Bibliographical Notices, 335 



under the range of works which should be noticed in the * Annals,' 

 but as the author tells us that " both from education and taste," he 

 *' possessed an ardent desire to contribute his mite to the geography 

 and natural history of the countries" he " was about to explore ;" and 

 that there are interspersed through the work anecdotes of several 

 rare animals, which though not written for the naturalist are ex- 

 tremely interesting to him ; we have thought it worth while to bring 

 it under the notice of our readers. Capt. Harris seems to have been 

 born a sportsman, possessing the bump of destructiveness in its fullest 

 development. At a very early age (16) he received a commission in 

 the army in India, where he was " entered" at the Lion and Tiger 

 of the East : but not satisfied with the gorgeous scenery and abun- 

 dant game which this continent produced ; hankering after the tales 

 of travellers in the plains of Southern Africa, and considering that 

 country as the " fairy land of sport," the " hunter's paradise," he 

 took advantage of a banishment to the Cape of Good Hope by the 

 Medical Board, to project a realization of his young dreams of the 

 interior ; and, having found a brother sportsman, they set out upon 

 their expedition with a retinue of horses, oxen, wagons, and Hot- 

 tentots for Graham's Town, travel by Kuruman or New Litakoo 

 to the residence of Moselekatse the Matabili chief, penetrate still 

 northward to the river Limpopo, and return again to the colony 

 by the route of the Vaal river. The volume is pleasantly written, and 

 carries on both the sportsman and naturalist. Some of the descrip- 

 tions of scenery are beautifully sketched ; and if some of the hunting 

 scenes seem as if coloured with a sportsman's licence, and the rifle is 

 used with Kentucky precision, we can excuse the enthusiasm which 

 prompted the tale, and knowing the feelings which excite the com- 

 paratively puny European sportsman, who has hooked and mas- 

 tered his first twenty-five or thirty pound Salmon, or sees his first 

 red Deer fall in the glens of Athol or the wild forests of Ross, we 

 can join with the " tingling excitement" experienced when gallop- 

 ing side by side with the " Swan-necked Giraffe," and the "burst- 

 ing exultation" when looking down on the first noble prize he had 

 won. 



To the naturalist the volume is interesting as detailing different 

 traits in the habits of several of the rarer Antelopes, It confirms 

 the remarkable manner in which many of the species are restricted, 

 as it were almost by a line, within certain boundaries, and the 

 incredible troops in which they migrate and are spread over the in- 

 terior, where the arrows and pitfalls or traps of the natives, and 

 the ravages of the larger Felince are as nothing compared with the 



