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Seventeen trips through Somaliland. A record of exploration & big game shooting, 1885 to 1893. Being the narrative of several journeys in the hinterland of the Somali coast protectorate, dating from the beginning of its administration by Great Britain until the present time with descriptive notes on the wild fauna of the country …

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First edition recounting hunting and exploration trips to Somaliland by the British soldier, explorer, naturalist, and big-game hunter Harold George Carlos Swayne.

‘An excellent game shot, Swayne describes his seventeen journeys into Somaliland’s interior from 1884 to 1893. He hunted elephant near the Golis Range, Jallo, and the Sobt River in 1887. Five years later, while on reconnaissance near the Abyssinian border, he bagged rhinoceros near Toeli. In 1893, Swayne collected leopard and oryx while journeying to Harar. Later, near the Webbe Shebleh River, he hunted rhino, lion, leopard, and elephant. He also relates an interesting incident of hunting hyena with knife and pistol. In the Golis Range, he successfully stalked trophy kudu. On a second journey to the Webbe Shebleh, he bagged bushbuck, leopard, and lion. An important work of sport and exploration’ (Czech). As well as being devoted to hunting animals Swayne was also committed to cataloguing and conserving them (a not unusual combination at the time, if somewhat paradoxical today): both the Swayne's hartebeest and Swayne's dik-dik are named after him, and he was a fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society of London.

Czech, pp. 161-2.

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