After Big Game in Central Africa

Blue cloth-boards with a gilt elephant illustration to the upper board, gilt lettering to the spine and a gilt top page edge. Plain black endpapers, xvi + 330 pp of text, a table, an appendix and an index. There are 36 illustrations in the text + a frontispiece portrait of the author and 29 other inserted plates, including a 2-colour map + 10 pp of publisher's announcements.

The preface tells us that the author was an explorer in the service of the French "Minister of Instruction" (and the author of three previous books on the subject) and that his job allowed him to do what he liked best, which was to hunt.

Frederic Lees's introduction begins with the comment that British sportsmen doubt the ability of their foreign colleagues to equal their own feats or, indeed, to excel; but that this author had been so successful as a hunter and scientific researcher that three European geographical societies had awarded him medals, while the King of Brussels had decorated him. The introduction also outlines the course of his exploration and hunting route, marked in red on the map.

The abbreviated chapter headings are:

• I. Arms and Outfit
• II. Arrival in Africa
• III. Trials with Small-Bore Rifle
• IV. Elephants and Lions
• V. In the Midst of the Jungle
• VI. A "Battue" with Natives
• VII. Seasons and Sport
• VIII. Native Dogs in Lion-Hunting
• IX. Annual Fires - Birds of Prey
• X. Night-Watches in 1895
• XI. Giraffe-Hunting
• XII. Some Animals of the Congo
• XIII. Three Notable Elephant Hunts
• XIV. Record Days with Lions

Appendix:

• Part I. Some Habits of the Elephant, Rhinoceros, and Lion
• Part II. Advice and Information for the use of Hunter-Naturalists
• Tables of Measurements

The books in the publisher's announcement include an introduction to the study of live and extinct animals and Artistic and Scientific Taxidermy and Modelling.

CONDITION NOTES. The boards are rubbed at the corners and depressed at the spine ends. The endpapers are in fine condition and uncracked. The half-title page indicates that the copy had been withdrawn from the English Library in Tenerife; there are no spine or other library markings. The half-title also carries an ownership signature in ink. The first and last two leaves are lightly foxed, and there are a few small brown stains elsewhere in the book.There are several minor between-section cracks, but the binding remains firm. The gilt top page edge remains bright.

This complete and very good copy of this sought-after title has the minor defects noted.