SOME NEW BOOKS. 



705 



of the illustrations, like the one of the head of the Eland (which we 

 owe to the courtesy of the publishers) are the most spirited and at 

 the same time the most faithful likenesses of the animals they portray 

 that we have come across for a long time. 



The work commences with a chapter on the equipment neces- 

 sary for a sporting trip in South Africa, which is followed by others 

 relating to the fearful destruction of game which has there taken 

 place, and the efforts which have been made to preserve the small 

 remnant ere it is too late. The authors state that, apart from the 

 question whether such enactments as were made were ineffectual in 

 themselves, or were too late in their appearance, there is no doubt 





\ 



..- "P 



V', 



Head of Eland (Ofeas canna). 



"that, with the exception of a few wild elephants, and, perhaps, 

 buffalo, which still eke out a harried existence, although protected in 

 the Colonial Government's forests, and also an odd troop of zebras, 

 koodoos, and probably hartebeest, which serve as ornaments in a 

 semi-domesticated condition on some of the out-of-the-way farms, the 

 remnant of the noble game which once roamed in countless thousands 

 all over the country, for which Southern Africa was pre-eminently 

 renowned, has been, by wanton and ruthless slaughter, decimated or 

 driven far beyond the outermost bounds of civilisation into the path- 

 less veldt of the Kalahari, or the inhospitable territories of the 

 aborigines of the Interior." While participating in the authors' 

 regrets, the naturalist cannot but rejoice that there are still such 



2Z 



