It was in order to gather material for a book on the old forts along the West Coast of Africa that Mrs. Mary Gaunt, the well-known novelist, made a trip of 1,500 miles through tropical Africa, 700 miles being accomplished in a hammock. She penetrated regions where a white woman had never before been seen, her journey, which occupied eight months, providing another illustration of that daring, venturesome spirit which characterises modern women. Mrs. Gaunt is an Australian by birth, and in private life is Mrs. H. Lindsay Miller. Her first book, " Dave's Sweetheart," was published in 1894, and since then she has written a number of successful books. She is passionately fond of travel. "It is in the blood," she says. " My mother, when at seventy years of age she was left a wadow, sold all she possessed in Australia, and went travelling in Rhodesia."

Mrs. Mary Gaunt