Owen Letcher (1884-1943) was a big game hunter and soldier who served in South African. He was among the the first of a new breed of African trophy hunters who appeared with the arrival of the railway at the Zambezi. A 1907 trip to the railhead at Broken Hill (today's Kabwe in Zambia) prompted the author to embark upon his first hunting safari into the little travelled but very rich wild-life area of North-Eastern Rhodesia, well known for its scenic and beautiful Luangwa valley. He then moved through North-Eastern Rhodesia to its boundary with Nyasaland and Mozambique, where he hunted a collection of antelope trophies, some of which are now considered rare. In the Awemba territory towards the Muehinga. he shot his first elephant. In the Lake Bangweolo area sittutunga, lechwe and tsessebe were hunted, also pookoo, reed-buck, hartebeest, and a Crawshay's variety (Cobus defassa crawshai) of waterbuck. In the Tumbwa swamps there were the black lechwe.
In British East Africa (Kenya) he introduces the reader to the Rift Valley and the Masai, Thomson's and Grant's gazelle, jigger fleas, the Uganda railway, and colobus monkeys. Further travels included Mombasa and Zanzibar, Entebbe, the Ripon Falls, and the mystical allure of the lower Nile and the Egypt of 911. And so his hunting journey ends as an exciting tourist extravaganza on the Mediterranean! His narrative is not only entertaining, but is also informative and vividly colourful.
CONTENTS Preface I. Introductory II. We enter North-Eastern Rhodesia III. A Journey to the Luanowa IV. In Nature's Playground—An Exciting Buffalo Hunt V. Adventures with Elephants, Lions, and Leopards VI. Across the Muchingas VII. Rhino and Elephant Hunts in the Eastern Muchingas VIII. The Country of the Awemba—Into the Great Swamps IX. More Hunts in the Luangwa Valley—The Return to Fort Jameson X. The Game of the Country and its Distribution XI. The Game of the Country and its Distribution —Continued XII. Information for Sportsmen XIII. The Natives of the Country, and Some Questions affecting them XIV. Conclusion
This book originally published in 1911 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.