In Wildest Africa, Vol. 1 — Context and Discussion

The Hunter as Conservationist

Schillings’ dual identity as a hunter and a conservation advocate creates a recurring friction. He praises Roosevelt as a pioneer in nature preservation, yet his own photographs were taken with a rifle and flashlight—tools of the chase. The author explicitly contrasts European destruction with pre-colonial African abundance: “since prehistoric times man has been engaged in hunting with his simple weapons without, on the whole, very much diminishing the number of animals.” The culprit, he argues, is the European with firearms, as shown by the fate of the North American buffalo, whales, and the South African fauna. Schillings does not renounce hunting; instead, he calls for restraint and legal prohibitions on poison and pole-traps. His position is pragmatic: protect “not merely a selfish protection for game animals, but also protection for the other mammals and birds.”

A Catalogue of Vanishing Species

Schillings marshals evidence of extinction and scarcity by listing specific animals, drawing on correspondence with the Smithsonian Institution. He names the Californian grizzly bear, San Joaquin Valley elk, Stone’s reindeer, prongbuck, Pallas cormorant, Labrador duck, ivory woodpecker, and American woodcock. The list is introduced with the observation that “the time cannot be far distant when we shall have to strike out of the list of the living several interesting members of our native fauna.” This catalogue serves as a warning, but it also reveals the author’s reliance on scientific networks. The mention of “poisoning clubs” in South Africa and a “completely organised ‘poison business’” in Germany underscores the global scale of the threat. Schillings’ tone is urgent, yet his evidence is drawn from secondhand reports, not firsthand observation in Africa.

Photography as Testimony

The author insists repeatedly on the veracity of his photographs, calling them “Nature Documents” and noting that they are reproduced “without retouching.” This emphasis suggests that the images are meant to serve as irrefutable proof of the wildlife he describes. Yet the excerpts contain no description of the photographs themselves; the reader must infer their content from the text’s claims. Schillings’ method—using flash photography at night—was innovative for its time, but the preface focuses more on the trustworthiness of the process than on the aesthetic or scientific value of the results. The tension between the visual record and the written narrative remains unresolved in the provided material, leaving open questions about how the images function alongside the text.

Readers should approach In Wildest Africa, Vol. 1 as a document of its era, where the roles of hunter, photographer, and conservationist were not yet fully distinct. Schillings’ arguments for preservation are embedded in a framework of sport and exploration that may sit uneasily with modern sensibilities. Pay attention to how the author balances his own participation in hunting with his calls for restraint, and consider the photographs—if available—as primary evidence of the animals he sought to document and protect.