This is the second report which Mr. E. P. Gee has made upon the situation of the wild life of Nepal. His first, restricted to the Great Indian Rhinoceros, was made in 1959 at the behest of the Survival Service Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

This visit took place from August to October, 1962, and its aim was threefold: first, to see and observe large African mammals in their natural environment; second, to visit places where research into the ecology and breeding biology of these animals is being carried out and, third, to become familiar with the conditions and requirements for field work in Africa.

In wild life affairs all licensing systems, be they the licensing of hunting, capture, sale of trophies, or anything else, should have the primary purpose of conservation. Assuming that any trade at all in wild animals is justifiable the country concerned should decide the maximum number of animals of each kind which it can spare and may then charge as much as possible for each of them. The basic purpose is to limit the number shot or captured to that which the stock can stand.

Manatees appear on the list of animals deemed by the Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature to be in danger of extermination. Fortunately they are not yet very high on the danger list, but are nevertheless in need of proper conservation. A study of these animals in British Guiana and neighbouring countries was therefore undertaken early in 1962 to investigate the problems involved in their use and protection. British Guiana was chosen for this study since it was believed still to have as large a stock of manatees as any country, and because helpful people there made possible the best use of the three months available. This paper is concerned primarily with the status of manatees, both as regards their present abundance and their possible economic uses. Other aspects of the work will be published elsewhere.

During the first world war all the bison in the Białowieża Forest were destroyed but a new chapter in the history of the species started in 1929 with the introduction of captive stock. An area of 500 acres in the forest was fenced and 70 acres of it deforested. Thirty-two bison were living in this closed reserve on 31st December, 1962.

Those with the enthusiasm and zeal for fauna preservation and conservation even yet, I believe, remain inadequately aware of the enormity of the human tide which sets against them. This essay is intended to help towards a fuller perspective, biologically frightening though it is.

Last October, Oryx published an article on the decimation of fauna in the Okavango Swamp country of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Now comes the story of the astonishing sequel.

The Orang-utan or Maias, Pongo pygmaeus, which lives only in the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, is one of the animals in greatest danger of extermination throughout the world. The threat comes from the demand for young captive orangs. These are normally obtained by shooting the mother, so that, remembering also the numbers of baby orangs which must be killed accidentally with their mothers or die in transit later from disease or undernourishment, it is reasonable to estimate that for every orang to reach its final destination in captivity, at least three perish.

An experimental research project is being carried out at Bako National Park in Sarawak to devise means by which young orphaned orang-utans can be re-established to wild living.

“ Gale warnings for sea areas Fastnet, Shannon, Rockall”—we all know the familiar phrase. But where is Fastnet, and what is it? It is a tiny lump of rock set in the Atlantic four miles beyond Cape Clear Island, which would otherwise be the southern tip of Ireland. Like “The Cape”, as the island is known locally, it was once part of a ridge of hills running south-west from somewhere near Skibbereen; but the land has sunk and been broken into a line of islands forming the south side of one of the “rias bays” of west Cork and Kerry.