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and Boyle; the Letters of Thackeray and Disraeli, among the number; and there are countless 'women who have kept a diary." Has not Mark Twain insisted on "The Diary of Adam and Eve"?

Sandwich, "on the other side Lockhart, Moore, Hawthorne, of the Styx," is made to swear because the champagne was not iced, and the ghostly innkeeper "shook his head very sadly and said, 'No ices here, no ices here.' Nor should we neglect his faculty for landscape painting: "Great banks of cloud lying along the southwest; all the rest clear. Not even the highest leaves of the trees moving. Snowberries seen against the azaleas with their leaves all red. Hill of Stonyley under the sunset. Song of the redbreast reminding us of Cornish's lines, quoted in the 'Christian Year' for for the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity."

To "men who have kept a diary" we owe a deep debt of gratitude. They take us behind the scenes of character and achievement. They carry on the apostolic succession of experience. Pepys was the friend of Evelyn. Swift in his youth might have seen Evelyn in his age; Walpole in his boyhood might have beheld Swift. Walpole wrote for the Berrys. The Berrys lived to know both JohnFrom Pepys to Grant-Duff son and Robinson. Grant-Duff what a distance! yet these records his meeting with the diaries bridge it over. Our latter. The continuity of life cursory pictures have been only thus popularises the uniformvignettes, and we have perforce ity of nature,-" Vitai lampada omitted many-Defoe's 'Tour,' Speaker Onslow, Eckermann,

tradunt."

W. SICHEL.

THE PRESERVATION OF AFRICAN ELEPHANTS.

FROM time to time during the last few years there have appeared in the Times' and other English papers letters dealing with the subject of the probable eventual extinction of the African elephant. Most of these urge that some steps should be taken to prevent it, but scarcely any practical suggestions have been made. Some propose that "sanctuaries" should be formed, in Somaliland or elsewhere, with the object of preserving elephants. All unite in deploring the fact that the African elephant is being killed for its ivory, and seem to be of opinion that its slaughter can be prevented by legislation in England.

There is evident in most of such correspondence a certain want of knowledge on the part of the writers as to the real state of the case. In some instances it is apparently assumed that the elephant is being directly exterminated by Europeans, and that heavy licences and fees would secure the desired object.

The actual fact is, that the African native throughout the continent, since the introduction of firearms, urged on by the high value of ivory in European markets, has slaughtered elephants wherever he could find them, regardless of size or of sex; and so long as ivory of all descriptions is a valuable trade article, elephants will continue to be indiscriminately killed,

until, in many portions of Africa, they will be totally exterminated.

In South Africa the case was somewhat different. Almost up to the Zambesi may be called a white man's country, and south of that river Europeans are to a great extent directly responsible for the extermination of elephants.

North of the Zambesi, the number shot by Europeans is trifling when compared with the quantities destroyed by natives.

To prevent wholesale slaughter, in the present condition of affairs in tropical Africa, is impossible, except in extremely restricted districts. There is probably no portion of the country which we have a better hold upon, and in which natives are more under control, than the British Central Africa Protectorate. Yet even within this comparatively small area it is found difficult to prevent the indiscriminate killing of elephants by natives. Africans seldom inform against one another in matters of this kind, and in spite of all regulations and precautions it not unfrequently happens that elephants are killed even close to Government stations without knowledge of the fact reaching official ears till long afterwards, if at all.

When, therefore, it is found so difficult to take this matter in hand, in a portion of Africa which is now comparatively full

Sandwich, "on the other side of the Styx," is made to swear because the champagne was not iced, and the ghostly innkeeper "shook his head very sadly and said, 'No ices here, no ices here."" Nor should we neglect his faculty for landscape painting: "Great banks of cloud lying along the southwest; all the rest clear. Not even the highest leaves of the trees moving. Snowberries seen against the azaleas with their leaves all red. Hill of Stonyley under the sunset. Song of the redbreast reminding us of Cornish's lines, quoted in the 'Christian Year' for the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity."

From Pepys to Grant-Duff what a distance! yet these diaries bridge it over. Our cursory pictures have been only vignettes, and we have perforce omitted many-Defoe's 'Tour,' Speaker Onslow, Eckermann,

Lockhart, Moore, Hawthorne, and Boyle; the Letters of Thackeray and Disraeli, among the number; and there are countless "women who have kept a diary." Has not Mark Twain insisted on "The Diary of Adam and Eve"?

To "men who have kept a diary" we owe a deep debt of gratitude. They take us behind the scenes of character and achievement. They carry on the apostolic succession of experience. Pepys was the friend of Evelyn. Swift in his youth might have seen Evelyn in his age; Walpole in his boyhood might have beheld Swift. Walpole wrote for the Berrys. The Berrys lived to know both Johnson and Robinson. Grant-Duff records his meeting with the latter. The continuity of life thus popularises the uniformity of nature,-“ Vitai lampada tradunt."

W. SICHEL.

THE PRESERVATION OF AFRICAN ELEPHANTS.

6

FROM time to time during the last few years there have appeared in the Times' and other English papers letters dealing with the subject of the probable eventual extinction of the African elephant. Most of these urge that some steps should be taken to prevent it, but scarcely any practical suggestions have been made. Some propose that "sanctuaries" should be formed, in Somaliland or elsewhere, with the object of preserving elephants. All unite in deploring the fact that the African elephant is being killed for its ivory, and seem to be of opinion that its slaughter can be prevented by legislation in England.

There is evident in most of such correspondence a certain want of knowledge on the part of the writers as to the real state of the case. In some instances it is apparently assumed that the elephant is being directly exterminated by Europeans, and that heavy licences and fees would secure the desired object.

The actual fact is, that the African native throughout the continent, since the introduction of firearms, urged on by the high value of ivory in European markets, has slaughtered elephants wherever he could find them, regardless of size or of sex; and so long as ivory of all descriptions is a valuable trade article, elephants will continue to be indiscriminately killed,

until, in many portions of Africa, they will be totally exterminated.

In South Africa the case was somewhat different. Almost up to the Zambesi may be called a white man's country, and south of that river Europeans are to a great extent directly responsible for the extermination of elephants. North of the Zambesi, the number shot by Europeans is trifling when compared with the quantities destroyed by natives.

To prevent wholesale slaughter, in the present condition of affairs in tropical Africa, is impossible, except in extremely restricted districts. There is probably no portion of the country which we have a better hold upon, and in which natives. are more under control, than the British Central Africa Protectorate. Yet even within this comparatively small area it is found difficult to prevent the indiscriminate killing of elephants by natives. Africans seldom inform against one another in matters of this kind, and in spite of all regulations and precautions it not unfrequently happens that elephants are killed even close to Government stations without knowledge of the fact reaching official ears till long afterwards, if at all.

When, therefore, it is found so difficult to take this matter in hand, in a portion of Africa which is now comparatively full

of Government stations, it may readily be surmised that there is a very poor chance of our being able to protect in any way elephants throughout thousands of square miles which are practically free from control.

With regard to sanctuaries, Nature has provided, in certain parts of Africa, sanctuaries better than any we could form in Somaliland, which accomplish more than any artificial sanctuary could do. Vast portions of the Congo basin, dense forest country, are practically a natural sanctuary, and elephants will, no doubt, continue to be fairly plentiful in that part of Africa long after they have been exterminated from more healthy and open parts.

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There would be no great difficulty experienced in forming sanctuaries of quite limited areas, dots on the map of Africa,― provided funds were forthcoming for the necessary (heavy) expenditure. There is, indeed, such a sanctuary within a few miles of Port Elizabeth in South Africa, in the Knysna forest, where a large herd of elephants are protected and roam unmolested, 1500 miles distant from the nearest spot where any other wild elephants are found. In the British Central Africa Protectorate there is a district, on the Shiré river, known as the "Elephant Marsh," which up to 1889 was frequented by large numbers of elephants. This has now been formed into a game sanctuary; the elephants which left it in 1889 (or the remnants of the herds) are now again commencing to return, and it is hoped

that before long a large herd will become established there. While, however, such preserves are interesting, it would be futile to suppose that they can have any appreciable effect with regard to the main question of preventing the wholesale slaughter of elephants in Africa.

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"Sanctuaries of reasonable extent, moreover, are very expensive affairs—that is, if game within their limits is to be thoroughly protected. To proclaim a district a sanctuary is of no avail unless the necessary measures are taken to effectually guard against molestation by natives or Europeans.

Now that the recent successful campaign on the Nile has assured the speedy development of the Sudan, Khartoum will doubtless become before long a market for large quantities of ivory from the Equatorial provinces, Bahr el Ghazal, Wadai, Darfur, and the regions west and south of Abyssinia; and it becomes increasingly necessary that some practical steps be taken throughout Africa with a view to a proper system for the the protection of small elephants, and especially of the females. If we really wish honestly to take in hand this question, some course must be adopted more far-reaching in its effects than the establishment of a few small preserves, or parks, here and there in the more civilised parts of the continent. We must, in fact, go

to the root of the matter. It would not be possible, nor would it be at all desirable, to do away with the value of

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