32 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
INTRODUCTION 
By W. Cotton OswELL 
I have often been asked to write the stories of the illustrations 
given inthe 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 mé 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 fora 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 Iet 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 
