Big Game Shooting and Travel in South - East Africa. By F.
R. N. Findlay. (T. Fisher Unwin. 15s.)—Mr. Findlay saw great quantities of game in the Cheringoma and Gorongoza district of Portuguese South-East Africa. Ascending the Pungwe, the Madingue-dingue, and Urema Rivers, he found great quantities of buffalo, water-buck, wildebeest, hartebeest, and lions in a well-watered and highly malarial country. He writes pleasantly enough and with ease, but the book is, of course, a more or less glorified butcher's bill. Mr. Findlay hopes in his preface that his book will advance the South African game raserve scheme. A perusal of his hunting excursions and a rough estimate of the game he killed certainly lead one to the conclusion that the sooner such a scheme is in working order the more chance there is of the risjng generation seeing a buffalo or a hartebeest. Mr. Findlay expresses righteous indignation at indiscriminate slaughter with magazine rifles, yet the rapidity of fire of his Mouser throws a peculiar light on his own practice. He fires, for instance, at four buffaloes, himself knowing well what the spooring of a wounded buffalo means. After bagging one, and following the spoor again hard
the next day, he tells us that he found the remains of ono, and hoped that the other two recovered. He was not able to resist a tempting shot, and he is occasionally penitent. We do not think he has any right to abuse Portuguese gunners, as he presumably sets himself as high a standard of sport as a Portuguese. A limit will have to be set to the number of head a sportsman considers his due. We have no quarrel with Mr. Findlay, and a buffalo hunter is worthy of all respect, but his example obviously is not lost on the natives. He recommends Pretoria as the best site in South Africa for a zoological garden. He appends some useful notes on rifles, preserving, outfit, and kindred subjects, and adds a good index.
Previous page
