African Nature Notes and Reminiscences

(Alberton: Galago, 1986) 0947020160. The text is a facsimile of the 1908 Macmillan 1st edition. Large 8vo; original green boards, lettered in white on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper (housed in removable protector); pp. xxx + 356, incl. index; plates. Spine panel of dustwrapper very slightly sunned; trace of spotting to top edge. Very good condition. Kenneth Czech describes this work as follows: 'A wide-ranging work that discusses everything from the coloration of African big game to the extinction of some species in South Africa. There are plenty of big-game hunting episodes, which Selous uses to accent his chapters on Cape buffalo, black rhinoceros, and lion, among others. Written at a time when there was a noticeable depletion of the great game herds, he becomes almost lyrical in his longing for the old days: "but no man will ever again sit by a camp fire near one of the little rivers ... eating prime pieces of fat elephant's heart, roasted on a forked stick, nor watch the great white rhinoceros coming to drink just before dark, nor lie and listen to herd after herd of elephants drinking and bathing in the river near the camp."' - An Annotated Bibliography of African Big Game Hunting Books, 1785 to 1950, p. 146. .