at its head, and then to sail down that river to
Egypt. I t was conceived, however, not for geographical
interest, so much as for a view I had in my
mind of collecting the fauna of those regions, to
complete and fully develop a museum in my father’s
house, a nucleus of which I had already formed from
the rich menageries of India, the Himalaya Mountains,
and Tibet. My idea in selecting the new field
for my future researches was, that I should find within
it various orders and species of animals hitherto
unknown. Although Major Cornwallis Harris, Bup-
pell, and others had by this time well-nigh exhausted,
by their assiduous investigations, all discoveries
in animal life, both in the northern and
southern extremities of Africa, in the lowlands of
Kaffraria in the south, and the highlands of Ethiopia
in the north, no one as yet had penetrated to
the centre in the low latitudes near the equator;
and by latitudinal differences I thought I should
obtain new descriptions and varieties of animals.
Further, I imagined the Mountains of the Moon
were a vast range, stretching across Africa from east
to west, which in all probability would harbour
wild goats and sheep, as the Himalaya range does.
There, too, I thought I should find the Nile rising in
snow, as does the Ganges in the Himalayas.
The time I proposed to myself for carrying this
scheme into operation was my furlough—a lease of
three years’ leave of absence, which I should become
entitled to at the expiration of ten years’ service
in In d ia ; but I would not leave the reader
to infer that I intended devoting the whole of my
furlough to this one pursuit alone. Two of the three
years were to be occupied in collecting animals, and
descending by the valley of the Nile to Egypt and
England, whilst the third year was to be spent in indulgent
recreations at home after my labours should
be over.
I had now served five years in the Indian army,
and five years were left to serve ere I should become
entitled to take my furlough. During this time I had
to consider two important questions: How I should
be able, out of my very limited pay as a subaltern
officer, to meet the heavy expenditure which such a
vast undertaking would necessarily involve ? and how,
before leaving India, I might best employ any local
leave I could obtain, in completing my already commenced
collections of the fauna of that country and its
adjacent hill-ranges ? *
Previous experience had taught me that, in the
prosecution of my chief hobby, I would also solve the
problem of the most economical mode of living. In
the backwoods and jungles no ceremony or etiquette
provokes unnecessary expenditure; whilst the fewer
Without exception, and after haying now shot oyer three quarters
of the globe, I can safely say, there does not exist any place in the whole
wide world which affords sfich a diversity of sport, such interesting animals,
or such enchanting scenery, as well as pleasant climate and temperature,
as these various countries of my first experiences; but the
more especially interesting was Tibet to me, from the fact that I was
the first man who penetrated into many of its remotest parts, and discovered
many of its numerous animals.