; _ SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 31 
Fise ; 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 
_ yiewedagain. 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 themselves 
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 
t 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 pei in modern times, the 
truest friend, and the most thorough example of an English 
= We sorrowfully exclaim, ‘We shall never see his 
ce again. 
