The sun., 1908-06-21
BIG GAME FOR ROOSEVELT
LIONS, LEOPARDS, ELEPHANTS
AWAIT HIM IN AFRICA.

HhtnOccrOSe5 HVoFCc-NUtcaOpUS, Nc
bras and BabOons Plentifui-aIsybe He
VIII Discover Beasts Now Unknown.
When President Roosevelt retires from
office, he says. he will 60 to Africa to make
his strenuous personality felt among the
big game Of that continent. He announces
that IL is his ambition to secure with his
own rife a specimen of each species OF
Afrioa's big fauna. This 10 an ambitious
project and will be had to carry out.
Famous hunters have gone to the email
territory where the okapi browsee In the
svamps In the darkness and hides In dense
thiokets in the hours OF daylight. but very
few have been so fortunate as to bag one Of
these elusive animals.
In tho President sangulne that he will
bring home tho skin Of white rhinocerosp
The fact that one was killed recently was
thought worth telegraphing all over the
world. Less than century ago the white
rhinoceros was living In large numbers
from South Africa to the Sahara, but dso-
sdes now pass without one being killed.
There is not q specimen Of white rhinoc-
eros In many Of the largest museums. II
Mr.. Roosevelt can bring one homo alive 1t
will be worth small fortune to him.
In one OF his books Mr.. Roosevelt Gays:
THE most striking and melancholy fact
In connection with American big game
Ia the rapdity with which 1t has vanished"
Il IA also regrettable that the same process
Of the rapid elimination Of big game has
long gone on In Africa.
Needessly sensational views on this
subject arc widespread. Mr.. Sohillings.
-. k,o,o,. md hpnfar of
Afrioas big game. 10 an alarmist on this
subject Big game has already been ex-
terminated. especially in parts OF South
Africa, but the fact is that the nations OF
no other continent have ever done more
than is now being done in Africa to save
these animals. Some varieties Of splendid
creatures have utterly disappeared. but
there 10 now little danger that any more
Of them will be exterminated.
No mercy Ia shown to lions. leopards
and few others that kill man and destroy
his livestock. AL the African Governments
permit them to be- killed any time and any
where. Their eventual fate will be to
produce their kind only in captivity.
Practically all other big game will CON-
tinue to flourish as well as they can on
reservations. where they may live under
natural conditions and be very much what
thew always have been. excepting that
they will grow tanner. They will OF course
cease to have a continental range. as man
appropriates more and moro OF Africa
TO his economic purposes. That in the
history Of big game in all lands. and it is
inexorable and inevitable.
But unbridled slaughter Is practically
80 ha ont 70
even restricting the number Of rhinoceroses
and hppopotami that hunter may kill
in one season.
We have yet much to learn about many
Of the important animals OF Africa. Doubt
less there are not few Of which we have
never heard.
A sensation was caused in recent years
by the discovery of the okapi. beautiful
animal with some Of the physical charao-
teristics both Of the horse and the giraffe.
When Boyd Alexander crossed Nigeria
and the Sudan between the Niger and the
Nile three years ago he discovered eighteen
specimens Of mammalia that were new to
science. Schillings. in the overhunted
regions Of British and German East Africa.
has found several species unknown till he
brought them to light. There will be more
such discoveries
The regions rich in big game In Africa
that are still untouched by hunters are
enormous. There are various reasons for
this, One is that the great Nimrods have
gone preferably to those parts Of Africa
which are easiest OF access and where good
health may best be maintained. SO South
Africa has been hunted nearly to DEATH
and the same ruthless destruction would
befall British East Africa II 1t were not for
the game laws that are now In force.
The vast regions OF Nigeria, the north
part Of the French Congo and the basin Of
the great Shari River are naturally para
disc for hunters, abounding in the finest
game Of all kinds. with a seemingly mex
ksustible supply. But until recently the
fanatical native Governments would have
killed any white poacher upon their pre-
serves. and to-day. under white regulation.
there can be little reckless slaughter.
There has been little uncontrolled shoot
Ing in any OF the great regions dominated
by France. The French themselves are not
surprising hunters, and 1t has been the
policy Of France on the whole to keep the
hunters OF other nations out OF its African
territories on the ground that the French
Government would be held responsible
for their safety and it declined to assume
the responsibility.
The big hunters who have penetrated
the wonderful game region Of East Africa
south Of Abyssinia may almost be counted
on ones fingers. Thus there are vast vir-
gin fields where hunting will be regulated
under the present enlightened and Co
operative policies OF the colonial Govern
ments.
The game laws in these colonies to be sure
are often violated. Great regions are not
yet entirely polced and both whites and
natives sometimes incur the risk Of paying
the penalty for transgreseing the law. The
great fact Is that the prevalent influence Is
against excessive slaughter and the evil
u being more and more abated.
Mr.. Schillings says in his latest book that
'our only clue to the extent OF the slaughter
ing Of elephants now being carried on Is
furnished by the immense quantity Of ivory
that comes on the markets" The quantity
Of ivory sent to market is not. however, an
accurate index, as Schilings intimates, to
the number Of elephants slaughtered, be-
cause for years past enormous quantities
OF it have been what is known as dead ivory
that had accumulated in the hands OF the