-^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika 



the most beautiful that have ever been written about Nature. 

 Our old famous teacher, Dr. Schweinfurth, has seen and 

 described similar scenes. With these two we may rank in 

 equal honour the name of the German explorer Richard 

 Bohm/ who unhappily lost his life so tragically and at such 

 an early age on the shores of Lake Upamba in Southern 

 Urua, of which he was the discoverer. Many others 

 might also be named who were deeply influenced by these 

 primeval splendours. But the fauna of South Africa 

 has vanished unsung and unfamed, before any artist or 

 master of words arose to place in a fitting way its beauties 

 on record for all time ! 



Masters of words like Ludwig Heck, by whose 

 skilful pen the life of the mammalia has been lately 

 described anew for us in Brehm's Tzerleben, and like 

 Wilhelm Bolsche, would perhaps have been capable of 

 grasping and reproducing the impressions that the 

 traveller feels in those far lands. But they have never 

 trodden these distant countries, and they must therefore 

 confine themselves to describing artistically and yet truly 

 what they have never actually seen, from ideas based 

 on their own clear understanding of the observations 

 of others. 



The sun is setting. It is time for me to come down 

 from my hill and return to my camp. The sun goes to 

 his rest in flaming splendour, there is a glowing radiance 

 of violet and purple light ; soon dark night will surround 



1 Take, for instance, his description of the Ugalla River in a letter to 

 his grandfather, General von Meyerinck, in his work Von Sansibar zum 

 Tanjanjika (published by Hermann Schalow, Leipzig, 1888). 



273 18 



