NOTES on South African Hunting is the entertaining account of a young English soldier's journey to the Victoria Falls in 1886. Originally published as a short series of articles in The Field magazine, the book also includes the author's impressions of early Kimberley. his views on the techniques of. and the opportunities for, big game hunting in southern Africa of the 1880s, and his recipe for survival in the still largely unexplored 'Far Interior'. Relatively few travelers - perhaps not more than fifty - had preceded Alfred Bethell to the Falls during the thirty years since their discovery by David Livingstone. His expedition. therefore. contained elements of both novelty and danger. In fact, it almost ended in disaster: ill-prepared and provisioned for the journey. Bethell chose to take the older road from Shoshong to the Zambesi (rather than the Pandamatenga track cut by trader George Westtbeech) and, badly guided, nearly died from lack of water. According to Vanity Fair of July 1895. he 'Lived on locusts and wild honey for many days, killed his horses with thirst and managed to get back just before his companion died'. This small work is one of the earliest practical guides to game hunting in Africa.

 

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