PREFACE. XV 



on account of its apparently inhospitable and unsocial 

 character. That being so, we have commenced 

 our work by making, for the contemplation of 

 our readers, a collection of the written opinions, 

 given as the result of a life's experience, by some 

 of the world's greatest travellers and hunters ; and 

 have left them to describe in their own words, 

 how deeply the wild charms of Nature had bewitched 

 them. These quotations are given without comment 

 by us, and will follow the introductoi/ chapter 

 to our first volume. 



Such a collection of opinions on this subject 

 has never before been brought together. We 

 may say the same with reference to our collection 

 of accounts of the great herds of game, seen in 

 former days, contained in Volume III. To these 

 latter we have appended some lines by Thomas 

 Pringle, the poet of South Africa, descriptive of 

 that hunters' paradise, as he saw it in the early 

 paic of this century. This poem, though now 

 very generally forgotten by the world, created at 

 the time that it was written great sensation and 

 attention in literary circles; as will be seen by 

 some details with reference to it which have been 

 reproduced. We may add that the Colonial 

 authorities in South Africa, are unanimous in 

 regarding it as the best, and most life-like picture 

 of the great hunting days, which is extant. It is 

 for that reason that we have ventured to embody 

 it in these pages. 



Our geographical essays, which contain a series 

 of sketches of the terrestrial zones, their scenery, 

 and productions, and of the wild people who 



