PREFACE. xvii 



the volume having been made as perfect and 

 complete as the attention and proficiency of Mr. 

 Edward Weller and his son could render them. 

 To all these gentlemen 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 in his lifetime during a 

 gale at Shoshong, by the unroofing 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- 

 minded that to "inspan" and "outspan," words of 



b 



