218 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



company of a tribe of Indians who could not 

 bo trusted, and who would murder any man wlio 

 was fool enough to put himself into their power 

 for the simple possession of his scalp. 



In earlier days I used to read with avidity 

 all tales of sport and travel in which wild beasts 

 had been pursued ; but in later time, what with 

 ^nion- killers," ^^ gorilla -hunters," or humbugs, 

 steerers of struggling and gigantic hipj^oj^otami, 

 and ^^ elephant bags" in Abyssinia, as published 

 for authentic news in the Field, 1 turn from all 

 such stuif, and am content with things I really 

 know something about, and seek only to push 

 my way to further knowledge by the fair and 

 open means of investigation. 



The more we study Nature, her lovely face and 

 flowers, her curious entomology, her crafty and 

 courageous beasts, her featliered minstrels of the 

 woods and fields, and the strange complexity of 

 her wondrous works and laws, imperative in many 

 instances, and unaccountably lax in others, the 

 more we have to learn. In this wide field or 

 ^Miappy hunting-ground," the divine study of 

 nature, there arises no dread of failing sinew, 

 no decay of buoyancy of heart ; for that busy 



