is shown by the 

 calculation that in the twenty years from 1856 to 1876 Africa 

 supplied Europe on an average with 1,500,000 lb. of ivory 

 annually, besides 250,000 lb. exported to India, and about 

 150,000 lb. to America, representing altogether at least 51,000 

 Elephants.! Mr. Scott Elliot, in East Africa, describes the 

 game as still abundant between Languru and the Kikuyu bush, 



* ' Eight Months in an Ox Waggon,' p. 106. 



f ' Geographical Journal,' vol. vii. p. 374. 



X 'Travels in Africa, 1875-8,' Eng. Transl., p. 304. 



