Dear Collector
This month we offer a marvellous selection of books, with lots of Hunting, Natural History, Geology and Mining. Several of the books give one an almost palpable sense of contact with the protagonists and the events they describe.
When next you sit down to a plate of hake and chips, think of John Gilchrist, the enthusiastic marine biologist appointed to investigate the fishing potential of the Agulhas Bank. In 1897 a small steam trawler, dubbed the Pieter Faure, was delivered from Scotland for Gilchrist’s work. In no time at all, Gilchrist was reporting great hake stocks off Dassen Island, and had discovered the riches of sole east of Cape Agulhas. This month we offer his impressive Report of the Marine Biologist for the Year 1898, which records an important voyage of the Pieter Faure. There are also some pamphlets from Gilchrist on offer, signed for, or by, his friend and collaborator Keppel H. Barnard. According to the book A History of Scientific Endeavour in South Africa, “At sea [Gilchrist] was as enthusiastic and stimulating as ever but back in Cape Town, wrapped in scientific thoughts, he was the epitome of an absent-minded professor. He passed a lady he thought he knew one day and courteously raised his hat; but she was indignant. ‘Surely, John, you know your own wife?’”
The man who succeeded Gilchrist and Barnard as the preeminent fish expert in South Africa was J L B Smith. Fishermen enjoyed his company, because he could not only identify unusual fish but also say what baits to use, and where the fish could be found. Have a look at the rare volume of The South African Angler for 1947-48, and marvel at what anglers were catching in those days.
One of the most famous scientists our country has ever produced was Alex du Toit, credited with the discovery of continental drift. We have his own signed copy of Science in South Africa this month, along with his famous work Geology of South Africa, and several issues of the Alex L. du Toit Memorial Lecture.
It is a little-publicised fact that the famous scientist Isaac Newton wrote more about religion than he did about science. In his works on the Bible, many of which were not published until long after his death, he reached conclusions that were often at odds with Church doctrine. One 
of Newton’s religious works was Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel. This month we offer Bishop Robert Gray’s copy. Considering Gray’s position as the representative of orthodoxy in the Colenso heresy case, it is intriguing that he had this book in his possession.
The many hunting books in this month’s list include such highlights as the first edition of Scully’s Lodges in the Wilderness, the first edition of Bulpin’s The Ivory Trail, David Enderby Blunt’s Elephant, Das Neves’ A Hunting Expedition to the Transvaal, the first edition of W D M Bell’sKaramojo Safari, and a limited edition facsimile of A Breath from the Veldt, by John Guille Millais.
Contact between the Portuguese and Boers receives copious attention in O J O Ferreira’s Serpa Pinto amongst Boer and Brit, D W Kruger’s Die weg na die see, and J B de Waal’s Die rol van João Albasini in die geskiedenis van die Transvaal. Travelling 
further afield, we have an early report on irrigation in Kenya, and volumes from the Oppenheimer Series: The Northern Goldfields Diaries of Thomas Baines, and The Barotseland Journal of James Stevenson-Hamilton.
The natural history books this month are thrilling. They include Linder and Kurzweil’s Orchids of Southern Africa, Pennington’s Butterflies of Southern Africa, and The Flora Capensis of Jakob and Johann Philipp Breyne, by Mary Gunn and Enid du Plessis.
As always, we hope we have found something to tempt you.
Best wishes,
Lindsay and Wendy
e seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Afrikaans text. £20.00
Hunting Books, 1785-1999 £70.00
bottom edges a little rubbed; some foxing to edges, occasional fox spot elsewhere. Very good condition. “The uproarious story of Bvekenya, the greatest of all poachers, and his wild companions who followed the ivory trail, does for Rhodesia, Moçambique and the northern areas of the N.E. Transvaal, what Jock of the Bushveld has done for the men of the old Lourenço Marques road. Bvekenya (S. C. Barnard to give him his real name) is almost a legend in the wilderness and on the great Limpopo river. Here he relives the strange adventures of ivory poaching, blackbirding and outlawry, which made him one of the most colourful of all personalities in Africa. We read of the hunts, fights, escapades and adventures of a man who was an outlaw for twenty years, and adventurer of the wilds who defied the police of three countries and fought a one-man war with complete success against all control and authority. The story of the king of the ivory poachers, as told by himself to T. V. Bulpin.” £50.00
hich was translated from the Portuguese by Mariana Monteiro. With a new preface by J. B. de Waal, and an index by P. M. Malherbe. Number 95 in The State Library Reprints series. 8vo; original pictorial boards; endpaper map; pp. viii + (viii) + xi + (i) + 298, incl. index; folding map; contemporary photographs and line drawings. Spine very slightly sunned. Near fine condition. “A Portuguese hunter and explorer, Das Neves set out from Lourenço Marques on an expedition into the Transvaal in 1860 to collect ivory and stimulate trade in Portuguese territory. He hunted hippopotamus on the river Save, also collecting buffalo and gazelle there. Near Zoutpansberg in the northern Transvaal, he hunted lion, buffalo and elephant … ” – Kenneth Czech, An Annotated Bibliography of African Big Game Hunting Books, 1785-1999. “Das Neves must have been a very intelligent young man and an excellent organizer, because his expedition proved to be a great success materially and scientifically. Nothing which was worth mentioning, escaped his alert mind and observing eyes. He described some of the beliefs of Black people on hunting; he reported on certain chiefs whom het met; he was one of the first white men to visit the lands of Queen Modjadji of the Lobedu and most probably the first to describe her rain-making; he had a long intimate talk with Muzila, the ultimate successor of chief Manukuza (Soshangave) and also tells us how he was nearly killed by Muzila’s younger brother and rival for the crown, the hostile Mawewe; he also gave a description of the dresses worn by Black women as well as the type of beads they favoured. His geographical descriptions of certain places in the present Kruger National Park are so vivid that they have been easily located thereby.” – From the Preface. £65.00
Cape colony, commences with a journal detailing the investigations of the government trawler ‘Pieter Faure’ between January 5 and December 31, 1898, between Simonstown and East London. This is followed by observations and statistics relating to marine life from along the coastline, information on inland fisheries, and the ‘Report of the Select Committee on the Fishing Industry.’ ‘The outstanding feature of the year’s work is the discovery of a large deep-sea fishing area near Mossel Bay, being a part of the great Agulhas Bank. In last year’s Report an account was given of the discovery of certain rich fishing grounds, and it was demonstrated that, in spite of statements to the contrary, there was within easy reach of Cape Town an excellent trawling ground. But it was also pointed out that, “after careful examination, we have found no regular deep-sea fishing ground for trawling.” This has at last been discovered, and may be the basis of a great fishing industry. Over one thousand square miles of this ground have been examined carefully, and we can now confidently assert that there is here a great source of wealth and food supply for the Colony. This discovery has only been made possible by the employment of a vessel of suitable strength and equipment and of a crew well acquainted with the work, and the result has more than justified the expenditure incurred.’ £60.00
ipped to edges; corners turned; backstrip slightly worn and title label eroded; hinges just starting; some foxing throughout; ‘Cape Town Diocesan Library’ stamps to pastedowns and title page. A good copy. Besides being one of the greatest scientific minds of his or any other age, Sir Isaac Newton was a rigorous Biblical scholar. Many of his conclusions, only fully published long after his death, did not harmonise with official Church doctrine. They included a rejection of the Athanasian Creed, and a belief that the Millennial Rule of God’s Kingdom would bring peace to earth’s inhabitants for all eternity. In this regard, he wrote: “The earth shall continue to be inhabited by mortals after the day of judgment and that not only for a 1000 years but even for ever.” Newton’s Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St John was first published in 1733. Robert Gray (1809-1872), first Anglican bishop of Cape Town, was the son of Robert Gray, bishop of Bristol. Gray, who had Tractarian leanings, accepted the new bishopric of Cape Town in 1847. His name is perhaps most closely associated with the prosecution of the Colenso case, the reverberations of which were felt throughout the Anglican world. It is interesting that a figure such as Gray, generally regarded as representing orthodoxy, should have had in his library a work so at odds with the position of the Church. Gray’s inscription is dated 1834, the year of his ordination as a priest. £395.00