In Wildest Africa, Vol. 1Schillings, C. G. (Carl Georg)
History
In Wildest Africa, Vol. 1
Schillings, C. G. (Carl Georg)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Hunting -- Africa; Natural history -- Africa; Nature photography
Our most important task is now to obtain an accurate knowledge of the
fauna of foreign lands. For this purpose we must collect materials
which will render the study of this wild life of other lands possible
to our scientific institutions; which will place them in a position to
give to a wide public an idea of all these rich treasures, and thus
awaken an intelligent love for them in the hearts of the pioneers of
civilisation.
And then we must devise practicable measures of protection. This
is a wide field of labour. The hunter himself must take in hand
the intelligent preservation of the wild animals. The measures of
protection must be suited to the varying conditions of the wide hunting
grounds of foreign lands, and must not be considered only from the
stay-at-home point of view.
This is not to be done by mere laments over the extermination of wild
life, or even by merely putting limitations on the enjoyment of the
chase by the individual hunter. On the contrary, a beneficial result
can be obtained only by all European travellers in those countries
interchanging their experiences, collecting material, and exerting
themselves to the utmost and in concert to devise measures that will,
as far as may be, put a stop to the threatened extermination.
This is a great and noble task.
[Illustration: YOUNG GRANT’S GAZELLES ON A BLACK-BURNED STRETCH OF
VELT.]
IV
The Survivors
To learn to know anything with precision, to devote oneself to it
and master it in its smallest details, one must generally make its
study a labour of love. So the spread of more exact knowledge of
the manifestations of nature around us must go hand in hand with
the awakening of love for them and for the splendours they present
to our view. And with this increasing impulse towards research and
knowledge must come the desire to prevent as far as possible the rapid
destruction of fauna and flora. Public opinion, in truth, has begun to
range itself on the side of these much menaced glories of nature.
We have to observe and investigate. We have to get together some small
portion of the vast material that is often so uselessly squandered,
in order to employ it in the service of special branches of science,
and to make some closer knowledge of these things accessible to every
one. We have to establish great collections formed on a definite plan,
and everywhere to save as much material as possible for scientific and
educational purposes, so long as it can still be done. “If these ideas
could be brought home to the right quarters, millions would be made
available for this object,” writes one of the most learned specialists
in these matters. Our zoological gardens and museums are already doing
their best, but they are hampered by the want of pecuniary resources.
Whilst the largest sums are freely provided for the purchase of
antiquities, there is a dearth of means for doing what is necessary to
save the treasures of our vanishing fauna while there is still time!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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