xii INTRODUCTION 



been gathered together at all had it not been for 

 the fact that our enthusiasm for the subject has 

 grown into a passion of such intensity as often to 

 bid defiance to danger and suffering of the most 

 acute character. I feel it incumbent upon me to 

 say this here because I have on previous occasions 

 laid myself open to the charge of making the 

 work of natural history photography appear too 

 easy, through not stating the difficulties and dis- 

 appointments my brother and I have met with 

 more emphatically. 



I invite any reader who wishes to understand 

 something of the significance of this statement to 

 try either or both of the following experiments : 

 (i) Take a camera and use it whilst standing 

 absolutely unprotected on a ledge of rock no 

 wider than the seat of an ordinary chair, with a 

 chasm six hundred feet sheer yawning immediately 

 beneath. (2) Kneel in one posture for half an 

 hour and look steadfastly through the keyhole 

 of a door, multiply the time and pain by eleven, 

 and add a complete disappointment, when some 

 idea will be gained of what has happened to my 

 brother and myself over and over again during 

 the last few years. 



Very few people indeed have any conception 

 of the extreme closeness which is necessary for 

 the lens of the camera to the shyest " sitter " 

 before such pictures as are scattered up and down 



