MEMOIR. xxi 



rare and brilliant bird-skins, each specimen with its 

 separate label, in the collector's writing, carefully 

 recording its habitat, and other particulars useful 

 to the student, accompanied in many instances 

 by examples of nests and eggs. There, on the 

 other hand, were lesser boxes, filled with varied 

 specimens of insects, some from those very Victoria 

 Falls of the Zambesi, the rich and almost untried 

 harvest-ground of the naturalist, whose attractions 

 had lured the wanderer to his untimely grave. And 

 there, again, were those large wide-necked bottles, 

 familiar to the collector, containing, some of them, 

 strange-looking beetles, others still stranger reptiles ; 

 there the packets of botanical drying paper, each 

 sheet enveloping its floral treasure. Turning again 

 to other cases, were found in numbers the singular 

 implements of savage warfare, or industry, and with 

 them many of those rude yet tasteful attempts at 

 ornamentation suggested by native fancy ; evidences 

 — the whole of them — of that untutored skill and 

 delicate refinement of workmanship which charac- 

 terize many of the finer races of unlettered savages. 

 Whilst further, the mighty tusks of the huge African 

 elephant, the skins of the lion, the leopard, and the 

 cheetah, — for it was these beasts of prey that the 

 traveller had especially loved to hunt, — besides 

 those of many an African antelope, with horns and 

 heads of equal grace and beauty, told silently of 



