East Africa, and its Big Game. By Captain Sir John
C. Willoughby, Bart., Royal Horse Guards. (Longmans.)—A list of fauna found chiefly in the plains round Kilima-Njaro, with notes upon the habits of the animals and birds, compiled by Mr. Hunter, is the most attractive part, to us, of this big book. The killing of "rhinos," even the brilliant feat of bringing down an elephant and a buffalo, "right and left," would have the effect of leaving us unmoved by admiration or wonder, no matter by whom de- scribed ; but in the present instance the details of slaughter are so monotonous, that one might read page after page without being aware of whereabouts in the narrative one had got to, so like the middle narrative is to its predecessor and successor. The writer is the sort of man with whom "natives" are always "impudent," and everybody but an Englishman is a foreigner everywhere ; accordingly, we find him "hoping to obtain specimens of the beautiful black and white colobtus which abound" on the out- skirts of magnificent forests near the Pan i or Ughono mountains, although he knew that the inhabitants of the country regard these monkeys as "the shades of their departed ancestors." Fortunately, he did not obtain any specimens of those beautiful monkeys, for it is possible, if he had, the impudent natives might have tried their hands at "potting" him, if that operation can be performed with a club or a spear ; at all events, have taken a quick way with him. There is not much information to be gained
respecting the country and the people of East Africa from this dull specimen of a kind of literature that is rarely bright.
Previous page
