In Wildest Africa ^ 



have given expression to this feeling. I have been told, 

 for instance — what I myself had already noticed — that 

 numbers of the pictures, especially those showing birds 

 on the wing, bear a great resemblance to certain famous 

 works of Japanese painters ^ of animal life, works that 

 seem to dive into the secrets of nature. It has been 

 brought home to me, indeed, both by hundreds of letters 

 and thousands of opinions expressed in conversation, 

 that the pictures have excited almost universal interest, 

 and that my labours have not been in vain. 



Fully to enjoy the peculiar beauty of such photographs 

 of living wild animals, the best way is undoubtedly to see 

 the pictures considerably magnified by means of the magic 

 lantern. On account of the special character and strange- 

 ness of most of the objects shown, I have the lantern slides 

 lightly tinted. This colouring can be done without in 

 the least altering the picture in its details, and its object 

 is merely to secure greater effectiveness. Approval from 

 all sides, both from artistic circles and from the public, 

 satisfies me as to the correctness of this proceeding. Only 

 in this way do photographic pictures shown by transmitted 

 light produce the full impression of beauty and naturalness ; 

 they seem to transport the spectator directly to the far-off 

 wilderness. 



There must be some good reason for the widespread 

 interest manifested in these pictures of the life and ways 

 of animals, some of them still so little known, and all of 

 them living in remote solitudes. It seems to me that the 



^ Cf. also Ostasietifahrt^ Erlebnisse nnd Beobachtiuigeji eines Ahitiir- 

 forschers, etc., von Dr. Franz Doflein, Leipzig, 1906. 



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