32 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



INTRODUCTION 

 BY W. COTTON OSWKI.I. 



I have often been asked to write the stories of the illustrations 

 given in the chapters on South Africa, but have hitherto declined, 

 on the plea that the British public had had quite enough of 

 Africa, and that all I could tell would be very old. As I now 

 stand midway between seventy and eighty I trusted I might, in 

 the ordinary course of nature, escape such an undertaking ; but 

 in the end of '91 the best shot, sportsman and writer that ever 

 made Africa his field I refer to my good friend Sir Samuel Baker 

 urged me to put my experiences on paper ; and Mr. Norton 

 Longman at the same time promising that, if suitable, he would 

 find them a place in the Badminton volume on ' Big Game,' I 

 was over-persuaded, made the attempt, and here is the result. 



The illustrations are taken from a set of drawings in my 

 possession by the best artist of wild animal life I have ever 

 known- Joseph Wolf. After describing the scene, I stood by 

 him as he drew, occasionally offering a suggestion or venturing 

 on two or three scrawling lines of my own, and the wonderful 

 talent of the man produced pictures so like the reality in 

 all essential points, that I marvel still at his power, and feel 

 that I owe him most grateful thanks for a daily pleasure. Many 

 of the scenes it would have been impossible to depict at the 

 moment of their occurrence, so that even if the chief human 

 actor had been a draughtsman he must have trusted to his 

 memory. Happily I was able to give my impressions into 

 the hands of a genius who let them run out at the end of 

 his fingers. They are rather startling, I know, when looked 

 through in the space of five minutes ; but it must be re- 

 membered that they have to be spread over five years, and 

 that these are the few accidents amongst numberless un- 

 eventful days. I was once asked to bring these sketches to 

 a house where I was dining. During dinner the servants 



