SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 31 



but it is certain that they have disappeared, and that the 

 report of the rifle which announces the advance of civilisation 

 has dispersed all those mighty hosts of animals which were 

 the ornaments of nature, and-the glory of the European hunter. 

 The eyes of modern hunters can never see the wonders of the 

 past. There may be good sport remaining in distant localities, 

 but the scenes witnessed by Oswell in his youth can never be 

 viewed again. Mr. W. F. Webb, of Newstead Abbey, is one of 

 the few remaining who can remember Oswell when in Africa, 

 as he was himself shooting during the close of his expedition. 

 Mr. Webb can corroborate the accounts of the vast herds of 

 antelopes which at that time occupied the plains, and the 

 extraordinary numbers of rhinoceros which intruded them selves 

 upon the explorer's path, and challenged his right of way. In 

 a comparatively short period the white rhinoceros has almost 

 ceased to exist. 



Where such extraordinary changes have taken place, it is 

 deeply interesting to obtain such trustworthy testimony as that 

 afforded by Mr. Oswell, who has described from personal 

 experience all that, to us, resembles history. He was accepted 

 at that time as the Nimrod of South Africa, ' par excellence,' 

 and although his retiring nature tended to self-effacement, all 

 those who knew him, either by name or personal acquaintance, 

 regarded him as without a rival ; and certainly without an 

 enemy : the greatest hunter ever known in modern times, the 

 truest friend, and the most thorough example of an English 

 gentleman. We sorrowfully exclaim, ' We shall never see his 

 like again.' 



