He enters Rugby--Love of books of travel--Life at Rugby--Rugby football in the old days--"Butler's leap"--Excursions in Natural History--Adventures out of bounds--The Pilton Range episode--Raid on the Heronry at Coombe Abbey--A cold swim--Unjust treatment--Wanderings with the rifle--Chased by the keeper--Mr. Boughton Leigh's broad-mindedness--The ice accident at Regent's Park--The panic--A narrow escape--Canon Wilson's recollections of Selous as a schoolboy--"Williamson's" duck--Neuchatel--Wiesbaden--His friend Colchester--A row with the forester--He flies to Salzburg--Butterfly collecting--Chamois hunting--The Franco-German War--Its unpopularity in Austria--His estimate of the German character--Visit to Vienna--Back in England 29 CHAPTER III 1871-1875 The influence of literature--Books on Africa--Thomas Baines--Baldwin--Selous lands in Africa--Leaves Port Elizabeth--Sport on the road--Arrival at Kimberley--A short expedition into Griqualand--Starts for the north--His companions--The first giraffe hunt--Lost in the bush--An unenviable position--Loses his horse--Reaches safety--His first lions--Meeting with Lobengula--The Matabele king's humour--Cigar--Elephant hunters--Piet Jacobs--William Finaughty--His life as an elephant hunter--Selous kills his first elephants--Cigar's good qualities--Selous remains in Matabeleland--Joins Wood in an elephant hunt--A great day--A fatal accident--The Dett valley--Elephant hunting--Charged by a cow--A narrow escape--A doubly loaded elephant gun--Further adventures with elephants--Return to Bulawayo--Game in the Dett valley--Selous goes north to the Zambesi--Visit to the Chobe--Begins his collection of trophies--Adventures with buffaloes--Abundance of game--His first lion--A savage charge--Arrives at Tati 65 CHAPTER IV 1876-1878 Lands again at Algoa Bay--Reaches Matabeleland--Kills a fine lion--George Westbeech--Return to the Diamond Fields--Loses a fine lion--The comparative danger of hunting various wild animals--Views of experienced hunters--Adventures with buffaloes--Goes north to the Zambesi--Hunting in the Chobe delta--Sepopo's elephant drives--A charging buffalo--Selous' horse killed by a buffalo--Further adventures with buffaloes--Their speed and cunning--A depressing outlook--Visit to the Zambesi--Portuguese misrule--The Kafukwe country--An unhealthy region--Illness of Owen and Selous--Restored to health--Elephant hunting on the Hanyane river--Clarkson and Wood--The death of Quabeet--A vicious cow--Nearly crushed--Kills a lioness--Plans for the future 99 CHAPTER V 1879-1880