"Buffalo, rhino, elephant, lions, leopards, antelopes, and hippos brought many an exciting day for Mr. Letcher...entertaining...a record of travel...an impression of a little-known territory...undoubtedly worth writing." -The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 22, 1911
"The country forming the most northerly part of Rhodesia appears to be one of these almost primitive hunting grounds...its resource in the way of sport are well described in 'Big Game Hunting North-Eastern Rhodesia,' by Owen Fletcher...his account of his adventures in pursuit of elephants, lion, rhino, eland...makes the book well worth reading." -The Guardian Journal, Nov. 21, 1911
"This volume is the first to give some account of the big game in that little traversed country lying between Fort Jameson and Mukause...an exceptionally interesting account of his sport and journey in that wonderful country...convinced that there are animals in that country which have yet to be seen by white men, including...the 'chimpakwe,' alias 'Brontosaurus.'" -Birmingham Post, Jan. 5, 1912
"Owen Letcher (1911, 1913) sought trophies for their collections and for profit in a mythic place they seemingly knew from their readings of the earlier exploits of Cornwallis Harris (1852), Gordon Cumming (1857), Frederick Selous (1881), and Rider Haggard (1885)." -Life as Hunt (2016)
An African river-dwelling brontosaurus or three-horned water rhinocerous that preys on hippos are but two of the creatures discussed by big game hunter Owen Letcher in his 1911 book "Big Game Hunting in North-eastern Rhodesia." It is this book of 140 pages that has been republished here for the convenience of the interested reader.
Owen Letcher was a young Englishman who had spent the past eleven years in Africa and had wandered into well-nigh unknown portions of the Dark Continent to hunt big game and to pry into the lives of the natives inhabitant of the remotest corners of it. Quite apart from its value to the traveller, the sportsman, and the student of natural history, the book possesses a remarkable human interest.
In introducing his book, Letcher writes:
"My excuse for the publication of the notes compiled on my last African journey is that they deal with a part of the continent which is but little known even to the greatest of travellers and those sporting enthusiasts who bury themselves in the byways of the world for many months in order to secure some particularly coveted trophy. Consequently that portion of our African Empire with which this book is concerned has not been written of to any appreciable degree, and I have thought that my experiences in what is without question one of the most magnificent great game countries in the world may prove of interest to sportsmen."
About the author:
Owen Letcher died in Johannesburg in October, 1943, at the age of 58. After receiving his training at, the Redruth School of Mines, he went to the Witwatersrand and worked in various junior capacities on the Crown Reef, Village Main Reef and Nourse Deep mines. In 1903 he was appointed mining editor of The South African Mining and Engineering Journal, and in 1921 became editor of that journal. During this period he visited and wrote on almost every mining venture in the Union, Rhodesia and East and Central Africa, in addition to undertaking private reporting work. From August, 1914, until December, 1918, he was on military service in South-west Africa and as Acting Captain in the 2nd South African Rifles in Central and East Africa. He was the author of a number of books, including his monumental work, 'The Gold Mines of Southern Africa.'
