ng
before me was almost incredible! There, within the range of my vision
were groups of roan, sable and tsessebi antelopes, Burchell zebras, [now
totally extinct!] elands, reedbucks, steinbucks and ostriches. It was
like Africa in the days of Livingstone. As I sat on my horse, viewing
with amazement this wonderful panorama of wild life, I was startled by a
herd that came galloping around a small hill just behind me."--("_On the
South African Frontier_," p. 114.)

That was in 1890. And how is it to-day?

Salisbury is a modern city, endorsed by two lines of railway. The Gwibi
Flats are farms. There is some big game yet, in Rhodesia south of the
Zambesi, but to find it you must go at least a week's journey from the
capital, to the remote corners that have not yet been converted into
farms or mining settlements. North of the Zambesi, Rhodesia yet contains
plenty of big game. The Victoria Falls station is a popular starting
point for hunting expeditions headed northeast and northwest. In the
northwest the game is yet quite in a state of nature. Unfortunately the
Barotse natives of that region can procure from the Portuguese traders
all the firearms and ammunition that they can pay for, and by treaty
they retain their hunting rights. The final result will
be--extermination of the game.

Elsewhere throughout Rhodesia the natives are not permitted to have guns
and gunpowder,--a very wise regulation. In Alaska our Indians are
privileged to kill game all the year round, and they have modern
firearms with which to do it.

And how is it with the game of that day?

The true Burchell's zebra is now regarded as _extinct_! In Cape Colony
and Natal, that once teemed with big game in the old-fashioned African
way, they are _counting the individual wild animals that remain_! Also,
they are making game preserves, literally everywhere.

Now that the best remaining game districts of Africa are rapidly coming
under British control, it is a satisfaction to observe that the
governing bodies and executive officers are alive to the necessity of
preserving the big game from actual extinction. Excepting German East
Africa, from Uganda to Cape Colony the game preserves form an almost
continuous chain. It is quite impossible to enumerate all of them; but
the two in British East Africa are of enormous size, and are well
stocked with game. South Africa contains a great many smaller preserves
and a few specimen herds of big game, but that is abou