The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-10
DETERMINATION OF BEASTS.

Shooting Not the Only Cause.-The
 Presence of Civilized Man Harmful
 There is a revival of wholesale excite
 ment in South Africa over the disap-
 pearance of big game" Perhaps it
 was caused by the recent report of mul-
 titudes of antelopes flying before the
 advance Of our troops and massacred at l the blockhouses. We are assured at
 least that something is to be done. and
 that strict and drastic measure is
 demanded. The agricultural depart | ment of the Transvaal is going to es- l tablish number of experimental 1 farms. and it is proposed that on each
 of them a camp" shall be formed and
 set apart for the breeding of certan
 species-the young to be turned loose
 apparently when old enough to take
 care of themselves. This seems very
 practical notion in theory but expert
 ence suggests doubt Wild animals
 do not breed freely when thus fenced ih probably because they are distracted by
 the consciousness Of human beings in the neighborhood And the young pro- uuced are apt to be rickety,
 But it appears that the Transvaal has Geological society, which, of course, takes deep interest in the matter. It is urging the government to proclaim the Sabi Reserve an involate asylum for wild beasts--lions and leopards except
 ed, probly, If the district known as the
 Sabi Reserve be a native settlement
 At any rate. it may be hoped that the
 matter will be taken seriously in hand
 IL IS already too late to save certain
 species, but all of these excepting per
 haps the true zebra, might be restared
 by importing specimens from the north
 Fifty years ago even the possibility that ''trekking antelopes' like the springbok might be exterminated would
 have been dismissed as joke. But al- ready there were warnings enough. When the first diggers reached Dutoit- span 1t was not unreasonable for them to keep a lookout for ostriches as they rode over the veldt on holidays The | farmer whose lands they had invaded | showed feathers and eggs of his own | taking; but he confessed that they were ] several years old. The first corners also | might have hunted wildebeest and | hartebeest If they could spare the time; | but within twelve months it became ne- cessary to travel thirty miles, and there | the herds are small and few. The only | trees in the neighborhood excepting | two were kameeldorns-and those two | must surely have been planted by the hrst settlers, whose cabins they over hung. But the seed of the kameeldorn will not germinate naturally unless it has been swallowed by giraffe, and there was not so much as a tradition of that animal within circuit Of hun dred miles. The first surveyor of claims appointed by the Cape govern ment. the famous traveller and hunter, MT Bain, used to tell how he had once seen elephants to the number of five thousand, at a rough computation, all in view at the same time when dis turbed by a great Kaffir drive. But the first diggers still had antelopes of the common species in plenty. Thousands of springbok dotted the veldt. They ] were thicker thirty years ago than sheep will ever be in that poor soil At the present time we hear living springhok in those parts is curiosity.
 It is not only shooting which exter- inmates big game. At the diamond fields, for instance, very few men vast ed time in hunting, and those who did were not very successful. Antelope flesh, even springbok, would have been welcome, but it could scarcely be found. Carcasses were sold occasionally in the market square, but they had been brought by Boers with fruit and vege- on the way, perhaps It Is the presence of civilized man which lrives wild animals away and gradually destroys them. That is a standing dift- oulty with preserves. There was a hopeful chorus of applause when the government of the United States pur- chased the Yellowstone region as an asylum for native birds and beasts. Almost every one believed that they 1 were safe henceforward thriving and ] in that vast Zoo" But it S understood that they do not multi ply, nor even thrive, as they should. The public, naturally, will not be ex- 'luded from a district remarkable for he interest and beauty of the scenery; | md of course they want to see the 1 launts of their wild pets--even the oets themseNes--if possible. But in hat case, it is alleged they too often 'Xpress their qualification by throwing tones. So far therefore, the Yellow tone Park does not answer it's intended purpose. reserve for wild animals which is intersected by coach roads, lotted with hotels, and favored by pie lie parties, is doomed to failure, howev- r large it be.
 They would hn n tT. a a On in ocpC | nore judiciously in South Africa, no oubt. One reserve has been main- aimed there for generations It is not commonly known that a herd of ele- 'hants exists in Cape Colony, and has xisted from the first. For a hundred ears it has been protected; royal