ZOOLOGICAL DISPLAYS BY NIGHT. 283 



seen at these places, have been already described in 

 another part of this work ; these accounts are all 

 taken from the writings of various celebrated hunters 

 and travellers, whose names are given in each case. * 

 It will therefore be needless to cite father instances 

 here. Mr. Charles J. Andersen, the well-known Swedish 

 naturalist and explorer however, specially mentions 

 that in his opinion there is no way in which these 

 wild scenes of natural zoological displays can be wit- 

 nessed in such wonderful perfection, as in night-shooting 

 at a desert pool: 



" During my peregrinations in South Africa (he says) I have 

 seen something of every sort of sport, whether at night, by 

 the side of the mirrored water or the salt lake, or by day 

 on foot, or on horseback ; and I most conscientiously declare 

 that in my opinion a moonlight ambush by a pool, well fre- 

 quented by wild animals, is worth all the other modes of 

 enjoying a gun put together." f 



It will doubtless be understood that Mr. Andersen 

 speaks from the point of view of a naturalist and student 

 of Nature, and not by any means, as we believe, as 

 the mere slaughterer of large numbers of beautiful and 

 valuable animals ; for he goes on to say : " I have 

 certainly learnt more of the untamed life of savage 

 beasts in a single night's tableau- vivant, than during 

 months of toilsome wanderings in the broad light of 

 the sun." 



This could only be done by watching their pro- 

 ceedings, without firing at them as soon as they 

 arrived, and thus being able to study at leisure the 



* See our chapter xvi on "Great Herds of Game." 

 -j- The Okavango River : a Narrative of Exploration, by Charles 

 John Andersen, 1856, p. 85. 

 Ibid., p. 86. 



