PREFACE. 



THE exploration or adventure, which I have included 

 in this volume of my travels, will at least serve the 

 purpose of comparing the different countries described 

 from a sporting point of view, from the fact of their 

 having been the experience of a single individual, 

 within the short period of a decade, and partly in 

 the intervals of a military service which included 

 a campaign. If from a literary point of view the 

 chapters appear to be of varying, and I hope increas- 

 ing merit, that fact must be ascribed to the different 

 epochs at which they were written. Some have been 

 condensed from my contributions to certain periodicals 

 with the kind permission of the Editors, such as those 

 of Land and Water, The Alpine Journal, and The Field. 

 I can at least claim for them the advantage of strict 

 fidelity to fact, and of having been mostly penned 

 upon the spot. 



