Memories of a Game Ranger - Signed Copy

Publisher's green cloth boards with gilt embossed titles on front panel and spine. Map endpapers.

313pp with numerous text illustrations by C. T. Astley-Maberly. 16 illustrated plates + portrait frontispiece.

SIGNED by Wolhuther on the frontispiece. Pencil note on the verso of the half-title page reads "Autographed copy bought at Skukuza, Kruger National Park, September 1962, shortly before the author's death."

The memoirs of the legendary South African game ranger, Harry Wolhuther, who patrolled the Kruger National Park in the early 1900's. 

Possibly the most famous incident in his life was the ordeal he suffered after being attacked by two lions. In August 1903 he was returning from one of his patrols along the Olifants river. He was taken completely by surprise and had no time to use his rifle when, all of a sudden, two lions jumped out from behind a patch of grass in an otherwise flat and empty plain. One of the lions ran after his horse after it threw Wolhuther forward and on top of the second lion. The animal grabbed him by his right shoulder and started dragging him off. He thought he was finished but remembered his sheath knife, which had the habit of falling out of its sheath whenever he chased game. Bringing his left hand around to his right side he was relieved to find it still there. Wolhuther mentions that whilst being dragged for around sixty yards, and with his head tightly pressed against the lion's mane, he could hear something that sounded like a cat purring, but only more monstrous. He reckoned it was in anticipation of the meal it intended having. He then stabbed the lion twice in the heart and once in the neck, severing the jugular vein. The lion released its grip and Wolhuther, with great effort, managed to find and climb up a nearby fairly tall tree. He feared that the second lion that ran after his horse would return, and his fear was soon realised. After sniffing the ground and following the spoor of blood it came to the base of the tree and lay there the whole night. Even though Wolhuther was in a near unconscious state from loss of blood he still vividly recalled the dark outline of the beast at the base of the tree with its yellow eyes flashing in the moonlight. His native field servants found him a few hours later and succeeded in scaring off the lion with rifle shots. Today the skin of the lion he killed a hundred and twenty years ago, along with his belt and stick knife, is on display in the main building of the Skukuza rest camp of the Kruger National Park. Wolhuther was very proud of the service done to him by his trusty stick knife, from the workshop of T. Williams of Smithfield, London. A while after the incident the very same Mr. T. Williams, having read the story in a newspaper, sent Wolhuther another stick knife exquisitely manufactured - this one had additional features.