i8 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



unavoidable attempt is the more disheartening 1 

 because I actually have been in such places 

 and even made notes of what most impressed 

 me at the time and on the spot. None the less, 

 they beat me, utterly. Perhaps those describe 

 them best who know them least. I understand 

 that the most lifelike pictures of battle and the 

 most realistic accounts of executions have been 

 achieved by gifted men who never witnessed 

 either, and I know one writer, at any rate, who 

 has given us the most convincing pictures of 

 the wilderness without ever having set foot 

 within a hundred miles of it. Such imagina- 

 tion is a blessed gift which my fairy godmother 

 withheld from me and which would have been 

 better than my equipment of pencil and note- 

 book and the desire to see realities. Yet I can 

 only offer the wares that are in my pack. 



My heartfelt thanks are due to those who 

 have helped me in the writing of this book. 

 First and foremost I must thank the Editor and 

 Proprietors of The Field for kind permission 

 to quote from its teeming pages anecdotes of 

 shikar, and the Secretary of the Royal Colonial 

 Institute for having placed at my disposal the 

 files of many African and Indian periodicals. 



