A Breath from the Veldt 



CHAPTER I 



" Of the making of books there is no end " — especially of books on South 

 Africa. What right have I then — a man with no pretension to literary 

 craftsmanship — to foist on the public another volume on a subject of which 

 everybody knows, or thinks he knows, everything worth knowing ? " Another 

 book on South Africa ! Bless my life, have not we had enough of it already — 

 of its Boers and buffaloes, its gold and diamonds ; of trekking and camping-out, 

 and all the rest of it ? " I fancy I hear some such exclamation from a fastidious 

 critic as soon as this modest venture of mine is submitted to his notice. Here 

 it is, however, a candidate for the favour of the great B. P. ; and as nobody else 

 is likely to apologise for its appearance or blow a trumpet in advance, I must do 

 it myself, leaving my readers to imagine the " blush unseen " with which I 

 speak of my own work. 



It is hard to judge art from too severe a standpoint when the production of 

 drawings has to be undertaken under unfavourable circumstances. Neither has 

 it been my good fortune to have any art education whatsoever, or who knows 

 that I might not have blossomed into a great artist, like Mr. Aubrey Beardsley, 

 for instance ? Still, in the wild solitudes where for nearly a year it was my 

 privilege to wander, I found a pencil no small help to my notes, and I hope my 

 readers will not be altogether disappointed with the result. My aim, I may 

 say at once, has been to avoid as far as may be the ground covered by other and 

 abler writers, and to treat only of what has come under my own observation as 

 a sportsman and a naturalist. 



In the earlier chapters are some details of bird and beast that the general 

 reader may be glad to skip ; but apart from these he may, I hope, find some- 



B 



