Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/409

Rh is very seldom seen now in the Upper Shire. It is only a few years ago that these animals rendered navigation by boat positively dangerous on the Shire between Katunga and Chiromo, and there have been many boats upset and much cargo lost through their attacks. Crocodiles seem to be as numerous as ever, and in all parts of the river carry off numbers of people annually.

in Natal draws the attention of the 'Daily Chronicle' to a point interesting to naturalists. In a lagoon of the river Umgeni, six miles from Durban, there remain, he says, a number of Hippopotami, which, saving a few in Zululand, are the last "Sea-cows" left in British South Africa. They are preserved by a game law of 1891 as "royal game," and permission to shoot them can only be obtained from the Natal Government between May 1st and August 15th. But the herd devastates the plantations of Messrs. Townsend Brothers, who have asked the Government to put up a fence which will cost £740. This the Government declines to do. It is certainly hard that the Hippos should be preserved at the cost of a private firm, and if the Natal Ministry is anxious, as it declares, to preserve them, the cost of a substantial fence, or in the alternative the employment of watchmen, ought not to stand in the way. A herd of Hippos ranging even for one night in a plantation would damage hundreds of pounds' worth, and destroy a hundred times as much as they eat, and if a fence is required for the preserve it ought not to be difficult to get the money voted for the enclosure of a permanent breeding ground. The correspondent, however, raises a larger question. He "advocates the formation on the high veld of a permanent enclosed game preserve, in which might be kept some specimens of the Giraffe and other of the rare and rapidly disappearing South African fauna. In four or five, or at the most ten years, it will be too late to attempt the formation of such a park, as there will be none of the larger game left, and as the country gets settled, land will become more difficult of acquirement. Unless something is done quickly, where will South African animals be got for our menageries and zoological gardens?"

The Durban correspondent of 'South Africa' is quite hopeful on this matter. He writes:—"As this is near the election, the fencing will be undertaken, and the ministry will remain in office!"

records that Prof. Rudolf Leuckart, the renowned German zoologist, has been made a Knight of the Order pour le Mérite in Science and Art by the German Emperor.