54 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, iSgt. 
let it pass. The publio tools an intcrost, however, 
in fish, and that ptoduot also is threatened . Year 
by year the trawlers seek now ground , and still 
the price rises. They have cleared our coasts so 
far that dshormen themselves, the least nervous 
of mortals, and not the most intelligent, demand 
protection, to save their industry from collapse. 
It is not worth while to speak cf oysttrs. All 
the world knows that our (amoua “ natives " have 
vanished, and miscellaneous foreign species occupy 
their beds. For (he daily supply of lobsters we 
depend on *ScanditiaviB eked out by America ; how 
long these will last is a matter for calculation. 
Such inland waters as are open to the publio 
have been cleared of big lish long ago, and the 
continual replenishments scarcely keep pace with 
the multiplication of anglers. Ho desperate we grow 
that perilous dr-signs of nooliraatization are wel- 
comed. The black baas of America, the silurus 
of Southern Kurope, will be turned down shortly 
in our narrow Btrraras and tiny lakes, where 
assuredly, if they themselves give fport they 
will kill oft all the natives. A pastime which 
some of us remember with esproial delight 
“tiekling.' or ‘‘grappling.” is forbidden by law 
with reason enough under the circumstances. 
Like its rival in the memory of veterans, birds’- 
nesting, it had to be suppresed for the ‘‘ preserva- 
tion of the species.” Country lads find more 
blameless sports now, perhaps. So we must hoiie, 
But the pursuit of Lepidoptera is not for all, and 
there are still myriads of boys who can rarely 
enjoy a game at cricket in the holidays. They 
sulTer by the clearing out of wild ereatutes which 
have amused every generation of English youth. 
And the (nrmere sutler also. Eagles, kites, buz- 
zards, and bustards have gone. Owls and hawks 
are following. While wo write, Parliament is debat- 
ing whether or no it is worth while to arrest 
the extermination of bares. 
The rnmanoe of the uriverse will ho eclipsed 
when wild leasts disappear; and the time draws on. 
Professor Langley, whom we have quoted, makes a 
strong appeal lor tho preservation of such as still 
survive in North America. May it be sucoessful ; 
but we fear. Close seasons may bo appointed, and 
hunting parties may be forbidden. But the area of 
cultivation will spread, and settlers will still be 
armed with weapons more and more and more 
deadly. The same process is going on everyw^liero 
Startling it is to learn, for those who knew South 
Africa but twenty years ago, how far a man must 
travel beyond the Orange River to find even epnng- 
bok— an antelope which he remembers covering the 
veldt in thousand as ho drove northwards from tho 
Karoo The zebra alone appears to be actually 
lost • but all other species which were prized in Capo 
Colo’nv are represented by a lew specimens here and 
there Government is roused, and some landowners 
nreservo strictly. Bht as men multiply they will 
have land, and they cannot be prevented from shoot, 
ing game to eat. Already there Is an agitation to do 
away 
with the Reserve at TJitonage, where tho last 
survivors of the elephant is South Africa find a 
narrow home. It may snooecd presently ; but before 
those naohyderm vanish they may also have outlived 
thr^ndrod beyond the frontier. As peace is os- 
tab Uhed in Central Africa population will grow, 
and ?n defence of their crops the waB« 
war upon tho moat destructive of all a"‘«>^-puU- 
ing ivory and ‘ sport " aside. The hippopotamus 
the rhinoceros, which do not seek the shelter 
of dense forests, will even predecease the elephant. 
Buffalo will last longer, no doubt ; but the antelopes, 
all of which haunt pasture-land, and are all food, 
will not hold their own so long. And tho great 
(eUcbB must 8*^ them. 
It is the same in Asia, Elephants have been pre- 
served for a good many years now in the Indian 
and Cingalese jungles, where they still exist, But 
these jungles narrow continually. Tho Census re- 
turns published a few days ago show an incroase of 
twenty-two million souls, the vast majority of whom 
belong to the agricultural class. They euoroacb on 
tho forests and tho waste lands year by year. 
It is oultivatioo, not slaughter, which thins wild 
beasts. There is a pathetic passage in Sir Samuel 
Barki r's recent work. He tells of a visit paid — 
in 1878, if wo remember rightly — to the hunting 
grounds of his youth in Ceylon. Not a head of 
gsmo could he find in districts which teemed with 
deer and buffalo thirty years before. Thirty 
years hence, so far as wo can see, big game will 
be extinct in Ceylon. 
It is all for the best, no doubt. Wild beasts have 
beoome a sort of annobronism all over a woild full 
of beasts that are not ostensibly wild. But some- 
thing of interest will vanish from human life when 
they are lost. Inorcaso and multiply and rephnish 
the earth ia a divine oommsnd, but in fulfilling 
our destiny faster and faster, we seem to be exter- 
minating the beautiful. Nor ia it by any moans 
assured that Nature will not exact oompensation. 
But a month ago one would have declared with 
absolute ootifidenoe that the ottinotlon of alligators 
would be a blessing unmixed. Not a redeeming 
virtue of any kind do those brutes possess, we 
thought, and all who know them had been rejoi- 
cing to hear that the demand for alligator leather 
threatened their existence. But now wo learn that 
the waning of their numbers is spreading panic in 
Florida. The musk rat increases so fast that 
riversido idantations have been ruined. And the 
danger grows more serious month by month. An 
aot has been hurried through the Legislature, im- 
posing a fine of one hundred dollars on the man 
who wilfully kills an alligator, under any oiroum- 
Btanoes, during the next three years. No stronger 
instance could be found of tho peril that attends 
human interference with tho system of Nature. — 
SatunUnj Review. 
ELEI’IIANT-OATCIIINO Ol’ERATlONS IN 
MADRAS. 
The success that has attended its elephant- 
oatohing operations has induced the Madras Forest 
Department to extend them. The o)<erations were 
inaugurated in North Malabar in 1881, since when 
the capture of elephants has been oontined to 
North and South Malabar and South Coimbatore. 
Thirty-one elephants have been captured, of which 
17 are now working ; one escaped ; one was sold, 
and tho remainder died. Of the last tho death 
of four are attributed to the gross ill-treatment 
and neglect of tho Forest subordinates, who have 
been brought to task and dismissed tho service, 
16 of the elephants were caught in North Malabar. 
1‘2 in South Malabar, and 3 in South Coimbatore. 
More elephants would have been taken in South 
Ooimbator, where operations only began last year, 
but lor the exoeptional dryness of tho season, 
owing to the failure of the South-West and North. 
East monsoons. The operations have been carried 
out under the supervision of the Forest Ollioera, 
Messrs. Morgan, Hadfleld and Porter, and great 
oredit is due to them. Tho pit system is the 
one employed for tho capture of elephants, for 
it ia oonsidered by those ollioera superior to tho 
khodda system, there being little or no risk of 
injury it suftioient prooautiona are taken and 
reliable men are told off for the work. The 
estimated cost of the capture of an elephant is 
