2 MATABELE LAND. 



ATHEN/EUM. 



Had not a premature death cut short his career, Frank Oates might 

 have taken a place amongst the leading African explorers. The care 

 with which he mapped his route, the untiring energy which he devoted 

 to the collection of specimens of natural history, and the dogged 

 perseverance which he exhibited when it was a question of carrying to 

 a successful issue a plan once formed, these all promised great results 

 for the future. . . . The natural history collection of Frank Oates is 

 described, illustrated, and fully discussed in five Appendices, which 

 confer a more than ephemeral value upon this record of explorations. 

 The scientific world owes a debt of gratitude to the family of Mr. Oates 

 for having placed his valuable collection in the hands of specialists so 

 competent as Professors Geo. Rolleston, D. Oliver, and J. O. West- 

 wood, Dr. A. Giinther, and Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe. . . . The illustra- 

 tions which accompany these reports, as well as the narrative portion 

 of the volume, are of a very high order of merit. 



SATURDAY REVIEW. 



A perusal of the notes, diary, and letters which make up the bulk 

 of this work increases our regret for the premature death of the author. 

 . . . To zoologists and entomologists the Appendices in this book, 

 with their minute and scientific classification, will have a value far 

 surpassing the notices of sport and incidents of travel amongst strange 

 tribes which make up the volume. But, in our eyes, the interest 

 centres in the records and the character of the writer. Not only does 

 he take us far away from any beaten track, but he impresses us by his 

 modest, manly, and sensible tone, by his intelligent observations of 

 new scenes, and by his treatment of natives, whom he was too sensible 

 to credit with unlikely and imaginary virtues, and far too strong and 

 merciful to ill-use. 



SPECTATOR. 



The writer of these letters and journals was a man full of enterprise 

 and ambition, a sportsman as well as a naturalist, with that keen love 

 of discovery and that contempt for dangers and discomforts that mark 

 the born traveller. ... Mr. Oates was scarcely two years in Africa, 

 but during that time he managed to secure a vast number of natural- 

 history specimens, which, in the judgment of men of science, are of 

 the highest possible value. ... It would seem that in this expedition 

 the traveller discovered with certainty his vocation, and if the 

 " thin-spun life " were slit too soon, he lived long enough to win the 

 honest fame of having promoted in no mean measure the cause he 

 loved. 



