BIG GAME SHOOTING AND TRAVEL IN SOUTH-EAST AFRICA

With chapters by Olive Schreiner and S.C. Cronwright Schreiner

A Map and Numerous Illustrations

First edition. xii, 313 pages, the frontispiece - printed on grey paper, 16 full-page plates and numerous illustrations in the text, folding map, original brown cloth over bevelled boards – the boards are scuffed and worn, with blind stamped vignette on the upper cover and gilt title, also titled gilt on the spine- which is starting to fray at the top and the bottom and has faded to brown, uncut fore-edge and bottom edge, top edge faded gilt, light foxing mainly on the page edges, uncancelled stamps on the back of the map and at the top of the page of chapter 1, contents bright, a good copy.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography Volume 1 page 545: A book on sport in South-East Africa at the commencement of the twentieth century. The author, a nephew of Olive Schreiner, was evidently an ardent hunter, and speaks, of Portuguese South-East Africa as "a veritable sportsman's paradise." There is an important chapter on " The Fauna of Africa: Conservation or Extermination," the first part of which, entitled "Waste Land in Mashonaland," is contributed by Olive Schreiner, while Part II. is written by the author. The former greatly deprecates "the reckless and entirely wanton destruction of the one form of production for which the African continent stands pre-eminent among the world's divisions of our astonishing fauna." She advocates the formation of "a vast preserve for wild animals where all creatures but those habituated to extreme cold would freely exist in a state of nature: this would serve as a means of keeping in existence a large number of forms of animal life which would else become annihilated." It is suggested that, in connection with this scheme, a large zoological garden could be formed "in the narrower sense of the term, where isolated specimens might be immured for the purposes of certain studies." It is stated that an ideal part of the continent for such a project could be chosen in Mashonaland. " ... the scheme would have to be worked on a colossal scale, and by the international interaction of all interested in science our preserve should be the World's Zoological Garden." Mr. Findlay, in continuing the paper, considered that Pretoria would be the best place for the zoological garden, while the preserve could be established in the north-west portion of the Transvaal. The greater part of the volume is devoted to an account of the writer's hunting experiences in South Africa, and it would be difficult to find a more useful or up-to-date book on the subject. It is profusely illustrated, and contains some valuable appendices, amongst which is " The Convention for the Preservation of Wild Animals, Birds, and Fish in Africa," signed in London, May 19 1900.

Czech (Dr. Kenneth P.) An Annotated Bibliography of African Big Game Hunting Books 1785 – 1999, page 152 -153 pages 95/96, "Findlay trekked through the virtually unknown recesses of the vast swamp and forest lands of Portuguese Southeast Africa and along the Urema and Massarara rivers. The game encountered included buffalo, waterbuck, hartebeest, lion, leopard, reedbuck, and other game. He then travelled to Zululand and bagged black rhino, buffalo, kudu, hippo, and inyala near the Manzibomvu River. Findlay also describes a springbok and ostrich hunt in the karoo country of Cape Colony. Though an ardent sportsman, he also realized the limits of wild game in Africa and argues for the preservation of habitat and maintaining healthy numbers of game animals."

Olive Schreiner, the author's aunt, contributes Part I (8 pages) to Chapter 20, "The Fauna of Africa: Conservation or Extermination", a paper entitled, "Waste Land in Mashonaland" in which she describes the destruction of the fauna of Mashonaland, 'For the moment we are so entirely bent on advancing the claims of a material civilisation, which we are inclined to regard as the all in all of life, that more subtle, if equally practical and important, considerations are apt to be forgotten. This view is forced on us when we consider the reckless and entirely wanton destruction of the one form of production for which the African continent, and more especially its southern portions, stand pre-eminent among the world's divisions - our astonishing fauna.'