London, Longman, 1822-24.
"The most valuable and accurate work on South Africa published up to the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and embracing a description of a large part of the Cape Colony and Bechuanaland at this period."(Mendelssohn).
Regarding hippopotamus meat: "If our English lovers of good eating could but once taste such a steak, they would not rest till they had caused fine lively hippopotami to be an article of regular importation".
A skilled zoologist and botanist, Burchell set out from Cape Town in June 1811 on his travels in Africa, and covered four thousand five hundred miles in the interior, returning to the Cape in April 1815 with natural history specimens and five hundred drawings. Most of his observations describe the landscapes, natives, and Boers of the region, but there are also numerous accounts of hunting lion, rhinoceros, and buffalo.
First edition. 2 volumes, 4to., viii, [iv] (verso blank), errata slip, 582, 4 (hints on emigration); iv (errata to verso), 648pp., half-titles to both volumes, folding map, 20 hand-coloured aquatint plates, 5 folding, wood-engravings in text, some offsetting from text to plates in vol. i as usual, contemporary half calf gilt, marbled boards, an excellent set.
Regarding hippopotamus meat: "If our English lovers of good eating could but once taste such a steak, they would not rest till they had caused fine lively hippopotami to be an article of regular importation".
A skilled zoologist and botanist, Burchell set out from Cape Town in June 1811 on his travels in Africa, and covered four thousand five hundred miles in the interior, returning to the Cape in April 1815 with natural history specimens and five hundred drawings. Most of his observations describe the landscapes, natives, and Boers of the region, but there are also numerous accounts of hunting lion, rhinoceros, and buffalo.
First edition. 2 volumes, 4to., viii, [iv] (verso blank), errata slip, 582, 4 (hints on emigration); iv (errata to verso), 648pp., half-titles to both volumes, folding map, 20 hand-coloured aquatint plates, 5 folding, wood-engravings in text, some offsetting from text to plates in vol. i as usual, contemporary half calf gilt, marbled boards, an excellent set.
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