July 26, 1894J 



NA TURE 



299 



merits of big game shooting, we will not follow him into the 

 arcana relating thereto, which will be mainly profitable 

 to those who wish to indulge in the pursuit. 



The four chapters which follow Mr. Phillipps-Wolley's 

 introduction are devoted to a biography of Oswell, and 

 to a history of his various expeditions in South Africa, 

 These are all of great interest, and will be read by his 

 brother shooters with an affection and reverence correctly 

 due to so renowned a pioneer of their favourite pursuit. 

 But the days of Oswell, alas, are past and gone, and we 

 doubt whether the modern shooter of big game will profit 

 much by the narrative of his hazardous exploit's, although 

 they will form excellent chapters for reading 

 round the camp fire — if big game shooters ever 

 have time for such a diversion. Very different 

 is the case with Mr. F. J. Jackson, of Uganda 

 fame, whose eleven chapters occupy the next I. 

 place. East Africa is now almost the only 

 country in the world where there is still unoccu- 

 pied space left for the shooters of big game, and 

 where the elephant, the bulfalo, the lion, the 

 rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the giraffe, and 

 a host of antelopes are still to be met with in 

 luxuriant abundance. Mr. Jackson commences 

 with good advice on the proper mode of fitting 

 out an expedition, and on the routes and districts 

 to be traversed with greatest profit. 



lie then devotes separate chapters to the 

 various animals above mentioned, and gives us 

 altogether what will prove to be a most useful 

 guide-book to the hunter in Eastern Africa. 

 The chapter on antelopes is of very great 

 interest even to the scientific naturalist. The 

 various species are separately enumerated, and 

 discussed under their correct scientific names. 

 Their number, not only as regards individuals, 

 but species, is simply astonishing. Dividing; 

 them according to the sportsman's point of 

 view into two categories, Mr. Jackson places 

 eighteen antelopes under the head of those which 

 frequent the open plains, while those which are 

 usually found in the bush make fifteen more, so 

 that not less than thirty-three species of these 

 elegant bovine animals are registered as oc- 

 curring in East Africa. Had Somaliland been 

 included within East African limits, several 

 more species might have been added. We look 

 upon Mr. Jackson's contribution as the most 

 original and valuable part of the first volume, 

 although Mr. Selous' chapter on the lion and 

 his ways, and Mr. Pike's account of the slaughter 

 of the musk-ox in the barren lands of Arctic 

 America, are likewise of considerable value. 



To the second volume of " Ijig Game Shoot- 

 ing" the contributors are hardly less inferior 

 in fame than those who have written the former 

 portion. Mr. Arnold Pike discourses on Arctic 

 hunting, in which the walrus and the polar 

 bear form the chief subjects of attraction. Mr. 

 Phillipps-Wolley tells us of his adventures in the 

 Caucasus, where the chief mountain game consists of the 

 chamois and two species of ibex, while the slopes on the 

 northern side of the chain are the favourite haunts of the 

 few bison that are left, and of a large stag, termed by Mr. 

 Phillipps-Wolley the red deer. But this stag is more 

 probably the maral {Cervus mural) which many years 

 ago was introduced into the Zoological Society's gardens 

 from Circassia, and flourished abundantly for more 

 than ten years. ' Of the bison, or as it is called in this 

 work, the " Caucasian aurochs," the redoubtable traveller 

 and hunter, Mr St. George Littledale, the only English- 

 man who has slain this mighty beast in the Caucasus, 



' See Mr. Sclater's article on "The Deer, now or I.ilcly living in the 

 oociely's Men.igerie." (Trans, /.ool. Sue. vii. p. 336. 



gives us full particulars. Ai is now well known, a 

 small district on the northern slope of the Caucasus and 

 one far-distant forest in Lithuania are the only remaining 

 spots on the face of the earth where this splendid animal 

 is still to be met with. Not many centuries ago, no 

 doubt, the European bison pervaded the whole inter- 

 vening district, and in past ages spread all over 

 Europe, and was abundant even in England. But to 

 call it the "aurochs" is a misnomer, for the true 

 aurochs is the extinct Urus (Bos primii;enius) which 

 was found in the forests of Germany during the time 

 of Julius Caesar. Mr. Littledale also gives us a good 



NO. I 29 1, VOL. 50] 



Fig. 2. — Spanish Ibex. 



account of the huge Ovis arguli of Mongolia, and the 

 corresponding Ovis po/i'i of the Pamir, two gigantic sheep, 

 which he was amongst the first of British sportsmen to 

 encounter. 



Another well-known hunter, Mr. Baillie-Grohman, 

 writes chapters on the more familiar chamois and stag 

 of the.Mps, while Messrs. Chapman and Buck contribute 

 an excellent account of the large game of Spain and 

 Portugal, a subject on which they are well qualified to 

 speak from long personal experience. The picture of the 

 Spanish ibex, taken from Mr. Chapman's sketches, with 

 the lammergeiers floating in the distance, gives us a good 

 idea of the attractions still to be met with in " Wild 

 Spain," which he and Mr. Buck have done so much to 



