-^ Instantaneous Photographs of Wild Life 



since those of Kuhncrt, who was for a short time at 

 Kih'manjaro, no artist has had an oi)portunity of famiharising 

 himself with the animal world of West Africa. The artist 

 or painter, however, who attempts to put l)efore the eyes 

 of the public the wonders of the animal kingdom of inmost 

 Africa would undoubtedly be received with incredulity. 

 How could those accustomed to the zooloi^ical conditions 

 of over-populated Europe believe such an animal kingdom 

 possible ? 



The only feasible and desirable records seemed to be 

 trustworthy photographs, which could not deceive. Here 

 were, however, many difficulties lo be overcome with l)ut 

 limited means. In the mutual exchange of my ideas with 

 Ludwig Heck, who was never tired of strengthening me 

 in my resolutions, we always came back to this point. 

 We always said to ourselves that a way must be found 

 to render the highly developed technique of photography 

 serviceable for the object I had in view — for work 

 in the wilderness. What a seductive aim — to put on a 

 photographic plate thcjse wikl herds in such marvellously 

 picturesque assemblage — unique and rare inhabitants ot 

 the jungle, little known, if known at all ! 



The only way to achieve this object was to work 

 hard for long and weary years. We always seemed 

 to be encountering new difficulties. Occasionally our 

 flashlight experiments f died ; the explosive compound 

 smashed our apparatus, so much so that the iron parts 

 of it, which were nearly a third of an inch thick, were 

 torn and bent. Some hindrance always seemed to be 

 cropping up and thwarting our plans. vSo we studied 



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