The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-02
THE SKINS OF WILD BEASTS
DISAPPEARING FROM LEATHER
TRADE SUPPLY.

DloAIIEAhANG FhOM LEATHEH
TRADE SUPPLY.
Creatures Killed Not for Food but Simply
for Their Hides-The Practice Pursued In
Africa.
The last few years have seen a mark
ed disappearance from the leather in
dustry of a form of supply which
should never have reached the dimen-
sions it attained-the hides of count
less wild beasts. No one grudges to
the purposes of trade the hides of the
alligator or the shark, still less those
of domesticated animals or of big game
killed for food. But for more than
twenty years there have come to the
markets of America and Europe hun
dreds of thousands of hides, destined
from the commonest commercial uses,
stripped from wild animals which have
been killed for the value of the hide
alone. Whole species have been, butch
cred to the last individual to make shoe
leather
To say which country has been the
greatest offender would be difficult
There is not much room for distinction
between the skin hunters of North
America, South Africa, or Australia,
But in the former country at least the
state governments are adopting Wig
orous measures to stop this repulsive
| industry, and by limiting the number
| of deer which may be killed by individ-
| uals, prevent such destructive waste Of
| animal life We wish that these laws
could be extended to all British de-
| tendencies.
Wherever big game has entirely dis
appeared from districts where it form
| erly abounded, and wherever whole
| species have been exterminated, the
mischief has in nearly every case been
| done not to procure food, but solely to
| obtain the creatures skins. 1t is not
| the big-game hunter, or the savage, or
even the agriculturist, who destroys
the creatures, but the Skin hunter. -
1
| and relentless enemy of animal life has
always appeared with the regularity of
| some recurring plague, and made it his
business to destroy every creature larg-
| er than q hare. The advent of the skin
hunters takes place at particular pc
Rod of development in recent settle
ments. He is never among the early
| pioneers, but is a kind of parasite in
| half-occupied territories, often intense
| ly disliked by the resident squatters,
as he destroys the game on which they
partly depend, though he sometimes
| succeeds in converting these to his own
evil ways.
In South Africa, for instance, the ear
ly Boer settlers, like the early pioneers
| of North America, killed the antelopes
| for meat and used their skins for cloth
ing. They ate the venison, and from the
hides they made suits of leather
"shamoyed," not tanned-supple, soft
and comfortable garments, well suit
ed for the life on the veldt. The num-
Der of animals killed was limited by
their own personal needs and those OF
their families About 1850 the Beers
learned that the myriads of antelope
quagga, and zebra which wandered
over the plains had a marketable value
other than as food or supplying leather
hunting shirts. The skin hunters
taught them that though the bodies OF
the creatures might be left to rot or
the veldt, the hides, not tanned OIL
dressed, but merely stripped from the
body, were marketable, to supply the
European demand for leather. The sup.
ply was just sufficiently opened up tt
have arrived at the stage at which The
business of the skin hunter pays
Freight is high, but not too high, an6
though hides of countless cattle anC
sheep may be had for little enough IL
the settled districts, the skins of thu
wild animals cost nothing at all excep
the value of powder and shot. Ever
this was economical in South Africa
1.-THE Beers of the pastoral republic be
came perfect adopts at skin hunting,
writes Mr.. Dryden. "They put in jus
sufficient powder to drive the missil,
home, and carefully cut out their bull
lets for use on future occasions. 81
lately as 1876, when I first wandered il
Cape Colony, well remember the wa
gon coming down from the Free Stat,
and Transvaal loaded up with nothing
but the skins of blesbok, wildebeest
and springbok.
!, This miserable system of skin hunt
ing has been, and still is where an!
game remains, pursued in all nativ
. states of South Afica. Between 1856
and 1875 it is certain that some millions
of these animals must have been de
/. stroyed in the Transvaal and Orang
Free State. The slaughter was so pro
digious, and the variety of wild animal
so great, in these wild regions of Soutl
, Afica that the result made sensibl
difference in the leather industry o
Europe. The markets were filled wit
skins which, when tanned, gave leathe
of a quality and excellence neve
known before, but the origin of which
| as the material was still sold under oil
names, purchasers never suspected
Hides of the zebra and quagga arrive
in tens of thousands, and good as hors
hide is for the uppers of first-clas
! boots, these were even better. Smar
| Englishmen for years wore boots tn
J uppers of which were made of zebr
and quagga skin, or from the hides o
t Glands, oryx, and gemsbok disguishe
, under the names of "calf" or patente
: lea theirs.