In Wildest Africa -^ 



narrow its boundaries, it could always offer him fresh 

 subjects for study and observation. 



On arrival the photographic outfit proved so cumber- 

 some, both as regards transport and management, that 

 both Prince Lowenstein, who accompanied me, and who 

 was not easily to be daunted by obstacles, and also Orgeich 

 gave expression to pessimistic views as to the possibility 

 of fulfilling my purpose. 



No one, indeed, had been able to boast of success 

 until then with this new apparatus ! I had yet to satisfy 

 myself that it was really efficacious — that, for instance, 

 it would enable me to photograph a lion falling upon its 

 prey. Many were the fruitless experiments witnessed by 

 the Pangani forest. We experimented night after night, 

 now at one spot, now at another — my men learning to 

 enact the role of lions and other animals for the purpose. 

 The Oriental and the neo^ro are alike in their bearino- 

 on such occasions, but these flashlight operations did 

 really succeed in arousing the wonder of my followers. 

 The laughter of my chief man still rings in my ears. 

 " But the lions are far away, master ! " he would declare, 

 utterly unable to understand my proceedings. It took me 

 long, and I had had a large number of failures, before I 

 succeeded in overcoming his attitude of incredulity. 



As I have already intimated, the efficacy of the 

 telephoto lens in the tropics depends to an extraordinary 

 degree on the conditions of the atmosphere. The efficacy 

 of the flashlight apparatus depends upon the precise 

 absolutely simultaneous working of the flashlight and the 

 shutter. It took me weeks and months (and I very 



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