r.iit' aff\J Sportsnan's Library FORTHE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION FORSCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA BY RICHARD TJADER H^ITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BT THE AUTHOR D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON 1910 Copyright, 1910, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY '^^-BX^S-t-vJksJ^ b'fi/ /% » Published November, 1910 Printed in the United States of America TO MY DEVOTED WIFE THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED INTRODUCTION Good books on hunting trips and adventures in the Dark Con- tinent are plentiful. My only apology for offering to the public The Big Game of Africa is my desire to comply with the wishes of many friends, who, having heard my lectures on Africa, have repeatedly asked me to issue something like them in book form. This volume is not only a narrative of my own wanderings and experiences in that continent, but is also intended to be a guide book to those many who are interested in the life and habits of the African game animals as well as in the best way of stalking these with either camera or gun. For in the many good books on hunting in the Dark Continent, little or nothing has been said that may help the would-be African big game hunter in the selection of the proper outfit, guns, cameras, curing materials, etc., nor do they give him any definite information as to where, when and how to secure the game he wants, and none of them contains the most necessary introduction to the Ki-Swahili language, even a slight knowledge of which will prove of immense help to the sportsman when hunting in British East Africa, German East Africa and Uganda. This book is the result of my own experiences and observations during three different expeditions to British East Africa, and con- tains the most reliable information I was able to obtain from other sportsmen and professional hunters, as well as from the wild sons of that wonderful game country who, themselves, spend most of their lives roaming around among the Big Game of Africa. vii INTRODUCTION If, therefore, through the following pages the reader will be benefited to some extent, as well as derive pleasure from the photo- graphs and simple accounts of big game hunting, which are related without exaggeration or " stretching," my labor has indeed not been in vain. R. T. CONTENTS CHAPTER I BRITISH EAST AFRICA PAGES General topography and climate — An enormous zoo — Bother- some insects — The best shooting grounds — Different game districts — The best hunting seasons — Present game laws — The big-game reserves — Different shooting licenses . 1-19 CHAPTER H THE CARAVAN OR "SAFARI" The Safari — The Swahili language — Fitting out the caravan — Average expenses of a hunting trip — The useful " as- kari " — Human beasts of burden — The advantage of using porters of different tribes — The all-important headman — Gun-bearers — The men's " posho " — A word about horses, mules and donkeys — Dangers of night marching . 20-29 CHAPTER HI THE LION— KING OF BEASTS The mane of the lion — Its favorite hunting grounds — Its chief prey — Fight between a lion and a buffalo — How the lion kills its prey — Chasing the big feline on a pony — A beauti- ful trophy — A glorious charge — Are there different species of lions — The terror of the " man-eater " — Overestimated danger — Lion hunting on horseback — Whole " herds " of ix CONTENTS PAGES the dangerous cats — Its much-discussed roaring — A nar- row escape — A man-eater entering a railroad car — My first lion — How the savages kill the king of beasts — The uncer- tainty of lion-hunting 30-51 CHAPTER IV THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST Different species of elephants — A real king of beasts — Won- derful road-makers — Their favorite resorts — The difficul- ties of elephant-tracking — How to single out the path of a " tusker " — A serious charge — Wary monsters — Bad cartridges — Following a wounded giant into the bush — A lucky elephant hunt — A terrific charge — My finest trophy — The eyesight of the elephant — A serious mo- ment— Gored by the monarch — A miraculous escape — Mr. Selous's tailless elephant — The native as elephant hunter — Fight between an elephant and a rhino — Does the big pachyderm lie down when sleeping? — A large herd 52-74 CHAPTER V THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE The tallest living animal — The girafife as mischief maker — An inhabitant of the desert — A silent sufferer — A grand old bull — A smitten conscience — Do lions dare to attack giraffes? — A " mother " defending her " baby " — Catching and taming the animals — Do they ever charge ? — Stalking the giraffe with the camera — Different species — Why the natives kill them — Whole herds of giraffes . . . 75-86 CHAPTER VI THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HOG Different species — River horse or river hog? — An ugly-look- ing creature — The cunning of the hippo — How to secure CONTENTS PAGES the beast — The watchfulness of the clumsy pachyderm — Sometimes a dangerous enemy — Killed by a river hippo — The animal a menace to shipping — Declared a " vermin " in Uganda — Basking hippos — Stalking the river-horse with the camera — Watching for the carcass — A foolhardy swim — A trophy lost — The destructiveness of the hippo — Its large tusks 87-102 CHAPTER VII THE AFRICAN OR CAPE BUFFALO A very useful family — Different species — A grand beast — One of the most dangerous animals — The buffalo a very wary beast — A great disappointment — A successful hunt — Why the natives fear the buffalo — His great vitality — Recently declared a " vermin " in Uganda — The courage of the buffalo — A lucky shot — The buffaloes increasing . 103-113 CHAPTER VIII LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS Are there different species of leopards ? — The black leopard — Powerful and destructive beasts — Much feared by the natives — The leopard as man-eater and undertaker — A plague to the natives — More cunning than the lion — Native leopard traps — Catching the big cat — A long shot — Using the Maxim gun-silencer — A dangerous antagonist — Trained cheetahs for sport — The doglike animal not destructive — Courageous when wounded or cornered — A very keen-sighted animal — Asgar's cheetah chase — The animal partially protected 1 14-129 CHAPTER IX THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS Five different species of rhino — The white and the black Afri- can rhino — Two different types of the black variety — xi CONTENTS PAGES Strangely shaped horns — A treacherous brute — The rhino bird — Interfering with railroad building — Its remarkably " fine nose " — Stalking rhinos with the camera — Their much-discussed poor eyesight — A terrible antagonist — On rhino trail in dense brush — An ugly charge — A lucky shot — The rhino's " investigations " — Its different be- havior— A curious charge — A successful hunt — Killed by a female rhino — The destructiveness of the animal — Nightly visits — A narrow escape — The protective " bo- ma " — The rhino a most dangerous beast . . . 130-15 1 CHAPTER X THE LARGER EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES The characteristics of antelopes — Vast herds on the plains — The stately eland — Its favorite grazing grounds — A very wary animal, difficult to stalk — Combined meekness and strength of the eland — A prey unconscious of its power — Eland meat a delicacy — The beautiful roan — A courageous beast — The sable antelope, a much-coveted trophy — Rare in British East Africa — Fierce and dangerous when cor- nered— The curious gnu — Herds of countless wildebeests — A long shot — The gnu possesses great vitality — A tremendous surprise — The intelligence of the wildebeests 152-172 CHAPTER XI THE LARGER EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES (Continued) The magnificent greater kudu — Hard to secure in British East Africa — Stalking the kudu with camera — The water buck — A new subspecies, the " Cobus defassa tjaderi " — The beautiful impalla — Its marvelous leaps and great vitality — Impalla meat not fit for the table — The lovely oryx — An interesting hunt — The oryx one of the most courageous antelopes — The beautiful Grant's gazelle — Its meat very palatable — The splendid little antelopes too much pursued 173-191 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER XII THE HARTEBEEST AND ZEBRA PAGES The hartebeest a very ugly-looking animal — Different species — A fine Jackson's hartebeest — The inquisitive kongoni — A nuisance to the hunter — Common lion food — A very keen-sighted and wary animal — Caravan lost and found — The beautiful zebra — Three varieties existing — The Grevy's and Burchell's zebra — The latter the most com- mon wild animal in British East Africa — Enormous zebra herds — They are stupid and forgetful — Very fond of water — Stampeding zebras — The animal's commercial value — Is now purposely being exterminated for its de- structiveness 192-210 CHAPTER XIII HYENAS, MONKEYS, AND PIGS The repulsive hyena — Spotted and striped varieties — Hyenas not exclusively scavengers — The beasts as man-eaters — They often hunt in broad daylight — Hyenas as under- takers— Their hideous howl — A cornered hyena — The monkey family — Their destructiveness to crops and gar- dens— The beautiful colobus — Performing monkeys — An all-white colobus — This species never seen in menageries — The ugly baboons — Easily tamed — The giant pig — The hideous wart hog — The mischievous bush pig . . 211-226 CHAPTER XIV AFRICAN REPTILES AND BIRDS The deadly puff adder — Curious way of attacking its enemies or prey — Puff-adder poison for savages' arrow points — The powerful python — A monarch among snakes — Step- ping on a python — The big reptile a good tree climber — xiii CONTENTS PAGES Other poisonous snakes — The dangerous crocodile — A crocodile killing a rhino — ^When they turn man-eaters — The monster fond of birds — The danger of crossing rivers where there are many crocodiles — How to cross in safety — The giant bustard — The now protected ostrich — Mil- lions of guinea fowl — Great numbers of geese, ducks, flamingoes and other birds 227-244 CHAPTER XV THE NATIVES OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA The Bantu negro — The Swahili tribe — How they build their houses — The coast people's dress — " Lazy, lying thieves " — The intoxicating palm wine — Buying wives on the installment plan — The Wanika — The Wateita — Scaring away the " rain gods " — Wonderful deliverance — The Wakamba — Their deadly arrow poison — The promising Kikuju tribe — Extremely fond of all kinds of ornaments — A Kikuju romance — The powerful Masai — Their uncer- tain origin — Their strange houses — The El-Moran — The wild Wanderobo — The best native animal trackers — The industrious Kavirondo — Their nude but chaste women — People with " tails " — A superstitious people in a rich country 245-261 CHAPTER XVI MISSIONARIES, SETTLERS, AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS Characteristics of the natives — Cruel customs — Degraded womanhood — Africa's need of mission work — Globe trot- ters' criticism of foreign missions — The settlers' attitude — Unscrupulous whites — Mission work as seen by rulers and statesmen — Inefficient missionaries — Sir Harry John- ston's testimony about Uganda — Offensive settlers — High- class officials — The truth about " mission boys " — The hope of Africa 262-274 xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER XVII HINTS ON AFRICAN PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE PRESERVING OF TROPHIES PAGES The importance and pleasure of wild-animal photography — Great patience and skill required — A rather dangerous undertaking — What cameras to take — The telephoto ap- paratus— American or foreign makes? — Underexposing general in the beginning — The advisability of taking films or plates — The developing machines — How to skin an animal properly — The most necessary measurements — DiflFerent ways of curing the skins — Various kinds of trophies — Our obligations to science and coming genera- tions 275-286 CHAPTER XVIII GENERAL OUTFIT AND ROUTE OF TRAVEL A sufficient yet not too bulky outfit — The all-important tent — Necessary provisions — Practical hunting clothes — Boots and leggings — Underclothes and stockings — Camp furni- ture— Cooking utensils — The emergency tent — The best armament — Small or big bore guns? — The telescope and the gun silencer — The shotgun — Ways of reaching Mombasa . 287-298 CHAPTER XIX RETROSPECT AND CONCLUSION Ex-President Roosevelt on big game hunting in British East Africa — Is the big game threatened with extermination ? — The native as big game hunter — Firearms and natives — Many hunting parties — Three good rules for sportsmen — The characteristic game of plains, bush, and forest — The probable future of East Africa as a big game country — The charm of the chase 299-305 XV CONTENTS APPENDIX PAGES I The Ki-Swahili Language 307-333 II Key to the Exercises 334-342 III Swahili-English Vocabulary 343-35^ INDEX , . 357-364 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Richard Tjader Frontispiece Map of the hunting district, drawn by the author ... i Camp of the Tjader East African expedition, 1906, at Solai, B. E. A 24 Photograph by H. Lang. The advance guard of a caravan crossing a river on the way to Sotik 24 Photograph by R. Tjader. Young lion walking toward the camera ..... 32 Courtesy of Mrs. Caveth. Lioness killed on the Athi Plains 32 Photograph by R. Tjader. Large, black-maned lion killed on the Sotik Plain, May, 1909 38 Photograph by R. Tjader. Large, black-maned lion killed on the Sotik Plain, May, 1909 38 Photograph by R. Tjader. The lioness which almost killed the author .... 46 Photograph by R. Tjader. A fine specimen 46 Elephants coming through high bush and elephant grass . 64 Photograph by R. Tjader. A splendid trophy: a big bull elephant killed near the Gojito Mountains, 1906 64 Photograph by R. Tjader. I-,arge bull giraffe, shot through the heart near Maungu R.R. station 78 Photograph by H. Lang. 3 xvii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Bull giraffe in the Mimosa Jungle on Laikipia .... 78 Photograph by R. Tjader. Hippo heads showing above the surface of the water in the Sondo River 94 Photograph by K. Tjader. Sleeping hippos in the Tana River not far from Fort Hall . 94 Sleeping hippo photographed close to the Sondo River, 1909 . 96 Photograph by R. Tjader. Hunting leopard killed by a shotgun with No. B. B. . . 96 Photograph by H. Lang. A magnificent bull buffalo killed in the Kedong Valley . . • 106 Courtesy of Mrs. N. Carveth. Large head of the ordinary water buck, Cobus defassa . . 106 Photograph by H. Lang, Wounded leopard on the Sotik Plains 120 Photograph by R. Tjader. Young male leopard 120 Courtesy of W. P. Ingall. Two rhinos asleep on the plains to the northwest of Guaso Narok, distance about forty yards 132 Photograph by R. Tjader. The same animals. Note the tick birds on the backs of the beasts 132 Photograph by R. Tjader. The same animals. The one facing the camera is about to charge at full speed 134 At about ten yards he fell, killed instantly by a bullet from the big .577 Express rifle 134 Two different types of rhinos; the upper one represents the bush rhino, the lower one the rhino of the plains . . 146 Photograph by H. Lang. Another splendid trophy 146 Ordinary bush buck, shot on Aberdare Mountains . . .154 Photograph by R. Tjader. Head of new variety of bush buck called " Tragelaphus tjaderi" I54 Photograph by H. Lang. xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Head of a large bull eland i6o Photograph by H. Lang. Wounded roan antelope just before the last charge. Shot near Muhoroni R.R. station i6o Photograph by R. Tjader. Wounded sable antelope i66 Courtesy of IV. P. Ingall. Small herd of wildebeests, the white-bearded gnu, Sotik, 1909 166 Photograph by R. Tjader. Male water buck, killed on Laikipia. Found to be a new sub- species of the defassa family and subsequently called " Cohns defassa tjaderi " 178 Camera snapped by the author's gun bearer. Semi-tame female water buck near the Sotik Plains , . 178 Photograph by R. Tjader. Splendid impalla from Laikipia 182 Photograph by R. Tjader. Head of large bull oryx 182 Photograph by H. Lang. Fine head of the graceful Grant's gazelle 188 Photograph by H. Lang. Wounded Grant's gazelle fighting Mabruki, the gun bearer . 188 Photograph by R. Tjader. Beautiful head of the Grant's gazelle 194 Photograph by H. Lang. An exceptionally fine head of Jackson's hartebeest, shot near Lake Hannington 194 Photograph by H. Lang. Herd of zebra, just entering a forest on Kenia . . . 204 Photograph by R. Tjader. Wounded zebra 204 Photograph by R. Tjader. Hyena at bay 216 Photograph by R. Tjader. Head of large wart hog shot in the Kedong Valley . . . 216 Courtesy of Mrs. Caveth. xix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Ordinary colobus monkeys 220 Two white colobus monkeys. Both secured on Kenia . . 220 Photograph by R. Tjader. The deadly puff adder 230 Photograph by R. Tjader. Iguana, the largest of African lizards 230 Photograph by H. Lang. Chameleon, which certainly possesses protective coloration . 234 Photograph by H. Lang. A three-horned, small, tree lizard 234 Photograph by H. Lang. Crocodile shot at Lake Hannington 238 Photograph by H. Lang. Buzzards in the act of getting on the remains of a hartebeest , 238 Photograph by R. Tjader. Five ostriches running away at high speed at 'some three hun- dred yards 240 Photograph by R. Tjader. Huge marabou stork 240 Photograph by R. Tjader. A pair of flamingoes 242 Photograph by R. Tjader. Photographing a charging animal 242 Photograph snapped by the gun bearer. Typical Swahili house on the coast 248 Hut of the Njamus-Masai near Baringo 248 A young Wanderobo ready to shoot his poisoned arrow . . 258 Photograph by R. Tjader. Masai El-Moran warriors 258 Photograph by R. Tjader. Some of the author's trophies at Kijabi R.R. station in 1906 282 Photograph by H. Lang. Author's " lion camp " on the Sotik 282 Photograph by R. Tjader. XX THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA CHAPTER I BRITISH EAST AFRICA British East Africa being not only the best country in the world for big game hunting, the size of the animals, and the multitude of the different species considered, but also of all big game countries by far the healthiest and most easily reached, I shall in the following chapters deal exclusively with that country, its climate, topography, sea- sons, game, and natives. Barring the low and unhealthy coast belt on the Indian Ocean, where no game worth shooting exists (with the exception of elephants, having small tusks of comparatively poor quality, buffaloes, with not nearly as fine heads as their upland kinsfolk, and the beautiful sable antelope), the greater part of the Protectorate has a healthful climate. But the sable antelope, which many hunters class as the finest of the antelopes, exists in British East Africa, alas ! only on and around the Shimba Hills, not very far from Mombasa. Yet even this stately antelope develops here horns that cannot be compared with those from other inland places, as, for instance, German East Africa and farther south. From the narrow coast belt the Uganda Railroad be- gins to climb the inland plateaus and soon reaches an alti- tude of 1,830 feet at Voi, 5,250 feet at Matchakos, and I THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 5.450 feet above the level of the sea at Nairobi, the gov- ernment headquarters, and now, in spite of its youth, the most important town in the Protectorate. From Nairobi the climb continues, and at beautiful Lake Naivasha the station lies at an altitude of 6,230 feet, while at a place on top of the Mau escarpment the railroad reaches its high- est point. A large signboard is placed here on the north side of the railway with the inscription : " Summit ; alti- tude 8,320 feet." From here the country gradually falls away toward the great Victoria Nyanza, where the Kisumu railway station lies at an altitude of only 3,650 feet. The rainfall of British East Africa naturally varies considerably, as the country differs so widely in altitude and general aspect. The latest statistics show an average rainfall of 14.78 inches at Kismayu, on the coast, 73.93 inches at Molo railroad station, from over 80 inches at Kericho down to 38.86 at Nairobi; but on the big moun- tains, like the Aberdare range. Mount Elgon, and the magnificent, snowclad Kenia, the rainfall sometimes even exceeds 100 inches a year. The best and most popular hunting grounds lie to the northeast, north, northwest, and southwest of Nairobi at altitudes varying from 4,500 to 7,000 feet, and can, there- fore, with ordinary precautions, be said to be perfectly healthy. Take, for instance, the great Athi plains, north- east of Nairobi. There large herds of zebra, hartebeest, Grant's and Thomson's gazelles may still be seen even from the railroad, with occasional glimpses of the lion, rhino, eland, and giraffe. Here the hunter seldom sees a mosquito, and if he always has the water boiled before 2 BRITISH EAST AFRICA drinking it, and is careful not to sit around in wet clothes in the evening, he has no reason to fear any attack of malarial fever. The only insects that are bothersome on these plains are the ticks, with which the sportsman becomes literally covered from morning to night. Fortunately these ticks, although extremely disagreeable, do not seem to cause any " tick fever," as the dangerous Uganda ticks do. Another very unpleasant experience that many have had on these plains is to be attacked by the hardly noticeable little sand fly, or " funza," the special trick of which is to work its way in under some toe nail, and there, without the knowledge of the toe's owner, deposit a great number of eggs. As soon as this is done, itching generally sets in, and a slight inflammation becomes noticeable, which in- stantly should be followed by an ' operation," generally performed to perfection by the Swahili " boys," who, with a needle, dig out the flea and scoop out the eggs, which otherwise, if hatched, would cause serious trouble, and sometimes even loss of the toe. By being careful to wash my feet every evening, never to walk around, even on the tent's ground cloth, with bare feet, and using pajamas with " stocking extensions," I fortunately escaped this unpleasant experience. But some people I met, who had been hunting on these plains, had tales of misery to tell about their contact with the " funza." An American hunter, whom I saw in Nairobi, late in 1909, told me that he had not been able to walk properly for several weeks after such an " attack," as the " opera- tion " had been performed rather late, and perhaps not as thoroughly as necessary. 3 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA As there is nothing in the way of game on these plains that the hunter may not secure more easily, and that with better horns and finer manes in other, much healthier places, there is no necessity to hunt here, where the ani- mals are much more shy than almost anywhere else in the Protectorate, because so often molested by people from near-by Nairobi. Besides this, there is very little genuine " sport " in such hunting, or, let me say, killing of game on the Athi plains, for hunting in its true sense includes skillful and difficult tracking and stalking, of which there can be no question here. Let me explain without exagger- ation how most men " hunt " on these plains. With a couple of gun bearers and a few porters to carry the meat and trophies back to camp, the newcomer starts out from his camp generally not very early in the morning. Soon he sees in front of him a herd of zebra and harte- beest, often feeding together. They are calmly grazing at a distance of six to seven hundred yards. As there are no trees for cover, not even an ant-hill to stalk behind, he simply marches on, making straight for the animals. Sud- denly, one of the more watchful hartebeests notices him and, as at a word of command, the whole herd swings around and faces him for a moment, the zebra looking par- ticularly pretty, as their shining black and white stripes alternately appear in the sunlight or the shadow. There are still over five hundred yards to the herd, and carefully the hunter pushes on. The next moment, however, the herd turns with jumps and all kinds of queer antics, and ofif they go at a gallop for a couple of hundred yards or more. Then they stop, some begin to graze again, while one or two seem to be keeping a sharp lookout for 4 BRITISH EAST AFRICA the queer-looking, two-legged intruders. After this ma- neuver has been repeated a few times, the " sportsman " may succeed in getting up to within two or three hundred yards and, being disgusted with the chase, begin to empty his magazine at the herd in the attempt to bring down some of the animals. A young German lieutenant with whom I traveled back from Africa in 19 lo told me unblushingly that he in such a way, and by firing not less than one hun- dred and ten shots, had one day on the Athi plains killed only three animals — one zebra, one hartebeest, and one Grant's gazelle ! But he did not tell me how many unfor- tunate animals he may have wounded more or less se- verely ! This he was naive enough to call " great sport." One of the most interesting hunting trips is the Kenia- Laikipia tour. Laikipia is a high plateau at about 7,000 feet altitude, mostly well watered from lovely streams, run- ning down from Kenia and the Aberdare Mountains, and having a climate as nearly perfect for a hunting trip as it is possible to imagine. Only during the noon hours, from eleven to two, the sun is rather hot, the plateau lying exactly on the line of the equator, but the heat is not strong enough to prevent a healthy man from enjoying the following up of his prey even during that time. The rest of the day, both mornings and afternoons, is ideal. The tour to this plateau can from Nairobi be com- fortably made in from four to six weeks, but there is game enough, as to quantity as well as to the value of the tro- phies, to warrant the spending of two months or more in these beautiful regions. The mosquito is practically un- known, there are no ticks of any kind, the " funza " is nonexistent, and the water of the very best. 5 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA If the hunter starts out from Nairobi, going by way of the government station Fort Hall, he can begin his shoot- ing within an hour after he has left the hotel in Nairobi with his " safari," for all along the route are seen the zebra, Coke's hartebeest, Grant's and Thomson's gazelles, many of the smaller antelopes, and sometimes even wilde- beests. Then when, near Fort Hall, the Tana River is reached, the safari may follow that stream down for an hour or two to some fine camping grounds among large mimosa trees, and here the sportsman will be able to shoot hippos and crocodiles to his heart's content. Then continuing the northward march, the caravan passes the fort, or *' boma," the native name for all mili- tary and government stations, where the hunter generally pays his respects to the Provincial Commissioner, who may require him to show his game license and the special permit to proceed farther, as the Kenia-Laikipia is one of the " closed " districts, for which such a permit is a neces- sity. From the boma the safari proceeds along a fairly good native path, which in a few days' time leads up among the foothills of the magnificent, snowclad Kenia, which rears its domelike peak over eighteen thousand feet high. Now the sportsman may at any time come across fresh ele- phant tracks, or meet with buffalos, eland, bush buck, with luck, even the coveted bongo, impalla, water buck, and in a day or two more with the beautiful oryx beisa, wild dogs, possibly giraffes, plenty of rhinos, lions, and leopards, while higher up on the foothills the hunter may bag with ease his allowed number of the beautiful colobus and other fur monkeys, if monkey killing does not seem to him too much like *' murder." So day after day the party may go on, 6 BRITISH EAST AFRICA finding big game everywhere, including the Grevey's zebra in the country northwest of Kenia and near the lovely river Guaso Narok at its junction with the Guaso Nyiro, to the north of which junction the northern game reserve begins. Turning thence upstream on the right bank of the Guaso Narok, the path takes the safari back again toward civili- zation, returning to the railroad by another also very inter- esting route. On this beautiful Laikipia plateau there are scattered a good many Masai villages, or '' manyata," where it is possible to obtain fresh, fine milk for trade goods, such as "Americano" (a kind of unbleached muslin), brass wire, glass beads, or, nowadays, also for money. All along the river to the north, at a distance varying from half a mile to two miles from the river bed, there are large plains, extending from rather abrupt bluffs from the river valley for miles and miles inland, dotted here and there with single good-sized trees, or clumps of the thorny mimosa. These highlands seem to be the favorite play and feed- ing grounds of countless rhinos, which, if one is carefully observing the wind, and using some cover, can be ap- proached to within thirty yards and less before they either run away or else, like the Chinese, take exception to being photographed and stared at, and with " puffs " and " snorts," with lowered horns and uplifted tails, charge down on the intruders. On these plains, where often also eland, oryx, and giraffes are seen, I once met not less than eleven rhinos within one hour, mostly in pairs of male and female or female and young. I was fortunate enough to secure some good photographs of them, but although not 7 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA intending to shoot any at that time, I finally had to kill a charging bull, whom I had given a chance to save his life by " changing his mind," until he was within ten yards of my camera. What happened then will be later described in the chapter on rhinos. Following the Guaso Narok farther up, the path leads to a very large swamp, formed by the river and all over- grown with papyrus. Toward the northwest end of this swamp is a Protestant American mission station, where in 1909 Mr. and Mrs. Barnett and two fellow-laborers were doing a splendid work among the Masai people. They were highly commended by the British Commissioner of that district for their untiring efforts for the betterment of the natives. At the extreme western end of this large and, strange enough, not unhealthy swamp, lies the government boma Rumuruti, where Mr. Collyer, a most able and kind-hearted official, in 1909-10 represented the British Government in the Laikipia Masai reserve. By the time this appears in print, the Masai of this reservation may have been already shifted away to join the rest of their tribe in the southern Kedong Valley and the Sotik and Loita plains, and the Laikipia plateau opened up for white settlements. This would mean, as everywhere else where the white man settles, the diminishing, and finally the complete disappearance, of the big game from the district. From Rumuruti there are three paths to take. One goes in a north-northwest direction down toward Baringo, a lake swarming with crocodiles and hippos, but as this is one of the most unhealthy parts of British East Africa, 8 BRITISH EAST AFRICA and as there are no special animals to hunt, except the magnificent greater kudu, which at present is wholly pro- tected by the law, it is hardly worth while to take the risk of hunting in this district, where, besides, the water is poor and the heat great, for the land lies more than fif- teen hundred feet lower than the surrounding plateaus. Another path follows the lovely Guaso Narok up- stream for a couple of days more. It afterwards descends into the upper Rift Valley, leading thence into the Nakuru railroad station, from which the hunter in from seven to eight hours may return to Nairobi by train which runs three times a week. The third path, along which there is shooting all the way, runs in a more southwesterly direction along the northern slopes of the Aberdare Mountains. From here it suddenly drops down to the swamplike lake Ol-Bolos- sat, around which lions are often found. Thence the path goes over the extreme northern part of the Naivasha pla- teau, full of zebra and Jackson's hartebeest, and finally ends at the Gilgil station, one hour and a half nearer by railroad to Nairobi than Nakuru. The animals which the sportsman with ordinary luck may bag on such a Kenia-Laikipia tour during four to eight weeks are the following: Coke's hartebeest, zebra (Burchell's and Grevey's), crocodile, hippo, buffalo, ele- phant, eland, oryx (beisa), rhino, water buck, bush buck, bongo, impalla, giraffe. Grant's and Thomson's gazelles, wart hog, bush pig, lion, leopard, hyena, serval, jackal, colo- bus monkey, baboon, Jackson's hartebeest, and a good many smaller antelopes, as well as any amount of guinea fowl, wild geese, partridges, and quail. This, together 9 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA with the fine cHmate and splendid water, makes the Kenia- Laikipia trip one of the most enjoyable and profitable hunt- ing excursions in the world. Another interesting tour can be made by going to the Guas Ngishu plateau. This trip takes longer time and costs a great deal more, and as these regions have lately been partly settled with hundreds of South African Boers, and much shot over by hunting parties, the game there is becoming extremely wary and shy. One of the last hunt- ers to return from this part of British East Africa in 1909 told me that he was greatly disappointed with the results of his long and expensive safari. He had seen compara- tively little game, and the elephants he encountered near Mount Elgon were mostly cows and young bulls, not worth shooting at. It was to this part of Africa that the famous hunter Mr. F. C. Selous went on his last trip for the main pur- pose of securing a large, black-maned lion. Unfortunately, the great hunter did not even see a single lion during all the weeks spent on the plateau, although he was able to enrich his wonderful museum at Worpleston, not far from London, with a few new species of antelopes. The climate of the Guas Ngishu is delightful, the altitude ranging from seven thousand to eight thousand feet, and the water is plentiful and good. Another " Eldorado " for the big-game hunter in Brit- ish East Africa are the Sotik and Loita plains, southwest of Nairobi. They seemed to have been actually infested by lions, which here feed leisurely on the countless herds of zebra, hartebeest, and gnu that cover the plains and the near-by hills, for during the last fifteen months over 10 BRITISH EAST AFRICA one hundred and sixty lions have been shot there. One sportsman was lucky enough to kill twenty-one in two weeks, and not less than six in one single day, including three half-grown cubs ! These healthy, game-filled plains, lying at an altitude of over five thousand feet, are most easily reached by taking the train to Kijabe station, about three hours north- west of Nairobi, and either marching from there through the Rift Valley over the Mau escarpment, here more than eight thousand feet high, then across the Guaso Nyiro South on to the plains, or using hired South African ox wagons from Kijabe, which must be arranged for in advance through one of the Nairobi firms. If the start is made from Kijabe during or right after the big rainy season, or, say, about the end of April or beginning of May, it is easy to reach these wonderful plains by regular marches with the caravan. But during the dry season this is impossible, as then all the little streams and water holes between Kijabe and the next large stream, on the western slopes of the Mau escarpment, are dry, and for from two to three days no water can be found. On one of my safaris the whole caravan of one hundred and seventeen men almost perished from thirst, when we were trying to penetrate to the Guaso Nyiro South during the dry season. But if ox wagons are se- cured, they are loaded up with enough water for men and beasts, until the last-named river is reached. On the plains themselves there are, fortunately, a few springs and water holes that never dry up, and it is often around these that the hunter secures a great deal of game of various kinds. He may bag lion, wildebeest, hartebeest, zebra, rhino, II THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA leopard, eland, girafife, the beautiful topi, impalla, Grant's gazelle, and a number of small antelopes, wart hogs, and hyenas. By going a few days in a west-northwest direction the safari reaches the Kisii country, where elephants, buffa- loes, and even roan antelopes, as well as hippos, bush and reed bucks can be had. From there the caravan generally emerges out of the jungle either by marching to Kisumu, on the Victoria Nyanza, or by returning via the Kericho boma to the Lumbwa railroad station. Such a tour of both Sotik and Kisii can be easily made in from six weeks to three months, and is among the very finest hunting trips imaginable. The climate is good and healthy until the party reaches the country near the great lake, where special care has to be taken in regard to malaria mos- quitoes and the deadly sleeping-sickness fly. But by re- turning from the Kisii forest by way of Kericho and Lumbwa one escapes these latter two evils entirely. Great care should also be taken in providing for enough food, or " posho," for the men during this trip, as it is very hard to secure any new supply after leaving the railroad until the Kisii boma is reached, which may take from three to five weeks, according to the time spent on and around the Sotik and Loita plains. Many other good hunting grounds may be mentioned here, such as, for instance, the partly waterless Seringetti Plains, between Voi station and the big snow mountain Kilimanjaro. Then the half-opened bush country near the stations Simba, Sultan Hamud, and Muhuroni, near which last-named place the beautiful roan antelope may be easily bagged. But none of these places begin to compare with 12 BRITISH EAST AFRICA the before-named districts either in regard to heahhfulness of chmate or variety and abundance of game. British East Africa is supposed to have four different seasons: December, January, and February, the dry, hot season, the East African summer; March, April, and the half of May, the heavy rainy season ; end of May to Septem- ber, the long dry, or " winter " season, and then again Oc- tober and November the " small rains." But the seasons have for the last years been most irregular. The only really unpleasant months to be out on safari in British East Africa are March and April, when there is pouring rain everywhere and almost every day. The height of the nowadays quite fashionable shooting season is from October to February, when it is safe to say that dozens of hunting parties are out in the field ; but the pleasantest time for shooting trips is, without ques- tion, from May to October, when comparatively few hunt- ers are in the land, owing to the social summer seasons in Europe and America. During that time it is much cooler, and the sportsman is not so likely to run across another safari when in the field. It is then also much easier to secure good porters, guides, and horses than at the height of the season, when " everybody " comes. I myself have tried both seasons, and should I go back again would certainly choose our summer for the sojourn in British East Africa. The game laws of British East Africa have recently been materially changed, and are now not as liberal to the hunter as in the years gone by. For thorough information I have copied below the exact rendering of the new law of December, 1909, as recorded in the OiHcial Gazette. 3 13 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA Only such paragraphs as deal directly with the sports- man who visits the country for shooting are included; all other matter is omitted : GAME LICENSES 1 6. (a) The following licenses may be granted by a Provincial Commissioner or a District Commissioner or l)y such other person as may be authorized by the Governor on the behalf, that is to say : A Sportsman's License. A Resident's License. A Traveler's License. A Landholder's License. (b) The following fees shall be paid for licenses: For a Sportsman's License, 750 rupees ; Mor a Resident's Li- cense, 150 rupees; for a Traveler's License, 15 rupees; and for a Landholder's License, 45 rupees. (c) A Sportsman's License, a Resident's License, and a Landholder's License shall be in force for one year from the date of issue. A Traveler's License shall be in force for one month from the date of issue. 18. A Sportsman's License and a Resident's License, respectively, shall authorize the holder to hunt, kill, or capture animals of any of the species mentioned in the Third Schedule, but not more than the number of each species fixed by the second column of that schedule. 24. (a) A Provincial or District Commissioner may, on the application of the holder of a Sportsman's or Resi- dent's License, grant a Special License authorizing such person to hunt, kill, or capture either one or two elephants as the application shall require and as shall be specified 1 There are exactly three rupees to one dollar of United States currency. 14 BRITISH EAST AFRICA therein. Such Special License shall not authorize the holder to hunt, kill, or capture any elephant having tusks weighing less than thirty pounds each. (b) There shall be paid for such Special License the fees following : For a license to hunt, kill, or capture one elephant 150 rupees. For a license to hunt, kill, or capture two elephants 450 rupees.^ 33. No license granted under this ordinance shall en- title the holder to hunt, kill, or capture any animal or to trespass on private land without the consent of the owner or occupier. First Schedule Animals not to be hunted, killed, or captured by any person except under Special License : Elephant, giraffe, greater kudu bull (in the District of Baringo), greater kudu (female), buffalo (cow), Neu- mann's hartebeest in the area (2) of this schedule; eland in the following areas : (i) An area bounded on the south by a line drawn from Kiu Station due east to the western boundary of Machakos Native Reserve to a point where the Athi River enters the said reserve, thence by the Athi River to a point due north of Donyo-Sabuk, thence by a line drawn direct to Fort Hall, on the north by the Nairobi-Fort Hall main road, on the west by the Uganda Railway. (2) The Rift Valley south of Lake Baringo. (3) Guas Ngishu plateau south of the Nzoia River. * It is also provided for that if the sportsman takes out this Special License to kill two elephants, but fails to do so, the government refunds him three hundred rupees, but not more. 15 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA Roan (female), roan (male), in areas (i) and (2) of this schedule, sable (female), rhinoceros (on the northeast side of the Uganda Railway and within ten miles thereof between Sultan Hamud and Machakos Road Station), vulture (any species), owl (any species), hippopotamus (in lakes Naivasha, Elmenteita, and Nakuru), fish eagle. Second Schedule Animals, the females of zvhich are not to be hunted, killed, or captured when accompanying their young, and the young of which are not to be hunted, killed, or captured except under Special License: Rhinoceros, hippopotamus, all antelopes and gazelles mentioned in any schedule. Third Schedule Animals, a limited number of which may be killed or captured under a Sportsman's or Resident's License: Buffalo (bull), 2; rhinoceros, except as provided in the First Schedule, 2 ; hippopotamus, except as provided in the First Schedule, 2; eland, except as provided in the First Schedule, i; zebra (Grevey's), 2; zebra (common), 20; oryx (callotis), 2; oryx (beisa), 4; water buck (of each species), 2 ; sable antelope (male), i ; roan antelope (male), except as provided in the First Schedule, i ; greater kudu (male), except as provided in the First Schedule, i ; lesser kudu, 4; topi (in Jubaland, Tanaland, and Loita Plains), 8 ; Coke's hartebeest, 20 ; Neumann's hartebeest, except as provided in the First Schedule, 2 ; Jackson's hartebeest, 4 ; Hunter's antelope, 6; Thomas's kob, 4; bongo, 2; palla, 4; sitatunga, 2; wildebeest, 3; Grant's gazelle, four vari- eties, typicus, notata, Bright's, and Robertsi, of each, 3; Waller's gazelle (generuk), 4; Harvey's duiker, 10; 16 BRITISH EAST AFRICA Isaac's duiker, lo; blue duiker, lo; Kirk's dikdik, lo; Guenther's dikdik, lo; Hinde's dikdik, lo; Cavendish's dikdik, lo; Abyssinian oribi, lo; Haggard's oribi, lo; kenya oribi, lo; " suni " (Nesotragus moschatus), lo; klipspringer, lo; Ward's reed buck, lo; *' Chanler's reed buck, lo; Thomson's gazelle, lo; Peter's gazelle, lo; Soemmerring's gazelle, lo; bush buck, lo; bush buck (Haywood's), lo; colobi monkeys, of each species, 6; mar- about, 4 ; egret, of each species, 4. Fourth Schedule Animals, a limited number of which may be killed or captured on a Traveler's License : Zebra, 4. The following antelopes and gazelles only: Grant's gazelle, Thomson's gazelle, Jackson's and Coke's hartebeest, palla, reed buck, klipspringer, steinbuck, wilde- beest, paa (Medoqua and Nesotragus), oryx beisa, bush buck, Waller's gazelle, topi (in Jubaland, Tanaland, and Loita Plains). Five animals in all, made up of a single species or of several; provided, however, that not more than one of each of the following may be shot on one license : Grant's gazelle, palla, wildebeest, oryx beisa, bush buck, Waller's gazelle, topi, Jackson's hartebeest. Fifth Schedule (game reserves) (Caravans with guns are not even allowed to pass through these. — Ed.) I. The Southern Reserve. An area bounded by a line following the right bank of the Ngong River from the railway line to the edge of the 17 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA Kikuyu Forest, along the edge of the forest to a beacon at the point where the M'bagathi River leaves the forest by a line of beacons to the Survey beacon on the Ngong hills (Donyo Lamuyu), thence to Mt. Suswa by a line of bea- cons and from Suswa due west to the Mau escarpment, which it follows south to the Guaso Nyiro and by the left bank of that river to the German frontier. Thence following the German frontier to the Tsavo (Useri) River. By the left bank of the Tsavo River to a beacon at the point where the Ngulia and Kyulu hills approach the river. Thence following the foot of the eastern slopes of Kyulu hills to the Makindu River, which it follows to the Uganda Railway. From the Makindu River the line follows the railway to the Ngong River. 2. The Northern Reserve. Eastern Boundary Starting from the ford at " Campi ya Nyama Yangu " on the Northern Guaso Nyiro River, the boundary follows the eastern slopes of the following hills : Mt. Koiseku, Mt. Kalama, Mt. Lololugi, Mt. Wargies (Table Mountains), Mt. Leo, Mt. Endata, Mt. Kulal. From Mt. Kulal by a line northeast to Mt. Moille, thence following the eastern slopes of this mount and Mount Seramba, Mt. Loder Moretu, and Mt. Kul. From Mount Kul to a beacon on the western side of Mt. Marsabit. Northern Boundary From the beacon on the western side of the Mt. Marsa- bit by a straight line west to Mt. Nyiro. i8 BRITISH EAST AFRICA Western Boundary From Mt. Nyiro following the foot of the Laikipia escarpment to the Mugatan River. Thence in a direct line to the junction of the Guaso Nyiro and Guaso Narok. Southern Boundary Thence following the left bank of Guaso Nyiro to the ford at " Campi ya Nyama Yangu." (See map.) CHAPTER II THE CARAVAN OR " SAFARI " Safari is a Ki-Swahili word, which is commonly used not only for designating the caravan itself, meaning thereby all the people who serve as headmen, gun bearers, porters, etc., but it also means traveling by any other means than by railroad or steamer. If it is said, for in- stance, that anyone is " out on safari," it conveys the idea that the person in question is out on a trip with porters, oxen, mules, horses, or donkeys; in one word, moving about the country living in his tent. " Safari," therefore, is one of the first words the traveler learns of the useful Ki-Swahili language, the lingua franca of the whole East and Central Africa. In fact, I have heard hunters say that they were surprised to find this language so serviceable to them even far in the interior of the Congo Free State. On account of this great usefulness of the Ki-Swahili lan- guage, there will be a chapter at the end of the book de- voted to the rudiments of grammar, words, and phrases most necessary for the hunter, who would be independent of irresponsible and often inefficient interpreters, and who also wishes to get his information about the game and paths at Hrst hand from the natives of the different tribes. This is often of the greatest importance to the sportsman. 20 THE CARAVAN OR "SAFARI" As soon as the hunter arrives at Nairobi he will at once set about getting his safari ready, unless he has made his arrangements beforehand through some of the Nairobi agents or, as they call themselves, " safari outfitters." This is, of course, the most convenient way, saving quite a little personal work, trouble, and a few days of time, but costing considerably more than when the sportsman fits out his caravan himself. One of the largest safari out- fitters in Nairobi advertises that people in employing them " save trouble and expense." Once I tried this firm, being in a great hurry to get ofif to the jungle, but found that, although I saved some " trouble," the " expense " was much larger than if I had arranged for everything myself. Of course, the hunter going into the country for the first time without some knowledge of the Ki-Swahili lan- guage, and with little time at his disposal, but plenty of " cash on hand," does best in letting some firm fit him out with everything, making the agreement that the firm in question shall supply everything at the lowest local retail cost, and then charge five per cent commission on the total expenditure. Another, but more expensive, way of doing the same thing is to agree on a certain fixed sum per month for so many men, horses, or mules, as the case may be, in- cluding all expenses, but the reader may be absolutely sure that the " certain fixed sum " in this case is so ** fixed " that the safari outfitters, at all events, profit largely thereby. To give the intending sportsman an idea of what an ordinary, average safari in British East Africa may cost him per month, I shall here give a few extracts from my 21 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA own carefully kept accounts during three different expe- ditions into the interior. A single sportsman needs, to be perfectly comfortable and for a three- or four-months' shooting trip, about forty men in all, although he may get along with less. This will cost him about as follows: I headman wages per month, $14.00 2 gun bearers (for both) " 4 askaris (for all) " I cook " I personal "boy," or butler " I syce, or horse boy " 30 porters at $3.34 each " Food for all 40 men Extra expenses for occasional guides, etc Total for all men, wages and food $230.00 25.00 16.00 10.00 9.00 5.00 100.00 30.00 21.00 Besides this monthly expense there is an initial outlay, according to the government regulation, requiring for each man one blanket, a jersey, and a water bottle, amounting to about $1 to $1.50 per man according to quality, or, say, in all about $60 for the forty men. Then, in most cases the hunter has to supply the headman, gun bearers, cook, and " boy " with a suit of khaki clothes, coat and trousers, which cost about $3 the suit. This would add to the initial expense another $15. A good horse costs about $200, more or less, and a fair, strong riding mule from $100 to $150, while good donkeys can be had from $14 to $18. These animals are sold again at the end of the safari, realizing, if in good condition, about sixty to eighty per cent of their original cost. The " askaris " are a kind of native soldier, whose duty it is to look after and help the men during the march, to 22 THE CARAVAN OR "SAFARI" pitch the owner's tent, as well as to watch at night in turns around the camp fire, and they are, therefore, really indis- pensable for his comfort and safety in the jungle. Adding all these expenses up, and allowing for '' addi- tional extras," such as railway trips, and the hunter's own food supply, a four months' safari, during which time the sportsman, with ordinary luck, will be able to secure most of the big game of East Africa, will cost approximately : 40 men's regulation outfit once for all, $60.00 5 men's khaki suits " " " 15.00 40 men's wages and food " " " 960.00 A good riding horse " " " 200.00 Possible extras " " " 215.00 Total expense for four months $1,450.00 Possible return from sale of horse 150.00 Total expense $1,300.00 The price of the hunting license must be added to this expense, and from the beginning of 19 10 this will cost the sportsman $250, giving him, as we have already seen, a certain amount of different kinds of animals, with the ex- ception of elephants. If he wants to kill one elephant he has to pay an additional $50, and if he desires a license to shoot a second elephant he has to pay a further additional fee of $100, so that the total price of the general license, including the right of killing or capturing two elephants, amounts to $400. Therefore, if the safari is carefully looked after, a four months' trip, including the above-mentioned licenses and all expenses, would not need to cost more than about $1,700, and may be run for even much less than that. 23 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA The reason why one man for a long jungle trip needs as many as forty men, which would give him about thirty porters for carrying loads, and possibly only twenty of these would carry food, is that in most of the outlying dis- tricts, where the best game is to be had, no food or " posho," as the porters' food is generally called, can be obtained locally, and forty men will eat just about one load of posho of sixty pounds each day. This again would only carry the safari along for less than a month, but within that time the hunter probably passes by some East Indian's store, or a native village, where it is possible to buy the needed loads of posho. And besides this, at the start each man may carry his own food for six to eight days in a small muslin bag, which is added to his load. Then, if much game is secured, it is possible to feed the men on smaller rations of posho, so that twenty loads of posho, for instance, would in such a way be sufficient for four or five weeks, within which time the sportsman is now reasonably certain of being able to buy food locally in almost any place in British East Africa. If, however, the hunter desires to go very far ofT from inhabited country, he can arrange for the posho in an- other way — by taking, say, only twenty men in all, just enough to have them carry the camp outfit, guns, and a few loads of food, and then use twelve donkeys to carry the rest of the men's posho. As each donkey carries from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds, and only feeds on the grass, it is possible, in such a way, to be out from fifty days to two months without buying fresh supplies. If rations are cut down, when meat is very plentiful, it may be possible to be away 24 Camp of the Tjader East African Expedition, 1906, at Solai, B. E. A. ^S^^^m The Advance Guard of the Caravan Crossing a River on the Way to SOTIK. THE CARAVAN OR "SAFARI" even for two months and a half or more with such an outfit. On my first expedition to East Africa I engaged a great many more men than most hunters need. At times I had over one hundred porters in my caravan, and on one of our trips the number rose to one hundred and seventeen. The reason for this was that I was collecting specimens for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. When I informed the director of the museum of my in- tention to go out to Africa on a hunting trip, and that I was also willing to use the opportunity to enrich the col- lection of the museum, he volunteered to give me letters of introduction to British officials to secure special permits for me in the field. He also gave me one of the best pre- parators of the institution, Mr. Herbert Lang, who acted as our official photographer and taxidermist, and to whose faithfulness, skill, and untiring efforts much of the success of the expedition was due. The museum further supplied most of the curing materials, special skinning knives and other things needed for the work in the field. When a scientific expedition goes out into the jungle to collect specimens for preservation in museums, it needs a great deal more curing material, special drying boxes for bird skins, traps for smaller mammals, etc. Then, again, the scientist, when he secures an animal, not only takes off the head and the skin of head and neck for trophies, as the mere sportsman generally does, but has to conserve the whole skin of the beast. But not only that, in a great many cases he also desires to bring home the leg bones, as well as the ribs and sometimes the whole chest, without cutting the ribs apart, and all the rest of the 25 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA skeleton. This again necessitates a great many more por- ters than the ordinary hunter needs. Thus, for instance, it required forty men to carry the skin and skeleton of my largest rhino from the place where he fell to the camp, where the skin was cut thin and prepared, whereas if this rhino had only been taken as a trophy two men could easily have carried anything that the sportsman would have liked to take home with him. My first trip to East Africa has several times been mentioned in the annals of the museum as the " Tjader East African Expedition." About one third of its actual expenses were afterwards contributed by the American Museum of Natural History, which re- ceived the greater part of the collection, or somewhat over four hundred specimens of mammals, reptiles, and birds. The rest of the *' spoil," besides a couple of dozen trophies which I kept for myself, was presented to the Royal Swed- ish Academy of Science in Stockholm. In getting the safari together it is often of great im- portance to take porters of different tribes, such as the Wa-Swahili, the Wa-Nyamwezi, the Wa-Kamba, and the Wa-Kikuju, as they are then not so apt to try any con- spiracy or mutiny of any sort, which hunters have some- times had to contend with; and it is also possible to get more work out of the men by playing one tribe off against another, for they all want to show that their tribe is better than any other. This worked very well indeed when I sometimes had to make exceptionally long and hard marches over difficult territory and waterless tracts of the country. The porters generally like to start out very early in the morning, long before the sun rises, so as to be able to 26 THE CARAVAN OR "SAFARI" cover the day's march of some fifteen to twenty-five miles before the heat of the noon hours. In such a case, as soon as camp is made, and firewood and water brought in, most of the men have the whole afternoon for rest and play, if they are so bent, and the hunter a fine chance to bring some additional game to bag, after the greatest heat of the day is over. To gain this point, I have often started the safari as early as 3.30 and 4 a.m., particularly if we had moonlight, or else a few minutes after five, when the eastern sky begins to show signs of the morning light. If one can use a well-defined path, the early morning march is very pleasant, but it may otherwise be dangerous, and particularly so in dense bush country, where a lion or rhino may be lurking around, and suddenly take exception to having his own territory invaded. I remember one early morning on the beautiful Laikipia plateau, when we had left camp before 4 a.m., and the whole caravan of some hundred and fifteen men was slowly moving along the northern banks of the beautiful Guaso Narok River, going downstream through rather thick bush, how suddenly one of the men right behind me half whispering said: "Bwana, naona vifaru viwili mbele karibu," or, in Eng- lish, " Sir, I see two rhinos near by in front." As I tried to peer through the bush in the half dark, the bright moon having disappeared for a moment behind some rather thick clouds, I saw one large and one half- grown rhino, only some twenty yards off, standing in a little open space, at the edge of which our path wound its way. They were evidently a mother with her young, and therefore very " unsafe " indeed. Having already had 27 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA to shoot more rhinos than allowed on my license only to protect our lives, and it being too dark anyway to take careful aim, I stopped, with one of the gun bearers, to stand guard while the caravan passed by on the other side of some bush. The men had been told to walk as quietly as they could. As the porters marched very closely to- gether, it did not take them perhaps more than two minutes to pass the little opening on which the rhinos stood. Dur- ing this time the old female " sniffed " and " puffed " and tossed her head, evidently scenting the men, but unable to make up her mind whether to charge or not, while the youngster continually changed his position from one side of his mother to the other. Finally, as the last man had passed, I retreated carefully, " covering " the mother with my gun, until she was out of sight. The caravan porters seem, as a rule, to have very little personal courage, for twice afterwards, when a rhino charged down on us in front, a great many of the men far behind, and out of immediate danger, threw down their loads and stampeded for the nearest cover like so many frightened cattle ! It is of great importance for a successful safari to have an experienced and efficient headman, who understands how to handle his people, for if he does not know how to make himself respected and instantly obeyed, the whole caravan is soon demoralized. The best thing to do then is to " degrade " the headman and select the best askari to take his place. I was once forced to take this measure. It worked very well, indeed, as the askari whom I made headman turned out to be a splendid " captain," and every- thing went on beautifully after the change. When a hard day's march is done, and the hunter has 28 THE CARAVAN OR "SAFARI" succeeded in bagging some coveted trophies, it is a great pleasure to sit down near the big camp fire, after a good but simple dinner, and let the men perform their war dances, sing and chant, and tell their very often interesting stories, until the oncoming darkness reminds the sports- man that it is time to " turn in " to gather new strength for the morrow's adventures and possible hardships. CHAPTER III THE LION KING OF BEASTS Almost since time immemorial the lion has been called the " King of beasts." Most writers of natural history still bestow this high title upon the big feline, largely on account of its generally majestic appearance, courage, and fierceness of its character. Yet a good many prominent African hunters do not share this opinion, and have from experience learned that the lion is not so " noble " and " fearless," except when wounded or cornered, as it is cowardly and mean. From my own limited experience in lion hunting, I side with the latter, and think that for many reasons the elephant is much more worthy of the exalted title. The lion is the only representative of the large cat fam- ily which grows a mane, covering often not only head, neck, and shoulders, but sometimes also fully half of the back and chest. The mane of the African lion differs a great deal in size and color. Contrary to the general opin- ion, the lion of the Old World also carries a mane, al- though perhaps not of the average size of that of the African lion. Another and rather queer characteristic of the big feline is a large, strange-looking tuft of hair at the end of its tail, which very often at the extreme point carries a small horny appendage, surrounded by a brush of 30 THE LION— KING OF BEASTS coarse hair. Much has been said and written about the reason for this kind of " horn " on the hon's tail, and some have thought that it served as a goad, with which the Hon provokes itself to fury, when it lashes its flanks with the tail, as it often does when angry. With the exception of the smaller or larger mane of the male, the hair of both lion and lioness is very short and close. Its color varies from light yellowish brown or tawny to dark brown, turning, in the manes of some old males, into an almost perfect black. The skins of young cubs are almost in- variably plainly spotted, which is often the case in full- grown young lionesses. The manes begin to make their appearance first during the third year, and a lion's age is estimated anywhere from thirty to fifty years. Lions vary a great deal in size and weight. Measured, as a rule, from the tip of the nose to the very end of the tail, Indian lions have been found as long as eight feet ten inches, whereas the famous lion and elephant hunter, Mr. F. C. Selous, gives records of specimens of lions he had shot in South Africa which measured respectively ten feet six inches, ten feet nine inches, and eleven feet one inch. The largest lion I have ever shot measured ten feet two inches from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, the tape line being laid along the curve of the body before skinning. The height at the shoulders of full-grown specimens also varies from three feet to three feet six inches, and I have heard of a lion shot in German East Africa which stood fully three feet nine inches high, but this is probably rather extraordinary. Still more does the weight of full-grown lions vary, and not only the size of the beast, but its general condition makes a great dif- 31 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA ference in this respect. Lionesses have been found weigh- ing from three hundred pounds to four hundred and twenty-five pounds, and full-grown males tip the scales at four hundred and fifty pounds and more, one of the larg- est on record having weighed five hundred and eighty- three pounds. This was an unusually large male lion, in the prime of life, killed in the Orange Free State, in 1865, in a locality where game was very abundant. That specimen, therefore, was in splendid condition. The lion inhabits at present not only the greater part of Africa, from the Cape Colony in the south to Abyssinia and the northern parts of the Sahara Desert in the north, but it is also found in many places in southwestern Asia, where it still occurs in certain parts of Mesopotamia and Arabia, as well as in northwestern India. It is now more and more rarely seen in the latter locality, and it is only a question of a few years when the beautiful beast will have been completely exterminated within the limits of India. In ages past, and even within historic times, the lion was found in southeastern Europe, in such countries as Roumania and Greece, and bones and skulls of pre- historic lions, of unquestionably the same species, have been found as far north as Germany, the British Isles, and France. In South Africa lions are now very scarce in the dis- tricts south of the Orange River, where the white man with his modern firearms has almost exterminated the big cat. In other parts of Africa, however, it is almost ab- solutely certain that where large herds of game are still to be found, there the lion also abounds. On the other hand, in places where there is a scarcity of game, one 32 Young Lion Walking Toward the Camera. Lioness Killed on the Athi Plains. THE LION— KING OF BEASTS rarely finds the great feline, the appetite of which seems tremendous. It is said by prominent African hunters, and corroborated by the natives themselves, that, where game is plentiful, an adult lion kills a good-sized animal almost every night. In places where it has not been much shot at, the lion sometimes hunts even in the daytime, if it, for some reason, failed to secure its prey the night before. This I myself firmly believe, for the first lion I ever killed had just slain a zebra, which it was devouring, when a good Winchester bullet, at close quarters, intercepted the meal ; and this happened about ten o'clock in the morning of a perfectly bright day and right on the Athi plains, only a few miles from Nairobi. As a rule the lion hunts just after sunset, when it can more easily stalk its prey unobserved. Its favorite food seems to be zebra meat, but any good-sized antelope will do just as well if, for any reason, a zebra cannot be secured. There have been instances, although they are probably very rare, where a lion has stalked even a full-grown buf- falo, but only extreme lack of other food would make the lion bold enough to attack such a powerful animal, which certainly has many times over the strength of the lion. On the foothills of Kenia I was once told by some Wandorobo, the wildest and most primeval natives of British East Africa, who also are, as a rule, the best trackers and pathfinders in the jungle, that they had once witnessed a fight between a lion and a full-grown buffalo cow. The lion had just sprung upon its calf and killed it, when the infuriated mother suddenly appeared on the scene, and, with lowered horns, rushed at the murderer 33 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA of its " baby " with such speed that, before the Hon could jump up, it was caught on the horns of the buffalo and tossed many feet into the air. No sooner had the lion touched the ground than the angry mother was at it again, and although the big cat succeeded in cutting some terrible gashes on the neck of its assailant with its claws, and actually bit off half its nose, yet it was finally crushed to death by the horns of the buffalo. As soon as the lion was dead the cow stood bleeding and trembling over the dead body of its offspring, until the cruel but delighted Wandorobos shot it with their poisoned arrows, and so put an end to its sufferings. When the lion kills big game single-handed it does it generally in the following way: It first stalks its prey, until it is so close that a few mighty leaps will bring it up alongside the same. Then it suddenly seizes the victim's nose with one of its mighty paws, while with the other it catches hold of the back of the animal, and so in an instant pulls the head sideways and downward with such force as almost invariably to break its neck at once, or else gives the beast a tremendous bite at the back of the head, which instantly kills it. Sometimes the lion begins its meal by tearing its prey open, first drinking the blood and eating heart and lungs, before it begins on the rest of the body, but it often prefers starting with the hind- quarters. Very often the lion simply lies in hiding near some water hole or drinking place in a stream, near enough to reach its prey with a single mighty swoop. It seems very strange that herds of zebra, for instance, will night after night go down to the very same watering place to drink, 34 THE LION— KING OF BEASTS where they frequently have had the excitement of losing one of their " comrades." Someone has said that the ani- mals seem to understand that, as soon as one of them has been killed, the others are safe for that night at least, and so they often continue to drink and feed as if nothing at all had happened. I have also noticed that in the early morning the animals seem to have no dread whatsoever of the lions. Once on a march over the Sotik plains with the whole caravan, the second gun bearer stopped me and, pointing a little to the left, said : " Bwana, tasama simba wawili huko " (" Sir, look out, there are two lions over there.") Turning in that direction, I first only saw a number of Coke's hartebeest and some smaller gazelles quietly feed- ing, and did not believe that the gun bearer could be right. As he insisted that the lions were there, I took the strong field glasses and saw, to my amazement and joy, three full- grown lions, stretched out on the ground, not fifty yards away from the nearest antelopes, which must have passed even much closer to the lions, judging from the way they were feeding ! Were the antelopes perhaps intelligent enough to know that the lions, having had their " fill " during the night, would not attack them in the daytime ? Or could they have known that lions after a hearty meal are unable to run fast enough to catch an antelope? This is indeed a fact, for I had soon bagged the largest of the trio, a splendid, black-maned lion, which was too full to run very fast and long, its stomach being filled with zebra meat, bones, and pieces of striped skin. It may be remarked here that neither lion, leopard, nor cheetah seems to be able to run 35 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA very fast for any length of time. For a few dozen paces they go with great speed and in long leaps, but then their wind seems suddenly to give out, and they fall into a heavy gallop, or canter, when an ordinary riding pony will soon outdistance them. One of the most interesting and at the same time sure ways of hunting lions is to have a man gallop after them on horseback until the lion, unable to escape any longer, suddenly stops and turns on its pursuer, giving the sports- man an excellent chance to shoot his trophy at close quar- ters. On one of the first days of my sojourn on the Sotik and Loita plains I had two very interesting lion hunts in this way, the account of which I here copy from my diary : ". . . After marching with the whole caravan for about five hours this morning, we came up to a rather high point in the plains, where we rested for a few moments, and where I looked around with my field glasses to see if I could detect something that looked like a watering place, for it was now evident that our Masai guide had not told us the truth about the distance to the nearest water. With the glasses I now plainly saw three lions a little to our left and about a thousand yards oflf. One looked unusually large and had a very black mane, while the two others seemed to be either young males or possibly a maneless male and a female. I was very anxious to bag one of these lions, particularly as they lay right in the line of our march, so I dispatched my brave ' lion chaser,' Asgar, to gallop away with the hunting pony to hinder the biggest lion from running away, until we could come up. " Now followed the most exciting and interesting chase 36 THE LION— KING OF BEASTS that I have ever witnessed ! As soon as the three Hons saw the horse, they all ran off in different directions, Asgar following the big black-maned one, and evidently gaining on him with every second. My gun bearers and I fol- lowed on the run, as fast as we could possibly go. When Asgar came within about fifty yards of the lion, it sud- denly stopped, viewed him for a few seconds, and then turned with a roar and rushed at him. Asgar instantly whirled his horse around, and galloped off toward us, with the lion close behind him. After a few leaps the lion saw that it was impossible to catch the horse, so it gave up the chase and turned around to run away. At the very same moment Asgar also turned and galloped after the lion, and these scenes were repeated again and again, until finally the lion was completely tired out, and was brought to bay near a half-dried-out stream. " As we approached the place, Asgar pointed toward the lion with his whip, but I could only hear loud grunting from the other side of the little stream. Against the advice of my gun bearers, but bound on getting the lion at any cost, I crossed the river bed through the dense bush, to be faced the next second, to my unspeakable joy, by this mag- nificent * king of beasts,' which showed its beautiful head above a little bush, only some thirty yards away from where I emerged from the stream. As it caught sight of me, it advanced up into the bush, exposing entirely its head and shoulders. Here it stood, majestically, switching its tail and giving a tremendous roar as a warning signal for me not to come any nearer. "Just one look around assured me that my camera bearer had unfortunately again failed to follow me closely 37 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA and, seeing this, I fired with my excellent 11.2 millimeter Mauser rifle, hitting the lion square in the chest. It took three or four big leaps into the dense bush lining the little stream, and from there we now heard his loud grunt- ing for a few seconds. My men wanted me to shoot into the bush at random, thinking I might hit the lion some- where, but this seemed to me perfectly useless and cow- ardly, so I advanced cautiously, with the gun ready. Part- ing the bushes with my left arm, to be able to peer into the dense thicket, I finally caught sight of the ' fallen mon- arch,' breathing his last and stretched out on the ground. Now it was my turn to shout, and in a few seconds the rest of the men came around congratulating and saying that they had never before seen a lion with such a big mane. After having pulled it out from the bush, we found that it measured nine feet eight inches from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, and so proved to be a large specimen with an unusually long and thick black mane. . . ." On the following Tuesday morning we left camp long before daylight to see if we could find some more lions, and this day proved to be one of the most successful hunt- ing days that I have ever had. Having arrived just after sunrise on a rather high elevation on the plains, from where we had an excellent view in all directions, I sat down on a big rock to examine the plains with the field glasses. To the east I saw six giraffes — three large ones, evidently a male and two females, and three young ones, the smallest of which was not much larger than an ordi- nary calf, except for the length of its neck. Between us and the giraffes was a herd of about thirty eland ante- 38 Large, Black-maxkd Liox Killi:d ox thk Sotik Plains, ]May, 1909. Same as Above. Note the enormous size of the mane, the longest hairs of which measure seventeen inches. THE LION— KING OF BEASTS lopes, calmly grazing. Farther to the north we saw count- less numbers of zebra and antelopes of different kinds, and toward the south and west, big herds of wildebeests and other game. . . . On the way back to the rock, whither we decided to re- turn for another survey of the land, after I had bagged a cheetah and a topi, I saw an unusually large white-bearded gnu which I also secured, and when we finally arrived on top of the hill again, I discovered two lions, due south from us, both resting, and fully stretched out on the ground. Now followed a still more interesting chase than the one a couple of days before, as this lion was even more " gamey " than the other. *' Repeatedly it turned and charged so suddenly and quickly at the horse, that it looked as if it would catch up with Asgar; but a few moments later the tables were turned and we found Asgar chasing the lion. So it went on for half a dozen times at least, until we succeeded in coming so close to the lion that it caught sight of us. " Instantly the beast made for me in a bee line. Before the lion had come even within one hundred yards the gun bearers begged me to shoot. But, enjoying the looks of the beautiful oncoming beast with its enormous flut- tering mane, I let it come, calling out to ' his majesty ' in Ki-Swahili : * Karibu mzee, karibu,' which means, ' Come on, old man, come on.' And on it came! Oh, had my camera bearer only been up beside me now, what a mag- nificent picture I should have obtained! " Again the men begged me to shoot, but as I was sure of my aim and my gun, I let the lion come on until within thirty yards or less, when I fired, the bullet hitting squarely 39 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA between its shoulders, and down the Hon went in an in- stant. I sprang forward, shouting for joy, when, to my utter surprise, the Hon got up and, with a never-to-be- forgotten roar, rushed for me, now less than twenty yards off! Then the second bullet sent it to the ground again, never more to move ! An examination of the trophy revealed to our great delight that this lion was even larger than the one killed before, measuring ten feet two inches from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, and having a much larger and almost black mane. Every- body that saw this skin, including a government official who has examined over two hundred lion skins, seemed to think it one of the largest and most beautiful lions ever killed in British East Africa. . . ." When big plains are traversed by rivers, or even dried- out water courses, where always a great many large trees and high grasses grow, one may be reasonably sure of finding lions or leopards, unless they have often been dis- turbed by hunters. In such places it is a good scheme to go in among the trees, up wind, to some point where one can see across the whole belt of bush, then screen one's self as well as possible, and send the men to beat the bush for a mile or so above. The lion will then generally run away from the beaters, down wind, but, fearing to be detected on the open plains, it will, as a rule, keep running between the trees and the bushes along the river or in the dry river bed. Then it is easily shot, as it passes the place where the hunter stands. If the lion, under such circumstances, is only wounded, it will almost in- variably charge, and woe to the hunter who then fails to receive it with steady nerve and ready gun ! 40 THE LION— KING OF BEASTS The Hon seems to hate the heat of the noonday sun, for it loves then to he down in the thick bush, or in a cool swamp among the high papyrus, even often partly down in the water itself. It also loves to retreat into caves, well protected from the rays of the sun. In the hot lowlands and lower plateaus of East Africa the manes of the lions are exceedingly poor, a good many having practically no manes at all, while others have a short, tawny-colored mane — a poor trophy indeed. In the cooler regions, however, the manes are sometimes perfectly mag- nificent, covering the neck, more than half of the back, away down over the shoulders, and are dark brown to al- most black in shade. The " black-maned " lion is regarded as the finest trophy, and comparatively few sportsmen are lucky enough to shoot such a one. People have even suggested that there are different species of lions accord- ing to their manes, but as lions with all sorts of manes, but otherwise perfectly alike, inhabit the same localities, this is entirely untenable. It is when the lion gets too old to be able to catch game that it takes to " man-eating " and so becomes the terror of the natives in its district. In January, 1910, I met a government official, whom I had visited on my previous trip to Kenia, and who told me of some terrible experiences he had had with a man-eater since then. But before re- lating these, I must tell of an incident which happened on the way to this official's house. We had just crossed a river, where we saw fresh lion tracks. As we emerged from the bank of the river, we found a great many Kikuyu beads, often worn by the men of the tribe, strewn on the ground. Not thinking of 41 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA the fresh Hon tracks, that we had seen below, my gun bearer jokingly remarked to me that perhaps two Kikityu men had been fighting here, having torn off each other's beads. When I suggested that a lion might have killed a man here, he stoically said: " Labda, Bwana " (" Per- haps, sir) ? " No sooner had we reached the little govern- ment forestry station, than we heard that the very even- ing before a man-eating lion had killed a Kikuyu on this very spot. But owing to heavy rains during the night, the blood marks and other possible signs of the struggle had been washed away. This government official told me that it very probably was the same man-eater, an old lioness, which had killed a number of people in the district, finally growing so bold that it would come up to within a few yards of his own house to try to slay some of his workmen. One dark even- ing four of his men wanted to go to a spring about a hundred yards from his house to get some additional water. They were warned not to go by their employer, but said they would all take spears and torches, so that there would be no danger. They subsequently went, but none of them ever returned! The ferocious lioness succeeded in killing all of them, and dragged the bodies of two away into the dense bush, where a few days later their crushed skulls and a few bones were all that was left! In vain the of- ficial tried to shoot or trap the lioness, for fear of which his wife and baby for days never dared to leave the house. But finally one moonlight night, when a goat was tied close to the house and the bloodthirsty brute was in the very act of springing on its easy prey, it was killed by two well-aimed shots, fired from the open window, and 42 THE LION— KING OF BEASTS so the district was ridded of a man-eater, which had slain over twenty people in a few weeks ! In spite of such not infrequent occurrences, and nu- merous accidents to lion hunters, it seems to me that the dangers of lion hunting are generally overestimated, for few African beasts are as easily killed as the lion, if hit either in head, neck, or chest. But, of course, the follow- ing up of a wounded lion or lioness in dense bush, or high grass, is a very dangerous undertaking, just as it would be to pursue wounded buffaloes, rhinos, leopards, and par- ticularly elephants. With ordinary precautions, however, a man with a good magazine gun and steady nerve, and perhaps with a reserve gun of some bigger bore close at hand, runs very little risk of being killed or wounded by lions, unless he should attack a large number at the same time, or else lose his head and fail to make his shots tell. A good many have been mauled or killed when hunting lions on horseback, as the movements of the more or less frightened horse make a steady aim and a good shot almost impossible. It was in this way a young settler, a Mr. Smith, in the Sotik country was very nearly killed, while I was out there in 1909. He had gone lion shooting on horseback with a friend of his, both being good shots and fearless men. They had succeeded in bagging a couple of lions, and as they were returning to Mr. Smith's farm in the evening, they came upon a lioness, which they wounded, but which they did not want to follow into the dense jungle, as the sun was just about setting. The next morning, however, they rode out again to secure the wounded lioness, but before they anticipated 43 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA any charge at all, she sprang upon Mr. Smith's friend, trying to tear him down from his saddle. Young Smith then fired at the lion, wounding it in the back. Instantly the lion let go his comrade, and made for Mr. Smith in mighty leaps. From his saddle he fired five times at the oncoming beast, yet without hitting any of its vital spots, and before his comrade had a chance to come to his res- cue, the lioness tore him down from his saddle and horri- bly mauled him. Just as he had given up all hope, and the lioness was burying its terrible fangs in his leg, his badly wounded comrade succeeded in killing it by a well-aimed shot through the head at a few yards' distance. As lions often go in pairs and groups of from eight to twelve, or sometimes even more, it may be very dangerous for a single man to attack such a large number of these powerful beasts. But, on the other hand, if the hunter is not far ofif and able to make every shot tell, and first kills the grown females, he will probably be able to master the situation. The well-known German traveler and ex- plorer. Dr. Carl Peters, the founder of German East Af- rica, told me that he once, on one of his trips there, came upon a group of twenty-two lions, most of which were full-grown males and females. Being an absolutely fear- less man and a good shot, he was able to kill five, the others running for cover in the bushes. Another sportsman, an American, killed six lions in less than two hours during the fall of 1909. An Australian hunter and settler told me last December that he went out in the fall of 1909 to shoot a lion which the night before had killed one of his oxen. But being confronted with eleven of these big fe- lines, he quickly retreated without molesting the lions, 44 THE LION— KING OF BEASTS some of which had already observed him, although they did not seem to mind him in the least. According to my own limited experience with lions, having in all killed but six, and perhaps only seen seven or eight more, I must say that I do not admire their courage, unless they are both wounded and cornered. Five full-grown lions, which I once saw lying on some flat rocks, unfortunately jumped down and disappeared into the high grass before it was possible for me to fire. I then shot a few times into the moving grass in the hope that by possibly wounding one of them it might charge down on me, and so give me the chance of a shot at close quarters, but, alas ! nothing of the kind happened. Much has been said and written about the roaring of the lion, some holding the view that the lion only roars after it has killed its prey, and when wounded or cornered, and when prepared to charge. Others again affirm that the lion also often roars before it kills its prey. In locali- ties where it has not been much disturbed by hunters the lion's roar may be heard at all times of the day. Per- sonally, I am inclined to join the latter's opinion, for I have at least twice heard lions roar just after sunset, and in both cases I was in the position of knowing that they had not yet killed their prey. Lions often hunt in company with each other, and are then evidently roaring to confuse the game, and thus drive it in a certain desired direction, where other " quiet " lions lie in wait. Once I was hunting on the Loita plains, and seeing a " donga " — i. e., a great many trees strung out along some water course — I decided to go through the same for some distance with the view of possibly putting up a lion or 5 45 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA leopard among the bush. Going up wind, with some eight or ten of my men spread out in chainhke fashion behind me, I walked slowly and without making any unnecessary noise, so as not to scare away any beast, before I should have a chance of shooting. We thus walked along for about half an hour, only putting up a small cheetah, which I did not care to fire at for fear of frightening away some bigger game. The little, partly dried-out stream was winding its way in constant turns, so that we often had to cross and recross the same. I was again just crossing one of these turns, with one of the gun bearers behind me, and at a place where all that remained of the stream, so formidable during the rainy season, was a big, stagnant pool, which, to judge from the maze of lion, antelope, and zebra tracks, was a favorite drinking place for all kinds of game. Suddenly, as I went down into the bottom of the river, and without a moment's warning, a big lioness, which was hiding in the bush on an islandlike projection in the bottom of the river, jumped out. With an angry grunt, and pass- ing my right shoulder within a yard or two, she tried to make good her escape into a clump of thick bush which we had just passed. Had the lioness jumped right upon me instead, her sheer weight would have almost crushed me against the hard river bottom; but as it was, I turned quickly, and with great rapidity fired at the running feline, the bullet crushing her pelvis. Before I had time to fire again, she had disappeared into the dark bush, from where she now ejected the most awe-inspiring roars. With gun cocked and ready, I advanced to within six or seven yards of the 46 The Lioness Which x\lmost Killed the Author. Shot on the Sotik, 1909. A Fine Specimen. THE LION— KING OF BEASTS thicket in spite of my men's trying to keep me back. Yet I could see nothing, so dense was the bush, and so fired in the direction of the roar. The shot was followed by still louder roaring, after which I heard a noise that made me think that the lioness in her fury was crushing the bush with her teeth. Again I fired into the bush, but this time the wounded lioness answered with a few short grunts, at the same time making a desperate efifort to get out of the bush and charge. Now she exposed her chest and neck, and instantly another bullet silenced her forever. We all went into the bush to drag the trophy out, and found, to our amazement, that the lioness in her anger and pain had crushed one of her own hind legs almost to pieces, having bitten twelve big holes in it, above and below the knee ! This lioness was in her prime, with very large and beautiful teeth. The contents of her stomach showed that her last meal had consisted of zebra meat. One of the most remarkable lion stories which I have ever heard, and which I know to be perfectly true, runs as follows: Some years ago a man-eating lion had killed a number of people near one of the stations of the Uganda Railroad. One day, as the Hindu station master, assisted by the switchman, was labeling packages on the station platform, this man-eater charged down upon them. The station master rushed headlong through the window into his office, but the switchman, whose retreat was cut off by the lion, climbed up on a telegraph pole. The station master, in his despair, now sent on the following telegram to headquarters at Nairobi : " Big lion patrolling platform. Switchman on telegraph pole. Send soldiers. My life al- most gone." 47 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA Instantly three sportsmen made themselves ready to go down by the next train to the station to kill the man- eater. They arrived there in the evening, and the private car in which they traveled was switched off at the station. They all now agreed that during the night they should take turns, so that one should always be watching, while the other two slept until the morning broke, when they expected to go out and look for the lion. That evening they probably had taken a little too much whisky, for they all w^nt to sleep, including the unfortunate hunter, who with his loaded gun had sat down in the open door of the carriage to keep watch. The one, however, who did not sleep was the lion. For a little after sunset it bounded right into the car, snatched the sleeping watch- man, and jumped out with him through one of the windows of the car, quickly disappearing with its unfortunate prey into the jungle. It is a fact, although almost incredible, that the ill- fated hunters' comrades were either too frightened or too drunk, or both, to make any attempt at rescuing their friend, for they both shut themselves up in the car, and when they went out the next morning to look for the lion, they found only the skull and a few bones of their un- fortpnate comrade. This lion was subsequently killed, a good many glass pieces in its mane and back proving beyond a question that it had been the guilty one. I heard this story for the first time while I was trav- eling on the Uganda Railroad between Mombasa and Nairobi on my hunting trip in 1906. A German officer who shared the same compartment had told me this story most dramatically, and, full of excitement and anticipated 48 THE LION— KING OF BEASTS adventures, I shouted: "If I saw a lion here, I think I would jump out of the train to get it." Imagine my sur- prise when the German lieutenant, pointing with his hand to the left of the track, answered: "There is one right here." Looking in that direction, I actually saw a large lion lying upon a zebra which he had killed, and whose hind quarter it was devouring, only some three hundred yards from the track! Quicker than I can describe, I picked up my 50 x i lo Winchester, which I had near at hand, took a handful of cartridges out of the bag, and rushed out of the train, v/hich had almost been brought to a standstill. In big bounds I made off for the lion, putting the cartridges into the magazine as I ran. Two English sportsmen thought- lessly opened fire on the lion right from their car, and I could plainly hear the bullets whiz by as I was running, but they, fortunately, hit neither the lion nor me. As one of their bullets hit the ground a few inches from the lion's nose, throwing sand and dust upon it, the big beast turned around as quick as a flash, and with a wild roar was ready to fling itself upon me. I had then come up within some twenty-five yards. Before the lion could spring, I fired at it, the bullet smashing the right shoulder and penetrating the heart, and with another roar it fell over. As this was the first day I ever spent in the interior of Africa and the first shot I fired on African soil, the reader can imagine how happy I felt at having secured such a beautiful trophy. Strange enough, I found out three months later that the train had not stopped to ac- commodate me in any way, but that something had gone 49 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA wrong with the engine at the very moment we saw the Hon. The driver simply had to stop the train, and so gave me this exceptional chance of getting the lion. One often hears people praise the courage of the na- tives, hunting the " king of beasts " only with their spears or bow and arrow, as compared to the white man and his modern rifles. But it is then generally forgotten that whereas the white man, as a rule, meets his antagonist alone, the natives invariably turn out in great number for this sport. If, for instance, a certain lion has repeatedly killed cattle or donkeys from a native village or " many- ata," the warriors of that village will go out in a body to kill the marauder with their deadly spears, which they use with great skill and precision. The lion is located, sur- rounded and cornered, and then a rush is made for it en masse by the men, who spear it to death, but not often without a desperate fight, during which generally a few warriors arc badly mauled, and sometimes killed, before the lion succumbs. An eyewitness of such a fray told me that when the fight was over, one warrior was dead and three or four badly wounded, while the body of the lion, with the spears sticking into it, resembled very much a huge yellow pin cushion. Of all big game, I believe the lion is the most uncertain to secure. A man may for weeks and even months be in a regular " lion district," where he may hear them roar every night and see their fresh " kills " time and again, and yet never be able to sight a single one of these very wary and cunning beasts. In fact, an English settler not far from Naivaska told me that he had lived for over four years in British East Africa in a district much frequented 50 TH.E LION— KING OF BEASTS by lions. He had often had cattle killed by the big felines, but never yet had seen a single lion, although he had tried a good many times to get a shot at one. Finally he suc- ceeded with the unsportsmanlike method of poisoning some of them with strychnine. Some people have killed lions by, for instance, shooting a zebra or larger antelope, the body of which is then left as it falls without being touched in any way by human hands. They then wait on a moonlight night from a nearby tree, or a temporary shelter, made by thorn bush, until the lion comes along, or else they return to camp and revisit the place of the kill before sunrise the following morning, before the lions generally leave their prey. Many more hunters, myself included, have again and again tried this in vain, only to find the carcass undisturbed, or else eaten by hyenas or jackals. It is a well-known fact that the lion is just as fond of eating an already dead animal — even in a state of putre- faction— as it is of eating its own, fresh " kill." The old theory, although universally believed, that the lion only eats the meat of animals it kills itself, has by unmistakable evidence been proven to be entirely false. Another strange fact is that where lions abound in great numbers, large herds of game have existed for ages and still even in- creased, while the lion itself, although very seldom killed by another beast, never multiplies so much as to threaten the game with destruction, even in localities where the '* king of beasts " has never been hunted by white men. CHAPTER IV THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST There are two different species of elephants — the African ; and the Asiatic, or, as he is more generally called, the Indian. This latter species appears to be more closely related to the mammoth of past ages than the African ele- phant, particularly in regard to the shape of the head and the structure of the molar teeth. These are in the Asiatic, or Indian, elephant of much finer construction than the coarse molar teeth of his African cousins, with their larger plates and thicker enamel, proving that the African elephant is accustomed to live upon harder and more " sub- stantial " food than the Indian, a fact that is borne out by all careful observers. The heads of the two species differ so much that any- one who knows their characteristics at once distinguishes the one from the other. In the African species the fore- head is much more convex, the base of the trunk wider, and the ears more than twice as large as those of the Indian elephant. The same is the case with the tusks, being in the latter much smaller in bulls, and practically nonexisting in females, while the African elephant of both sexes carries splendid tusks, weighing in the males some- times two hundred pounds apiece, and more. The females have much thinner tusks, which, although of considerable 52 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST length, seldom weigh over thirty pounds apiece. Of the two species, the African is also considerably larger, aver- aging fully two feet more in height than the Indian ele- phant, the same proportions existing if girth and weight are considered. In regard to their different dispositions, the Asiatic species is much milder and more timid. He is therefore more easily tamed and used for work or " show " than the African elephant, which, if enraged and charging, is one of the most terrific foes to encounter. He will then come on with raised head, with trunk generally held up in a kind of " S " form, his enormous ears standing out in right angles against the massive head, forming an ex- panse of ten feet or more. At the same time he will often emit short, shrill trumpet screams, that seem to make the very ground vibrate with their sound, as he " shuffles " forward, breaking down everything in his way! No animal in the world is in reality more deserving to be called " King of Beasts " than the elephant, the giant of the forest. Not only is this mighty pachyderm by far the largest and strongest land animal, but probably also the most intelligent. It fears no beast. While the lion has to fear the elephant, the rhino, and sometimes even the buffalo, and these two latter probably each other, the elephant is absolutely without a rival. In fact, the native hunters say that as soon as elephants invade a certain locality, the rhinos invariably quit, evidently fearing for their safety. It is perfectly wonderful to see with what " engineer- ing skill " the many elephant paths are made, which as- 53 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA cend and descend the steepest mountain sides of, for in- stance, Mt. Kenia, the Aberdares, Kinnangop, and other places. The beasts not only seem always to find the best places for their paths, but understand also how to make them zigzag up the steepest grades, carefully avoiding any stones and rocks that are not absolutely solid and safe to step on. In the same way they understand how to make fine paths through the dense forest, where it would be almost impossible for any human being to go forward at all. To cite only one example of how dense these forests sometimes are: A certain government forestry official, already referred to in Chapter III, saw my camp fires on one of the foothills of Mt. Kenia, just about three miles in a straight line from his house. He started out in the early morning, thinking that he could easily reach me before eight o'clock, and although doing his utmost to make as good headway as possible, he did not arrive until after twelve at noon, just in time to partake of my Sun- day dinner, having had to cut his way through the jungle almost inch by inch, as there were no animal paths leading in the desired direction. The elephant has a much more varied and luxuriant " table " than that of nearly all other wild animals, for his meals consist of branches and young shoots of certain trees, while of others he eats the bark only. He is very fond of bamboo leaves and twigs as well as of the young bamboo sprouts, before these open up. The forest giant probably also consumes a great deal of grass. In certain parts of the country, where he has been much hunted and where he spends the greater part of the time in the dense 54 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST forest, or high up in the mountain, he makes nightly trips down to the plains. The favorite haunts of the elephant in British East Africa to-day are either among the foothills or higher slopes of the before-named mountains, where the bamboo often grows in mighty forests, intermingled with large, deciduous trees, and occasionally cedars. I have myself found elephant tracks on Mt. Kenia at elevations of over 10,000 feet, far above the timber and bamboo line; and I have no doubt that natives tell the truth when they say they have known wounded elephants to go almost up to the very snow line, which here, under the equator, starts first at an altitude of some 15,000 feet. Nothing in the way of big-game shooting can be com- pared with elephant hunting for the danger, excitement, and amount of real sport. No other hunting taxes to such an extent the best qualities of the sportsman. He has to use the greatest amount of precaution, judgment, strength, endurance, nerve and personal courage, strategy, and skill, if he desires to bring a fine trophy to bag, without wanting to bang indiscriminately at the first best elephant he sees hundreds of yards off without regard to its size or sex, as, alas ! so many " sportsmen " do to-day. Two Russian noblemen whom I met in East Africa told me without hesitancy that they were going to take out licenses enough to kill three elephants each, this being possible under the old game laws in force until December, 1909, and that they would fire at the first elephant they saw, whether big or small, whether male or female, and that even if the tusks would be afterwards confiscated by the government for weighing less than sixty pounds together, they would sim- 55 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA ply buy back the ivory, and, as so many others have done, say that they had shot the elephants in " self-defense ! " As soon as an elephant track is found, three questions have to be satisfactorily answered before it is taken up and followed: ( 1 ) Is the track fresh — i. e., made recently enough to be worth following? (2) Is the track large enough to justify being taken up? (3) Is the track made by a bull or a cow elephant? The first question is comparatively easy to answer, for even a novice will soon see whether or not the track is a day old or more. This can be easily determined by carefully observing the leaves, branches, and grass which have been broken ofif and trodden down. If these, for instance, are perfectly withered and dry, it is reasonably sure that the track is at least twenty-four hours old; but if they have not had time to wither, and it is evident that the grass was pressed down after the dew had fallen, the track has been made late the previous night and, if large enough, is certainly worth following. Then by going a few hundred yards farther along, the hunter may find branches, torn oflf the trees recently enough for the leaves to be still fresh, and with the sap perhaps dripping from the broken limbs. This is a sure sign that the elephant has passed by only some ten to twenty minutes ago. Then when also fresh, " steaming " droppings are found, there can be no doubt that the elephant is very close at hand. To look at the droppings alone would not be sufficient, for if the elephant is trekking from one place to another, he may just have passed the place in question only half an 56 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST hour ago, and yet it may be absolutely impossible to follow him up, if he has not stopped to feed here and there, for these huge beasts walk very fast, and may go on for thirty or forty miles before they stop again, if they have been disturbed. Then, secondly, as to the size of the imprints of the feet, there is some difficulty in determining with absolute certainty if the animal is a large " tusker " or not. With elephants as with men, big feet are not always the signs of a very big and powerful " owner." Some elephants with very large feet have not had large tusks, and some- times, strange enough, may carry only one tusk or no tusk at all, even in Africa. In Ceylon and India this is very often the case. Again, some exceedingly big tuskers have had remarkably small feet. But, as a general rule, a real big foot means an old bull, and so the sportsman measures at once the imprints in the ground after having been satis- fied that the track is fresh enough to follow. If the diam- eter of the imprint of the forefoot, which is more of a circular form than the hind foot, is only twelve to fifteen inches, it is probably not made by a fine tusker ; but if the distance across the imprint from front to rear is anywhere from eighteen to twenty-four inches or more, it is reason- ably certain that the track has been made by some splendid old tusker, which very often goes by himself instead of mingling with the herd. Somewhat more difficult to answer is the third ques- tion, as to whether the track has been made by a bull or a cow elephant. If by careful measurements its diameter is found to be eighteen inches or over and the tracks of the hind feet fairly rounded, they have without much doubt 57 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA been made by a bull elephant. If smaller, and with the marks of the hind feet very much of an oval, almost pointed shape, it is reasonably certain that they have been made by a female elephant. As elephants often walk one behind the other in each others' steps, particularly when trekking, the imprint of the feet must be very carefully examined, for several animals may have used exactly the same track for some distance. This is, however, not very difficult to determine, for it is readily seen by the careful observer that the dififerent imprints do not cover each other altogether. Imagine that the fresh track of a good-sized bull ele- phant has been found! Before it is followed up, how- ever, the direction of the wind must be carefully consid- ered, for no animal seems to be able to scent a man as quickly and as far as the elephant. If the wind is " right " — i. e., blowing in the face of the one following the track — he may go on as fast as possible, yet taking good care not to break twigs or to make any other unnecessary noise. The accompanying gun bearers and others should be for- bidden to utter a word as the party hastens on, carefully observing the track. As, strange to say, only a very few natives of British East Africa are really good trackers, the hunter is often entirely dependent on his own wood- craft and skill in this respect. Suddenly another elephant spoor may join the first one at an angle, then another and another, until soon there is a whole maze of tracks, in which the sportsman can find no trace of his old bull ! The new tracks may show that a whole herd of ele- phants, including a good many females and " babies," have trekked along, and from the unbroken trees along the broad " elephant road " it is easily understood that the 58 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST herd has been disturbed, and is moving along quickly, without stopping to eat or rest. The hunter should now be looking around very carefully, as he hastens along on this "" road," to find the track of the old tusker, hoping that he has left the herd again, as very often happens. But all in vain ! The pursuit may have to be given up, and the party returns to camp, downhearted and discouraged. The above had been my experience in 1909, when, on one dreary return march to the camp, having forgotten to take an emergency tent with us, one of the native track- ers suddenly stopped and whistled faintly. Looking in his direction, I saw him nod to us to come on quickly. Before we reached him, however, we heard the cracking of the trees all around, and now only about eighty or ninety yards off we saw a little herd of twelve to fifteen elephants, big and small, but mostly females with their " babies," without a single big tusker. As the wind was blowing steadily from them to us, we noticed their very strong, peculiar smell, while they themselves were unable to scent us. After all our men had gathered, we told them to lie down and be absolutely quiet while I, with one gun bearer and the man carrying the camera, sneaked forward to try to secure at least some photographs of the herd at close quarters. As yet, we were altogether unobserved by the herd. Some of the " youngsters " ran playfully about, while others were eating the leaves from a tree, which one of the adult elephants had broken down for that purpose. One very small calf stood between his mother's hind legs, probably getting his meal of fresh milk, although from where we stood it was impossible to see the little fellow's head. 59 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA Nearer and nearer I stole with still more caution, for the wind had entirely died away, and, as is very usual in thick forests, is liable to spring up again in another direc- tion. The forest was rather dense in this place, the big trees making the shadow so deep that a snapshot was almost impossible; but, trusting to good luck, I tried to approach the herd still nearer. Both my men began to feel uneasy at about forty yards from the elephants, but I simply ordered them to follow me as silently as possible. I must confess that my own heart beat a little faster than usual at the prospect of this wonderful opportunity of observing a herd of elephants from such close quarters, and I was fully aware of the danger of the undertaking. I had told the " camera man " to walk next to me, followed by the gun bearer, who was one of the most courageous natives I have ever employed. We were mak- ing for a small elevation some twenty yards away from the herd, from which point I wanted to take the picture. I was at the time carrying the big .577 express rifle myself, and was just considering what stop to use, and how long exposure to give, when all of a sudden there was a commotion among the elephant herd, the wind having evi- dently changed its direction. Up went all the trunks in a kind of " S " form, while with outspread ears the forest giants began to trumpet furiously, so that the whole region reechoed with their angry tones, a magnificent, never-to- be-forgotten spectacle! I turned around for my precious camera only to see the man, apparently without a thing in his hands, climbing a large cedar tree, a dozen or so yards away, while even my gun bearer, shouting, " Wana kuja " ("They are coming"), ran for another tree. 60 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST On they came ! Two big, young bulls, both with small tusks but otherwise full-grown, led the charge, and when within some twenty-five yards of me I raised the gun and pulled the trigger. " Snap, snap ! " That was all that fol- lowed, both cartridges failing to explode ! As I broke open the gun as quickly as possible to put in two new shells, backing at the same time to gain a fraction of a second's time, I fell into a hole above my knees! Now the two charging bulls were perhaps within fifteen yards or so, and just as I raised the gun to fire again, a shot from the gun bearer rang out to my left. The nearest bull, hit in the shoulder by the powerful 1 1 millimeter Mauser, at once turned and ran away sideways to my right, followed by the others, all vanishing as quickly as they could, crush- ing through the bush in their wild stampede! Not wanting to feel that my life had depended upon my gun bearer's shot, I tried the big gun again, this time aiming far above the fleeing monsters. Both shots went off with a tremendous roar, which made the elephants increase their speed still more. This showed to my satis- faction that had my gun bearer not returned and shot when he saw my plight, I could easily have killed both my antagonists at a few yards' distance. Examining the un- exploded shells afterwards, I found that they had been carelessly loaded, although being bought from a reliable London firm, the percussion caps having been pushed in so far that the firing pin of the gun could not reach them. On the following day we found another very large track of a single bull, which we with few interruptions fol- lowed for five whole days under the most trying circum- stances. We had to cross over marshes, rushing mountain 6 6i THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA streams, up among the bamboo at more than 9,000 feet altitude, only to have to come down again into the valley below, until on the fifth day we saw from the appearance of the tracks and the untouched trees along his path that we would have to abandon the pursuit, the elephant outdis- tancing us more and more. Another time we found fresh tracks of a very large single elephant on the western slopes of the Gojito Moun- tains, which we at once followed. From the amount of recently broken twigs and branches, and from the looks of the grass and flowers, trodden down by the big feet, we understood that the elephant had passed only about one hour ahead of us, and that he was moving along slowly. Therefore, after finding that the wind was " right," we pursued our prey as quickly as possible. The grass in the open places between the bushes and trees was fully twelve to fifteen feet high, so that it was impossible to see more than a few yards ahead, and I, therefore, sent a man up into a large tree along the track to reconnoiter. Quick as a squirrel he climbed up half the length of the tree and looked around. In another second he was down again, re- porting a large bull elephant with big tusks " very near," which in the native language may mean anything from fifty to five hundred yards ! I saw a few paces in front of me a small single rock, and, climbing upon the same, got a good view of the mon- strous pachyderm just as he swung around and began to return the same way he had come, at about two hundred yards' distance. As quickly as I could raise the big gun to my shoulder, I fired for his back, the only thing that showed above the grass. A few angry trumpetings announced that 62 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OE THE EOREST he was wounded, and with a rapidity that the reader would think impossible by such a big and clumsy beast as the ele- phant, he again whirled around and ran off toward the dense forest to our left. Before he had taken many strides, however, a second bullet crashed into his left side, fol- lowed by furious trumpeting for a moment, and then the giant disappeared, the high grass and bush hiding the beast completely from our view, as he ran toward the Gojito Mountain slopes, crashing down trees and bushes in his way. Now followed a most wearying chase for hours, up and down hill, over streams and through jungles, which would have been almost impenetrable if we had not been able to follow in the tracks of the forest giant, who was bleeding profusely from the two wounds. It seemed as if our pursuit was almost useless, and soon the men had be- come so tired out that they begged me to give up the chase. I almost felt like doing this myself, and when we had come down to another little stream, I decided to take a rest there for a moment, while I could discuss with the men what would be the wisest thing to do. As we sat down to rest, we heard the trumpeting of the elephant, and, looking up, saw on the mountain side, some five hundred yards away, the magnificent beast, his two large tusks glittering in the sunlight! This was the first time we had been able to see the whole size of the elephant, and not before that moment had I known that we had been tracking an unusually large " tusker." This sight gave us all new courage, and on we went, swifter than before, in his pursuit. After another half hour we had evidently come up a good deal closer to the elephant, and 63 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA we all began to feel the earnestness of the situation, for nothing is more terrible to meet in " jungleland " than a wounded elephant. Fortunately for us, the wind had been in our favor so far, so that the elephant had not been able to get our scent, and, as he himself made a great deal more noise than we, he could not even have heard us. A few moments later the elephant suddenly turned completely around, and now we had to follow him down the wind. We understood that from this moment we had to be doubly careful, for the elephant was now able to scent us as we came along. We stopped for a moment to consult. I told all of the men to stay somewhat behind, and with only Mabruki, the gun bearer, and my Kikuju headman, Moeri, I took up the pursuit again, after once more having examined my elephant gun and seen that it was loaded with two steel- pointed bullets. So on we went again, slowly and carefully. We had not gone thus more than about five minutes before we suddenly were faced by the huge elephant, which had made a complete half circle. Turning back close to his own track, he had stood immovable for some time in the thick bushes, waiting for his pursuers to come along. One of the most glorious sights met us ! The elephant, larger in size than the well-known Jumbo, was almost upon us, when we caught sight of him ! With his enormous ears spread out, measuring fully ten feet from tip to tip, and with his trunk bent up almost in an *' S " form, he made a wild dash forward, charging down upon us most furi- ously. For a moment I thought of what I had often heard about the impossibility of killing an African elephant with a front head shot, but, as escape was impossible, I aimed 64 ■?^?^^'*T^J^t:^^ ^''^^m J Elephants Coming through High Bush and Elephant Grass, Kisili, 1909. A Splendid Trophy : A Big Bull Elephant Killed near the GojiTo Mountains, 1906. The head is now in the New York Zoological Park. It is said to be the largest mounted elephant head on record and weighs 1,750 pounds. THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST quickly for the center of his head in a Hne a Httle above the eyes, and pulled the trigger ! Before the sound of the gun had died away, the forest giant lay dead at my very feet ! I was so surprised at the quick execution of the bul- let that I remained standing for a moment or two with the gun at my shoulder, ready to fire the second barrel if the elephant had moved again, but it was all over with him forever ! My two men had rushed right and left into the jungle, when the elephant charged. They and the other natives, previously left behind, now came up to congratulate me on having had so good luck. The reaction of the moment's nerve strain was tremendous. Just when the elephant charged down on us I was as calm as when writing these lines, and to that and my quick aim is due the fact that I live to tell the tale ; but after it was all over, sitting down on one of the tusks of the fallen monarch, I felt quite dizzy for a moment, and noticed a slight tremor of the hands. We soon had made a little clearing to enable me to make some good photographs of the dead elephant. Although my taxidermist, Mr. Lang, and a good many more men had been brought up from the camp, it was impossible for us to finish skinning the huge beast that day. We, there- fore, left a number of men at the place to sleep overnight by the carcass, and to make a big fire to keep away the lions and leopards, which otherwise would have spoiled the skin. The next day was the " glorious Fourth," and, as Mr. Lang volunteered to take the men up himself to the ele- phant and bring down the trophy, I decided to stay in camp and rest, as I had also a good deal of writing to do. The 6s THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA reader will perhaps bear with me if I here quote a few lines directly from my diary, written on this same Fourth of July, 1906: "Toward evening Mr. Lang and his men arrived with the elephant skin, head and feet, it looking very much like a big funeral procession as they all de- scended from the escarpment into the valley and slowly and carefully crossed the Meroroni River to the monot- onous and doleful tunes of their native songs ! " Yesterday, as I for the last time looked around where the fallen elephant lay, solemn thoughts came to my mind. There stood, dead and bare, an enormous cedar tree, and almost at its very * feet ' lay, slain by human hands in an instant, and with a comparatively small bullet, the largest of the remnant of the mightiest of beasts! Looking at both, a great sadness fell over me and I went away silently toward camp in the light of the shining moon. . . ." We found when measuring the elephant that his length was 24' y" ; height from the shoulders, 11' 4''; around the chest, 18' 7''; length of the trunk, 8' 6" \ circumference of one of the front legs, 5' 2" ; length of tusks, 7' 2" ; and weight of same, 168 pounds. A few years later, when tracking elephants through high grass and partly dense bush in the Kisii country, we ran into a herd of about two hundred elephants of all sizes and ages, including two very large bulls. As we were trying to close in on them to get nearer to these splendid " tuskers," I noticed to my utter surprise that two of the young bulls actually sazv us at over two hundred yards' distance! It is generally believed that the elephant is very nearsighted, but in this case they must have seen us, as we walked along, for they could not possibly have 66 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST scented us, for a fairly strong wind was blowing from the herd in our faces. Neither could they at this time have heard us, for, walking along in the wide elephant tracks, we went too silently for them to have detected us, even if at much closer quarters. These two bulls instantly gave the alarm, and the whole herd began to move down in our direction. I succeeded now in dropping one of the big tuskers, when, from the report of the gun, the whole herd suddenly stampeded, breaking down everything in front of them in their mad attempt to avenge themselves on their two-legged enemies. We could do absolutely nothing but remain where we stood, the elephant grass being so high, and the bush so dense that the big animals were now entirely hidden from view. Hearing how the herd came nearer and nearer, angrily trumpeting and making a terrific noise, as trees and bushes were crushed before them, some of my men broke away and ran. Suddenly a big elephant head shot out of the high grass right in front of us, but in the next instant the monster fell in a heap, with a bullet through its head from the small 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher rifle. I had exchanged the big .577 elephant gun for this excellent little weapon, the Mannlicher, having six shots to the oth- er's two, without reloading. Unfortunately this elephant proved to be a female, and although the tusks were fairly long, they were afterwards confiscated by the government, as they did not together weigh sixty pounds. A few sec- onds later I again had to shoot in self-defense. This time it was a full-grown young bull with a pair of fine, although small, tusks weighing only forty-eight pounds. He also fell in his tracks, hit by two little Mannlicher bullets, only 67 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA at some seven yards' distance from where we stood, which, fired in quick succession, had entered the center of his head. Not quite so lucky was a German Heutenant, who in the fall of 1909 was out elephant shooting in the vicinity of the Kivu Lake, to the southwest of the Ruwenzori Moun- tains. He had, with a few black followers, run into a small herd of elephants, among which was one large bull, which he stalked for a few minutes. Suddenly the ele- phant got a whiff of his wind, and, without even being shot at, whirled around and charged down on his pursuer through the grass. Although the lieutenant fired not less than five shots into the big elephant's head, emptying his whole magazine, he failed to reach the deadly spot, the center of its brain. In the next instant the infuriated bull caught him up with his trunk and threw him high in the air. As soon as he fell to the ground the elephant rushed at him again, putting one of its big tusks right through the unfortunate hunter, who was subsequently crushed into an unrecognizable mass under its forefeet, while this whole tragedy was witnessed by his cowardly black trackers and hunters from nearby trees ! One of the most marvelous escapes ever recorded was experienced by the famous elephant hunter, F. C. Selous. It was in the early days, some thirty years ago, when Mr. Selous was elephant hunting south of the Zambezi River. He had shot several elephants one day, when on horseback, and was just returning toward camp, when he espied an- other big " tusker," which he wanted to bag. At this time Mr. Selous used a single-barreled breech-loading gun of very large bore. He jumped from his horse and fired at 68 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST the big bull, aiming for his heart. The shot, having missed the deadly spot, made the elephant charge him at once. Mr. Selous had to fling himself upon his horse before he could put another cartridge in his rifle, and with the breech still open he tried to escape by galloping away, as he had done so often before. His horse was, however, so tired out after the hard work of the day that the elephant gained on him every second. The last he could remember, Mr. Selous relates, was a terrific scream right over his head. The next moment he was knocked unconscious. When he regained conscious- ness he found himself in a rather peculiar position. He was actually lying between the two tusks of the elephant, with the blood of the latter pouring down upon him from a wound in the chest. Mr. Selous was saved only by the strange fact that the elephant, when trying to gore him with his tusks, missed him by an inch or so, and from the great impetus of the charge these buried themselves so deep in the ground that he had not succeeded in extri- cating them. Mr. Selous lay for a second perfectly quiet, thinking over what would be the best thing to do under the circumstances. Finally, seeing an opening between the elephant's front legs, he made a desperate effort to regain his liberty, squeezed through this " gate " and escaped. Strange to say, before Mr. Selous could get hold of his gun, which had been dropped some distance away, the elephant managed to extricate its tusks and disappeared, never to be found again. It was my great privilege to be a fellow passenger with both Colonel Roosevelt and Mr. Selous when they, in April, 1909, went cut to Africa. Almost every evening 69 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA after dinner Colonel Roosevelt, Mr. Selous, a few other fellow passengers and myself used to spend some time in telling our experiences as hunters in different parts of the world, and it was during these evening hours that we had the privilege of listening to the wonderful experiences of Mr. Selous, without a question the most successful lion and elephant hunter alive. Another of Mr. Selous's stories, of the truth of which we were all persuaded, ran about as follows: " One evening shortly before he returned to his camp he saw a good-sized ' tusker,' at which he fired. With a crash the elephant went down, and was lying motionless on the ground, when Mr. Selous arrived on the spot. Be- ing very much tired out, he sat down on the side of the elephant to take a much-needed rest, after which he decided to go home to camp for the night, it being too late to cut out the tusks that evening. Before leaving the fallen monarch, he cut off his tail to have something to show when he would arrive in camp. The next morning he sent some of his natives back to chop out the tusks, while he was going out in a different direction to look for other elephants. *' Returning in the afternoon to camp, he was very much surprised and disgusted not to find the tusks of his elephant. He became still more surprised when the men told him that they had been at the spot where the elephant fell, but had failed to find any trace of him. Of course, Mr. Selous, therefore, at once started for the place and found, to his utter amazement, that the huge beast, which he had believed dead, and on which he had rested the evening before, had not been killed after all, but was 70 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST still roaming around somewhere in the vicinity, now minus his tail." This and another incident which I will relate in the chapter on Antelopes, go to show how necessary it is to put an extra shot into the head of any big and dangerous beast that has been apparently killed, for there have been a good many instances where ferocious animals have only been stunned for the moment by the bullet just grazing the spine, and then been able to get up again and kill their assailants unawares, when suddenly awakened to consciousness. It is most interesting to watch a herd of elephants feed, play, or rest when they are undisturbed. The larger ones often help the '' babies " by breaking down branches or whole trees to make it more easy for them to feed. On Kenia I once found that a perfectly sound tree, measuring thirty-three and a half inches in circumference, had been broken off by an elephant, about seven feet from the ground! This shows that a man has to climb a good- sized tree if he wants to be safe from elephants, whose destructiveness is appalling. Very often a few of these beasts may, for instance, in a single night spoil a whole plantation of sugar cane, of a dozen or more acres, tramp- ling down what they do not devour. Elephants have often even broken down native huts and killed their inhabitants in an effort to get at sugar cane and other coveted " deli- cacies," when they had suspected the presence of such in the huts. The wild Wandorobbo and other native hunters kill elephants in different ways. Sometimes they make big pits with or without sharp poles, stuck into the bottom, 71 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA while the hole is carefully covered over with branches and grass. The pit is generally dug right in a regular ele- phant path, so that when the huge beast strolls along in his old track, suspecting no danger, he suddenly steps on the frail " roof " and falls headlong into the pit, where he is then killed by the natives with their long, sharp spears. Another and more " sporty " way is this : The hunter, armed only with a short, sharp steel spear, stuck into a very heavy, wooden shaft, climbs up a big tree, overhanging the elephant path, where he expects the animal to come along. When the unsuspecting elephant reaches the tree, the bushman throws his heavy, double spear with all his strength down into its back, the spear often penetrating to the heart. The iron or steel point of the spear, some- times also poisoned, remains in the body of the elephant, while the heavy wooden shaft falls off and can be used again. The elephant, thus wounded by the poisoned spear or arrow, will, if not hit through heart or lungs, go on for several hours before he falls, closely followed by his slayers. These, then, do not only take out the tusks, but feast on the flesh with relatives and friends, until there is not enough left of the carcass to attract even hyenas or jackals ! Some natives are courageous enough to track the for- est giant in an entirely different way. Armed with a heavy, sharp sword, they follow their intended victim care- fully, until he is within touching distance, which, for naked, light-footed savages, is not a difficult task if the wind is " right." Then with a couple of terrific cuts they sever the sinews of the elephant's hind legs above the feet, which make it impossible for the animal to take another step. The powerless beast is then killed, either by being 72 THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST hit through its heart by a spear, or by being shot with poi- soned arrows. The Wandorobbo, who once acted as my guide in the Kenia Province, told me of how the rhinos feared the elephants, and how he had once been an eyewitness to a fight between a large rhino and a full-grown, young ele- phant bull. The rhino was a female, which was lying down together with her small calf. Suddenly hearing the noise of the elephant near its " baby," the rhino rushed up to defend its offspring, apparently not knowing what it did. The next moment the elephant had its trunk round the rhino's neck, threw it to the ground and gored it to death in an instant with its powerful tusks. Then he walked off, trumpeting as if triumphing over his victory. Needless to say, the Wandorobbo feasted upon the dead rhino, and even killed the young one, as it returned the next day to look for its mother. Most people, including even a good many African hunters, affirm that the elephant never lies down to sleep or rest. Although I had repeatedly heard natives say that they had seen elephants lie down, both on their sides and on their belly, I would not believe it, until so eminent a naturalist and explorer as Dr. Carl Peters himself told me that he had actually tzvice seen elephants, that were not wounded, lying down resting. Another German, the ele- phant hunter Mr. G. Ringler, tells how his own brother was crushed to death by an elephant, which he thought was already dead, when he found it lying motionless on its side, as he had just a moment before shot at a large bull. Mr. Ringler went up to the sleeping monster without hesitation, but as he touched the elephant it started up with 72> THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA lightninglike rapidity, caught hold of the unsuspecting hunter, and before his brother, who was only a few yards away, could kill the brute, the unfortunate sportsman was dashed against a rock and instantly killed. Mr. Ringler also confirmed the curious story of native hunters that the elephants in a certain district in German East Africa like to eat a kind of root, which makes them so intoxicated that they lie down and sleep hard enough for the natives to be able to kill them easily with swords or spears. Among hunting trophies none can be compared with a well mounted head of a big tusker. The writer was fortunate enough to get home a perfect head skin of one of his big elephants, w^ith tusks over seven feet in length. The whole head, mounted, weighs over one thousand seven hundred pounds. The tip of the trunk projects almost fourteen feet from the wall, and the head measures over ten feet from tip to tip of the mighty ears! This mag- nificent and especially well-mounted trophy is at present on exhibition in the New York Zoological Park, Bronx, among the National Collection of Heads and Horns. CHAPTER V THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE The tallest of all living creatures is without doubt the giraffe. When seen in the open or even in thin bush coun- try, he reminds one very much of the curious creatures of prehistoric times, exhibited in the museums of natural history, so queer does he seem. Giraffes exist now only in Africa, although a good many discoveries of fossils show that they, like a good many other huge tropical animals of ages past, were formerly found also among the hills and valleys of southern Europe, Persia, and India. The giraffe is a kind of link between the deer family and the bovine animals, such as oxen and buffaloes, being, like the latter two, a cud-chewer. The hairy horns of the giraffe are in young calfs easily separable from the bone of the skull, but the inside core grows in time together with the head bones, like the horns of oxen or buffaloes. The giraffe's eyes are of a deep brown color, with large pupils and long bushy lashes, and they are wonderfully soft and beautiful. The tongue is extremely rough, a very necessary quality, as the animal feeds chiefly from the thorny desert trees, and it is un- usually long, measuring from fifteen to eighteen inches. The upper, prehensile lip is also very long, tough, and covered with thick, short hair, so as to enable the giraffe 75 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA to feed more easily upon the mimosa tree without getting stung by the sharp thorns. One of the most curious-looking sights in Africa is a herd of giraffes trotting off with a sort of rocking-horse, single-foot motion, with their enormous necks carried a trifle lower than the line of their backs. The animals stand much higher over the shoulders than over the pelvis. Al- though absolutely harmless and mild-tempered, the giraffe is, on account of its unusual height, sometimes a " menace " to civilization in British East Africa, for it has repeatedly happened that a big bull-giraffe has forgotten to " duck " when crossing the telegraph line along the Uganda Rail- road, broken the wire with his lofty head, and thus dis- turbed communication. The great height of the giraffe enables him to eat the young shoots and leaves off the topmost branches of the mimosa and other trees, which constitute his chief " menu " ; but it makes it, on the other hand, very awkward for him to partake of the " salt licks " on the ground, or drink from a shallow water hole or stream, for he has then to spread out his front legs so far, to be able to reach the water, or the ground, that it takes him a considerable time to get up and away again if disturbed. Fortunately for the giraffe, he seems to need but little water, and in this respect he is very much like the camel, which animal reminds one more of the giraffe than any other living creature. The natives of different districts in British East Africa have assured me that the giraffe can go for many weeks and even months without drink- ing, and this partly explains the fact that he is mostly found in dry and practically waterless countries. Such 76 THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE favorite feeding grounds are, for instance, the Seringetti Plains, between Kilima-Njaro and Voi on the Uganda Railroad, and in the thorn and fiber plant deserts around the latter place. He is also found in the central parts of the Protectorate, to the northeast of the Athi Plains, which he occasionally crosses over to the big Southern Game Reserve. In the northern part of the Protectorate he is abundant both north of Mt. Kenia and the Guasco Narok river, in the partly. waterless Samburu country, and on the Guas Ngishu Plateau, southeast of Mt. Elgon. As the dew is generally very heavy in these districts, he may get almost all the water he needs from the dew-covered leaves that he eats in the early morning. Almost every animal makes some kind of a sound when angry, wounded, or when wanting to '' communicate " with other members of its family, but the girafife seems to be absolutely mute. I have asked several hunters, who have had opportunity to observe a great many giraffes at close quarters, about the muteness of this animal, and they have all assured me that they never heard the giraffe utter a sound of any kind, neither when pursued, scattered, cor- nered, wounded, or dying. This native trackers and hunters all over East Africa have also repeatedly cor- roborated. In 1906, not far from the Maungu station on the Uganda Railroad, I shot my largest giraffe, which meas- ured over seventeen feet in height. We had started from our camp at Maungu long before daybreak in search of a big giraffe, which was reported as having been seen the previous day from the railroad. After having marched for over an hour, feeling our way in the dark, I suddenly 7 yy THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA stopped in the twilight, seeing a small object falling down from the branches of a mimosa tree. In the twinkling of an eye I saw an animal run up in the tree, only to drop down again the next second like a ball into the high grass. My first thought was to take the shotgun and bring the animal down, but fearing that the giraffe might be in the vicinity and take alarm from the crack of the gun, I whis- pered to some of the natives to rush forward the next time the animal fell to the ground and throw themselves over it. They did so, far quicker than I could imagine, for the next moment one of the men rose from the grass holding between his hands a beautiful Civet cat, which had injured him considerably with its sharp claws and teeth. I was right in my supposition about the giraffe, for we had only gone forward some fifteen minutes more, when I saw a large giraffe head towering above a good- sized mimosa tree some five hundred yards away. By this time it was light enough both to shoot and to take photographs, and, as I was very anxious to have this mag- nificent animal " kodaked " before it should fall, I ordered my men to throw themselves flat on the ground, and with only Mr. Lang, the expedition's taxidermist and photog- rapher, and one gun bearer, I approached the giraffe as carefully as possible. When within about one hundred and fifty yards, the giraffe had caught a glimpse of us from his exalted viewpoint and started to walk away with long strides before it was possible for Mr. Lang to snap him with his camera. I then raised my .405 Winchester and fired, aiming at his heart, but the giraffe continued his walk as if nothing had happened. I fired a second and a 78 Large Bull Giraffe; Shot through the Heart near Maungu R. R. Station. Bull Giraffe in the Mimosa Jungle on Laikipia. Note how his bright coloring blends perfectly with the sunlight and shadow in the landscape. THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE third time, but with the same result. I knew that I must have hit the animal, and said to the gun bearer : " He must have a charmed life; give me the big gun." This was the powerful .577 Express rifle, by the natives called " msinga " (cannon). We had in the meantime kept pace with the giraffe, as he was still simply walking away, and at about the same distance I fired with the big gun, aiming again for his heart. Now the big bull instantly stopped and allowed us to come right up to him. This splendid opportunity was used by us to make some good pictures of the old giraffe, which tried in vain to walk away from the spot. He could evidently only lift one of his front legs a little. There he stood, without uttering a single sound, looking straight at us for a few minutes. Then his hind legs gave away, and suddenly he toppled over backwards and fell dead. The fact was disclosed, when we were skinning the animal, that all the three " soft-nose " bullets fired from the Winchester had only penetrated his skin, which is about an inch thick, and lodged in the ribs right over the heart, not more than a few inches apart from each other, whereas the one steel-capped bullet from the .577 Express had crashed through the side of the giraffe, penetrated its heart, broken two ribs on the opposite side and almost pro- truded through the skin! As the wounded giraffe looked up at me with his beautiful eyes, I felt that, had it not been for the sake of the American Museum of Natural His- tory in New York, for which I was collecting specimens of big game at the time, I would never have forgiven myself for killing this magnificent animal. I thought, 79 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA however, that he was more worthy "of being admired by thousands of intelHgent Americans in one of the finest museums of the world, than to continue to roam around, hidden in the jungles of Africa, and one day to die of old age, or fall an easy prey to a bloodthirsty lion! It probably very seldom happens that a full-grown, healthy giraffe is attacked, or killed by a single lion, un- less suddenly overtaken, when, for instance, in a drinking position, when old and feeble, or sick. For with his power- ful front feet he could well beat back and even kill a lion.. A cow giraffe was once seen attacking a lion which tried to kill its calf. The furious mother drove off the lion with its forefeet, but also unfortunately hit its own " baby " with one of the blows, instantly breaking its back and kill- ing it on the spot. A German settler from the country southwest of Kilimanjaro told me that he had succeeded in capturing a number of wild animals, which he subse- quently had sold to the well-known wild animal merchant, Mr. Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, who near that city has one of the finest private zoological gardens in the world, which is well worth a visit. The German settler also wanted to capture young giraffes, but had, according to his own almost incredible story, repeatedly been " driven off " by their desperate mothers, as he was not allowed to shoot them, according to the game laws of German East Africa. One day, however, he succeeded in separating a young giraffe from the herd, and with his black helpers he got hold of the " baby," which, although probably but a few months old, stood fully nine feet high. After a hard strug- gle, during which two of the negroes had been rather badly hurt by kicks, but during which ordeal, to use my 80 THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE spokesman's own expression, the " youngster never said a word," the young giraffe was finally overpowered and driven into the " shamba," or farm, where it, in a very few days, became so tame that it follov^ed its capturers around like a dog, freely mingling with the cattle. But, alas ! a couple of days before it was to be shipped down to the coast, it quite suddenly developed some malig- nant disease, growing thinner and weaker every day. One evening it did not return home with the cattle, and when the people went out to look for the giraffe, it was found dead under a mimosa tree, with two leopards feasting upon its body. Whether slain by these cunning and powerful bush animals, before it had died from its disease, or whether it was found already dead by the leopards, could not be ascertained, as the big felines had already devoured too much of it. Later on I shall tell the circumstances under which these two leopards were subsequently killed. A British sportsman and settler who keeps a regular " shooting box " in the lower Kedong valley, only a day's march from the Kijabe Railroad station, a Mr. Barker, a great animal lover, succeeded also recently in capturing a young giraffe, which soon became very tame. Some- times, when "just playing," this beautiful animal hurt several of the men by " friendly kicks " from its powerful hoofs. Even this young giraffe developed some disease and soon died, in spite of the best of care. These cases show that, although it may be comparatively easy to cap- ture and tame a " baby " giraffe, it is very difficult to bring it up on ordinary cow's milk or artificial food until it is old enough to make its own " living " from trees and shrubs. 8i THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA There is little or no real sport or excitement in giraffe hunting, for, as already remarked, the animals are abso- lutely harmless and will never, even when wounded or cornered, really attack a man. On the other hand, as the giraffe is exceedingly wary and has doubtlessly good scenting qualities, like almost all wild animals, and very good eyesight, he is most interesting to stalk with a view of obtaining an insight into his habits and of " taking his pictures." Tales about charging giraffes should not be taken very seriously, for no really authentic case can be found of giraffes actually charging a hunter. On my first trip to Africa I had shot a large bull giraffe near the little Koma Rock, on the northwestern part of the Athi Plains. As soon as the bullet hit the animal it went down, and when Mr. Lang and I ran up to the bull and had got up to within fifteen yards of him, he gathered all his last strength, got up and staggered toward us before he, hit by another bullet, went down, never to move again. We were both absolutely sure that the wounded giraffe never intended anything in the way of a charge, but that he was so bewildered from pain and excitement that he simply did not know what he did. Mr. Lang remarked to me that probably a good many " nervous " hunters, with vivid enough imagination, would be able to construct out of this occurrence a " terrific charge." When a fresh giraffe track is found, it is generally not so difficult to follow, for the great weight of the animal impresses his large hoofs in the soil deep enough to be readily seen by any man, even with a limited experience in tracking. The imprints of the giraffe's hoofs are very 82 THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE much like those made by the oxen, although considerably larger and more oval. Some of the giraffe countries are very " thick " — i. e., overgrown with thorn and mimosa trees and the strange-looking euphorbia, a cactus-like plant which grows up into large, often queer-shaped, trees, while the sharp-pointed seesal, or fiber plant — from which a superior kind of rope is made — mercilessly stings right through trousers, leggings, and even the thickest boots. If the track is quite fresh and the wind '' right," one may soon catch up with a giraffe, if he thinks himself undis- turbed, and it is very interesting indeed to observe the huge animal feasting among the top branches of his fa- vorite trees. He may stroll from tree to tree of apparently not only the same kind, but also in the very same condi- tion, and yet some of them he will just only sniff at, while of the others he seems greatly to enjoy the leaves and young shoots. Great care has to be taken in the stalking of the giraffe, for from his exalted position he will very quickly notice anything that moves anywhere within a radius of several hundred yards or more, if the stalker is not well hidden behind some thick cover. The last giraffe I stalked I found on the beautiful Laikipia Plateau, not far from the upper part of the Gar- domurtu River, and southwest of that stream. When I first noticed his track across our path, it ran down in the very direction from which we had come. Concluding, therefore, that we already must have been noticed by the wary animal — for I was at the time trekking along with over sixty men — I did not intend to follow this track. I then told my men to wait a few seconds and then fol- low at some distance, as quietly as possible, in case there 83 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA would be any other giraffes in the vicinity. Hardly had I given this order before I saw something queer-looking moving in the top of a mimosa tree, some one hundred and fifty yards away and right in front of us. At first we thought it was a marabout stork or some other big bird, but soon we discovered the two front horns and the ears of a giraffe. The caravan was now ordered to sit down on the ground behind trees and bushes and not to talk or move before I signaled to them to come on. With only one of the gun bearers to carry my Win- chester, I took my camera and began carefully to stalk the giraffe. It has often been remarked that if the coloring of animals is supposed to hide them from their enemies, or to make it easier for certain animals to catch their prey, the giraffe in that respect would be very unfortunate, with his bright and strangely checkered coat. I myself had thought so several times before, when seeing giraffes on the open prairies, where they are only found when trek- king between their regular feeding grounds. This time, however, I had to change my mind. It was just about eleven o'clock on a cloudless day when, in spite of the altitude of over 7,000 feet, the sun was very powerful, for this part of the country lies exactly on the equator. Now, as the strong, bright sunlight and the deep shadows of the branches and leaves interweaved into one wonder- ful " carpet," the big bull giraffe was, even at fifty yards, hard to make out, except when moving, so perfectly did his big dark and bright spots blend with the whole sun- flooded landscape! A passing look at the picture facing page 78 will prove how protective the giraffe's coat is under 84 THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE the above circumstances even at twenty-five yards, from which distance it was taken. The tall bull now saw me, stopped eating, and looked carefully around; but as my gun bearer lay prostrated on the ground behind a tree, and I remained perfectly im- movable in a kneeling position, from which I had taken the above picture, the giraffe seemed to think that he had made a mistake, and soon began to feed again from the top of the mimosa tree, every second or so looking in my direction to be on his guard. By being exceedingly care- ful to watch all his movements, I succeeded in creeping unnoticed still more forward, until I had taken two more photos, one at twenty and the other at fifteen yards, both of which pictures unfortunately became sunstruck in some in- explicable way, but which show how near it is possible to creep up even to a wary giraffe, if one uses but a little patience and cunning. As my roll of films was exhausted, and it being entirely out of the question to recharge the camera unnoticed then and there, I quietly rose and walked with empty hands up toward the giraffe. Still he did not notice me — a good wind blowing steadily from the animal to me — before I had got up to within six or seven yards of the magnificent old bull ! Then he made off at a heavy gallop, increasing his speed as I shouted my thanks for his " posing." There are in East Africa at least two distinctly dif- ferent species of giraffe, which, however, in reality, differ very little from each other. The only marked difference between these two species is the shape of their heads, or rather, the number of horns. The ordinary giraffe found in the central and southeastern part of the Protectorate 85 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA has two horns with a rather pronounced bump in front below the horns. The other variety, the so-called five- horned giraffe, which is generally found on the Guaso Ngishu Plateau, has, behind the ordinary two horns, two smaller hornlike projections — hardly worth the name of horns — and the bump on the forehead grown out into a more hornlike projection than that of the ordinary giraffe. The height and color of the giraffes vary greatly. The younger the giraffe is, the lighter is his skin, and it is only the old bulls that have very dark, brown spots. The height of giraffes varies a good deal. Full-grown males have been shot in Africa measuring from sixteen to seventeen feet six inches. Record bulls of South Africa have been as tall as nineteen feet and over, but in that part of the country the Boers have now almost exterminated the stately animal. The reason for this was that the white settlers coveted both the giraffe's meat and the skin, which they use for harness, traces, and whips. The natives also kill the giraffe whenever they have a chance to, partly because they are very fond of its meat and the great amount of marrow in its big leg bones, and partly because they use the strong sinews of the animal for their bow- strings, instead of twine, and for the strings of a kind of rude musical instrument, on which they play their weary monotonous tunes. CHAPTER VI THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE But two species of hippopotamus exist, and both are now confined to Africa. The Httle Liberian, or pygmy hippo, Hves, as his name indicates, in West Africa, where he rarely attains a height over the shoulders of more than some two feet six inches, while the whole length of his body does not exceed six feet. The so-called common hip- popotamus is now only found in the central parts of Africa — i. e., not farther north than the upper Nile, south of Khartum, and not below the Orange River, although only a few decades ago he was very common all over South Africa. Van Riebeck, the Dutchman, reports having seen hip- pos in 1652 in a swamp, now occupied by Church Square, in the very center of the present Cape Town, and the last hippo in that district was killed in 1874. In prehis- toric times even these big pachyderms were distributed over a much larger area, well-preserved fossils giving evi- dence of their existence in lower Egypt and southern Eu- rope, where exactly the same species roamed around as far north as England, the river Thames being one of their favorite haunts. The hippopotamus, or " river horse," as the name is to be interpreted, forms a family all of his own. The 87 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA early Dutch settlers called him " lake cow," the Arabs sometimes '' lake buffalo." The ancient Egyptians, how- ever, used the name " river hog " for the huge mammal, which from a zoological point of view is the most befitting name of all, for in his habits and general appearance he is more like the pig than any other existing animal. The meat of the hippo, and the great amount of fat, which he generally carries under his thick skin, are also very much like that of the pig. The hippopotamus is next to the elephant the " bulki- est " land animal in existence. It is not unusual for a full- grown hippo to measure anywhere from twelve to thirteen feet in length, the line taken from the tip of the nose to the root of the short, stiff, and flattened tail. Sir Samuel Baker once killed an old bull which measured fourteen feet three inches, including a tail of nine inches in length. A large hippo, which died a few years ago in the London Zoological Garden, was over twelve feet in length, and weighed somewhat more than four tons. The color of the skin varies between almost black to dark brown, dark slate, pinkish brown on the belly, and sometimes almost light gray, which latter color has occasioned some naturalists to give him the name of " white hippo." Of all animals none is perhaps more hideous-looking than the clumsy hippo, with his enormous mouth, mam- moth lips, big tusks, disproportionately small eyes and ears, ponderous piglike body, and short legs ! His heavy, wob- bling gait, when on land, he can suddenly change into a similar trot when frightened, and I have heard hunters say, although it seems almost incredible, that a hippo is even able to gallop, when hotly pursued and is trying to 88 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE rush into some nearby water. Once there, he feels safe again, and if the water is that of a good-sized lake or large river, he is soon practically out of harm's way, for although the hippo has to put his nose up over the sur- face of the water to breathe, at least every two or three minutes, he usually does this with such rapidity, when alarmed, that it is exceedingly difficult to get a shot at him. The only method of instantly killing a hippo is to shoot him through the brain and, as under ordinary circum- stances, the whole head of the hippo is exposed over the water ; this is very easy indeed, unless the wary river horse knows that he is in danger. Then he is so cunning that an accurate shot is almost impossible, for the hippo is able to place his body at such an angle to the surface that, when he is exhaling the foul air, or inhaling the fresh, he only shows the mere nostrils above the water, and the upper vulnerable part of the head is held sufficiently low so as to make a shot of no efifect at all. Another trick that the wary monster plays is this: Instead of exhaling and inhaling in quick succession as he usually does, giving the hunter thus two or three seconds in which to turn in the right direction and shoot, he just barely brings the nos- trils to the surface of the water and " pufifs " out the foul air, only to disappear instantly. Then he moves a few yards away in another direction, before he raises his nos- trils again, this time a trifle higher, to take a deep breath of fresh air, before he again sinks out of sight. It certainly is most remarkable how well the hippo is able to deceive his pursuers when in his favorable ele- ment, the water. After he has breathed in a place as 89 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA above described, he will often swim a good distance in the water, until he suddenly " bobs up " where the hunter least expects him. Sometimes when the river or lake shores are overgrown with trees and bushes, overlapping the water's edge, the big pachyderm will try to hide under such cover, or in the deep shadow of overhanging rocks, where he lies absolutely motionless, with eyes, ears, and nostrils just above water, and is thus seldom detected. Once I came upon a hippo — in fact, the first I ever saw outside of a zoological garden — in the Athi River, which, at that particular place, is only about one hundred and fifty feet across, and where the length of the still flowing " hippo pool " could not have extended more than eight hundred to one thousand yards. The wary " river horse " saw me at the same moment that I discovered him. Our eyes met for a second, but as soon as I moved to lift the gun up to my shoulder, he instantly sank out of sight. With eager curiosity I waited with the gun ready to fire, expecting the hippo to come up somewhere near the place where he had disappeared. Instead of that, I suddenly heard his peculiar " snorting " and " puffing " at least some three hundred yards farther upstream, while I was looking in the opposite direction. I had sent some of my men to a place above the ** hippo pool," where the river was very shallow, to watch so that the hippo should not be able to get up and disap- pear that way, and I also dispatched some men to go to a similar place below the pool, while a dozen or so of the rest of the porters were strung along on both sides of the pool, a few yards away from the water. There they could not be seen by the hippo, while they could watch him, so 90 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE that he would not be able to disappear in the bush on either side. After almost an hour of impatient waiting, the big head suddenly appeared right in the middle of the pool. As I had been ready for an emergency of this kind, I fired instantly, but it seemed both to me and the gun bearer, who stood close behind, as if the hippo had sunk at the very moment I fired, so that the bullet had hit the water right over the head instead of the head itself. Still, we were not certain whether I had hit the hippo's head or not, so the only thing to do was to wait for another hour or two. If a hippo has only been wounded, he may swim a great distance away and then put up his nostrils under some kind of cover, where he lies immovable for hours, breath- ing as silently as he can. But when he has been instantly killed, he immediately sinks to the bottom, where the body remains for from half an hour to two or three hours or even more, according to the temperature of the water. The warmer the water is, the sooner the gases form in the intestines of the dead hippo, and these cause the body to rise to the surface, when it can be easily dragged ashore. In this case, however, we waited in vain for over four hours, from the moment I had shot. Although we scanned the pool and all the men watched as carefully as they could, none of us ever saw a sign of the hippo, nor heard any '' snorting," after he had once disappeared. Finally, we had to give up our coveted trophy, for it certainly looked as if it had sunk out of existence. The cunning beast had probably found some safe cover, behind which he lay im- movable, until he was sure his enemies had vanished. Colonel Roosevelt, whom I had the pleasure of meet- 91 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA ing several times in East Africa during 1909, and who most kindly invited me to join his shooting expedition, when near Lake Naivasha, told me of a most interesting experience he had had with a big hippo in that lake. As soon as the beast had been wounded, he charged down on Colonel Roosevelt, who, with his son Kermit and a few negro hunters, had gone out hippo shooting in a good- sized rowboat. With open jaws and terrible snorts, the big monster made for Colonel Roosevelt's boat as quickly as he could, only to receive two deadly shots from the colonel's heavy Express rifle right in his very mouth, while Kermit was lucky enough to secure a couple of fairly good photographs from the charging beast. This incident has since then been published at length. A German official, a Mr. C. E. Schmidt, was nearly killed by a hippo in the Rufiji River in German East Africa under most curious circumstances. With another white man and eight natives he was out hippo shooting in the above-named big stream, at a place where the river widens out considerably, and where the waters were lit- erally alive with the big pachyderms. The whole party had embarked in a good-sized rowboat to tow ashore the bodies of two large hippos that had been killed only about half an hour before, but which had already appeared on the surface. Mr. Schmidt had taken with him a very long and strong rope, to which they fastened both bodies. Hardly had the men begun to row the boat toward the nearby shore, having only about twenty to thirty yards more to cover, and before they reached a good landing place, an immense hippo suddenly rushed for the boat so quickly that before the sportsman 92 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE had a chance to fire he had upset the Httle craft with his big head. Fortunately, both the white men and the na- tives knew how to swim, so they all made for the shore as quickly as they could. Immediately one of the men gave a tremendous scream, and Mr. Schmidt, turning to see what was the trouble, was horrified to behold the big hippo just closing his enormous mouth over one of the unfortu- nate natives, whom he almost cut in two. All the shoot- ing paraphernalia of the two friends — their guns, cartridge bags, and hunting knives — were lost when the boat was upset, and as the river at that place was very deep and had a muddy bottom, they were never able to recover even the guns. The natives were so frightened that the two sports- men could not induce them to go out in another boat of larger size to righten the upset craft and tow ashore the two dead hippos. In Uganda these monsters are so ferocious and so dan- gerous both to native crops and *' shipping " that they had been declared a " vermin," the government encouraging the killing of them as widely as possible. It has repeatedly happened in the waters of Uganda, particularly in the Nile and in the Albert Nyanza, that native canoes of good size, and even small steam launches, have been upset by these powerful beasts. They seem to have found out that sugar canes and other " hippo delicacies " are often shipped in these crafts. Even if the natives, when their boats were thus capsized, have escaped from the hippos, they have often been killed and eaten by crocodiles, which are very numerous in these waters. In British East Africa, how- ever, the hippopotamus is not so numerous ; there is no lake or river shipping to be imperiled by them, and the ordi- 8 93 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA nary sportsman is, therefore, restricted to only two on his Hcense. Colonel Roosevelt was probably the last man who had a chance of shooting hippos in any of the beautiful lakes of Nakuru, Elmenteita, or Naivasha, in which latter water he shot several hippos during August of 1909, after which time, upon the issuance of the new game license, the three above-mentioned lakes were declared game preserves for hippos. In districts where the " river hog " is seldom or not at all disturbed, he is often seen resting or sleeping on the sand banks in the middle of the rivers, or even on the sandy shores of lakes and streams. He generally lies with his body half submerged in the water, so that if he scents dan- ger, he may be able instantly to disappear under the sur- face. Sometimes, however, he gets up entirely out of the water, even in broad daylight, to bask in the sun close to the water's edge. I once saw three big hippos, sleeping on the northern banks of the Sondo River, in the Kisii country. They were huddled up very close to one another, as they so often are seen when resting on dry land. The one nearest to the water was perhaps only three yards away from the edge, and all were lying parallel to the river, facing upstream, although, strangely enough, a strong wind was blowing the opposite way, much to my delight. Alone, with an eleven-millimeter Mauser rifle in a sling over the shoulder, and with camera in hand, I began to stalk the three sleeping hippos, with a view of doing my utmost to get a snapshot of them at close quarters before they should roll into the stream. When I first detected any hippos in this place we were 94 ^ -1* Hippu IIkaus Sho\vin(. akovi-: thk Slkface of the Water in the SoNDO River. Sleeping Hippos in the Tana River not far from Fort Hall. THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE all on the march and had stopped on the hills above the river, from which elevation I scanned the waters with my strong Zeiss No. 12 field glasses at a distance of about half a mile. I could plainly make out the big heads of about a dozen or more hippos, floating along in the mighty stream. Between where I stood and the river the country was dotted with bushes and trees, but within one hundred yards or so of the water it was entirely open and only covered with coarse grass, not high enough to afford any cover. Strung along the edge of the river were a good many trees, and upstream in front of the three sleeping hippos was a little hill, only about ten yards away from the animals, on the crest of which elevation were two or three good- sized bushes, which afforded excellent cover for anyone walking close to the river's edge. As the wind was " right " I made a large semicircle from where I stood down to the river in front of the trio. 1 found that only by going through water and soft mud, sometimes over my knees, could I proceed in a line behind the little hill, if I wanted to approach the hippos unseen. As silently as possible I waded forward, being careful to keep camera and gun above water all the time. This was often not so easy, having once slid down almost to my hips in a muddy hole, only some twenty-five yards away from the hippos. I must then have made somewhat of a splash, which was instantly answered by a much louder splash, as, to my dismay, one of the hippos rolled into the river. With the utmost effort I succeeded in a few seconds in getting up on dry ground again, this time on the slope of the little hill, just in time to hear another big splash, as 95 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA hippo No. 2 took to the water. With fast beating heart, I finally ventured to peep over the top of the hill between the bushes, with the camera ready for a " snap," when, to my great delight, I found hippo No. 3 lying exactly where I first had seen him. In an instant I had focused and, just as I snapped, the wary monster awoke, so that in this picture he is seen with half-open eyes. As quickly as pos- sible I changed my film, but before I had a chance of using either camera or gun, the hippo had discovered me and quickly dived into the stream. All along the shore of this river we found well-trodden hippo tracks of their peculiar characteristic shape; the hippo is so thick and his legs so short in comparison that between the imprints of the fore and hind legs on one side and those of the other side there is a regular track, formed sometimes by the belly of the big pachyderm, as he waddles along. We were surprised ^to find that the hippo in these regions sometimes goes as far as a mile or more away from the river at night to feed on his favorite grass and leaves. After I had succeeded in photographing the sleeping monster, I signaled to the men to come on. I then sent one party half a mile upstream, while another went down about one thousand yards, to where the still flowing stream tumbled down in a long succession of rapids. Both parties were instructed to frighten the hippos away toward me. With a few men I remained in the shadow of a tree that overhung the little hill, from which I had taken the suc- cessful photograph. From this place we had an excellent view over the whole hippo pool. We quickly constructed a good cover of branches and high grass, behind which we 96 Sleeping Hippo, Photographed Close to the Sondo River, 1909. Hunting Leopard, Killed by a Shotgun with No. B. B. THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE sat down to await developments. Head after head popped up all over in front of us, just long enough to exhale and inhale, only to disappear again in the next moment. As we kept perfectly still behind our screen, more and more of the hippos began to show their whole foreheads above water, and did not dive as quickly as before. Presently my gun bearer, Mwalimu, gave me a slight nudge, and pointing to a big black hippo head on my left, whispered: '' Huyu mmume mkubwa sana!" ("This one is a very big male "). Up went my gun, a flash, a sharp report, followed by a tremendous commotion in the river, and then the stillness of the grave seemed to reign for a while, until some distant snortings announced that all the hippos had scattered up and down stream. Both the gun bearer and I thought that we heard the bullet hit the hippo's head, but it was impossible to tell this with any certainty, for, as already remarked, if hippos are instantly killed, they sink at once to the bottom of the river to reap- pear in about an hour. As the waters of the Sondo in this still flowing pool were rather warm, I expected that the body would reappear in less than an hour. Looking at my watch, I saw that it was exactly ii a.m., and so get- ting the camera ready for any snapshots, if in the mean- time any head would appear in the vicinity, I dispatched some men to the bulk of the caravan to bring them down to a level place, within some five hundred yards of the river. There we made our camp for the night, as I knew it would take considerable time to skin the hippo, even if we got hold of him by twelve o'clock. To the surprise of us all, the body appeared above the surface of the water like a dark, shiny hulk, at exactly 97 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 11.27 — or not quite half an hour from the moment the hippo had been killed. The stream formed in this place a fine, oblong pool, but only a very few hundred yards far- ther down the foaming rapids began. Halfway to the rap- ids there was a sharp bend in the river, and we thought that the body, which now floated just about in midstream, would surely land at our side of the bend. Much to our dismay, however, the body seemed to float over nearer and nearer to the opposite shore ; we had no boat available, and there was no bridge or ford for many miles to either side. Unless the hippo should be lost to us in a few more min- utes, by being dashed down the rapids, someone would have to swim out to the carcass to fasten it to the end of a long rope, which I always carried on safari, and by which it could then be easily hauled ashore. No promise of reward, nor anything else, could induce any of my men to make this venture. I was very much disturbed, thinking that, after all, this beautiful trophy should be lost, and so, for a moment forgetting my dear ones at home, I flung off my clothes, took the end of the rope between my teeth, and jumped into the river, having tied my big hunting knife to a string around my waist. I must say that this was one of the most foolhardy things I have ever done, for not only was the river filled with hippos, but was also said to contain crocodiles, although as yet we had not seen any. When within a few yards of the hippo I felt a sudden stinging pain in my left leg; I certainly thought I was done for then, imagining that a crocodile or a hippo was trying to chew me up ! However, I safely reached the carcass and, after having climbed up on his side, I found myself bleeding from a wound some 98 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE three inches long, but not very deep, just above the knee. I then reaHzed that I must have knocked my leg against some pole or other sharp object, which had stuck in the bottom of the river. Having cut two holes in the skin of the hippo's neck, I tied the end of the rope through the loop, and called to the men to pull us ashore. Just as the line began to straighten I lost my balance for a moment, and rolled com- pletely over with the hippo, a rather unpleasant experi- ence that I repeated twice before we were landed on the opposite shore. But my trophy was saved, and no one in the world could have been more delighted than I when we began to cut up the big monster. Another hippo shot in the same river a few days later floated up in exactly thirty-two minutes, taking five minutes longer than the one just referred to. The second one was a very much larger bull hippo, and was shot in a smaller pool, above which was a rather deep ford, and below which there was another succession of foaming rapids. As soon as the body floated up, it was unfortunately carried by the current in among the bushes on the opposite shore, where it began to go slowly downstream. As the rapids were only about one hundred yards farther down, and as the swiftness of the current increased with every yard, I rushed some men across the stream to fasten a rope to the hippo, while we held on to the other end. They succeeded in reaching the carcass only after it had moved along an- other fifty yards and had come into rather swift-flowing water, but close to the opposite shore. As the two men had finished tying the rope to the big body, they swam ashore — a distance of only some four or five yards — and at the 99 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA same time my men began to pull in the line. Just imagine our surprise when, in the middle of the stream, the line suddenly parted, and the big hippo shot downstream at a tremendous speed. It had not gone far, however, until it struck a rock, standing out just at the beginning of the rapids. Here the body was almost doubled from the force of the stream, which held it fast against the rock. Now, there was only one way of reaching our trophy and that was for some one with a rope to throw himself in the pool and let the stream take him down to the hippo. This was not quite so dangerous in a certain way, because there was no other hippo in the pool, and there were no crocodiles in this place; but the men, fearing the force of the water, again refused. Again I had to seize the rope myself and jump into the water, the next moment being hurled with great force against the side of the hippo, which was fortunately soft enough not to injure me, the carcass lying with the back down and the feet in the air. I realized now that it was impossible to save the whole hippo, for the current was too strong; so I fastened the rope around his under jaw, behind the big tusks, shouting to the men to tightly fasten the other end around a tree which stood at the water's edge. My gun bearer and two of the natives now volunteered to slide down the rope with an ax to help me cut off the head, so that we could, at least, save that for a trophy. One by one they shot down along the rope and reached me in safety. Mwalimu car- ried the big American ax. When everything was ready and only the vertebrae of the neck needed to be severed to separate the head from the body, I again went into the water and, with great efforts, succeeded in hauling myself 100 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE up against the stream to the shore ; I shouted to MwaHmu to cut off the head, which he did with a couple of mighty strokes, and the men began to pull in the magnificent head. The reader cannot imagine how badly I felt, when, by the increased force of the water, the new, more than half-inch- thick line again parted, and the big head was swept down the rapids, never again to be seen by us: and thus ended my hippo hunting in East Africa. The hippo is a very destructive animal. On his long nightly wanderings, when he sometimes goes as far as one to two miles from the water, he seems to develop an enor- mous appetite. Very often he goes right into the gar- dens of the white settlers or natives, where in one night a single hippo is able to devour more vegetables than a settler and his whole family could eat in a month! This is nothing to wonder at, when the fact is known that the mighty pachyderm carries a monstrous stomach, unpro- portionately large, which by actual measurement has been found to exceed even eleven feet in length, and capable of containing four to five bushels of food ! The hippos vary in size quite a little, those of the streams being considerably smaller, as a general rule, than the ones found in larger lakes. From three to four thou- sand pounds is a heavy weight for a river hippo, whereas animals have been shot in the lakes both of Uganda and German East Africa weighing more than twice as much. In the same proportion do their tusks vary from twelve to eighteen inches in length on the outside curve of a good- sized river hippo, while I recently saw a pair of tusks from a monstrous old bull, killed in a Nyassa Land lake, whose tusks measured twenty-eight and a half inches. The lOI THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA largest hippo tusks on record reached the enormous size of thirty-one and a half inches in length, with a girth of nine inches at the base. The hide of an old bull hippo is exceedingly thick and weighs, just after having been taken off the animal, from four hundred to five hundred pounds. In spite of all the persecutions to which the hippo is nowadays exposed, he will probably be the last of the big African game animals to become extinct, being still very numerous in most of the large lakes, streams, and swamps of the greater part of Africa. CHAPTER VII THE AFRICAN OR CAPE BUFFALO The family of hollow-horned ruminants, including the ox, the bison, the buffalo, and the musk ox, is to mankind perhaps the most important of all animal groups. For what would the civilized American or European, or the naked savages of Africa, or the hundreds of millions of Hindoos, Chinese and Japanese do without the work of the ox and the milk of the cow? Of the existing wild animals of this family, the American bison, now practically extinct as a wild animal, the Indian, and the African, or Cape buffalo are the most important. Of these species again the Cape buffalo is the largest and by far the " gamiest." The buffaloes are so far distinct from other wild cattle that they will not interbreed with them. Among the buf- faloes themselves, even in the one continent of Africa, quite a difference exists both in size and color. The Congo buffalo with shorter and more upturned horns is much smaller than the Cape buffalo, and of an almost yellow tint. The Abyssinian buffalo is brown and also somewhat smaller than the Cape buffalo, as are also the Senegambian and the " gray buffalo," supposed to exist in the regions around Lake Tchad. The Cape buffalo inhabits to-day all the central and eastern parts of Africa, from the Cape in the south to 103 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA Abyssinia in the north, although he is now rare in South Africa, having been practically exterminated there in mod- ern times, as the country became more and more settled with white people. In Portuguese, German, and British East Africa the once countless herds of buffalo were very materially reduced some eighteen years ago by the terrible " Rinderpest," which threatened them with total destruc- tion. But they have in the last years fortunately increased there again in great numbers. These buffaloes are most powerfully built animals. The body of a full-grown bull measures from tip of the nose to base of the tail from eight to nine feet in length, and he stands fully four and one half feet high at the shoulder. The buffaloes live in great herds, feeding to- gether like cattle, but old bulls often separate from the main body and live by themselves, as do the old males of ele- phants, rhinos, and giraffes. The color of the Cape buf- falo is black, with very little hair on the body, which on old bulls seems entirely to disappear except upon the head, where it then generally turns gray. The shape and size of the horns of buffaloes vary a great deal. The horns of the female are much thinner and flatter than those of the bull. They never meet at their base and are also much smoother on the surface than the horns of the male buffalo. Even among the bulls there is a great difference in the horns, which of even some very old ones never touch each other at the base, while those of others seem to be almost grown together. I have seen a pair of horns that were actually so close together at the base that it almost ap- peared as if they formed one solid mass ; but this, I believe, is very unusual. There is generally enough space between 104 THE AFRICAN OR CAPE BUFFALO the horns, even of the bulls, to allow a little tuft of hair to grow. This hair, as well as the hair on most parts of the head, turns often, as already remarked, gray on very old animals. The appearance of the surface and also the shape of the horns vary greatly. On some, the horns are rather flat and smooth, while other bulls carry enormously thick and rugged horns, with such miniature caiions and ridges at the base, that they appear, as someone has said, like " sides of a volcano, with its lava streams and rugged ridges," Then, again, on some old bulls the tips of the horns are rather close together — from twenty-four to thirty inches apart — turning inward and downward toward the base, much like fish hooks, while others have their horns less curved and with points turned more forward and up- ward and with as much spread as thirty-six to forty-five inches from tip to tip. The African buffalo is without question one of the finest-looking beasts imaginable. With his massive but not clumsy body, his powerful neck, and magnificent horns, he is the very picture of beauty and strength. Indeed, a great many hunters class him as No. I in the list of danger- ous game. Even the lion is then often placed as No. 2, and the elephant, rhino, and leopard are generally considered the three next most dangerous beasts. It is, however, very difficult to say with any accuracy which of these animals is really the one most to be feared, for the same kind of animal will not only behave differently in varying circum- stances, but the same individual beast will also act entirely differently one day from what it will another, although under exactly the same conditions. 105 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA The Cape buffalo will hardly ever attack a human be- ing, unless hunted, wounded, or molested in some way, or perhaps suddenly surprised in his own haunts. But all African hunters agree in this, that once wounded or cornered, the buffalo is one of the most dangerous beasts to approach. If he has been wounded but not instantly killed, he will either charge straight down on his assail- ant, if the latter is in plain view, or else he will make for some thick cover, which generally is not far away, as the buffalo is seldom found on the open plains in the daytime. His favorite haunts are in the dense jungles of both the hot lowlands along the coast of the Indian Ocean, and of the higher inland plateaus, preferably in the vicinity of rivers, swamps, and lakes, where he sometimes stands for hours up to his belly in the water or resting in the thick papyrus or under overhanging trees. On the moun- tain ranges he is almost invariably found in large numbers on the foothills even up to an altitude of some seven to eight thousand feet. These forests offer the buffalo oc- casional larger and smaller open spaces, overgrown with luxuriant grass, which seems very attractive to the beau- tiful beast. The buffalo is one of the most wary animals. He has so fine a sense of smell, that only the elephant and the rhino can be compared with him in this respect, the ele- phant alone being his superior in being able to scent his enemies at long distance. This fact makes it very dif- ficult to get a shot at the buffalo at close range, particularly in localities where he has been much disturbed. Here he hides in the daytime in the thickest jungle, often sleep- ing for hours in the shadow of big trees. He is even then, 1 06 A IMagxificent Bull Blffalo, Killed in the Kedong Valley. Large Head of the Okuinakv Water Buck (Cobits Jcfussii). TTTK AFRK:aX 01^ CAPK P.LTFAl/) however, very difficult to approach, for he sleeps very lightly anrl hears exceedingly well, so that the slightest noise, the hreaking of a twig or the rubbing of the branches against the hunter's hat, clothes, or shoes is enough to wake him up and arouse his suspicions. Instantly he is on his feet, and usually manages to get away so quickly anrl so cautiously that the hunter in most cases only hears him darting thrmigh the dense bush, without having a chance to ]jhotograph or shoot him. "Fhis has been my own experience time and again. Na- tive trackers have told me repeatedly that they were sure they could lead me up to buffaloes, which they had seen at close quarters, for these naked savages can creep through the most dense bush apparently without the slight- est noise; and yet again and again I myself failed to find them, when we started out together. One day a Wandorobo came running into camp at about two o'clock in the afternoon, just as I was returning from a long and successful hunt for water bucks to get my lunch and rest a little. He told very excitedly that he had been tracking a small herd of buffaloes all day, until they finally had lain down to sleep under some big trees in a very dense forest, only about three miles to the south of our camp. He further said that there was one " very, very large old bull " with magnificent horns among the herd, and that he could easily take me up to within ten yards of the creature. After such a tale, of course, I could not take the time to sit down and eat, and so, picking up a piece of bread and half a roasted guinea fowl, I started off at once for the buffaloes, taking the gun bearers and about a dozen fresh 107 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA men with me. After a little over thirty minutes of half- walking, half-rmining, the Wandorobo stopped and asked me to let the bulk of the men wait there, while he and I with only one gun bearer should sneak up to the buffaloes, which were now only some six to seven hundred yards away. An order to sit down and wait was always obeyed with much satisfaction, and as a fairly strong wind was blowing in our faces from the direction of the herd, we soon caught their wind, noticing more and more their peculiar strong odor. With the utmost caution, we followed the naked Wan- dorobo, who penetrated the dense bush like an eel through the water, without making the slightest noise, while my gun bearer and I were not quite so successful in avoiding dry twigs on the ground, and the noise of the scraping of branches against our clothes. To make it easier for me to move on quietly I had already left my big sun helmet behind with the men, and had donned a small, soft, green cap. I could do this with safety, for the jungle here was so dense that hardly a ray of equatorial sun could pene- trate to our heads. After a while my guide stopped again and, pointing forward, whispered in my ear : " Huko nyati mkubwa, chini ya miti mkubwa." (The big buffalo is there, under the big tree. ) The tree to which he pointed with his spear was only about fifty yards away, and right in front of us. I took up some dry, fine sand, which I always used to carry in my pocket, lifted it up and let it fall to the ground to see if the wind was still right. To my dismay, the sand fell down as straight as it could, showing that at the time there was no wind at all. Here I left even the gun io8 THE AFRICAN OR CAPE BUFFALO bearer behind, exchanging with him the .405 Winchester, which I had been carrying up to that time, for the big .577 Express. This evidently much pleased my Wando- robo, as the size and weight of this weapon, by the natives generally called " msinga " (cannon), had greatly im- pressed him. On we went, nearer and nearer to the big tree. Sud- denly there was a loud snort, followed by angry grunts, only some twelve to fifteen yards away! In another in- stant the whole buffalo herd rushed up and crashed through the bush in a mad rush for safety ! So dense was the jungle, that although the nearest animal could not have been more than twelve yards away from us, and we could even see the tops of the bushes and trees move as the beasts pressed by — it was absolutely impossible to get a glimpse of a single animal, notwithstanding the fact that I flung myself after them as fast as I knew how, receiving cuts and bruises from thorns and larger branches in my path, as I ran blindly through the thickets in a vain attempt to be able to sight one of the fleeing beasts. The wind must have changed to another direction at the last moment, or we made some noise, unnoticed by ourselves, which frightened the herd. However this may be, the buffaloes had vanished, and we, sad and weary, had to give up the chase, reaching camp just as the sun went down. On another occasion I was more fortunate. We had found fresh buffalo tracks on one of the foothills of Mt. Kenia, at an altitude of somewhat over eight thousand feet. Magnificent cedars, with their straight trunks, in- termingling with enormous deciduous trees of different kinds, composed this forest, the undergrowth of which 9 109 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA contained a great many dense bushes, and here and there an occasional rubber vine of the Landolphia family. After more than two hours of difficult tracking we finally sighted some buffaloes about one hundred yards distant, standing across a small open grass patch in the midst of the forest. From where we stood we singled out the one that seemed the largest bull, as it was impossible to get any nearer to the herd, there being not the slightest cover to stalk be- hind, and the grass too short to conceal a man, even if creeping. I fired with the big Express gun, aiming for the buf- falo's heart. At the crack of the gun the herd made off in a wild stampede, disappearing in the thicket. My gun bearer said in a sad tone in his pidgin swahili : " Hapana piga bwana." (You did not hit, sir.) Indeed, I thought the same, for the big buffalo, at which I had aimed, bounded off with the rest of the herd with mighty leaps, as he vanished in the bush. I decided to cross the open grass patch to see if there would not at least be some blood marks that we could follow, feeling certain that the buffalo must have been hit somewhere, even if not in a deadly spot. It now became evident how much the natives them- selves fear the buffalo, for they followed me most unwil- lingly, saying that if a buffalo is wounded and followed in the dense jungle, he is much more ferocious and cun- ning than even the lion ; that he often doubles in his tracks and hides in the dense bush close by, until his pursuer is almost upon him. Then he makes a wild dash at him, and either tosses him to death, or gores him with his powerful horns. With the greatest caution, therefore, we crossed the no THE AFRICAN OR CAPE BUFFALO open space and entered the dense forest, where the buffa- loes had been standing only a few seconds before. With the safety catch of the big gun pushed forward, and strain- ing my eyes and ears to the utmost to be fully on my guard, and ready for any emergency, we went into the bush. We had gone but a few paces, when we suddenly heard a loud groan and, expecting a charge at any mo- ment, we held our breath and stopped to listen and look around. Another drawn-out, bellowing-like groan fol- lowed close to our right, and turning in that direction, I had only gone a few steps, when I saw that the magnificent buffalo had breathed his last! After skinning the beast I wanted to see where he had been hit, and discovered now that the large, steel- jacketed bullet had gone clean through the very center of the heart and penetrated to the other side until it had almost protruded through the skin. And yet with such a wound the buffalo had been able to run for over fifty yards! In Uganda, where buffaloes are more plentiful than in British East Africa, they often become so daring that they run at night into the plantations of the natives, which they destroy in a most thorough manner, often killing the sav- ages who try to chase them away. The government, there- fore, has recently taken the buffalo off the list of protected animals and declared it, together with hippos and croco- diles, to be " vermin." In Uganda anyone can now shoot as many buffaloes as he wishes and has a chance to, if he thinks that this is " sport." In British East Africa, how- ever, where the buffalo is not quite so plentiful — one of the results of the terrible rinderpest — he was altogether protected until two years ago; up to that time the sports- III THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA man could only kill one male buffalo on a special license, for which he had to pay twenty-five dollars. Then for two years the hunter was allowed to kill one hull buffalo on his ordinary sportsman's license. Since the middle of December, 1909, when the present new game laws went into effect, a sportsman is allowed tivo hull hiiif aloes on his Hcense, the animals having greatly increased during the last few years. Mr. F. C. Selous, who has probably killed more buf- faloes than any man living, and who has had a great many narrow escapes from wounded and charging beasts, classes these as the most dangerous of African game. This opin- ion is undoubtedly shared by many other hunters. On one of my trips to East Africa I met a certain Mr. Morrison, an American, who told me how he, a few years ago, had lost his left arm in a buffalo hunt. With another white man, a Portuguese lawyer, he was out buffalo hunting some sixty miles to the northwest of Mozambique, in Por- tuguese East Africa. Each of them had already succeeded in felling one fine, old bull, when toward evening one day, as they were returning to camp, a small buffalo herd suddenly appeared within shooting distance. They could plainly see that there was one very large bull among them. Both sportsmen fired at this animal, but the wounded buffalo disappeared with the rest of the herd into the jungle. Morrison and his friend followed in hot pursuit, and a moment later they saw a pair of fine horns behind a bush. Morrison fired at once, mistaking it for the bull that he had already hit, as the beast rolled over dead at the crack of the gun. The two delighted friends now ran forward toward the fallen buffalo, when suddenly, with- 112 THE AFRICAN OR CAPE BUFFALO out a moment's warning, the first bull they had wounded charged down on them with such ferocity that, before they knew what had happened, Morrison was caught up by the mighty horns of the enraged beast and tossed high up in the air. He landed unconscious on his back in a thick bush, with his left arm broken in three places, and almost sev- ered from his body. During this time the Portuguese had just had time to fire before the beast turned on him. He succeeded in killing the buffalo instantly with a shot in the brain, from a distance of only about five yards. Although, as before mentioned, the buffalo is taken off the list of protected game animals in Uganda, and each sportsman is allowed at present to kill two bulls a year in British East Africa, yet with the present excellent and rigid game laws, and vast, suitable game preserves in many parts of East, Central, and South Africa, the Cape buffalo is apt to survive and even increase still more in numbers for centuries to come, unless another and more serious rinderpest should threaten the magnificent and coura- geous beast with total extermination. CHAPTER VIII LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS None of the big cats is so widely distributed as the leopard. From the sun-scorched African and Indian plains and damp tropical forests, as far as Manchuria and Japan in the north, and up on the lofty Tibetan plateaus, the leopard inhabits to-day the whole of Africa and the greater part of Asia. Of the leopard proper there is evidently only one spe- cies. The commonly made distinction between the leopard and the so-called panther is, from a zoological standpoint, untenable, although a good many sportsmen and hunters affirm that there is a great difference in size and markings between the two animals. The panther in such case is supposed to be the larger and more ferocious of the two, but from the zoological point of view no real difference exists, the panther being simply an ordinary, although per- haps somewhat larger, leopard. Both the ordinary leopard and the hunting leopard, existing also in India, are there by the natives called " chita," by most Europeans often spelled " cheetah," the Hindu word simply designating a spotted cat. Then there is an almost raven-black variety, which was often described as being a different species of leopard. This black variety, commonly called the " black leopard/* 114 LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS was formerly believed to exist only in the Malay peninsula and on the Island of Java, and is, like the snow leopard of the Himalayan Mountains and other high regions, more seldom met with than the ordinary black and yellowish white spotted varieties. Even the black leopard shows, if examined closely, that his coat is spotted much in the same way as the ordinary leopard, but the rings of the spots are more intensely black in color. Of all these dif- ferent varieties of leopards, the snow leopard is without a question the least common and the most beautiful. In many prominent zoological works it is said that the black leopard exists only in Asia, and this is generally believed even in sporting circles to-day. The fact, how- ever, is that although much rarer, the black leopard also exists in Africa. In 1906 I was told that Mr. W. McMil- lan, the well-known American, on whose vast estate, " Juja Farm," Colonel Roosevelt had some excellent shooting in the summer of 1909, had killed a black leopard in British East Africa. I could hardly believe this tale, until I, upon the invitation of Mr. McMillan, visited his beautiful home in London. There in the vestibule of his house stood a large, well-mounted, and absolutely black leopard, which this great Nimrod had actually slain in Africa. That the black leopard does not form a distinct species, but is a mere " freak," or but a different variety of the ordinary leopard, is evident from the two facts that there is, in the first place, absolutely no difference in its general build or habits, and, secondly, that we have authentic records of ordinary female leopards, which have born both spotted and absolutely black cubs in the same litter. The ordinary spotted leopard is very much feared by 115 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA the natives, more so than even the Hon, for he often plays great havoc with their cattle. Not only does the daring, bloodthirsty feline kill the cattle or sheep that he wants to devour, but he also goes in for wholesale and wanton destruction of the animals. Not infrequently has a single leopard killed a dozen or more sheep and goats in one night, without completely devouring a single one ; he may have drunk the blood from all of them, or eaten a few pounds of meat from some of the victims, while there may be still others, which he does not seem to have touched, after they had been killed. The leopard often springs upon the back of his prey, killing it with a single bite in the neck, or by catching hold of the animal's neck with his paws and biting through the throat, or by strangling the victim. Then he invariably tears his prey open with his mighty paws and generally devours first the heart, lungs, and liver, licking out the blood in the cavity of the chest, before he begins to devour the other parts of the body. Leopards often climb up in trees with chunks of meat in their mouths, which after- wards they can devour at their leisure, undisturbed by their mightier rival, the lion, for which they invariably leave their prey, if on the ground, and instantly disappear, when the king of beasts approaches. As lions cannot climb trees, these are the leopards' only safe retreats. When the leopard is unable to devour the whole animal killed, he often drags the remainder up in a tree, so as not to have it eaten by the hyenas. There have been recorded a good many instances where leopards have turned man-eaters and killed and devoured natives, mostly women and children. I once met a Kikuju Ii6 LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS man who had lost not less than two children in this way: One of them, a little girl of perhaps four to five years of age, had been taken away by the leopard in broad daylight and but a few yards from the hut, in which the little one's mother had gone the moment before to prepare some food. As she heard the screams of her baby, she rushed out, only to see the leopard dart into the bush with her little girl between his jaws, disappearing so quickly that no trace was ever found of the unfortunate baby. One cannot won- der very much at this audacity of the leopard, when the fact is known that the Kikuju people never bury their dead, but throw them out in the nearest bush, to be de- voured by leopards, lions, and hyenas. But worse than that, not only do these cruel savages throw out their dead in this way, but they also do the same with old, sick people, who they think will not recover. In such cases the old men or women are led or carried out into the thorn bush, and there often tied and left to be killed and devoured by these bloodthirsty, nocturnal animals. Several authentic cases of this cruel treatment came to my knowledge during my stay in East Africa. Being so often bothered and harassed by leopards, both settlers and natives try all sorts of schemes to get rid of them ; by shooting, by poisoning, and by trapping them in various ways. The leopard is very rarely seen in the day- time, and he is therefore seldom shot by any man, white or black, for it is a rare chance if the sportsman, in his wan- derings, comes across one of these graceful and cunning animals. It is sometimes possible, however, to put up a leopard in a " donga " — a river bed, on the sides of which there are thick patches of trees and bushes — m which both 117 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA leopards and lions like to hide during the daytime. Most of the leopards killed have been either shot on moonlight nights or at the morning dusk, as they were found lying on some dead animal upon which they were feeding, or else they have been caught in traps by settlers and natives, and then shot or speared. The savages make good leopard traps by driving strong poles deep into the ground, and so close to one another that the beast is unable to squeeze even a paw through. These poles are then tied together with bark to other poles, horizontally placed, so as to form a strong roof for the trap, which generally contains two compartments, a smaller and a larger one, separated by a strong partition, also made of poles. In the smaller compartment a live kid or lamb is placed to attract the leopard with its bleating. The en- trance to the trap and the whole trap itself is so narrow that there is not room enough for the leopard to turn around, and a heavy plank, serving as the door of the trap, is suspended by a pole over the entrance. The other end of this pole is held down by a twig so placed that when the leopard enters the trap and wants to get at the little kid or lamb he has to push this twig aside. Instantly the rear end of the pole above is released, and the plank falls down behind the leopard, thus preventing his backing out of the trap. As he is also unable to turn around, so as to be able to lift up the door with his paws, he cannot escape, and is subsequently killed by spears, which the delighted natives thrust into him, between the side poles. After the same pattern I once made a leopard trap and put in a little kid for bait, but as I had made the larger compartment a little too wide, the cunning beast first took out the kid, Ii8 LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS then turned around, lifted up the door with his paw, and disappeared with his prey. Many white people trap leopards, and even lions, by making a strong and high circle of thorn branches, in the center of which a kid or some other small live animal is tied. The only opening to this little circle is a narrow " alley " between the thorn branches, about six or eight feet long. In this narrow passageway one or two steel traps are placed with a small ridge of thorn twigs on either side of them. In attempting to avoid the thorns, the big cat steps right into the trap and is caught. The best way is to have the trap fastened to a strong chain, the other end of which should be tied to a good-sized log or big branch, so that the leopard is able to move away a little, otherwise he may tear himself free or even bite off his own leg in his attempts to escape. Great care should be taken in approaching a trapped leopard or lion, for, seeing their pursuer approach, they may free themselves at the last moment by a supreme effort, and woe to the man who is not then ready for such an emergency ! An El-Moran, or warrior, to whom I had given a steel trap in 1906, and who had caught a number of leopards in it, selling the skins for his living, once ap- proached a trapped leopard rather carelessly. In an in- stant the big feline, which had been caught by one of the hind paws, made a wild dash for him, freed himself from the trap at the cost of half the paw, and badly mauled the young warrior before he finally succeeded in killing the brute with his " panga," a long, swordlike, double-edged knife. Leopards are sometimes caught by placing a piece of 119 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA meat on the large limb of a tree not too far from the ground. The trap is placed between the trunk of the tree and the meat, concealed as much as possible under leaves, and fastened to a chain long enough to reach the ground with the other end, where it should be fastened to a log, but it must be well hidden, for otherwise the cunning cat would be suspicious and not go into the trap at all. At one time on the Naivasha plateau, when marching with my caravan from the western slopes of the Aberdare Mountains toward the Kijabe Railroad station, I saw a leopard at a distance of some seven hundred yards. The beautiful beast was walking slowly, almost parallel to us. On account of the high grass I could only see his back, and occasionally caught a glimpse of his head and the tip of his long tail. As there was no cover behind which I could stalk, I quickly screwed the Maxim gun silencer on to the 6-millimeter Mannlicher, which was my farthest shooting weapon. In the meantime the caravan had thrown them- selves flat on the ground, so as not to attract the slightest attention from the leopard, which up to this time had not noticed us at all. As I had underestimated the distance in the beginning, I set the telescope sight of the rifle up to four hundred yards, and fired. The leopard, not hearing the crack of the gun, stopped and looked suspiciously down into the grass as the bullet hit the ground in front of him. It was then clear to me that the bullet must have hit the soil right under the ani- mal's neck, and that I had been aiming too low. Just as the leopard resumed his slow walk, the second bullet cut one of his front legs near the paw. Still hearing no noise, but feeling the sudden pain of the wound, the leopard evi- 120 W OrXUKIi i,K(IPAKIi OX THK .>()TIK pLAIXS. ^: < .* -^ » % (^ :r ^^-*' •■ * ^ :^:f Young Male Leopard. ■ - . < • "^ii LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS dently thought that some enemy from underneath had gotten hold of his leg, so he began to dance around the spot in the most curious manner, scratching up the grass and ground with his powerful front paws. It was all we could do to refrain from laughing aloud at this strange performance. Suddenly the leopard stopped and looked carefully around in all directions before he began to resume his walk. Just then I fired for the third time. Now we plainly heard a sharp click a fraction of a second later, but as the leopard had disappeared, my talkative gun bearer remarked that he had run away, and had not been hit. But from that little click that we heard, I was rather certain that the bullet must have struck his head. We ran forward in a straight line to where we had last seen the leopard, and there, to our delight, we found the beautiful animal dead, with a bullet through its brain. We then found that the second bullet, which had caused the leopard to dance around and dig up the ground in a vain effort to find his enemy, had only made a small flesh wound on his left front leg, some three inches above the paw. I measured the distance between the leopard and the spot where I stood when I fired, and found it to be exactly six hundred and seventy-five yards, which shows the supe- riority of the Mannlicher for long-distance shooting. Of course, such a shot would have been impossible, if I had not had the gun fitted with a very superior telescopic sight, for with the bare eye the little front bead of the gun would have entirely covered the animal, and thus prevented an accurate shot. To show the cunning of leopards I will here relate the 121 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA killing of two of these dangerous beasts by a German set- tler, previously referred to in the chapter on the giraffe. One evening a couple of natives reported that the young giraffe, captured and tamed by the settler, was being de- voured by two leopards, not far from the farmhouse. The fearless young German instantly made for the place, armed only with a double-barreled shotgun and an automatic pis- tol. As soon as the leopards heard his footsteps they both stopped eating. When the hunter appeared from behind the last bush that afforded any cover, and only some forty yards away, both animals, a male and a female, snarled at him for a second. The next moment they made a des- perate attempt to escape by jumping right and left into the jungle, each receiving a load of buckshot in their sides as they ran. The male bounded off into the bush, but the female fell to the ground like dead. While two of the natives kept watching this apparently dead leopard, the settler ran after the fleeing male, which he dispatched with another shot at close quarters. Just as he was bending over his trophy, desperate screams rang out from the place where his men were left to watch the other fallen leopard. The big female had only feigned that she was dead, for when she heard the third shot she flung herself upon the two negroes, who had ventured right up to the supposed ** carcass." Both were badly scratched and bitten, and would doubtlessly have been killed had not a well-directed bullet from the splendid Mauser pistol, aimed at the brute's head, and at only three yards' distance, put a quick end to the fight. The hunting leopard, or cheetah, as he is often called, differs a great deal from the ordinary leopard. The chee- 122 LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS tah is much taller, and his whole form is much more like a dog's than that of a cat, with the exception of his round head and extremely long tail. Then, the spots of the two animals are entirely different, those of the cheetah being simply solid black or dark brown, while those of the leopard are like irregular, sometimes open, rings of mostly black color, with the center of an almost pure white, making the markings of the ordinary leopard much more beautiful than those of the plain-spotted cheetah. Another distinct difference between the two is that the cheetah is not able to draw in the claws of its paws as the other cats do. One can, therefore, at once see the difference between a track made by a leopard or by a cheetah, the claw marks in the latter's track showing plainly, like those made by hyenas or dogs. The hunting leopard is found almost all over Africa and India, but does not seem to go east of the Bay of Bengal. In India he is captured, tamed, and often used by the native princes for sport instead of hounds. This has doubtlessly given the cheetah the name of " hunting leopard." He is one of the swiftest mammals, being capa- ble of remarkable speed for a couple of hundred yards, but after that distance he soon gets out of wind, and may easily be outdistanced by a good horse. The natives have practically no reason to fear the hunt- ing leopard, which usually preys on the smaller antelopes, and very seldom tackles a kid or a lamb. I have heard from *' reliable " natives that the cheetah often kills and eats the larger game birds, such as the goose, the partridge, the guinea fowl, and even the giant bustard, measuring sometimes as much as ten feet between the wings. I have 123 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA never heard or read of any authentic case where human be- ings have been attacked or killed by the cheetah, although when wounded and cornered, this animal puts up a deter- mined fight, and may then be a very dangerous antagonist. I have twice had the pleasure of facing wounded hunting leopards, who were certainly bent on mischief, and both of which showed great courage. After a couple of days' very successful hunting in the country southwest of Lake Baringo my taxidermist asked me one day not to bring home any more skins of big game for a day or two, as he and his men had all they could do to take care of the animals shot the two previous days. But as there were in the vicinity a great many beautiful birds, which I coveted for our New York museum, and as some of the men, specially trained to skin birds, had nothing particular to do, I went out one morning with my double-barreled shotgun to collect birds, taking some ten or twelve men with me. The gun bearer was ordered to walk close behind me with one of my powerful rifles, for the great charm of hunting in Africa lies partly in the fact that while the sportsman may start out with the inten- tion of shooting small antelopes or birds, he may suddenly and entirely unexpectedly be confronted by a lion, a rhino, a buffalo, a leopard, or even an elephant, of whose proxim- ity he had no idea. After having shot a number of birds, which from time to time I sent back to camp, I suddenly saw, through a little opening in the bush, a strange-looking heron, staring in a certain direction, and moving its head most curiously up and down, as it intently gazed into the bush. From this attitude of the bird, I presumed that some other animal 124 LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS must be stalking in from that direction, and, making a semicircle around the bird, I discovered a big cheetah care- fully approaching him, crouching down on bent legs, in much the same way as the ordinary house cat stalks a mouse just before it is ready to spring on its prey. The leopard, which had not yet observed me, was only some forty yards away. Looking around for the gun bearer to get hold of the rifle, I found, to my amazement, not a man in sight ! > Not wishing to lose the cheetah at any price, I made up my mind that it would be a case of either " his skin or mine." So, emerging from my cover, I fired with the right barrel of the gun, containing shot No. 5, meant for small birds. The charge hit the leopard squarely over the heart, but had not power to penetrate more than skin deep. Just as I had anticipated, the leopard instantly charged down on me in big leaps. Deciding to reserve the left barrel, loaded with only No. 2 shot, I waited until the very last moment, and just as I thought the leopard was about to make his last leap for me, I *' let go," hitting the base of his neck. At such close range, the muzzle of the gun being cer- tainly not more than, at the most, three yards away from the leopard's neck, the charge had a tremendous effect, the shot tearing a big hole in the neck and turning him in an instant. The moment the leopard received the second shot, he swayed around sideways, made two more leaps, and rolled over dead. This was the only time, I am happy to say, that I lost my patience with my gun bearer, for when he came forward first after the second shot, I " touched him " rather unceremoniously, so that he tumbled into 10 125 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA one of the nearby bushes. Had I not been so fortunate with my last shot, I might have, through his neghgence, in not keeping close to me, either lost the beautiful trophy or else been scratched and possibly badly mauled by the big cat. The cheetah is a very w^ary animal and seems to possess most excellent eyesight. There are probably no other ani- mals that can see as well both by day and by night as the members of the cat family, and so far as my experience goes, none of the felines is able to detect a sportsman at a greater distance than the cheetah. I have been seen re- peatedly by hunting leopards on the plains at distances of fully eight hundred or one thousand yards, when they have made good their escape into the high grass before I had any chance of stalking them. In 1909, however, when hunting on the Sotik plains, only a few weeks before Colo- nel Roosevelt made his shooting expedition to these famous regions, very early one morning we espied two cheetahs lying on the grass close to each other. The sun had not yet risen, and there was just light enough to shoot, when we detected these two animals at a distance of some six hundred yards. As I was whispering to Asgar, our brave lion chaser, and pointing out the leopards to him, the big cats saw us, and made ofif in long bounds. In an instant Asgar flung himself on the hunting pony; and then fol- lowed a most interesting chase. For the first few moments the two leopards, probably male and female, ran close together and seemed to outdistance Asgar and the pony, but after having run for a few hundred yards they sepa- rated, Asgar chasing the big male, now gaining on him more and more. We followed behind as fast as we could, 126 LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS but to our dismay Asgar soon disappeared behind a small hill, over which the leopards had sped. Running along as rapidly as possible, we came upon a herd of topi, which had been startled by the sound of the galloping horse, and, in their bewilderment, ran almost right into us in their mad effort to escape. Believing that a shot would not interfere with the pursuit of the leopard, I fired at the finest bull in the herd, which, while galloping at top speed, was instantly killed with a shot in his neck, and rolled over in a heap, turning a complete somersault as he fell. Leaving a few men to take care of the topi, we ran on as hard as we could. Soon we reached the crest of the little hill, when, to our amazement, we saw Asgar in the saddle facing us, and brandishing his whip in the air. We fortunately took this to mean that he had the leopard already at bay somewhere nearby, so we ran down the slope of the hill as fast as pos- sible. When we came within speaking distance, Asgar shouted to us that the cheetah was hiding in a hole, made by a wart hog, only some twenty yards away from the horse; although we looked in the direction to which he pointed, it was impossible for us to detect any animal there at all. With camera and gun in either hand, I approached within thirty yards of the place, where the leopard hid, and yet it was impossible to see anything but a little mound of earth dug out by the pig. I then looked through my field glasses and discovered the two eyes of the leopard, just glaring at us from the top of the hole. As it was impossible to take any photograph of this, I aimed for the top of his head, which I missed by the fraction of an inch. The next moment the leopard 127 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA bounded out from his hiding place, only to receive shot No. 2 in his right shoulder. The shock of the bullet stopped him for a moment, and, turning in our direction, he snarled fearfully, with half-open mouth. Taking advan- tage of this opportunity, I advanced to within fifteen yards of the furious cheetah. Here I succeeded in getting two good photographs of him. Just as I had snapped him the second time, he decided that he had had enough of " pos- ing," and made a leap toward us, certainly intending to charge, when the third bullet, plowing through the heart, finished him in an instant. In the stomach of this cheetah we found evidence enough that its last meal had consisted of a little " tommy," seeing pieces of the peculiarly marked black and white skin, which showed that the meat must have been either that of a Thomson's or possibly a Grant's gazelle. The habits of the cheetah do not vary much from those of the other leopards, but he is not often found on such high altitudes as the latter, and seems to prefer the open country and bare plains. The ordinary leopard likes the densest bush country the best. In such places one will hardly ever meet a cheetah. Although the latter is con- siderably taller than the ordinary leopard, he does not weigh so much, being much less solid than his cousin. The length of the cheetah is also greater than that of the spotted leopard, particularly if the measurement includes that of the tail, which is in proportion longer than the tail of the leopard. My first cheetah measured seven feet four and a half inches from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail before it was skinned; the second one, measured in the same way, was seven feet seven inches long. Much 128 LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS larger specimens than these have been recorded. One, re- cently shot in German East Africa, was almost nine feet long, measured in the same manner. As the hunting leopards cannot be classed among the animals which are very destructive or dangerous to natives and settlers, they are put on the " protected list," and the hunter is allowed to kill only two cheetahs on the ordinary sportsman's license, which is now in force in British East Africa. CHAPTER IX THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS There are not less than five species of rhinoceros in existence. Of these, Asia claims three. The great, or Indian, rhinoceros, and the Javan variety, carry but one horn, whereas the Sumatran, the smallest of all living spe- cies, has two horns, like his African relative. The Su- matran seems to be more closely related to the African rhino than the other two Asiatic species, for he has not only two horns, but his skin has not the large armor-plated patches as clearly defined as the Indian and Javan rhino. Of the two African species, the white or square-lipped rhinoceros is the larger of the two. This rhino is also much the rarer, existing only in a few small districts in South Africa and in the Lado Enclave, to the north of Uganda, where recently Colonel Roosevelt was lucky enough to secure several fine specimens. The skin of the " white rhino " is in reality not white at all, but dark gray, and only very little lighter than the ordinary " black rhino." His front horn attains a height of some thirty to sixty inches, a good deal larger than any horn of the common black rhino, while he stands about six feet high over the shoulders. The black rhinoceros, usually met with all over East and Central Africa, is somewhat smaller, averaging five 130 THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS feet to five feet six inches in height, while one of the larg- est horns on record measured only forty-two inches in length. This species is prehensile-lipped and almost black in color, except that, from wallowing in different colored mud and clay, the animals appear sometimes red, some- times dark gray. The African rhino feeds exclusively from twigs and leaves of trees and bushes. He is not as fond of swamps as his Asiatic cousin, and is often found even in practically waterless country, where he goes considerable distances from the nearest stream or water hole. As a rule, he will return to drink at night, and sometimes he also drinks in the early morning. It has been said that the black rhino does not like cool weather, and that he seldom goes higher than 5,000 feet on plateaus and mountain ranges. This, however, is a mistake, for he is very abundant on the Laikipia Plateau, lying at an altitude of over 6,000 feet, and in 1906 I shot a charging female rhino, accompanied by a half-grown calf, which I met on one of the foothills of Kenia, at fully 8,000 feet altitude. It was evident from the many rhino paths on this side of the mountain that it was a favorite feeding place for the big pachyderms. I have noticed that there are two somewhat different species even of the black rhinoceros, for I have always found certain differences between those living on the plains and the rhinos inhabiting bush and forest country. The rhino of the plains has, as a rule, a much thicker and shorter fore horn than the bush rhino, whose horn is more curved backward, much more slender, and very sharply pointed. I have also noticed that the feet of the rhino in- habiting the plains are, in comparison, larger than those 131 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA of the bush rhino. As to viciousness, I beheve that the rhino of the bush is much more bad tempered than the one inhabiting the open plains, which is said to be true also of lions. One of the most curious of pachyderms is without a doubt the African rhinoceros. He distinguishes himself from his Indian, one-horned cousin by having two horns, one straight behind the other. Both horns vary a great deal in size. Usually the front horn is the larger of the the two, curving slowly backward, much in the shape of a Turkish saber, and being in most cases round, very thick at its base, and tapering to a sharp point at the end. The other horn is generally much smaller and somewhat like a short Roman sword, being much flatter than the front horn and almost straight. The front horn of the male rhinoceros is a great deal thicker than that of the female, but a good many rhinos have been seen and killed on which the second horn was larger than the first. I myself have seen on the Sotik plains a huge female rhinoceros which had the second horn very much larger than the first, and curving forward over the first horn, which was a small, swordlike one, just ex- actly as the second horn generally is. The curved, second horn of this rhinoceros protruded at least six inches in front of the nose and appeared to be almost resting on the top of the small front horn. I had told Colonel Roosevelt that I was only going to stay on the Sotik plains for about a week or ten days, as he himself had planned to go there right after me, and, hoping that the colonel might be able to secure this strangely shaped head for the Natural Museum at Wash- 132 Two Rhinos Asleep on the Plains to the Northwest of Guaso Narok, Distance about Forty Yards. '■^ .^ ij*"*^ The Same Animals. Note the tick birds on the backs of the beasts. THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS ington, I did not shoot the beast, which I could very easily have done, as the rhino, followed by an almost full-grown calf, passed in front of me at a distance of not more than fifty to sixty yards; I was fortunate enough, however, to secure a couple of good photographs of this curious-looking animal. In 1906, when hunting northwest of Mt. Kenia, I saw at a distance of some two or three hundred yards an un- usually large rhino with a long and abnormal-looking horn. In this case it was the front horn, which had grown up to a length of probably some forty inches or more, while almost at its middle it had a sort of extension which, at that distance, looked as if the rhino had put its horn through a pumpkin. For hours and hours I tried to get within shooting range of this queer-looking beast, but before I could find any cover, the wind being unfavorable, he scented us and made ofiF at a very quick gait, never to be seen by us again. In 1909 I saw some trophies that were sent down from German East Africa by way of Vic- toria Nyanza and the Uganda Railroad, and which be- longed to a German settler. He had shot, among other animals, a most curious-looking rhino, having both horns of about the same size and length, but both curving toward each other until they met, thus forming a perfect arch over the nose. While the skin of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros is thicker than that of the two-horned African, and divided in large, armorlike patches, the latter has a more uniform and much smoother skin, varying in thickness from one third of an inch under the belly and inside of the hind legs to fully one inch and more on the sides and back. The 133 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA skin is always thickest on the sides, over the shoulders, and on the back of the powerful neck. It is rather remarkable that, in spite of the great thickness of the rhino's skin, it should be possible for parasites to live and feed on these great pachyderms, some of which are literally covered with these giant ticks. They seem to be able to find cracks and soft places in the heavy skin, through which they are able to suck the animal's blood, and in such places they con- gregate in great masses, sometimes causing bad ulcera- tions and sores. In such circumstances it is a blessing to the rhinos that the so-called " tick bird " exists. This is a brownish-look- ing little bird with a strong, straight bill, which always seems to follow the rhino both in the bush and in the open country. These wary little friends not only serve the rhi- noceros as " tick-eaters," but also warn him of any ap- proaching danger. Many a time I have stalked a rhino with my camera under the most favorable conditions, and I would have been able to come within a few feet of the powerful beast without attracting his attention, had it not been for the little tick bird, which with its shrill " pt-jaeh, pt-jaeh," warned the rhino of the approaching hunter, and, to my disgust, the coveted trophy would either run away or make a vicious charge. It must be said, however, to the credit of the tick bird, that it is sometimes useful also to the hunter. For in dense bush the sportsman would often not be able to see the rhino, until almost right upon him, if the tick bird with its " pt-jaeh " did not warn the hunter of the proximity of this dangerous beast. One morning when I was encamped with a large caravan not far from the junction of the 134 The Same Animals. The one facing the camera is about t*^' charge at full speed. ^.Mfc^r-Uk^r *»_. At About Ten Yards He Fell, Killed Instantly by a Bullet from the Big .577 Express Rifle. THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS Guaso-Narok and the Guaso-Nyiro, I started very early for the jungle with some twenty-five men. Before it was quite light enough to shoot accurately or to photograph, we had to go through a stretch of very dense bush. As we had not seen any rhinoceros tracks or other marks of their presence in that particular place, we did not imagine that there were any of these beasts around, when suddenly a little tick bird flew up out of the thicket right in front of us, and with his shrill " pt-jaeh, pt-jaeh " warned us to be on our guard. No sooner had I heard the bird before the angry snif- fing of a rhino announced that we were in dangerous com- pany. The moment the tick bird gave the signal, my gun bearer, of his own accord, reached forward the big .577 Express with the words, " Kifaru karibu, bwana, kamata msinga " ("A rhinoceros is near, sir, take the ' cannon ' !") The next minute two rhinos rushed forward and faced us, right across a small opening in the bush, and for several seconds we eyed each other at a distance of only some ten yards or less. It was a big mother rhinoceros with her half-grown calf, snorting at us from across a low, red ant-hill. Unfortunately it was still too dark for a snapshot. With the big gun at my shoulder, with safety-catch pushed forward, and finger on the trigger, I was ready for a " brain-shot," if the rhino had moved forward an inch, but there she stood for a good many seconds motionless, except for a few tossings of the head. Then the animal turned around just as suddenly as she had appeared, and rushed ofif into the dense bush, crashing down everything in her wild attempt to escape. I was glad that the " inter- 135 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA view " ended thus, as I did not want to kill another rhi- noceros unless absolutely obliged to do so to protect my life. The strength of the African rhino is almost incredible. With ease he roots up trees and bushes, and is able to break down the jungle and go through the thickets so thorny and dense that one would think it absolutely impossible for any beast to penetrate. During the construction of the Uganda Railroad it more than once happened that rhinos took ex- ception to the invading of their country, routed the work- men off the track, and upset and destroyed wheelbarrows and tools. On one occasion a huge rhinoceros rushed for- ward toward a gang of workmen, who were fastening a rail to its sleepers, scattered the men, and then made for the construction car, which stood on the completed track a few hundred feet farther away. It put its mighty horn under the car and literally lifted it off the track, after which performance the beast, sniffing and puffing, departed. It took the workmen several hours to recover from their fright and to jack the car onto the track again. Horses and mules, and even cattle, have often been attacked by these vicious brutes and tossed many feet up in the air, horribly gored and mutilated by the powerful horns of the rhinos. Much has been said about the poor sight of the rhinoc- eros, and I have even heard prominent lecturers on Afri- can topics, and also sportsmen, speak about it as the " blind rhino." Although I know it is a generally accepted fact that the rhino is " almost blind," this theory is, in my opin- ion, not altogether warranted. I do not believe that he is nearly as badly off in this respect as he is supposed to 136 THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS be. On my first visit to Africa in 1906 I started out rhi- noceros hunting with the beUef that the beast was extraor- dinarily nearsighted and stupid, but a good many of my experiences, some of which I will relate in the following paragraphs, have made me change my mind considerably on this subject. It is generally said that the rhino cannot recognize an object at any farther distance than seventy-five to one hun- dred feet, and it is contended that if a rhino has observed a person at a longer distance than this, dt is probably not through the sight, but through his wonderful scent that he has detected the hunter. In a good many instances it may be hard to say whether this is so or not, but as I had heard from one man, who had a great deal of experience in big game hunting in Africa, that he, for one, did not believe in the bad sight of the rhinoceros, I made up my mind that I should make as many thorough " tests " in this respect as possible. While I have seen that the rhino, like a great many other wild animals, both in Africa and in other continents, cannot very well distinguish between a man and a tree stump, if the former stands perfectly motionless, particu- larly if he is well or partly hidden by bushes, trees, or long grass, this may often be the case even with human ob- servers, if only the distance is increased. As to the rhi- noceros, I have found that in bush country, when the wind was such that it was absolutely impossible for the beast to scent me, he would not detect me, even ten to fifteen yards off, if I stood motionless among the bush. On the other hand, I have seen how the rhino clearly discovered my pres- ence when I was moving along in the bush, or even stand- 137 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA ing still in open places, at a distance of from two to three hundred feet. Both on the Sotik plains and on the plateau to the northwest of the Guaso-Narok River I have repeatedly- had experiences with rhinos which prove that their eye- sight is really not as bad as it is generally believed. On the former plains I saw two rhinos lying down in the open, just about the noon hour, taking a sleep and exposed to the burning rays of the equatorial sun. I advanced un- noticed to within one hundred and fifty yards for the pur- pose of taking photographs, when the noise made by one of the gun bearers, as his hob-nailed shoes crashed against a stone, awakened both animals. They sprang to their feet, and, although the wind was very strong and blowing from them to us, so that it was absolutely impossible for the animals to get our scent, they both saw us. They whirled around instantly and faced us, sniffing and puffing and wobbling their heads sideways and up and down, evidently attempting also to get a " whiff " of the disturbers of their siesta. We all three stood as motionless as we could, ex- cept that I tried to focus my lens on them, but just as I snapped the first picture both animals turned and ran away at high speed. One morning on the Laikipia Plateau I had the op- portunity of seeing no less than eleven rhinos in three hours, during which time I repeatedly tried to stalk right up to the beasts. A strong southwest breeze was blow- ing, and as I approached the animals from the northeast there was no possible chance for them to get a whiflf of our wind. Time and again, I noticed, to my dismay, that the big pachyderms had an eyesight good enough to detect 138 THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS us at distances of from one hundred to two hundred yards and over, when all of them would run away, with the ex- ception of one old bull, which was lying down when I approached him. This rhino remained motionless, with his eyes evidently fixed on me, as I advanced with camera in one hand and the big Express in the other. Finally, when within less than fifty yards of the beast, as I was trying to make a semicircle around him to the southward, so as to be able to get a better light for the picture, he followed me with his head, and then suddenly rushed up, made a couple of angry sniffs, and charged right down on us, snorting like a steam engine. In spite of very careful work, great patience, and strong, favorable wind, I have never been able to approach a rhino that was awake nearer than about seventy yards on the open plains before he noticed me. I have several times actually paced the distance between me and the rhinos, which ran away, when they saw me even as far off as from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and seventy-five yards. The distance at which the beasts would either run away or charge us depended doubtlessly also on the different districts where they were found — i. e., whether they had been much hunted or not. If much dis- turbed, even the vicious rhino learns that man with his firearms is too dangerous an enemy to encounter. On the other hand, one of the most sudden and dangerous charges I experienced was made by an old bull, which had evidently been wounded a good many times before, as I found in his skin two Wandorobo arrowheads and several other wounds from bullets. Accompanied by a few men and taking only a rifle and 139 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA a shotgun, I had gone up into the dense bush near the Kijabe Railroad station to shoot a small antelope for my table. We had walked fifteen to twenty minutes, when we suddenly came across fresh rhinoceros tracks, but, as we had only gone out for the antelope, we left the track and went in the direction of an open place, overgrown with grass, where the natives had told me that they had seen the antelopes feeding about an hour before. Just before we reached this place, the vicious old rhino dashed out at us from the thick bush. My men disappeared as if swallowed up by the ground, and, although I turned around as quickly as possible, the rhino's head was not more than two yards and a half from the muzzle of the gun when I pulled the trigger of the little Mannlicher. The beast fell instantly, but the momentum of his charge hurled his body to my very feet. I assure the reader that it is no ex- aggeration to say that it was actually less than six inches between the rhino's nose and my left foot ! Had the bullet not found the brain, nothing in the world could have saved me from being killed by the ugly brute. This rhino must have been very old, for his horn, so powerful at its base, was worn down until probably only one third of its original length remained. The scent of the rhinoceros is very sharp indeed, and in this respect he is exceeded only by the elephant. I have tried on the open plains to see how far a rhinoceros would be able to scent a couple of men if the wind was not too light. Rhinos that were feeding with their noses to the ground and evidently not suspecting any danger at all, scented us often at a distance of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred yards. When the big pachyderm 140 THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS scents a human being, he generally runs forward in the direction of the place from which the scent comes, to locate his enemy, and to " investigate," not always meaning to charge in any vicious way. Eight out of the twelve rhi- noceros that I have shot, I have had to kill, as they charged down on me, evidently meaning mischief, although in sev- eral instances I waited with the fatal shot and gave the rhinos a chance to change their minds, until they were within a few yards of me, when I did not care to have them " investigate " any closer. It is impossible to say what a rhino will do in certain circumstances, for one time he will run away from and another time he will charge down on his pursuer in exactly the same situations. I remember once, when our caravan was marching from the Laikipia Plateau toward Mt. Kenia, how a large rhinoceros was feeding right in the little native path, which we were following at the time. Not wanting to kill the animal, but at the same time not willing to risk the lives of any of the porters of the cara- van, I consulted with the gun bearers and nearest men as to what we had better do. They proposed that we should make as much noise as possible, shouting and beating with sticks on empty water pails, to frighten away the rhino. As we began this terrible " kelele " the rhino, which was only some seventy-five yards away, threw up his head and tail and rushed away as quickly as he could. A few months later, however, when we were marching toward Sotik through the Southern Kedong Valley, we had an experience of an entirely different character. We were following along an old Masai cattle trail, close to the foothills of the Mau escarpment, when, reaching the top of 11 141 THE BIG GAME OE AFRICA a little ridge, we discovered two large rhinos calmly feed- ing close to each other on either side of the little path, only a few hundred yards away from us. The animals were walking slowly in the same direction as we, and as we would have caught up with them in a very little while, we decided to try our old method of scaring them away with great noise. On a certain signal, some fifty of us shouted at the top of our lungs, while others beat empty water cans and pails. This had the unexpected effect that both animals instantly whirled around and charged down on us like a team of horses, running along close to each other, one on each side of the little path. I had several times heard that if a large animal is hit on one side, it invariably turns out toward the other side to find his pursuer, and not wanting to kill any of the beasts, I fired, when they had come within some fifty yards, hitting each of them on the side facing the other. It was just as if a mighty wedge had been driven in between the animals, for they suddenly separated and ran away in dif- ferent directions. The female disappeared on our right into a clump of bushes, whereas the larger one, an old male with a fine horn, rushed off to our left into the open. After making a run for a few seconds, he suddenly changed his mind, possibly annoyed by the noise and laughter of the men, and turning around, he charged us again with uplifted tail and lowered horn, coming on as fast as he could ! In the meanwhile I had had time to reload the big rifle and was ready to give him a " warm reception." Between us and the charging brute was a low, circular anthill, only some fifteen yards away, and I said to Mr. Lang and the 142 THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS gun bearers, who begged me to shoot, that I would wait until the rhino had reached the anthill, to see if he would not change his mind before that. It seemed almost as if the rhino had been a mind-reader, for, having reached the outer edge of the hill, he suddenly stopped, snorted and puffed, and threw up the red clay with his front feet. With the gun to the shoulder, I shouted, much to the amusement of my men, " Njoo, Mzee, mimi tayari " (" Come on, old fellow, I am ready "). He showed his anger in this way for a few seconds, and then turned around and ran off to our left, exposing a long flesh wound of about eighteen inches, from which the blood was trickling, proving that the big bullet had only plowed through his thick skin for that distance, causing him no serious injury whatever. Of the ferocity and courage of the African rhinoceros many contrary things have been said. While some people hold that the rhino is an exceedingly clumsy and stupid beast, which very seldom attacks the hunter, and in most instances runs away when molested, others consider him one of the most dangerous animals in existence. I myself side with the latter, having had, as already mentioned, a good many narrow escapes from these vicious brutes. Be- fore I had ever met a rhino, I believed that they were not to be classed among the more dangerous game animals, but my first experience with these beasts soon gave me a different opinion about them. One day when encamped not far from the Kijabe railway station I had remained in my tent, as the rain was pouring down, and as I also had some writing to do. Suddenly a Wandorobo hunter came running into the camp, shouting that he had located a rhino, and that he knew from the tracks that it must be a 143 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA very large one. As I had never seen a rhinoceros yet in his wild state, and was most anxious to secure a fine specimen for the museum, besides having the excitement of a rhinoceros hunt, I flung away my writing parapher- nalia, took a couple of guns, the gun bearer and a few men, and followed the tracker. We soon had to go through an almost Impenetrable jungle, where we in places had to crawl on hands and feet to be able to advance at all. After two hours of such hard marching in the pouring rain, we finally found the fresh rhinoceros track. Having followed it for another hour through similar circumstances, the men suddenly stopped and consulted with one another. They then all tried to make me understand that it was no use to go any farther, because the " rhino had gone too far away." But I gath- ered enough, from what they had said, to understand that they were afraid to follow the beast any longer in this ter- rible jungle. I was sure that they wanted to deceive me, and that they were simply tired of the pursuit and afraid to go any farther, as we could plainly see that not only one, but two rhinos had passed over the same path, one after the other. I upbraided them for their cowardice, and told them to go ahead, and that under no circumstances would I return to camp before we had at least seen the rhinos. Now they came straight out and told me that it was a most dangerous undertaking to follow two of these big brutes in such dense jungle. They said that if I per- sisted in going any farther I would have to take the lead myself and they would follow close behind me. This I did without hesitation, fortunately exchanging the .405 144 THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS Winchester for the heavy .577 Express, which the gun bearer had been carrying behind me up to that time. In perfect silence and as quietly as possible we followed in the tracks of the big beasts, being particularly careful not to step on any dead branches, nor to make any other noise, which might disturb the animals. We had not gone on thus more than perhaps ten or fifteen minutes before the men stopped again. They now tried even harder than before to make me give up the pursuit. Again they said that it was useless to follow the rhinos, as they were much *' too far away " from us to be overtaken. Before I had even a chance to reply, the rhinos themselves answered with their peculiar angry sniff, only a couple of dozen yards or so away from us ! Where we stood, the jungle was so dense that it was almost impossible to move the arms freely, or to raise a gun, but I saw a little to my left, and in the direction from where the noise of the rhinos came, a small opening, for which I quickly made, thinking myself followed by the gun bearer and the rest of the men. Louder and louder sounded the crashing of the trees, as the big beasts came charging down upon us, and, turning around to see if the gun bearer was ready with the reserve gun, there was not a man in sight. It was as if the earth had swallowed them all! As I reached one end of the little opening, out shot the head of a big rhino on the opposite side, only about twenty feet away. A flash and a tremendous roar from the pow- erful gun, and the huge rhino rolled over only a few feet away from me, his brain pierced by the powerful steel- jacketed bullet! Just as I was gasping for breath, and 145 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA before I had time even to lower the gun, Mabruki's, the gun bearer's, voice rang out from the top of a nearby tree, " Bwana, ingine anakuja " ("Master, another one is coming "). Hardly had he finished his sentence than I saw Rhino No. 2 charging down upon me from another side, and, turning toward him, I gave him the second barrel, with which I was fortunate enough to hit the head again just back of the second horn, and down he went, stone dead. Within less than a minute's time and with only two suc- cessive shots of the big Express gun, I had succeeded in felling the first two rhinos which I had ever seen at large. It is impossible to describe the joy I felt when I was resting on the side of one of my fallen " enemies," for if I had not understood any of the language of the men, or had I hesitated and returned to camp at their sugges- tion, I probably would never have had this wonderful ex- perience. It is in a case like this that the hunter cannot depend upon anybody else for protection, and in such dense jungle he has to rely upon his own nerve, swiftness of decision and good aim, more than upon any fellow huntsman, be he ever so near at hand. To show how un- certain it is to count on the stupidity of the rhino, or to believe, as a prominent English sportsman and author af- firms, that perhaps only once out of two hundred and fifty times the rhino means mischief when charging, as he is coming on only to " investigate," I will here relate a few facts that certainly speak for themselves. Dr. Kolb, a German scientist and hunter, was one day bird-shooting a few years ago in German East Africa, 146 T\\\T Different Types of Rhinos. The upper one represents the bush rhino, the lower one the rhino of the plains. Note the difference in the shape of the lips and relative position of the eyes. The little " extra horn " between the two horns of the upper rhino is, of course, unusual. Another Splendid Trophy. THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS when he was suddenly charged by a large female rhi- noceros. Although not accompanied by any calf, a circum- stance which often makes these " mothers " vicious, this rhino, without any provocation whatever, charged down on the doctor, who at the time was only armed with a shot- gun. Hearing the angry sniffings of the rhino, and the breaking down of the bush as she came on, the doctor tried to run for cover, and for a few seconds raced around a small but dense clump of bushes, closely followed by the vicious brute. Having discovered a large tree with a big cavity near the ground, the doctor unfortunately made for the same. No sooner had he entered the cavity than the rhino was upon him, and with its powerful horn killed him in a few seconds, mutilating him in a most horrible way, while the cowardly native followers looked on from nearby trees, without doing anything to distract the atten- tion of the rhino from the doctor. Mr. C. Schillings, in his wonderful experiences as a pioneer wild-animal photographer, relates also in his in- teresting book, '' With Flashlight and Rifle," a good many instances of having been charged by a number of rhinos, which he had not provoked in the least. In fact, he had several times made regular detours, so as not to come too near the vicious brutes, which, in spite of all precautions, had scented him and charged him and his caravan. Once, Mr. Schillings relates, one of his porters was badly gored and tossed by a rhino, which suddenly '' ran amuck " of the caravan. Wonderful enough, this particular native, who had actually had his intestines thrown out of his body by the rhino, subsequently recovered, without seeming to be any the worse for his experience. 147 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA An Austrian nobleman, whom I met in British East Af- rica in 1906, told me of three very narrow escapes from charging rhinos. Once he himself had had his left shoulder bruised by a rhino which charged madly down upon him. In spite of having been twice badly wounded, the beast rushed so close past the Austrian, who with a side step tried to save himself, that the rhino's shoulder hit him, hurling him several feet out of the animal's way, while the brute fortunately continued straight ahead. On another occasion a female rhinoceros, accompanied by a young calf, was encountered in the dense bush country on the Mau escarpment, as the caravan was moving along in the early morning. Suddenly there was an outcry among the porters, who threw down their loads right and left, while an angry rhino mother made straight for the cook, whom it unfortunately succeeded in tearing to pieces with its sharp-pointed horn before the hunter killed it with a well- aimed bullet from his Mannlicher rifle. Not even at night is the caravan perfectly safe from rhino attacks, and a good many times I have myself had nightly visits from the dangerous pachyderm. Once when in camp on the western slopes of Mt. Kenia I was awak- ened during a moonlight night by shoutings and great commotion in camp. Taking the big Express, I ran out in front of the tent and came just in time to see the hind- quarters of a big rhino, evidently a male, which had run right through the camp between some of the porters' tents, and had passed within three yards of my own tent, al- though at the time a strong fire was blazing. Mr. Percival, the assistant game ranger in Nairobi, told me of a similar, although much worse experience, 148 THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS which he had had a couple of years ago. One night he was awakened by a feehng of unrest, as if something had gone wrong in his camp. His incHnation was to get up immediately to investigate, but being very tired from a long march the previous day, and seeing that the big camp fire was blazing, and the Askari awake, he again lay down, wishing he might be able to go to sleep again. For some reason it was not possible for him to feel comfortable, hav- ing again the strong feeling that he should get up and look around the camp. Finally he decided to do so, took his big gun, and went out among the porters' tents to see if everything was all right. Hardly had he left his tent, when a big rhino rushed, full speed on, through his camp. Passing right over the fire itself, he ran down Mr. Percival's own tent, and, putting one of his heavy feet right on the very couch, which a few minutes before had been occupied by the sleeping game ranger, broke it in pieces. In 1909 I was told of a similar experience in German East Africa by a Mr. Herman Gelder, of Berlin, who had made an extended shooting trip through the southern and western part of the German Protectorate. With over one hundred porters, Mr. Gelder was encamped at the edge of a large forest not very far from the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Having seen a good many rhinoceros's tracks in the vicinity, before camp was pitched, the pre- caution was taken of making a small " boma " around the camp. This was done by heaping cut-ofif branches of thorn bushes and trees in a circle around the camp. Having ac- complished this, he ordered a big camp fire to be kept burn- ing during the night. Suddenly, about 2 o'clock in the 149 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA morning, Mr. Gelder was awakened by a tremendous out- cry, and, when he had rushed out to investigate, he found that a rhino had broken through the boma, which was too low and thin, and had killed one of his Askaris, who had been sitting at the fire. In camping in countries infested with rhinos and lions, the only safe device is to make a strong boma of thorn bushes all around the camp, or else in a horseshoe form, leaving a large camp fire to protect the small opening in the " wall." If this hedge is made eight to nine feet high and ten to twelve feet wide, it gives a perfect protection from rhinos and lions, although instances have occurred, as before related, where both rhinos and lions did not heed the camp fire. However, it very seldom happens that any wild beast ventures too near a blazing fire, particularly if it is of good size. According to my own experiences with rhinos, I believe them to be the most dangerous of African game, as one never knows exactly what a rhino will do. As one is most often attacked by these vicious brutes in very dense jungle, it is impossible to see them before they are within a few yards. At such close quarters it is rather unsafe to let the rhino " investigate " any further, and the best thing to do then is to place a bullet in his forehead, for a heart shot will very seldom kill a rhino instantly. I have known of a case where an Englishman shot no less than twelve bullets from a .500 Express rifle into the body of a rhino, two of which bullets had touched the heart, and two or three penetrated the lungs. Yet the hunter was killed by this rhino, which, after goring his antagonist, walked over a hundred yards away before he fell. 150 THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS As the rhino, in spite of his dangerous character, is partially protected both in German and British East Af- rica, and as he not only exists on the open plains, where he is not nearly so dangerous, and much more easy to kill, but also inhabits the densest jungles, he will probably be one of the last big animals to be exterminated. CHAPTER X THE LARGER EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES " The antelopes belong with right to the bovine family, and seem to be animals which are a good deal like both oxen and sheep, either of which species some antelopes re- semble so much that they are not easily distinguished from the same. How little radical difference, for instance, be- tween an eland and an ox, or between a chamois, generally classed among the goats, and a springbok, a puku, or even a reed buck! The large antelope family is characterized from other animals of their size by their graceful build and their beautiful heads and horns, carried a great deal higher than the level of the back. In some species of antelopes both males and females have horns, but in a good many others of the finest of those animals only the males carry horns. The horns of the antelopes may be characterized by their long, slender, and more or less cylindrical form, and al- ways by the fact that they are never grown out into dif- ferent branches as those of the elk or moose. A great many of the antelopes carry most beautifully shaped horns, some of them, like the young impala, having horns forming a perfect lyre, while others, like the greater kudu, have them grown up in graceful spirals in the shape of enor- mous corkscrews. Some of the antelopes' horns show THE LARGER EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES prominent year rings, running up to within a few inches of the tip, and all of the horns of the antelopes, with a few exceptions, grow almost straight upward and then for- ward or backward. The bony internal core of the horns of almost all antelopes is not honeycombed and full of holes, like that of oxen, sheep, and goats, but hard and entirely solid. Another characteristic of the antelope, with very few ex- ceptions, is an easily distinguished gland beneath the eye, which is entirely lacking in oxen and goats. Then again while certain antelopes' teeth very much resemble those of oxen, others are more like the teeth of sheep and goats. The antelopes have in ages past exclusively inhabited Southern and Western Asia, from whence centuries ago they migrated into Africa, through Arabia. With few and less important species as exceptions, the antelopes proper now inhabit only the Dark Continent, having almost com- pletely disappeared from their former home, a fact that still puzzles zoologians. The whole of South Africa was once literally alive with antelopes of all kinds, and I have myself heard tales from a good many old Boers, telling of how, only a few decades ago, antelopes, such as the eland, gnu, the oryx, different kinds of hartebeests and others, ex- isted there in uncountable herds. But, alas ! most of these antelopes are now very rare, and some of them entirely exterminated in South Africa. It is in the countries to the north of the Zambesi River, in Nyassaland, parts of Portuguese, German, and British East Africa, that the hunter now meets the largest antelope herds in existence. In these countries the vast plains at- tract the antelopes, and they can still be seen there in great 153 THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA numbers. I am sorry, however, to say that in the few years between 1906 and 1910 these herds have noticeably dimin- ished. Where I in 1906 saw Hterally thousands of harte- beests, wildebeests, and zebra, I found in 19 10 only hun- dreds. In spite of game laws and large game preserves, it is probably only a question of time when most of these graceful animals will be rare, and some of them possibly exterminated also in the aforenamed countries. The eland is the largest of all antelopes. Years ago great herds of this magnificent beast roamed around all over South Africa, but they are now practically extinct in the country south of the Orange River. They are at present most plentiful in Nyassaland, German and British East Africa. In this latter country they are fairly com- mon, and with the present strict game laws and big, suit- able game preserves, the eland will probably survive in British East Africa for a good many decades to come. The best place to secure a fine eland in the last-named pro- tectorate is, without doubt, the Kenia-Laikipia region. The eland seems to develop larger and more powerful horns in this part of the country than in the southern part of the protectorate, where he is easily found on and around the Sotik and Loita plains. Even not far from Nairobi, to the northeast of the Athi Plains, and down along both the Athi and Tana Rivers, the eland is still quite plentiful, although lately he has been hunted there considerably. The eland is particularly fond of bush and open forest country, but in places where they are not much hunted they are quite often found even on the plains; still they never go very far away from some kind of cover. In dis- tricts where the eland has been a good deal disturbed he 154 i<^^ ="^■4 •>', - •" > ■-•■'V c,