In Wildest Africa ^ 



shot. My photographs won so much approval from 

 experts on ni)^ return home that I was encouraged to go 

 further in this direction. 



But what difficulties I had to overcome ! So far 

 back as the year 1863 a German explorer, Professor 

 Fritsch, now a member of the Privy Council, had set 

 about the 'task of photographing wild animals in South 

 Africa. Those were the days of wet collodion plates, 

 and it is really wonderful how Professor Fritsch managed 

 to cope with all the difficulties he had to face so far from 

 all possibility of assistance. He succeeded in the course 

 of his expedition in photographing an African wild animal 

 upon a dry plate for the first time on record. By his 

 kindness I am enabled to reproduce this historical picture 

 here — it is a thing of real value It is the photograph 

 of an eland, at that time an animal often met with in 

 Cape Colony, where game of all kinds has now been 

 almost completely exterminated. Professor Fritsch's 

 account of his experiences should be heard for one 

 to form any notion of the wealth of animal life that 

 then adorned the South African velt. His photo- 

 graphs are especially interesting as the first of their 

 kind. It was not until nearly forty years later that the 

 English sportsmen already mentioned and I myself 

 embarked systematically upon similar enterprises. 



On my third expedition in 1902 I tried to photograph 

 with two telephoto cameras which had been placed at 

 my disposal by the Goerz Optical Institute. Without 

 attempting to explain the complicated mechanism of these 

 apparatus — the idea of which came first to English 



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