CHAPTER XVII. 



INSTRUCTIONS FOR SPORTSMEN". 



THERE are no classes of society who are more apt to be 

 doubted in their assertions than travellers and sports- 

 men. I will not deny that they are occasionally given 

 to exaggeration, but frequently the excitement under 

 which they may have laboured, at the period of 

 beholding what is strange and novel, causes them 

 unwittingly themselves to be deceived. 



When Gordon Cumming's narrative of sporting 

 events first made its appearance, the majority of readers 

 were inclined to doubt the veracity of his statements, 

 more particularly in reference to the countless herds of 

 wild animals that could be seen frequently in a day's 

 ride. Poor Bruce, one of the greatest of African ex- 

 plorers, after years of toil and research spent in his 

 country's service, enduring fatigue, hunger, and thirst, 

 had the mortification to find himself entirely disbe- 



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