OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



more especially when as a rule, sportsmen's narratives are egotistical and 

 self-laudatory in the extreme. Thus he writes : — 



''There are times when the past comes before me with sadly painful 

 distinctness, and my heart yearns to return once more to that land where I 

 have passed the happiest years of my life ; and to revisit those scenes which 

 are engraven in my memory in strong and ineffaceable coloars, although I 

 know that my merry companions are gone, and that their places are 

 occupied by strangers." 



Even his faithful dogs, his horses, and his rifles are thought of with 

 affectionate remembrance, and to them rather than to himself he ascribes 

 all the honours that he has won. Not often is such a purely unselfish 

 narrative of noble deeds given to the world. It accounts for the extra- 

 ordinary popularity of " The Old Sportsman " throughout British India, 

 and the delight with which any " kubber " of him is hailed in that country. 

 The present work is entirely confined to the hunting-grounds of the Old 

 World, or Asia ; but the author proposes, in a second series, giving some 

 account of five exploring expeditious to difi'erent parts of Africa, he having 

 hunted all over the country between the Limpopo and Zambesi rivers on 

 the east coast ; in Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, the confines of the Sahara, and 

 more recently on the west coast of equatorial Africa. But perhaps the 

 most important fact to notice is a trip he proposes undertaking when he 

 recovers from severe wounds received whilst on active service against the 

 disaffected tribes near Lagos. He intends traversing the continent of 

 Africa by starting from the Bights of Benin, and working up in a north- 

 easterly direction towards the regions lately explored by Captains Burton, 

 Speke, and Grant. The chief object of this expedition will be to determine 

 whether the Victoria Nyanza Lake itself is the source of the NUe, or 

 whether a large river, (yet undiscovered) does not flow through the lake, in 

 the same manner that the Ehone traverses the Lake of Geneva. The same 

 generous feeling characterises "The Old Shekarry, " as he writes about 

 what he yet hopes to accomplish. His object is not to strip the late gallant 

 explorer of one tittle of the honour gained by him; on the contrary, 

 he says : — 



"I shall have certain advantages that my friend the late Captain 

 Speke had not — namely, the safeguard of a gang of sturdy, well-tried 

 followers. " 



He concludes with the following characteristic remark : — 



" Speke, Jules Gerard, and Baikie have gone to that bourne from whence 

 no traveller returns; stUl there are other volunteers panting with hope, 

 who are ready to face the same dangers and undergo the same arduous 

 privations in the furtherance of scientific research. " 



