12 
THE PLEISTOCENE AGE [ch. i 
intellectual level of those well-meaning persons who 
apparently think that all shooting is wrong, and that 
man could continue to exist if all wild animals were 
allowed to increase unchecked. There must be recog¬ 
nition of the fact that almost any wild animal of the 
defenceless type, if its multiplication were unchecked, 
while its natural enemies—the dangerous carnivores— 
were killed, would by its simple increase crowd man off 
the planet; and of the further fact that, far short of 
such increase, a time speedily comes when the existence 
of too much game is incompatible with the interests, or, 
indeed, the existence, of the cultivator. As in most 
other matters, it is only the happy mean which is healthy 
and rational. There should be certain sanctuaries and 
nurseries where game can live and breed absolutely 
unmolested; and elsewhere the laws should, so far as 
possible, provide for the continued existence of the game 
in sufficient numbers to allow a reasonable amount of 
hunting on fair terms to any hardy and vigorous man 
fond of the sport, and yet not in sufficient numbers to 
jeopardize the interests of the actual settler, the tiller of 
the soil, the man whose well-being should be the prime 
object to be kept in mind by every statesman. Game 
butchery is as objectionable as any other form of wanton 
cruelty or barbarity ; but to protest against all hunting 
of game is a sign of softness of head, not of soundness 
of heart. 
In the creation of the great game reserve through 
which the Uganda Railway runs the British Govern¬ 
ment has conferred a boon upon mankind, and no less 
in the enactment and enforcement of the game laws in 
the African provinces generally. Of course, experience 
will show where, from time to time, there must be 
changes. In Uganda proper buffaloes and hippos 
