Frederick Courteney Selous (1851 – 1917) was a British explorer, officer, hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in Southeast Africa. Selous was also a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham. He was pre-eminent within a select group of big game hunters that included Abel Chapman and Arthur Henry Neumann.
HAVING seen, or shot, practically every species of great game in South and South-east Africa, the indefatigable author of the volume before us has devoted several seasons in the closing decade of the 19th century to hunting-trips in the northern hemisphere. These expeditions included three trips to Asia Minor in search of the wild goat, the Armenian sheep, and the Asiatic red deer, and two to the Rocky Mountains, where wapiti, mule-deer, white-tailed deer, prongbuck and lynx fell to the practised aim of the veteran hunter. Not that Mr. Selous is by any means merely a hunter; he is likewise an observant field-naturalist and an enthusiastic eggcollector, having contributed many years ago an important paper on African antelopes to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, while his recent expeditions to Asia Minor have furnished material for an ornithological paper to the Ibis. It is perhaps needless to add that such an experienced hunter may be depended upon not to shoot animals for the mere sake of slaying, and that after obtaining a few fine examples of the species he encountered for the first time to add to his splendid collection at Alpine Lodge, Worplesdon, and occasionally killing an individual or two for the commissariat, Mr. Selous has always been content to stay his hand. Mr. Selous's laurels as a mighty hunter have, of course, been won in Africa, where his name is one to conjure, with among many more tribes than we would care to remember. But, eager for fresh worlds to conquer, he has turned his back on the scenes of his glory occasionally. This handsome volume, profusely illustrated with photographs of persons, places, and trophies of his prowess, contains the record of his adventures in the 'fresh woods and pastures new. Excessive heat and equally trying cold were endured by Mr. Selous. To visit the mountains and prairies of the northwestern states of America appears to have been a life-long dream of Mr. Selous—a dream that was never realised till long after the bison had disappeared from the latter, and the numbers of the wapiti had been deplorably reduced in the former. Mr. Selous was fortunate enough to obtain some very fine heads of wapiti, white-tailed deer and mule-deer, one head of the latter being a remarkably good specimen, and notable on account of the relatively narrow span of the antlers. To those who contemplate a trip to either of the districts visited by Mr. Selous, as well as to those stay-at-home people who prefer to hear of stirring adventures by field and flood when comfortably seated by their own firesides, rather than undergo the inseparable hardships and toils themselves, one can confidently recommend " Sport and Travel" as an attractive and interesting volume, written by one who is at the same time a keen sportsman and an intelligent and thoughtful observer.
Originally published by Longmans in 1900, this book has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.
HAVING seen, or shot, practically every species of great game in South and South-east Africa, the indefatigable author of the volume before us has devoted several seasons in the closing decade of the 19th century to hunting-trips in the northern hemisphere. These expeditions included three trips to Asia Minor in search of the wild goat, the Armenian sheep, and the Asiatic red deer, and two to the Rocky Mountains, where wapiti, mule-deer, white-tailed deer, prongbuck and lynx fell to the practised aim of the veteran hunter. Not that Mr. Selous is by any means merely a hunter; he is likewise an observant field-naturalist and an enthusiastic eggcollector, having contributed many years ago an important paper on African antelopes to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, while his recent expeditions to Asia Minor have furnished material for an ornithological paper to the Ibis. It is perhaps needless to add that such an experienced hunter may be depended upon not to shoot animals for the mere sake of slaying, and that after obtaining a few fine examples of the species he encountered for the first time to add to his splendid collection at Alpine Lodge, Worplesdon, and occasionally killing an individual or two for the commissariat, Mr. Selous has always been content to stay his hand. Mr. Selous's laurels as a mighty hunter have, of course, been won in Africa, where his name is one to conjure, with among many more tribes than we would care to remember. But, eager for fresh worlds to conquer, he has turned his back on the scenes of his glory occasionally. This handsome volume, profusely illustrated with photographs of persons, places, and trophies of his prowess, contains the record of his adventures in the 'fresh woods and pastures new. Excessive heat and equally trying cold were endured by Mr. Selous. To visit the mountains and prairies of the northwestern states of America appears to have been a life-long dream of Mr. Selous—a dream that was never realised till long after the bison had disappeared from the latter, and the numbers of the wapiti had been deplorably reduced in the former. Mr. Selous was fortunate enough to obtain some very fine heads of wapiti, white-tailed deer and mule-deer, one head of the latter being a remarkably good specimen, and notable on account of the relatively narrow span of the antlers. To those who contemplate a trip to either of the districts visited by Mr. Selous, as well as to those stay-at-home people who prefer to hear of stirring adventures by field and flood when comfortably seated by their own firesides, rather than undergo the inseparable hardships and toils themselves, one can confidently recommend " Sport and Travel" as an attractive and interesting volume, written by one who is at the same time a keen sportsman and an intelligent and thoughtful observer.
Originally published by Longmans in 1900, this book has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.
