PHOTOGRAPHS OF (1) A SPOTTED HYENA (CROCOTTA GERMINANS, Mtsch.); (2) AND (4) STRIPED HYENAS (HYÆNA SCHILLINGSI, Mtsch.), AND (3) A JACKAL.
This is true not merely of Africa, but of other parts of the world as well. Who is attempting to secure photographic records of the great elk and mighty bears of Alaska? or of the wild life of the Arctic zone—the polar bear, the walrus, and the seal?
SNAPSHOT OF A JACKAL IN FULL FLIGHT.
The Arctic regions should be made to tell their last secrets to the camera for the benefit of posterity, nor should the wild sheep and ibex of the unexplored mountains of Central Asia be overlooked.
These things are not to be easily achieved, and they involve a considerable outlay of money. It would be, however, money well spent. Money is being lavished upon many other enterprises which could very well wait, and which might be carried out just as successfully some time in the future. These are possibilities, on the other hand, that are diminishing every year, and that presently will cease to exist. I trust sincerely that it may be my lot to continue working in this field.
“If only the matter could be brought home to the minds of the right people,” wrote one of our best naturalists, after examining my work, “tens of thousands of pounds would be devoted to this end.”
GUINEA-FOWL. Envoi
I may be permitted a few words in conclusion to reaffirm certain views to which I cling. I would not have my readers attach any special importance to what I myself have achieved, but I would like them to take to heart the moral of my book.
It may be summed up in a very few words. I maintain that wild life everywhere, and in all its forms, should be religiously protected—that the forces of nature should not be warred against more than our struggle for existence renders absolutely inevitable; and that it is the sportsman’s duty, above all, to have a care for the well-being of the whole of the animal world.
Whoever glances over the terrible list of so-called “harmful” birds and beasts done to death every year in Germany must bemoan this ruthless destruction of a charming feature of our countryside, carried out by sportsmen in the avowed interest of certain species designated as “useful.” The realm of nature should not be regarded exclusively from the point of view of sport; the sportsman should stand rather in the position of a guardian or trustee, responsible to all nature-lovers for the condition of the fauna and flora left to his charge.
I would have the German hunter establish the same kind of reservations, the same kind of “sanctuaries” for wild life that exist in America. In our German colonies, especially in Africa, we should model those reservations on English examples. Such institutions, in which both flora and fauna should be really well looked after, would be a source at once of instruction and enjoyment of the highest kind to all lovers of natural history.
FAREWELL TO AFRICA!
Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
CHEAP EDITION
“The most remarkable travel book that has ever been published.”—Graphic.
With Flashlight
and Rifle
A Record of Hunting Adventures and Studies in Wild Life
By C. G. SCHILLINGS
Translated by FREDERIC WHYTE
With an Introduction by Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.,
Illustrated with 302 of the Author’s “untouched” photographs
taken by day and night.
Printed throughout on English art paper, in one handsome
vol., 824 pages super-royal 8vo, 12s. 6d. net
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT wrote of Mr. Schillings’s book:
“His extraordinary photographic work among the teeming wild creatures of East Africa.... He is a great field naturalist, a trained scientific observer, as well as a mighty hunter; and no mere hunter can ever do work even remotely approaching in value that which he has done. His book should be translated into English at once.”
Some Exceptional Reviews
“An entrancing work. His photographs are positively wonderful; his letterpress is vivid.”—Standard.
“A book of singular value.”—Yorkshire Post.
“This remarkable book.”—Sporting and Dramatic News.
“A unique and most remarkable book.”—Scotsman.
“Space forbids any mention of the author’s hunting adventures or of his many thrilling escapes from death, but all through the two volumes the human interest is as strong as the scientific.”—Graphic.
“A remarkable book. Nobody else has ever obtained so wonderful a series of photographs.”—Truth.
“An entirely remarkable book, containing the greatest triumph in photography of wild animals ever achieved.”—Outlook.
London: HUTCHINSON & CO., Paternoster Row
Nearest the Pole
By Commander R. E. PEARY
(U. S. Navy; President of the National Geographic Society)
Author of “Northward over the Great Ice,” etc.
With an introduction by President Roosevelt and numerous
illustrations selected from a collection of 1,200 of the
Author’s photographs
In Crown 4to, cloth gilt and gilt top, 21s. net.
In this book Commander Peary relates the thrilling story of his endeavours to reach the North Pole. Although he did not succeed in his attempt, he managed to get nearer to the Pole than any of his predecessors. Sailing in the Roosevelt from Etah, North Greenland, on August 16th, 1905, the expedition soon encountered ice which made their progress both dangerous and difficult. After being icebound for some weeks, the vessel was extricated, but not floated again until the following summer. The sun disappearing from sight in October, was not seen again until March. The expedition re-started in February on a sledge trip in the direction of the Pole, and after dividing the party, Peary and his followers journeyed towards their goal encountering on their way, among other mishaps, a gale which lasted six days, during which time they found themselves some seventy miles out of their course. They then endeavoured to get intelligence of the other portion of their party, but had to abandon their attempt as their scouts could not locate their whereabouts. At length, by forced marches, Commander Peary, on April 21st, reached 87° 6´ N.
On this expedition Commander Peary did for the American segment of the Polar Basin what Nansen did for the Asiatic. The narrative is exceedingly dramatic. The explorer tells how he built the Roosevelt on an entirely different plan from any other Arctic ship, and not only adopted Eskimo clothing and made camps like Eskimos in ice and snow, but took Eskimos with him as guides. It is the seventh time that Peary has been North—oftener than any other explorer: and the Hubbard Gold Medal that President Roosevelt presented him on behalf of the National Geographic Society is the fifth he has received for his distinguished achievements in exploration. There will be an introduction to the book by President Roosevelt, and the beautiful pictures with which the book will be illustrated are selected from a collection of 1,200 of the author’s photographs.
London: HUTCHINSON & CO., Paternoster Row
FOOTNOTES:
1 Male Emperor-moths (Saturnia pyri) hasten from great distances, even against the wind, to a female of the species emerging from the chrysalis state in captivity. Elephants, the author believes, can scent a fall of rain at a distance of many miles.
2 The author would like to bring this fact home to all destroyers of herons, kingfishers, and diving-birds.
3 The Masai distinguish the kinds of grass which their cattle eat and reject. Many kinds of grass with pungent grains, such as Andropogon contortus, L., are rejected entirely. Yet the tough bow-string hemp is to the taste of many wild animals—the small kudu, for instance.
4 Latterly many sportsmen in the tropics have taken again to the use of very large-calibre rifles. Charges of as much as 21 gr. of black powder and a 26¾ mm. bullet are employed with them. It is to the kick of such a ride that the author owes the scar which is visible in the portrait serving as frontispiece to this book—an “untouched” photograph, like all the others.
5 See With Flashlight and Rifle.
6 In winter, Siberia affords a refuge to beautiful long-haired tigers, such as can be seen in the Berlin Zoological Gardens.
7 For this information I am indebted to the kindness of the experienced Russian hunter Ceslav von Wancowitz.
8 Herr Niedieck also underwent a similar experience. See his book Mit der Büchse in fünf Weltteilen, and my own With Flashlight and Rifle.
9 Little elephants only a yard high used to inhabit Malta, and there still lives, according to Hagenbeck, the experienced zoologist of Hamburg, a dwarf species of elephant in yet unexplored districts of West Africa.
10 Experienced German hunters make a special plea for the use of rifles of heavier calibre. Many English hunters are of the same opinion.
11 The raison d’être of these powerful weapons of the African elephant is a difficult question. Why did the extinct mammoth carry such very different tusks, curving upwards? Why has the Indian elephant such small tusks, and the Ceylon elephant hardly any at all, whilst the African’s are so huge and heavy?
12 On that occasion I had not at hand a telephoto-lens of sufficient range.
13 The well-known naturalist, Hagenbeck, remembers the immense numbers of giraffes which were bagged in the Sudan some thirty years ago.
14 Later observers questioned this fact. When I have used the word “mimicry,” I have done so not in the original sense of Bates and Wallace, but as denoting the conformity of the appearance of animals with their environment.
15 Some years earlier one of our best zoologists, after a long stay in the Masai uplands, had described the giraffes as “rare and almost extinct”: a striking proof of the great difficulty there is in coming upon these animals.
16 The author has often heard it asserted that the giraffe does much harm to the African vegetation and therefore should be exterminated. Such assertions should be speedily and publicly denied. They are on a level with the demand for the complete extermination of African game with a view to getting rid of the tsetse-fly.
17 Giraffa reticulata de Winton and Giraffa schillingsi, Mtsch.
18 Cf. With Flashlight and Rifle.
19 Recent reports from West Africa confirm what I say about the disastrous results of allowing the natives to hunt with firearms. The same regrettable state of things prevails in every part of the world in which this is permitted.
20 I do not know of any “telephoto” picture of animals in rapid motion having been published anywhere previously to my own. Those I refer to here are of animals at rest or moving quite slowly.
21 Flashlight photographs may be taken by daylight, as is proved by this photograph and some of those of rhinoceroses in With Flashlight and Rifle.
Transcriber’s Note:
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.