SKETCH OF FREDERICK C, SELOUS. 263 



and dilapidated some of tlie specimens were, and liow many noLle 

 forms were not represented at all. He took note of what he ought 

 to get should he visit the interior of Africa again. I^ext we find 

 him in South Africa, not quiet on a farm as he had intended to be, 

 but in the wilderness, where he spent six years (1882—87) engaged 

 principally in collecting specimens " of the magnificent fauna which 

 once abounded throughout the land," but many forms of which 

 were now becoming scarce and some were verging on extinction. 

 He shot and preserved a great many fine sjDecimens of the larger 

 antelopes, some of which may be seen in the New Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensington, while others are in the collection 

 of the South African Museum at Cape Town. Besides the stories 

 of specimen hunting and adventures with the lions that are always 

 to be found where game is abundant, the volume contains much 

 matter of more general interest, such as notes of personal experi- 

 ences among the Boers; accounts of two expeditions sent against 

 the Batauweni by Lobengula; the devastations committed by the 

 Matabele in Mashonaland; valuable notes on the Bushmen or Ma- 

 sarwas; accoimts of journeys beyond the Zambezi to the countries 

 of the Machukulumbwi and Barotsi tribes; and a review of the past 

 history and present condition of Mashonaland. We find here also 

 a notice of the caves of Sinola, with a subterranean lake in the 

 principal cave having water marked by a deep-blue color like that 

 of the blue grotto of Capri, an account of which was published by 

 Mr. Selous in the Proceedings of the Geographical Society of Lon- 

 don for May, 1888. An account of Mr. Selous's Twenty Years in 

 Zambezia was published in the Geographical Journal in 1893. 



Mr. Selous has done more than any other man to bring Ma- 

 shonaland into notice, and is credited, together with Cecil Rhodes, 

 with having contributed most to the creation of Rhodesia. The 

 first comprehensive account of Mashonaland was given by him in 

 the Fortnightly Review for May, 1889, when he described the 

 country as a land of perennial streams in which thirst is an un- 

 known quantity; with its high plateau, standing at an elevation of 

 from four thoiisand to forty-six hundred feet and forming a very 

 important watershed, endowed with a network of important 

 streams, the springs supplying which, welling out from the highest 

 parts of the downs, were capable of being applied to the irrigation 

 of an enormous area, and having a salubrious climate, the continu- 

 ous southwest wind giving cool breezes in summer and cold ones 

 in winter. The high plateaus were further of much ethnological 

 interest, in that they gave shelter to the very few remnants of the 

 peaceful Mashonas who had escaped extermination at the hands 

 of the Matabele. 



