PREFACE. 



rpHE chief points, it seems to me, on which the pubhc 

 have a right to expect information in a Preface are 

 three, viz., the author's reasons for, or object in, writing 

 the book, what knowledge he possesses of his subject, and 

 what help, if any, he has received from others. 



It had always struck me that, with one or two note- 

 able exceptions, the books hitherto published on African 

 sport were to a great extent mere illustrated game-books, 

 telling indeed the quantity and quality of the game which 

 the writer or his companions had killed, but not giving 

 such particulars as would enable the untravelled reader to 

 bring every occurrence vividly and truthfully before his 

 mind's eye ; and when I found that others in this country 

 agreed with me as fully as those amongst whom I had 

 hunted had always done, I determined to note all the 

 details that my journals or memory could supply which 



