Bryden, H. A.

Kloof and Karroo: Sport, Legend, and Natural History in Cape Colony, with a Notice of the Game Birds, and of the Present Distribution of the Antelopes and Larger Game.

Hardcover, London: Longmans, Green & Company, 1889. First Edition. Very Good. Octavo, pp. Xiii, 435. Frontispiece portrait of a Zebra, 16 more full page illustrations. Bound in publisher's dark green cloth with gilt antelope head on front cover and gold front cover and spine titles. Spine slightly slanted and bumped at both ends. Corners rubbed. Bottom edges rubbed. Previous owner put 2 of his bookplates on front pastedown and front free endpaper. Same previous owner wrote his name and date on the half title page. Age spotting to endpapers, very light scattered age spotting to text. All illustrations retain their tissue paper guards. Front hinge, lightly cracked, binding sound. Henry Anderson Bryden (1854-1937) was an English solicitor, hunter, naturalist, traveler, and athlete. His athletic specialties were long distance running and rugby union. He was called into the English national team once for rugby union. Bryden traveled and hunted extensively in Africa, later becoming a professional writer and publishing 9 books, most about South Africa, nature, and hunting. Kloof and Karroo is his first book and among the most difficult of his titles to acquire. Kloof and Karroo is a series of articles on South Africa, mostly concerned with hunting and natural history. The book gives considerable information about the game of South Africa and the author delighted in the sporting life he portrays. He writes about the extinction of the Quagga and describes his own hunts after klipspringer, rehbock, and small game in the Transvaal. He then crossed the Camdeboo Plains for springbok. The title refers to South Africa's ravines and tablelands. Chapter 16 discusses the distribution of antelopes and large game in South Africa while chapter 12 discusses elephants. Chapters 19 and 20 are about the Boers and their legends and lore. Chapter 17 discusses the game birds of South Africa. Chapter 21 is about the peerless gemsbok, an animal the author calls “the true unicorn. ” This book belonged to Gerard Bonham-Carter and it is his bookplates and name in the book. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 435 pages. [Item #77504]

Price: $475.00