Memories of a Game-Ranger by Wolhuter, Harry

(Johannesburg: The Wild Life Protection Society of South Africa, 1948). First edition, December 1948. 8vo; original green cloth gilt; no dustwrapper; endpaper map; pp. (xii) + 313 + (iii), incl. index; frontis. portrait; plates and illustrations in text. Cloth rather worn and gilt dull; darkened backstrip frayed at head and tail; upper hinge split, with cloth tape reinforcing; earlier owner's name signed on front free endpaper; edges foxed, with occasional fox spot elsewhere; sporadic, light soiling. Good reading copy of the first edition. (Czech: An Annotated Bibliography of African Big Game Hunting Books, 1785-1999, p. 307) "I suppose there can be few if any men in all Africa possessing a deeper knowledge and wider experience of bush lore in all its phases and in his prime he held all the qualities requisite to give effect to that knowledge and experience; a powerful frame, an iron constitution; cool courage and quiet determination. In addition, his complete mastery of the local Bantu language, and acquaintance with their customs, earned him exceptional liking and respect among the tribal natives. His unique exploit in killing, single-handed, and armed only with a knife, a full grown male lion which had seized, and was carrying him off, was in itself a feat rendering superfluous any further tributes to his rare courage and coolness; but it is worth remarking that in many hazards - happily all safely surmounted - which he has since incurred in the course of his duties, his nerve has shown itself to be just as calm and steady as it was when he underwent that terrible experience." - From the Foreword by J. Stevenson-Hamilton .