Introduction 



round the camp fire ; and the thrill of the stealthy 

 prowling through reed and thicket in the rhi- 

 noceros and elephant country, when at each 

 moment the next step might disclose the hide of 

 some unconscious but formidable enemy. 



These paths are rapidly growing less solitary. 

 The steamers multiply, the railways extend. 

 Important footsteps brush back the jungle. The 

 hunter who from some secret spot watches the 

 slow procession of the elephants, or surprises 

 the rhinoceros grazing placidly, is surveying a 

 threatened if not a vanishing civilisation. We 

 approach the period of more game-laws and less 

 game. The achievements which this book records 

 will become increasingly rare as the years pass 

 by, and Captain Dickinson's jaunty chronicle will 

 one day be studied by a generation of sportsmen 

 who will view the "good old times" with envious 

 and ultimately unbelieving eyes. 



WINSTON S. CHURCHILL 



vn 



