INTRODUCTION 



I KNOW by experience that Captain 

 Dickinson in person is an ideal companion 

 and guide through the countries which he 

 describes ; and I feel sure that those who are 

 less fortunate than myself will find his book an 

 excellent substitute for his presence. They will 

 realize from his manner of writing his constant 

 cheerfulness, his stores of resource for every 

 difficulty and emergency, and his full knowledge 

 and understanding of every problem which can 

 confront the traveller or the sportsman. Elephants 

 are to him like partridges, and hippopotami like 

 hares ; and he has an eye which can identify 

 the rarest of the antelopes by the twinkle of its 

 tail behind a thorn-thicket at a hundred yards. 

 All his advice on the details of big-game shooting 

 is based on long experience interpreted by sound 

 instinct and acute intelligence ; and the only 

 drawback to his teaching is that it will not allow 

 his disciples the satisfaction of improving on it. 



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