NA TURE 



125 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1900. 



THE RECENT SPORTING EXPERIENCES OF 



MR. SELOUS. 

 Sport and Travel, East and West. By F. C. Selous. 



Pp. ix. + 311; illustrated. (London: Longmans, 



Green, and Co., 1900.) 



HAVING seen, or shot, practically every species of 

 great game in South and South-east Africa, the 

 indefatigable author of the volume before us has devoted 

 several seasons in the closing decade of the century to 

 hunting-trips in the northern hemisphere. These expe- 

 ditions included three trips to Asia Minor in search of 

 the wild goat, the Armenian sheep, and the Asiatic red 

 deer, and two to the Rocky Mountains, where wapiti, 

 mule-deer, white-tailed deer, prongbuck and lynx fell to 

 the practised aim of the veteran hunter. Not that Mr. 

 Selous is by any means merely a hunter ; he is likewise 

 an observant field-naturalist and an enthusiastic egg- 

 collector, having contributed many years ago an im- 

 portant paper on African antelopes to the Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society, while his recent expeditions to 

 Asia Minor have furnished material for an ornithological 

 paper to the Ibis. It is perhaps needless to add that 

 such an experienced hunter may be depended upon not to 

 shoot animals for the mere sake of slaying, and that after 

 obtaining a few fine examples of the species he encoun- 

 tered for the first time to add to his splendid collection 

 at Alpine Lodge, Worplesdon, and occasionally killing an 

 individual or two for the commissariat, Mr. Selous has 

 always been content to stay his hand. 



To compare in point of interest his recent experiences 

 with those detailed in his " Hunter's Wanderings in 

 Africa" would perhaps be unjust, if only for the reason 

 that the number of species of game animals to be en- 

 countered in the lands he has lately visited falls im- 

 measurably short of those which have their home on the 

 South African veldt. Then, too, we have no such mighty 

 beasts as the white rhinoceros and the African elephant 

 to enthral the reader's interest in the volume. And it 

 must also be remembered that hunting in the " Rockies ' 

 has been made familiar to us by the writings of sports- 

 men like Roosevelt, whereas at the date Mr. Selous gave 

 to the world his unrivalled South African experiences, 

 there had been comparatively little written on the subject 

 of the large game of the interior since the trips of Gordon 

 Gumming, Andersson and Oswell. 



Nevertheless, in spite of having the prestige of his 

 earlier magnum opus to contend against, it cannot be 

 gainsaid that on the present occasion Mr. Selous has 

 succeeded in producing a volume calculated to attract 

 a large circle of readers, and these, too, not only from 

 among sportsmen and travellers, but from naturalists as 

 well. To the latter, at any rate, the greatest interest of 

 the book is concentrated on the part devoted to shooting 

 in Asia Minor, in which district we have a less full 

 knowledge of the animals than is the case with those of 

 North America. One of the points where the author 

 has been of undoubted service to naturalists is in regard 

 to his description of the seasonal colour-changes of the 

 wild goat ; such seasonal changes in the colour of 

 NO. 1623, VOL. 63] 



horned game animals having till late years attracted 

 comparatively little attention among zoologists. Accord- 

 ing to the description given by Mr. Selous, it appears 

 that in the summer coat these goats are of a reddish- 

 brown colour, with the broad dark shoulder-stripe, which 

 becomes so conspicuous in winter, almost entirely want- 

 ing, the black beard being at the same time compara- 

 tively short. In winter, on the other hand, the old 

 bucks have the general ground-colour nearly white, 

 although the flanks and under-parts are somewhat 

 darker, being of a light sandy-yellow. In marked 

 contrast to these pale tints stands out the broad black 

 shoulder-stripe and dorsal streak, while the beard 

 becomes long and flowing. 



It is interesting to note that, in spite of his full 

 acquaintance with all the splendid South African 

 representatives of the antelope tribe, Mr. Selous pro- 

 nounces the wild goat of the Maimun Dagh to be one of 

 the handsomest and most striking of all game animals, 

 although he is careful to avoid making invidious com- 

 parisons. In its native mountains the wild goat is, 

 indeed, one of the most wary of horned animals, and as it 

 is by no means plentiful, its pursuit demands all the 

 patience and resources of the skilled stalker. And the 

 sympathies of all sportsmen will be with Mr. Selous when 

 they read his account how, after many failures and losing 

 one good head, he eventually killed a magnificent old 

 buck, only to discover that it was minus one of its 

 splendid horns. The statement, on p. 27, that the wild 

 goats of the Musa Dagh (on which there is but a 

 single spring of fresh water) frequently descend to the 

 beach and drink sea- water, is certainly very remarkable, 

 for although it is now well known that many species of 

 ruminants can exist for long periods, if not altogether, 

 without drinking, yet this is the first instance that has 

 come under our notice of their resorting to the ocean for 

 water. Although, in the absence of an index, it is a little 

 difficult to be certain that we have not overlooked a 

 passage, the author does not seem to have been successful 

 in "bagging" the Armenian wild sheep, although he 

 obtained several fine examples of the ollin, or Asiatic 

 race of the red deer. 



To visit the mountains and prairies of the north- 

 western states of America appears to have been a life-long 

 dream of Mr. Selous — a dream that was never realised till 

 long after the bison had disappeared from the latter, and 

 the numbers of the wapiti had been deplorably reduced 

 in the former. In regard to the skulls of the bison which 

 the author met with so commonly in the Bighorn basin, 

 we are told that many of these still retained the sheaths 

 of the horns and even fragments of skin and hair after an 

 exposure of at least fourteen years. " I should certainly 

 never have believed," he writes, " that even the hardest of 

 bone, let alone horn and skin, could have withstood the 

 ravages of time and exposure so well. In the climate of 

 Africa no organic matter lasts very long when exposed to 

 the weather, and even the skull and leg-bones of an 

 elephant would, I think, crumble to dust and. absolutely 

 disappear in less than fifteen years from the date of the 

 animal's death." At the present time, these observations 

 are of considerable interest in connection with the skin of 

 the ground-sloth preserved in a Patagonian cave. 



Evidence of the former abundance of the wapiti and 



G 



