PREFACE. xi 
designs upon the cover. Mr. Edward Weller also 
and his son have spared no pains to make the 
maps which accompany the volume as perfect and 
complete as possible ; to whom, as well as to all 
the others named, my grateful thanks are due, 
and most heartily do I acknowledge what I owe 
them. 
To enumerate more fully the names of those who 
have further assisted me, either professionally or as 
private friends, I must now forbear from under- 
taking ; suffice it to say there are many, especially 
of the latter class, without whose assistance and 
encouragement I should probably never have suc- 
ceeded in bringing my labours to a close. Let me 
thank them now for the generous help and sym- 
pathy so ungrudgingly given, and which, alas, it is 
so impossible for me to recompense. 
It may be proper to add, before concluding — 
what I have failed elsewhere to mention — that a 
considerable number of specimens in my brother's 
collection were destroyed at Shoshong in his life- 
time by the unroofing, during a gale, of the hut 
where they were stored, and that some of the spirit 
jars of reptiles and beetles were afterwards left 
behind when the collections were conveyed to 
England ; circumstances which led in all probability 
to the loss of many valuable specimens. 
There are not many who will need to be re- 
