ANCIENT EGYPTIAN REPRESENTATIONS OF GIRAFFES AND OTHER ANIMALS. (THE BIRD AT THE TOP ON THE LEFT IS PLAINLY RECOGNISABLE AS THE SHOE-BILLED STORK--_BALAENICEPS REX_. NOW IT SEEMS ONLY TO BE FOUND IN THE MARSHES OF THE UPPER NILE. I HAVE TO THANK PROFESSOR HOMMEL OF MUNICH FOR THESE ILLUSTRATIONS, WHICH ARE TAKEN FROM “MONUMENTS ET MÉMOIRES DE L’ACADÉMIE DES INSCRIPTIONS ET BELLES LETTRES.”)] [Illustration: SKETCHES OF ANIMALS MADE BY THE BUSHMEN. (DISCOVERED IN SOUTH AFRICA BY PROFESSOR G. FRITSCH IN THE ‘SIXTIES, AND REPRODUCED BY HIS KIND PERMISSION.)] But what a difference in drawing and technique has come about in less than a hundred years! One need only compare the pictures of those times with the works of our own days, to be convinced that, besides artistic execution, there is now an increasingly exacting demand for the precise truth. Indeed, one of the first points to be insisted on is that photographic pictures _shall not be altered, worked up--in word, in any way “retouched.”_ Only on this condition can they really claim to be--that which in a special sense they ought to be--_true to nature, absolutely trustworthy “nature-documents.”_ This distinguishes the photograph from works of art executed by the hand of man, which must conform to each individual conception of the artist. It is a hard saying that the modern cultured man is becoming, continually more and more estranged from nature. But in this matter let us take the standpoint of the optimist, who says to himself that there must be a reaction--a conscious, deliberate return, which indeed will represent the result of the highest stage of culture. There is an increasing perception of the existence in our home landscape of an ideal worth, that we have not yet been able sufficiently to estimate. To-day already there is a movement on all sides, and the demand is heard, ever stronger and clearer, for the protection of the beauties of nature. We must protect Nature in the widest sense of the word. And even if, in the stern progress of evolving civilisation, much that remains in the treasury of primitive nature must be destroyed, we shall be able long to preserve and rejoice in much else. [Illustration: A SMALL HERD OF FEMALE BLACK-TAILED ANTELOPES RUNNING AWAY THROUGH HIGH GRASS.]