40 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Mr. Fairbairn, a well-known trader. I was just inspanning the waggons 

 one afternoon amongst the hills skirting the Inkwesi river, when a heavy 

 storm of rain came on, accompanied by much thunder and lightning. The 

 boys herding Mr. Fairbairn's cattle now drove them up alongside of the 

 waggons, and they stood thickly clustered together amongst the trees. 

 Suddenly from where I stood in front of my waggon, I saw some splinters 

 of wood fly from a tree near me — about sixty hards off— whilst all the 

 cattle standing beneath it fell to the ground. On going up to see what 

 had happened, I found thirteen fine oxen lying dead. Most of them must 

 have had their heads down feeding, and had been struck dead so instan- 

 taneously, and fallen so suddenly, that their necks and heads were bent in, 

 under their bodies. I could not get a Kafir to come near the dead animals, 

 and they seemed quite frightened at what had occurred. I turned all the 

 carcases over, but could find no mark of any kind upon them." — (P. 447). 



With this extract we must close the volume, although we had 

 marked several other passages for quotation. To the general 

 reader, probably, the most interesting portion of the book will be 

 that which relates to the occupation of Mashunaland, and the 

 guidance of an expedition by Mr. Selous to a spot on the 

 Makabise river, about ten miles S.E. of Mount Hampden, where, 

 on Sept. 11th, 1889, the British flag was hoisted, and the country 

 taken possession of in the name of the Queen ; and here the town 

 of Salisbury was soon after laid out. 



But we must not be led into a discussion of politics, which 

 would carry us entirely out of our province. We must be content 

 to refer the reader to Mr. Selous's vindication of the justice of 

 the occupation of Mashunaland (in spite of the indignant protests 

 of Portuguese statesmen), as explained by him in a letter to * The 

 Times,' which is here reprinted (pp. 313-325). 



We note that the spelling of native names adopted by the 

 author is that recommended by the Eoyal Geographical Society, 

 and Mr. Selous has been fortunate in getting his MS. revised by 

 so good an authority as Mr. John Coles, the Map Curator of that 

 Society. The publishers, Messrs. Rowland Ward & Co., seem to 

 have spared no expense in the production of this book, which has 

 been beautifully printed by Clark, of Edinburgh, and is well 

 illustrated by such good artists as Messrs. Wolf, Whymper, 

 Lodge, and others. A map at the end shows the routes traversed 

 by the author during the past eleven years, and, with the aid of 

 the text, furnishes a valuable contribution to geographical science. 



