THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
the minimum number of African elephants now annually slain must 
amount to at least 50,000. 
Vast as are the areas throughout which elephants are still plentiful in 
Africa, it seems impossible to believe that the annual birth-rate amongst 
these slow-breeding animals can amount to 50,000; and since in all British 
possessions elephants are now so well protected by law that they can 
hardly be on the decrease, there must be some other territories in which 
the destruction of these animals must be very considerable. So immense, 
however, are the areas of country in which elephants still exist in very 
large numbers, that a long time will probably elapse before these animals 
can be in any danger of general extinction; and as the extermination of 
so wonderful and highly specialized a creature as the African elephant, 
merely for the value of its tusks, would not only be an irreparable loss to 
the world, but also a disgrace to the name of civilization, it is, I think, 
probable that sooner or later certain districts will be set aside in every 
part of Africa, under the administration of the representatives of the 
various European Powers, within the boundaries of which elephants will 
be protected from all molestation. Such elephant reserves must in fairness 
to the natives be placed in uninhabited districts, as protected elephants 
soon lose all fear of human beings who are not allowed to defend themselves 
against their depredations, and become very disagreeable and dangerous 
neighbours to agricultural communities. 
It may not be generally known that in the Addo bush district, in the 
Eastern Province of the Cape Colony, wild elephants still roam at large in 
considerable numbers. Colonization and civilization have swept all round 
and far beyond this isolated herd; and railway lines, towns and villages 
have been built, north, south, east and west of the wild tract of thorn 
jungle and scrubby bush which was given over to them as a sanctuary 
many years ago by the Cape Government. 
These elephants of the Addo bush are said to number about a hundred 
all told. They are, of course, strictly protected, but from time to time a 
few are shot to keep their numbers within limits; and, according to general 
belief, this is a difficult and dangerous enterprise, as, owing to the general 
immunity from persecution which they have so long enjoyed, these Cape 
Colony elephants have conceived a great contempt for human beings, and 
are most savage and dangerous when interfered with. 
With the exception of the elephants in the Cape Colony, one solitary old 
bull, which I believe still survives in the game reserve in Zululand, and a 
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