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Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/214

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The Library.

Matabeleland and Mashonaland, West Africa, East Africa, and African Travel, there are few instances where there has been so rapid an increase in the literature of any country, but in spite of the continuous flow of works, almost every publication of any importance at all will be found in the library. Regarding the Cape Colony, the works of chief importance are those of Kolben, Sparrman, Paterson, LeVaillant, Van Renen, Thunberg, Baines, Percival, Lichtenstein, Latrobe, Burchell, Pringle, and Harris, whose well-known work upon the game and wild animals of South Africa was preceded by a similar one which is now very scarce, and little known, entitled African Scenery and Animals, consisting of a collection of coloured drawings by Samuel Daniell published in 1804-5, this being supplemented sixteen years later by a second work by the same author, entitled Sketches representing the Native Tribes, Animals, and Scenery of South Africa. Amongst the more recent works upon the Cape Colony are those of Mackenzie, John Noble, whose admirable handbooks convey so graphic a description of the Colony, and the valuable collection of the writings of G. M. Theal, the historian of South Africa, which contain a complete history of Southern Africa from the period of the origin of European power to the present day. The work is based upon the records of the Cape Colony, which are carefully preserved at Cape Town, and furnish the most complete information that can be needed for the compilation of a history of the country, and contains copies of the various manuscripts and maps which have been preserved at The Hague. The records of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope relative to the aboriginal tribes, by Donald Moodie, published in 1841, is another very rare work which belongs to this section. Natal is represented by a large collection of works bearing upon the history, rise and progress of the Colony, whilst the most recent addition to the Empire, viz., Matabeleland and Mashonaland occupies a separate section which contains the works of the various writers upon that portion of Africa, prominent amongst them being those of Theodore Bent and F. C. Selous, both of whom in their own special spheres have done so much in making known the varied features of the country. There is a large collection of works regarding the West Coast of Africa, which includes the Colonies of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Lagos, whilst Eastern Africa and Uganda, although a somewhat limited section nevertheless contains all the chief publications upon that portion of the Empire. African