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®IN WILDEST AFRICA!” si 


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By Oy 
C. G. SCHILLINGS 


AUTHOR OF “‘ WITH FLASHLIGHT AND RIFLE IN EQUATORIAL EAST AFRICA ¥ 


TRANSLATED BY 


FREDERIC WHY™ 


WITH OVER 300 PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR’S 
NEGATIVES, TAKEN BY DAY AND NIGHT; AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 


VoL. II 
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LONDON Cite tu. 


Vs at 


HUTCHINSON & CO. 
PATERNOSTER ROW 
1907 


CHAP. 


VIII. 


XIII. 


XIV. 


XV. 


XVI. 


YOUNG DWARF ANTELOPE. 


Contents of Vol. II 


IN A PRIMEVAL FOREST 

AFTER ELEPHANTS WITH WANDOROBO 
RHINOCEROS-HUNTING 

THE CAPTURING OF A LION 

A DYING RACE OF GIANTS : . ; 
A VANISHING FEATURE OF THE VELT 
CAMPING OUT ON THE VELT 

NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY UNDER DIFFICULTIES 


PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAY AND BY NIGHT ° 


Wartavie 


CORMORANTS. 


List of Illustrations in Vol. II 


PAGE 
Young Dwarf peer ae Pa 
Cormorants. aap te ie | 


Spurred Geese . Pe eis ies . 319 
Views of Kilimanjaro 227-323. 394 
River-bed Vegetation on the Velt’ 331 


mpmmermansBag . 3. 3 . » 335 
Clatter-bills ‘ 3 . 340, 341 
A Marsh-land View . : : - 346 
Snow-white Herons . ‘ : ies, 
A Pair of Crested Cranes . : - 349 
_A Snake-vulture ; . 349 
Preparing to Skin a Hippopotamus ig) 
Hippopotami Swimming . - 353 
Head ofa Hippopotamus. .  . 357 
A Wandorobo Chief . ; ; - 359 
Egyptian Geese . 2 : ‘ - 364 
A Wounded Buffalo . - : » 365 
Hunting Record-card : ; . 307 
A Sea-gull E : - 369 
A Masai throwing his "Spear ; . 370 


A Hippopotamus on his way to the 


Swamp . ‘ facing 370 
Oryx Antelopes : : : . 374 
Waterbuck 4 Pe i 
Wandorobo Guides on the March. 380 
A Party of Wandorobo Hunters . 381 
A Feast of Honey. . 386 


Acacia-tree Tasaiied by Elephants . 387 


An Oryx ere s Methods of 
‘Defence . : p ; . 389 
A Dwarf Kudu . : : i . 390 
Zebras , : 3 f - 392 
Giraffe Studies . : . . 392 
Zebras on the open Velt . : - 393 
Laden Masai Donkeys. i . 397 


PAGE 
Pearl-hens on an Acacia-tree’. 393 
A pair of Grant’s Gazelles taking to 


Flight ; Jacing 398 
Grant’s Gazelles : . 402 
A Good Instance of Protective 

Colouring ; ; . 402 
Grant’s Gazelles : . 403, 408, 409 
Young Masai Hartebeest . : AL 
A Herd of Hartebeests A . 414 
Hartebeests with Young . : » 415 
Waterbuck = : 2 ATS 
The Skinning of an Elephant - 420, 421 
A Missionary’s Dwelling . 424 
Elephants killed by the ‘Author . 426, 427 
Some African Trophies. - 429 
Black-headed Herons 3 . 431 
Rhinoceros Heads. ; : 434, 435 


An Eland Bull . ‘ facing 438 
An Eland, just beforethe Finishing Shot 441 
An Eland Bull . ; 

Rhinoceroses, with and without Horns 


459, 451 
Snapshot of a Rhinoceros at twenty 
paces . ; » 455 
Shelter from a Rhinoceros ‘ - 459 
An Emaciated Rhinoceros : 4: 40% 
Specimen of Stone against which 
Rhinoceroses whet their Horns . 463 


A ‘* Rhino” in sitting posture facing 464 
A Rock-pool on Kilimanjaro 467 
Masai Killing a Hyena with Clubs . yk 


The Moods of a Lion Cub. - 472, 473 
Record of a Lion-hunt , - 479 
A Lionat Bay . : - 483 
Studies of a Trapped tion - 485 


eS 
~s IF eg ’ 
Sa oy, 


Muardaciy. 
baeae 


List of Illustrations in Vol. II -» 


PAGE 

The Lion . had dragged the Trap 
some distance . , facing 488 
Carrying a Live Lion to Camp . . 489 
A Captured Lioness . : ’ - 492 
A Trapped Lion roaring « « 493 
Flashlight Photograph of a Lion » 495 
Photograph of a Lion at five paces 499 


Hauling a Live Hyena into Camp. 501 


Hyena Chained up in Camp « 505 
‘Masai making game ofa Trapped Hyena 507 
Specimens of Elephant-tusks . . 511 
Record Elephant-tusks . i + 513 
A Store of Elephant- -tusks . : + 517 


Auk and Auk’s Egg . 
Thicket frequented se Elephants » 525 
Velt Fires . - ; 
An old Acacia-tree . 537 
Studies of Elephants in Dense F orest 
Growth . . facing 540 
Elephants and Giraffe—a Quaint Com- 
panionship . » 544, 545 
A Young Lion . : : - 549 
Study in Protective “ Mimicry ” 550 
Griaffe Studies 552,553; 558,5593 564, 565 
Giraffes in Characteristic Surroundings 


facing 568 
Head of a Giraffe : : ; . 569 
Giraffe Studies . i han 75 
Giraffa schillingsi, Mtsch. . facing 576 
Crested Cranes on the Wing - - 577 
Hungry Vultures ; ; . 578 
Pitching Camp . : : . 579 
My Taxidermist at Work . : . 581 
Termite Ant-hills . A “O38 
An unusually large Ant- hill : SOF 
Prince Lowenstein. . 589 
Destroying an Ant-hill with Pick and 
Shovel . . 590 
Serving out Provisions 3 » 592 
Bearer’s Wife preparing a Meal. . 592 
Young Baboons in front of my Tent . 593 
Young Ostriches : : : - 593 
Marabou Nests . . 595, 598 
Feathered members of my Camp . 599 
A rather Mixed-up Photograph . . 601 


My Rhinoceros: in the Berlin ‘‘ Zoo” 


and on the Velt . 606, 607 
How my captive “Rhino” was 

Carried toCamp . ; 2OL2 
Carrying a Dead Leopard . : s2012 


My “ Rhino” and her Two Companions 613 
A Young Hyena extracted from its Lair 613 
Vultures : 


Onthe Wing. ; , . 618 
Hovering over a Carcase . . 619 
Moving away from a Carcase . 621 
My Pelicans ; : : : O28 


PAGE 
A SiestainCamp . . 62 
A Strange Friendship . 62 
‘‘ Fatima” Prowling Round . 629 
Carrying a fine Leopard . 631 


Killing Game in accordance with 

Mohammedan rites . : - 633 
Cutting up the Carcase. : . 633 
A Trapped Leopard . . 635 
The Baboon and the Little Black Lady 636 
Moonlight on the Velt Sacing 636 
A Fowl of the Velt ; . 637 
A River-horse Resort... . 639 
One of the Peaks of Donje- Erok . 641 


Drawing Water for the March 643 
Vultures: 47" ‘ : - 645 
Flashlight Photographs ; . 648, 649 
My Night-apparatus in position . . 653 
A Pet of the Caravan. .* 
A Baobab-tree . - 655 


Flashlight Photograph of a Mongoose 657 
Apparatus for Night Photography 660, 661 
Vultures contesting the Possession of 
Carrion . . 665 
First Dry-plate Photograph, probably, 
ever taken in the African Desert . 667 
Photographic Mishaps : 


Cracked Glass Plate . ; . 669 
Plate Exposed Twice . : . 673 
Telephotograph of Ostriches . - 677 


Photographs of Birds taken at dis- 
tances varying from 20 to 200 paces 681 

Telephotographs of Birds on the Wing 683 

Dwarf Gazelle, photographed at sixty 


paces . - 684 
Jackal taking to F light, startled by the 
Flashlight . - 685 


Lioness frightened away from Carcase 
by the Flashlight Jacing 688 
Aiming at a Pigeon and Hitting a 
Crow! . . facing 688 
Hand-camera Photograph of a Jackal 689 
Photograph of a Jackal taken with my 


first Night-apparatus. . 689 
Flashlight Enotogrepeh my Native 
Models . . 691 


Flashlight Failures 694, 695 ; 697, 698 


Photographic Studies of Antelopes 
shot by the Author ; . 699 
Jackals. facing 702 
East-African Antelopes shot by the 
Author . ; ‘ - 703 
More Antelopes . : OF 
Spotted and Striped Hyenas and 
Jackal. : - Jil 
A Jackal in full Flight : 71S 
Guinea-fowl F : : . 2. 
Farewell to Africa. : ? . 716 


Vili 


SPURRED GEESE (PLECTROPTERUS GAMBENSIS), 


VIIl 


In a Primeval Forest 


CENES of marvellous beauty open out before the 

wanderer who follows the windings of some great 

river through the unknown regions of Equatorial East 
Africa. 

The dark, turbid stream is to find its way, after a 
thousand twists and turns, into the Indian Ocean.  Filter- 
ings from the distant glaciers of Kilimanjaro come down 
into the arid velt, there to form pools and rivulets that 
traverse in part the basin of the Djipe Lake and at last 
are merged in the Rufu River. As is so often the case 
with African rivers, the banks of the Rufu are densely 
wooded throughout its long course, the monotony of which 
is broken by a number of rapids and one big waterfall. 
Save in those rare spots where the formation of the soil 
is favourable to their growth, the woods do not extend 
into the velt. Trees and shrubs alike become parched 

VOL. II 319 21 


In Wildest Africa -» 


a few steps away from the sustaining river. The abun- 
dance of fish in the river is tremendous in its wilder 
reaches——inexhaustible, it would seem, despite the thousands 


of animal enemies. The river continually overflows its — 


banks, and the resulting swamps give such endless oppor- 
tunities for spawning that at times every channel is alive 
with fry and inconceivable multitudes of small fishes. 

It is only here and there and for short stretches that 
the river is lost in impenetrable thickets. Marvellous 
are those serried ranks of trees! marvellous, too, the 
sylvan galleries through which more usually it shapes its 
way! They take the eye captive and seem to withhold 
some unsuspected secret, some strange riddle, behind their 
solid mass of succulent foliage. It is strange that these 
primeval trees should still survive in all their strength with 
all the parasitic plants and creepers that cling to them, 
strangling them in their embrace. You would almost say 
that they lived on but as a prop to support the plants and 
creepers in their fight for life. Convolvuli, white and 
violet, stoop forward over the water, and the golden 
yellow acacia blossoms brighten the picture. 

In the more open reaches dragonflies and butterflies 
glisten all around us in the moist atmosphere. A grass- 
green tree-snake glides swiftly through the branches of a 
shrub close by. A Waran (Waranus niloticus) runs 
to the water with a strange sudden rustle through 
the parched foliage. Everywhere are myriads of insects. 
Wherever you look, the woods teem with life. These 
woods screen the river from the neighbouring velt, 
the uniformity of which is but seldom broken in upon by 


320 


= vi hahaa 


els ¥ iS s 
m 
‘ 
» 
. 
oe 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
VIEW OF MAWENZI, 


THE HIGHEST PEAK BUT ONE OF KILIMANJARO 


’ 


TAKEN 


WITH A TELEPHOTO 


LENS 


C. G, Schillings, phot. 


VIEW OF KILIMANJARO, TAKEN AT SUNSET. 


aT 


- In a Primeval Forest 


es of vegetation. The character of the flora has 
hing northern about it to the unlearned eye, as is the 
so often in East Africa. It is only when you come 
denly upon the Dutch palms (Borassus ethiopicus, 
art., or the beautiful Wyphene thebaica, Mart.) that you 
once again that you are in the tropics. 

‘The river now makes a great curve round to the right. 
different kind of scene opens out to the gaze—a great 
stretch of open country. In the foreground the mud-banks 
the stream are astir with huge crocodiles gliding into. 
1¢ water and moving about this way and that, like 
ee-trunks come suddenly to life. Now they vanish from 
ht, but only to take up their position in ambush, ready 
snap at any breathing thing that comes unexpectedly 
hin their reach. Doubtless they find it the more easy 
sink beneath the surface of the river by reason of the 
great number of sometimes quite heavy stones they have 
swallowed, and have inside them. I have sometimes found 
as much as seven pounds of stones and pebbles in the 
tomach of a crocodile. 

__ The deep reaches of the river are their special domain. — 
Multitudes of birds frequent the shallows, knowing from 
experience that they are safe from their enemy. One 
of the most interesting things that have come under my 
observation is the way these birds keep aloof from the 
deep waters which the crocodiles infest. I have mentioned 
it elsewhere, but am tempted to allude to it once again. 
_ Our attention is caught by the wonderful wealth of 
bird-life now spread out before us in every direction. 
Here comes a flock of the curious clatter-bills (Avna- 


325 


In Wildest Africa -» 


stomus lamelligerus, Tem.) in their simple but attractive 
plumage. They have come in quest of food. Hundreds 
of other marsh-birds of all kinds have settled on the out- 
spread branches of the trees, and enable us to distinguish 
between their widely differing notes. 

Among these old trees that overhang the river, covered 
with creepers and laden with fruit of quaint shape, are 
Kigelia, tamarinds, and acacias. In amongst the dense 
branches a family of Angolan guereza apes (Colodus 
palhatus, Ptrs.) and a number of long-tailed monkeys 
are moving to and fro. Now a flock of snowy-feathered 
herons (/Zerodias garzetla, L., and Bubulcus rbzs, L.) flash 
past, dazzlingly white—two hundred of them, at least— 
alighting for a moment on the brittle branches and pausing 
in their search for food. Gravely moving their heads 
about from side to side, they impart a peculiar charm 
to the trees. Now another flock of herons (/levodzas 
alba, L.), also dazzlingly white, but birds of a larger 
growth, speed past, flying for their lives. Why is it that 
even here, in this remote sanctuary of animal life, within 
which I am the first European trespasser, these beautiful 
birds are so timorous? Who can answer that question 
with any certainty? All we know is, that it has come to 
be their nature to scour about from place to place in 
perpetual flight. Perhaps in other lands they have made 
acquaintance with man’s destructiveness. Perhaps they 
are endowed with keener senses than their smaller snow- 
white kinsfolk, which suffer us to approach so near, and 
which, like the curious clatter-bill (which have never 
yet been seen in captivity), evince no sign of shyness— 

326 


C.G. Schillings, phot. 


KIBO IN THE FOREGROUND, WITH THE SADDLE-SHAPED RANGE CONNECTING IT WITH MAWENZI 
THE AVERAGE HEIGHT OF THIS ‘‘ SADDLE’’ IS MORE THAN 16,000 FEET. 


IN THE DISTANCE, 


Gi tasaiea ode 


-» In a Primeval Forest 


g but a certain mild surprise—at the sight of 


Now, with a noisy clattering of wings, those less 
ly creatures, the Hagedasch ibises, rise in front of 
filling the air with their extraordinary cry: ‘ Heiha! 
heiha!” : 

_ Now we have a strange spectacle before our eyes—a 
“number of wild geese, perched upon the trees. The great, 
wy birds make several false starts before they make up 
eir minds to escape to safety. They present a beautiful 
ght as they make off on their powerful wings. They are 
3 ghtly styled “spurred geese,” by reason of the sharp 
* spurs they have on their wings. Hammerheads (Scopus 
umbretta, Gm.) move about in all directions. A colony 
of darters now comes into sight, and monopolises my 
attention. A few of their flat-shaped nests are visible 
nong the pendent branches of some huge acacias, rising 
9m an island in mid-stream. While several of the long- 
ecked fishing-birds seek safety in flight, others—clearly the 
females—remain seated awhile on the eggs in their nests, 
t at last, with a sudden dart, take also to their wings 
and disappear. Beneath the nesting-places of these birds 
I found great hidden shaded cavities, the resorts for ages 
past of hippopotami, which find a safe and comfortable 
haven in these small islands. 

The dark forms of these fishing-birds present a strange 
appearance in full flight. They speed past you swiftly, 
looking more like survivals from some earlier age than 
_ like birds of our own day. There is a suggestion of flying 
- lizards about them. Here they come, describing a great 


329 


In Wildest Africa » 


curve along the river’s course, at a fair height. They are. 
returning to their nests, and as they draw near | get a 
better chance of observing the varying phases of their flight. 


But look where I may, I see all around me a wealth © 


of tropical bird-life. Snow-white herons balance them- 
selves on the topmost branches of the acacias. Barely 
visible against the deep-blue sky, a brood-colony of 
wood ibis pelicans (Zantalus 7bzs, L.) fly hither and thither, 
seeking food for their young. Other species of herons, 
notably the black-headed heron, so like our own common 
heron (Ardea melanocephala, Vig., Childr.), and further 
away a great flock of cow-herons (Budbulcus 262s, L.), 
brooding on the acacias upon the island, attract my 
attention. Egyptian Kingfishers (Cervyle rudzs, L.) dart 
down to the water’s edge, and return holding tiny fishes 
in their beaks to their perch above. 

The numbers and varieties of birds are in truth almost 
bewildering to the spectator. Here is a marabou which 


has had its midday drink and is keeping company for the 


moment with a pair of fine-looking saddled storks (Zphzp- 
ptorhynchus senegalensis, Shaw); there great regiments of 
crested cranes; single specimens of giant heron (Ardea 
goliath, Cretzschm.) keep on the look-out for fish in a 
quiet creek; on the sandbanks, and in among the 


thickets alongside, a tern (Qldvcnemus vermiculatus, Cab.) 


is enjoying a sense of security. Near it are gobbling 
Egyptian geese and small plovers. A great number of 
cormorants now fly past, some of them settling on the 
branches of a tree which has fallen into the water. They 
are followed by Tree-geese (Dendrocygna ziduata, L.), 


339 


RIVER-BED VEGETATION ON THE VELT. 


- In a Primeval Forest 


= plovers and night-herons, numerous sea-swallows 
Il as seagulls; snipe (Galknago media, Frisch.), and 
strange painted snipe (Rostratula bengalensis, L.), the 
‘ophylus africanus, and marsh-fowl (Ortygometra 
la obscura, Neum.), spurred lapwing (Hoplopterus 
crosus, Lcht.), and many other species. Now there 
rings out, distinguishable from all the others, the clear 
cry—to me already so familiar and so dear—of the 
sreeching sea-eagle, that most typical frequenter of 
these riverside regions of Africa and so well meriting 
s name. A chorus of voices, a very Babel of sound, 
breaks continually upon the ear, for the varieties of small 
ds are also well represented in this region. The most. 
autiful of all are the cries of the organ-shrike and of the 
sea-eagle. The veritable concerts of song, however, that — 
you hear from time to time are beyond the powers of 
description, and can only be cherished in the memory. 
There is a glamour about the whole life of the African 
wonderland that recalls the forgotten fairy tales of child- 
hood’s days, a sense of stillness and loveliness. Every 
urve of the stream tells of secrets to be unearthed and 
veals unsuspected beauties, in the forms and shapes of 
the Phoenix palms and all the varieties of vegetation ; in 
he indescribable tangle of the creepers; in the ever- 
changing effects of light and shade; finally in the sudden 
glimpses into the life of the animals that here make their 
e. You see the deep, hollowed-out passages down to 
e river that tell of the coming and going of the hippo- 
mus and rhinoceros, made use of also by the crocodiles. 
is with a shock of surprise that you see a specimen of our 


333 


In Wildest Africa » 


own ‘great red deer come hither at midday to quench his 


thirst 
than he is to be seen elsewhere. A herd of wallowing 


a splendid figure, considerably bigger and stronger 


wart-hogs or river-swine will sometimes startle you into 
hasty retreat before you realise what they are. The 
-tree-tops rock under the weight and motion of apes 
unceasingly. scurrying from branch to branch. Every 
now and again the eye is caught by the sight of groups of 


crocodiles, now basking contentedly in the sun, now 


betaking themselves again to the water in that stealthy, 
sinister, gliding way of theirs. 

Not so long ago the African traveller found such scenes 
as these along the banks of every river. Nowadays, too 
many have been shorn of all these marvels. Take, for 
instance, the old descriptions of the Orange River and of 
the animal life met with along its course. No trace of 
it now remains. > 

I should like to give a picture of the animal life still 
extant along the banks of the Pangani. The time is 
inevitably approaching when that, too, will be a thing of 
the past, for it is not to be supposed that advancing 
civilisation. will prove less destructive here. 

So recently as the year 1896 the course of the river 
was for the most part unknown. When } followed it for 
the second*time in 1897, and when in subsequent years I 
explored both its banks for great distances, people were 
still so much in the dark about it that several expeditions 
were sent out to discover whether it was navigable. 

That it was not navigable I myself had long known. 
Its numerous rapids are impracticable for boats even in the 


334 


ee 


C. G, Schillings, phot. 


‘ A FISHERMAN’S BAG! THREE |CROCODILES SECURED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE 
WAY DESCRIBED IN “ WITH FLASHLIGHT AND RIFLE.” 


VOL. II 


i) 
NO 


—» In a Primeval. Forest 


sason. In the dry season they present insuperable 
les to navigation of any kind. 
he basin of the Djipe Lake inthe upper reaches of the 
i, and the Pangani swamps below its lower reaches, 
sd a kind of natural preserve for every variety of the 
ellous fauna of East Africa. It was a veritable El 
do for the European sportsman, but one attended by 
kinds of perils and difficulties. The explorer found 
old compensation, however, for everything in the 
ampled opportunities afforded him for the study of 
ife in the midst of these stifling marshes and lagoons. 
experience of listening night after night to the myriad 
ices of the wilderness is beyond description. 
ippopotami were extraordinarily numerous at one time 
he comparatively small basin of the Djipe Lake. In 
my long sojourn by the banks of the Pangani I only 
two, and | never again went after any. There were 
numbers, however, round Djipe Lake ten years ago 
you often saw dozens of them together at one time. 
- that by now they have been nearly exterminated. 
Here, as everywhere else, the natives have levied but 
| tribute upon the numbers of the wild animals, a 
e in keeping with the nature of their primitive 
ons. Elephants used regularly to make their way 
to the water-side from the Kilimanjaro woods. My 
friend Nguruman, the Ndorobo chieftain, used to lie in 
t for them, with his followers, concealed in the dense 
s along the river. But the time came when the 
hants ceased to make their appearance. The old 
in ter, whose body bore signs of many an encounter 


In Wildest Africa -» 


with lions as well as elephants, and who used often to hold 
forth to me beside camp fires on the subject of these 
adventures, could not make out why his eagerly coveted 
quarry had become so scarce. Every other species of 
.“ big game” was well represented, however, and according 
to the time of the year I enjoyed ever fresh opportuni- 
ties for observation. Generally speaking, it would bea case 
of watching one aspect of wild life one day and-another all 
the next, but now and again my eyes and ears would be 
surfeited and bewildered by its manifestations. The sketch- 
plans on which I used to record my day’s doings and 
seeings serve now to recall to me all the multiform 
experiences that fell to my lot. What-a pity it is that the 


old explorers of South Africa have left no such memoranda 


behind them for our benefit! They would enable us to 
form a better idea of things than we can derive from any 
kind of pictures or descriptions. 


I shall try now to give some notion of all the different 
sights | would sometimes come upon in a single day. It 
would often happen that, as 1 was making my way down the 
Pangani in my light folding craft, or else was setting out for 
the velt which generally lay beyond its girdle of brushwood, 
showers of rain would have drawn herds of elephants down 
from the mountains.'’ Even when I did not actually come 
within sight of them, it was always an intense enjoyment 


* Male Emperor-moths (Saturnia pyri) hasten from great distances, — 


even against the wind, to a female of the species emerging from the 
chrysalis state in captivity. Llephants, the author believes, can scent a 
fall of rain at a distance of many miles. 


338 


Pe, SN ee 


a an! " 


CLATTER-BILLS SETTLING UPON THE BARE BRANCHES OF RIVERSIDE TREES. 


c. G. Schillings, phot. 


C G. Schillings, phot. 


. 


CLATTER-BILLS (4NASTOMUS LAMELLIGERUS, Tem.). 


_» In a Primeval Forest 


1e to trace the immense footsteps of these nocturnal 

s. Perhaps the cunning animals would have already 
several miles between my camp and their momentary 
ping place. But their tracks afforded me always most 
ssting clues to their habits, all the more valuable by 
n of the rare chances one has of observing them in 
ight, when they almost always hide away in impenetrable 
ickets. What excitement there is in the stifled cry 
embo!” In a moment your own eye perceives the 
mistakable traces of the giant’s progress. The next 
s to do is to examine into the tracks and ascertain as 
as possible the number, age and sex of the animals. 
hen you follow them up, though generally, as I have said, 
The hunter, however, who without real hope of over- 
ing the elephants themselves yet persists in following 
their tracks just because they have so much to tell him, 
be all the readier to turn aside presently, enticed in 
her direction by the scarcely less notable traces of a 
d of buffaloes. Follow these now and you will soon 
scover that they too have found safety, having made their 
into an impenetrable morass. To make sure of this 
must perhaps clamber up a thorny old mimosa tree, 
alive with ants—not a very comfortable method of 
ing a bird's-eye view. Numbers of snow-white ox- 
kers flying about over one particular point in the great 
erness of reeds and rushes betray the spot in which the 


aloes have taken refuge. 
The great green expanse stretches out before you 
onotonously, and even in the bright sunlight you can see 


343 


In Wildest Africa -» 


no other sign of the animal life of various kinds concealed 
beneath the sea of rushes waving gently in the breeze. 
Myriads of insects, especially mosquitoes and _ ixodides, 
attack the invaders; the animals are few that do not 
fight shy of these morasses. They are the province of 
the elephants, which here enjoy complete security ; of the 
hippopotami, whose mighty voice often resounds over them 
by day as by night; of the buffaloes, which wallow in the 
mud and pools of water to escape from their enemies the 
gadflies ; and finally of the waterbuck, which are also able 
to make their way through even the deeper regions of the 
swamp. Wart-hogs also—the African equivalent of our 
own wild boars—contrive to penetrate into these regions, 


so inhospitable to mankind. We shall find no other 


representatives, however, of the big game of Africa. It is 
only in Central Africa and in the west that certain species 
of antelope frequent the swamps. In the daytime the 
elephant and the buffalo are seldom actually to be seen in 
them, nor does one often catch sight of the hippopotami, 
though they are so numerous and their voices are to be 
heard. As we grope through the borders of the swamp, 
curlew (Glareola fusca, L.) flying hither and thither all 
around us, we are startled ever and anon by a sudden rush 
of bush and. reed buck plunging out from their resting- 
places and speeding away from us for their life. Even 
when quite small antelopes are thus started up by the 
sound of our advance, so violent is their flight that for 
the moment we imagine that we have to deal with some 
huge and perhaps dangerous beast. 

In those spots where large pools, adorned with wonderful 


344 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


A MARSHLAND 


VIEW. 


" 


AN OSPREY IN AMONG THE REEDS—THE BIRD FOR WHOSE 
OF ENGLAND HAS LATELY PLEADED, 


PROTECTION QUEEN ALEXANDRA 


C.G Schillings, thot. 


SNOW-WHITE HERONS MADE THEIR NESTS IN THE ACACIAS NEAR MY CAMP AND SHOWED NO MARKED TIMIDITY. 


‘yh bEEE RG 


4! 


tbe are 


a 
mer, 

| af 

, 


A SINGLE PAIR OF CRESTED CRANES WERE OFTEN TO BE SEEN NEAR MY CAMP. 


‘ 


A SNAKE-VULTURE. I SUCCEEDED TWICE ONLY IN SECURING A PHOTOGRAPH 
OF THIS BIRD. 


23 


THE PRESERVATION OF THE HIDE OF THIS SPECIMEN PROVED UNSUCCESSFUL. 
MANAGEABLE 


IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO PRESERVE HIPPOPOTAMUS-HIDES WITHOUT HUGE QUANTITIES OF ALUM AND SALT, 
THE SKIN OF THE HEAD IS THINNER AND MORE 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
A HIPPOPOTAMUS. 


PREPARING TO SKIN 
IT 
BOTH VERY HARD TO GET IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA. 


THAN THAT OF THE REST OF THE BODY 


6 : EN 


eee s. 


Say Saige See wie. i ee an om aah Ae : Tag 7 ee Y 
ITAMI, PO ING THEIR HEADS OR EARS AND enor fe ee iD = 


-» In a Primeval Forest 


ater-lilies, give a kind of symmetry to the wilderness, 
we come upon such a wealth of bird-life as enables us to 
form some notion of what this may have been in Europe 
long ago under similar conditions. The splendid great 
white heron (/erodias alba, L., and garzetta, L.) and 
eat flocks of the active little cow-herons (Audbulcus 262s, L.) 
ake their appearance in company with sacred ibises and 
orm a splendid picture in the landscape. Some species 
of those birds with their snow-white feathers stand out 
picturesquely against the rich green vegetation of the 
swamp. When, startled by our approach, these birds take 
to flight, and the whole air is filled by them and by the 
curlews (Glareola fusca, L.) that have hovered over us, 
keeping up continually their soft call, when in every direc- 
tion we see all the swarms of other birds—sea-swallows 
Gelocheldon nilotica, Hasselg.), lapwings, plovers (Chara- 
driide), Egyptian geese, herons, pelicans, crested cranes 
and storks—the effect upon our eyes and ears is almost 
_ overpowering. 

How mortal lives are intertwined and interwoven! The 
ox-peckers swarm round the buffaloes and protect them 
from their pests, the ticks and other parasites. The small 
_ species of marsh-fowl rely upon the warning cry of the 
Egyptian geese or on the sharpness of the herons, ever on 
the alert and signalling always the lightning-like approach 
of their enemy the falcons (Fado diarmicus, Tem., and 
fF. minor, Bp.). All alike have sense enough to steer clear 
of the crocodiles, which have to look to fish chiefly for their 
nourishment, like almost all the frequenters of these marshy 
regions. 


355 


In Wildest Africa -» 


The quantities of fish I have found in every pool in 
these swamps defy description—I am anxious to insist 


upon this point—and this although almost all the count- 


less birds depend on them chiefly for their food. Busy 


beaks and bills ravage every pool and the whole surface 


of the lagoon-like swamp for young fish and fry. The 
herons and darters (Assengha rufa, Lacép. Daud.) manage 
even to do some successful fishing in the deeper waters 
of the river. And yet, in spite of all these fish-eaters, the 
river harbours almost a superabundance of fish." 
Wandering along by the river, we take in all these 
impressions. For experiences of quite another kind, we 
have only to make for the neighbouring velt, now arid 


again and barren, and thence to ascend the steep ridges 


leading up to the tableland of Nyika. 

Behind us. we leave the marshy region of the river 
and the morass of reeds. Before us rises Nyika, crudely 
yellow, and the laterite earth of the velt glowing red 
under the blazing sun. The contrast is strong between 
the watery wilderness from which we have emerged and 
these higher ranges of the velt with their strange vegeta- 
tion. _Here we shall find many species of animals that we 
should look for in vain down there below, animals that live 
differently and on scanty food up here, even in the dry 
season. The buffaloes also know where to go for fresh 
young grass even when they are in the marshes, and they 
reject the ripened green grass. The dwellers on the velt 
are only to be found amidst the lush vegetation of the 


1 The author would like to bring this fact home to all deters of 
herons, kingfishers, and diving-birds, 


356 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
HEAD OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS (H/PPOPOTAMUS AFR, ABYSSINICUS, Less.) WHICH I ENCOUNTERED ON DRY LAND AND WHICH 
_NEARLY of DID 4 FOR ME. : 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
MY OLD FRIEND “ NGURUMAN,”’ A WANDOROBO CHIEF. HIS BODY IS SEARED 
BY MANY SCARS THAT TELL OF ENCOUNTERS WITH ELEPHANTS AND LIONS. 


- In a Primeval Forest 


valley at night time, when they make their way down to 
the river-side to drink.’ It is hard to realise, but they find 
all the food they need on the high velt. When you examine 
the stomachs of wild animals that you have killed, you note 
with wonder the amount of fresh grass and nourishing 
shrubs they have found to eat in what seem the barrenest 
districts. The natives of these parts show the same kind 
_ of resourcefulness. The Masai, for instance, succeeds most 
_ wonderfully in providing for the needs of his herds in regions 
_ which the European would call.a desert. I doubt whether 
_ the European could ever acquire this gift. Out here on the 
velt we shall catch sight of small herds of waterbuck, never 
to be seen in the marshes. We shall see at midday, under 
_ the bare-looking trees, herds of Grant's gazelles too, and 
_ the oryx antelope. Herds of gnus, going through with 
_ the strangest antics as they make off in flight, are another 
feature in the picture, while the fresh tracks of giraffes, 
_eland, and ostriches tell of the presence of all these. 
_ Wart-hogs, a herd of zebras in the distance—like a splash 
e of black—two ostrich hens, and a multitude of small game 
_and birds of all descriptions add to the variety. But what 
_ delights the ornithologist’s eye more than anything is the 
charming sight of a golden yellow bird, now mating. Up 
it flies into the sky from the tree-top, soon to come down 
again with wings and tail outstretched, recalling our own 
singing birds. You would almost ‘fancy it was a canary. 


The Masai distinguish the kinds of grass which their cattle eat and 
reject. Many kinds of grass with pungent grains, such as Andropogon 
contortus, \.., are rejected entirely. Yet the tough bow-string hemp is to 
the taste of many wild animals—the small kudu, for instance. 


361 


In Wildest Africa -» 


Only in this one region of the velt have I come upon this 
exquisite bird (Zmetothylacus tenellus, Cal.), nowhere else 

Thus would I spend day after day, getting to know 
almost all the wild denizens of East Africa, either by seeing 
them in the flesh or by studying their iracks and traces, 
-cherishing more and more the wish to be able to achieve 
some record of all these beautiful phases of wild life. I 
repeat: as a rule you will carry away with you but one or 
another memory from your too brief day’s wandering, but 
there come days when a succession of marvellous pictures 
seem to be unrolled before your gaze, as in an endless 
panorama. It is the experience of one such day that I have 
tried here to place on record. Professor Moebius is right 
in what he says: ‘‘ Aésthetic views of animals are based not 
upon knowledge of the physiological causes of their forms, 
colouring, and methods of motion, but upon the impression 
made upon the observer by their various features and out- 
ward characteristics as parts of a harmonious whole. The 
more the parts combine to effect this unity and harmony, 
the more beautiful the animal seems to us.” Similarly, a 
landscape seems to me most impressive and harmonious 
when it retains all its original elements. No section of its 
flora or fauna can be removed without disturbing the 
harmony of the whole. 

Within a few years, if this be not actually the case 
already, all that I have here described so fully will no 
longer be in existence along the banks of the Pangani. 
When I myself first saw these things, often my thoughts 
went back to those distant ages when in the lands now 
known as Germany the same description of wild life was 

362 


Crea de. 


C. G. Schillings, phot: 


EGYPTIAN GEESE. 


Piece, 


OC GC... Schi. 

‘ACSIMILE REPRODUCTION OF ONE OF MY HUNTING RECORD-CARDS, ENUMERATING 
ALL THE DIFFERENT ANIMALS I SIGHTED ONE DAY (AUGUST 21, 1898) IN 
THE COURSE OF AN EXPEDITION IN THE VICINITY OF THE MASIMANI HILLS, 
HALF-WAY UP THE PANGANI RIVER. THE DOTTED LINE SHOWS MY ROUTE 
AND THE NUMBERS INDICATE THE SPOTS AT WHICH I CAME UPON THE VARIOUS 

SPECIES OF GAME. AT ANOTHER TIME OF THE YEAR THIS DISTRICT WOULD 

: BE ENTIRELY DESTITUTE OF WILD LIFE. 


ae 


- VOL II 24 


- In a Primeval Forest 


A SEA-GULL. 


A MASAI THROWING HIS SPEAR. 


IX 


After Elephants with Wandorobo 


u IG game hunting is a fine education!” With this 

opinion of Mr. H. A. Bryden I am in entire 
agreement, but I cannot assent to the dictum so often cited 
of some of the most experienced African hunters, to the 
effect that Equatorial East Africa offers the sportsman no 
adequate compensation for all the difficulties and dangers 
there to be faced. 

I cannot subscribe to this view, because to my mind 
these very difficulties and dangers impart to the sport of 
this region a fascination scarcely to be equalled in any 
other part of the world. It is only in tropical Africa that 
you will find the last splendid specimens of an order of 
wild creation. surviving from other eras of the earth’s 
history. Jt is not to be denied that you must pay a high 
price for the joy of hunting them. That goes without 


370 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


A POWERFUL OLD HIPPOPOTAMUS ON HIS WAY TO HIS HAUNT IN THE SWAMP AT DAYBREAK, 


J 


-» After Elephants with Wandorobo 


ying in a country where your every requisite, great and 
small, has to be carried on men’s shoulders—no other form 
transport being available—from the moment you set foot 
within the wilderness. I am not now talking of quite short 
xpeditions, but of the bigger enterprises which take the 
traveller into the interior fora period of months. I hold 
hat this breaking away from all the resources of civilised 
ife should be one of the sportsman’s chief incentives, and 
e of his chief enjoyments. I can, of course, quite 
inderstand experienced hunters taking another view. 
Many have had such serious encounters with the big: 
game they have shot, and above all such unfortunate 
xperiences of African climates, that they may well have 
ad enough of such drawbacks. 

_ Their assertions, in any case, tend to make it clear that 
sport in this East African wilderness is no child's play. 
In reality, all depends upon the character and equipment 
f the man who goes in for it. The apparently difficult 
game of tennis presents no difficulties to the expert tennis- 
layer. With an inferior player it is otherwise. So it is 
in regard to hunting in the tropics. It is obvious that 
experience in sport here at home is of the greatest possible 
use out there—is, in fact, absolutely essential to one’s 
success. Only those should attempt it who are prepared 
to do everything and cope with all obstacles for themselves, 
who do not need to rely on others, and whose nerves are 
i proof against the extraordinary excitements and_ strains 
hich out there are your daily experience. 

I myself am conscious of a steadily increasing distaste 
for face-to-face encounters with, rhinoceroses, and with 


371 


In Wildest Africa -» 


elephants still more. There are indeed other denizens 


of the East African jungle whose defensive and offensive © 


capabilities it would be no less a mistake to under estimate. 
The most experienced and most authoritative Anglo-Saxon 
sportsmen are, in fact, agreed that, whether it be a question 
of going after lions or leopards or African buffaloes, sooner 
or later the luck goes against the hunter. Of recent years 
a large number of good shots have lost their Jives in Africa. 
If one of these animals once gets at you, you are as good 
as dead. To be chased by an African elephant is as 
exciting a sensation as a man could wish for. The fierce- 
ness of his on-rush passes description. He makes for you 
suddenly, unexpectedly. The overpowering proportions of 
the enraged beast—the grotesque aspect of his immense 
flapping ears, which make his huge head look more 
formidable than ever—the incredible pace at which he 
thunders along—all combine with his shrill trumpeting to 
produce an effect upon the mind of the hunter, now turned 
quarry, which he will never shake himself rid of as long as life 
lasts. When—as happened once to me—it isa case not of 
one single elephant, but of an entire herd giving chase in 
the open plain (as described in With Flashlight and Rifle), 
the reader will have no difficulty in understanding that 
even now I sometimes live the whole situation over again 
in my dreams and that I have more than once awoke from 
them in a frenzy of terror. 

Of course, a man becomes hardened in regard to hunting 
accidents in course of time, especially if all his adventures 
have had fortunate issues. When, however, a man has 
repeatedly escaped destruction by a hair’s-breadth only, and 


372 


ORYX ANTELOPE BULL, NOT YET AWARE OF MY APPROACH. 


A HERD: OF ORYX ANTELOPES (0&L¥ CALLOTIS, Thos,), CALLED BY THE 
COAST-FOLK ‘‘ CHIROA.’’ 


WATERBUCK,. THEY SOMETIMES LOOK QUITE BLACK, AS THIS PHOTOGRAPH 
SUGGESTS. IT DEPENDS UPON THE LIGHT, 


HEAD OF A BULL WATERBUCK (COBUS ELLIPSIPRYMNUS, Ogilb.). 


-» After Elephants with Wandorobo 


when incidents of this kind have been heaped up one on 
another within a brief space of time, the effects upon the 
nervous system become so great.that even with the utmost 
self-mastery a man ceases to be able to bear them. As 
I have already said, the total number of casualties in the 
ranks of African sportsmen is not inconsiderable. 
In Germany, of course, we have time-honoured sports 
of a dangerous nature too, but these are exceptions—for 
instance, killing the wild boar with a spear, and mountain- 
climbing and stalking. 
In order to understand fully the mental condition of the 
sportsman in dangerous circumstances such as I have 
described, it is necessary to realise the way in which he 
is affected by his loneliness, his complete severance from 
the rest of mankind. There is all the difference in the 
world between the situation of a number of men taking 
up a post of danger side by side, and that of the man who 
4 stands by himself, either at the call of duty or impelled 
bya sense of daring. He has to struggle with thoughts 
and fears against which the others are sustained by mutual 
example and encouragement. 
. But, as I have said, the great fascination of sport in 
_ the tropics lies precisely in the dangers attached. Therein, 
too, lies the source of that pluck and vigour which the 
sport-hardened Boers displayed in their struggles with 
the English. The perils they had faced in their pursuit 
of big game had made brave men of them. 


Now let us set out in company with the most expert 
hunters of the velt on an expedition of a rather special 


oye 


In Wildest Africa -» 


kind—the most dangerous you can go in for in this part 
of the world—an elephant-hunt. In prehistoric days the 
mammoth was hunted with bow and arrow in almost the 
same fashion as the elephant is to-day by certain tribes 
of natives. Taking part in one of their expeditions, one 
‘feels it easy to go back in imagination to the early eras 
of mankind. This feeling imparts a peculiar fascination 
to the experience. 

After a good deal of trouble I had got into friendly — 
relations with some of these nomadic hunters. It was a 
difficult matter, because they fight shy of Europeans and 
of the natives from the coast, such as my bearers and 
followers generally. I knew, moreover, that our friendship 
might be of short duration, for these distrustful children 
of the velt might disappear at any moment, leaving not 
a trace behind them. However, I had at least succeeded, 
by promises of rich rewards in the shape of iron and brass 
wire, in winning their goodwill. After many days of 
negotiation they told me that elephants might very likely 
be met with shortly in a certain distant part of the velt. 
The region in question was impracticable for a large 
caravan. Water is very scarce there, rock pools affording 
cnly enough for a few men, and only for a short time. 
At this period of the year the animals had either to make 
incredibly long journeys to their drinking-places, or else 
content themselves with the fresh succulent grass sprouting 
up after the rains, and with the moisture in the young 
leaves of the trees and bushes. 

I set out one day in the early morning for this locality 
with a few of my men in company with the Wandorobo. 


378 


marae 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
MY WANDOROBO GUIDES ON THE MARCH, WITH ALL THEIR ‘‘ HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE” ON THEIR'BACKS ! 


ah aor SEBEL OE puee TO AEE FOR ME a3 aGUIRES. 
pais athe vit 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


-~» After Elephants with Wandorobo 


After a long and fatiguing march in the heat of the sun, 
we encamp in the evening at one of the. watering-places. 
To-day, to my surprise, there is quite a large supply of 
water, owing to rain last night. The elephants, with their 
unfailing instinct, have discovered the precious liquid. They 
have not merely drunk in the pool, but have also enjoyed a 
bath; their tracks and the colour and condition of the 
_water show that clearly. Therefore we do not pitch our 
camp near the pool, but out in the velt at some distance 
away, so as not to interfere with the elephants in case they 
‘should be moved to return to the water. 

But the wily beasts do not come a second time, and we 
are obliged to await morning to follow their tracks in 
the hope of luck. The Wandorobo on ahead, I and two 
of my men following, make up the small caravan, while 
some of my other followers remain behind at the watering- 
place in a rough camp. I have provided myself with all 
essentials for two or three days, including a supply of 
water contained in double-lined water-tight sacks. For 
hour after hour we follow the tracks clearly defined upon 
the still damp surface of the velt. Presently they lead us 
through endless stretches of shrubs and acacia bushes and 
bow-string hemp, then through the dried-up beds of rain- 
pools now sprouting here and there with luxuriant vege- 
tation. Then again we come to stretches of scorched grass, 

_ featureless save for the footsteps of the elephants. As we 

advance I am enabled to note how the animals feed them- 

selves in this desert-like region, from which they never 

wander any great distance. Here, stamping with their 

mighty feet, they have smashed some young tree-trunks 
VOL. II : 383 25 


In Wildest Africa -» 


and shorn them of their twigs and branches; and there, 
with their trunks and tusks, they have torn the bark off 
larger trees in long strips or wider slices and consumed 
them. I observe, too, that they have torn the long sword- 
shaped hemp-stalks out of the ground, and after chewing 
them have dropped the fibres gleaming white where 
they lie in the sun. The sap in this plant is clearly 
food as well as drink to them. I see, too, that at certain 
points the elephants have gathered together for a while 
under an acacia tree, and have broken and devoured all 
its lower branches and twigs. At other places it is clear 
that they have made a longer halt, from the way in which 
the vegetation all around has been reduced to nothing. 
We goon and on, the mighty footsteps keeping us absorbed 
and excited. We know that the chances are all against 
our overtaking the elephants, but the pleasures of the chase 
are enough to keep up our zest. At any moment, perhaps, 
we may come up with our gigantic fugitives. Perhaps! 

How different is the elephant’s case in Africa from 
what it is in India and Ceylon! In India it is almost 
a sacred animal; in Ceylon it is carefully guarded, and 
there is no uncertainty as to the way in which it will 
be killed. Here in Africa, however, its lot is to be the 
most sought-after big game on the face of the earth; but 
the hunter has to remember that he may be ‘‘ hoist with his 
own petard,” for the elephant is ready for the fray and 
knows what awaits him. With these thoughts in my mind 
and the way clearer at every step, the Wandorobo move 
on and on unceasingly in front. 

It is astonishing what a small supply of arms and 


384 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
A FEAST OF HONEY. A HONEY-FINDER HAD LED US TO.A HIVE, AND HERE MY MEN MAY BE SEEN REJOICING 
IN THE RESULTS. 


an ee am 


ACACIA TREE DENUDED BY ELEPHANTS, 


-~ After Elephants with Wandorobo 


utensils these sons of the velt take with them when 
starting out for journeys over Nyika that may take weeks 


AN ORYX ANTELOPE’S METHODS OF DEFENCE. 


: or months. Round their shoulders they carry a_ soft 
: dressed skin, and, hung obliquely, a strap to which a 


389 


In Wildest Africa -» 


few implements are attached, as well as a leathern pouch 
containing odds and ends, ‘Their bow they hold in one 
hand, while their quivers, filled with poisoned arrows, are 
also fastened to their shoulders by a strap. In addition 
they carry a sword in a primitive kind of scabbard. Thus 


equipped they are ready to cope with all the dangers and 


wi 


A DWARF KUDU (S7REPSICEROS IMBERBIS, Blyth). I HAVE NEVER YET 

SUCCEEDED IN PHOTOGRAPHING THIS ANIMAL ALIVE AND IN FREEDOM. 

SO FAR I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PHOTOGRAPH ONLY SPECIMENS WHICH 

I HAVE SHOT, 
discomforts of the velt, and succeed somehow in coming 
out of them victorious, 

How thoroughly the velt is known to them—every 
corner of it! To live on the velt for any time you must 
be adapted by nature to its conditions. We Europeans 
should find it as hard to become acclimatised. to it as the 


390 


ZEBRAS. 


TELEPHOTO-LENS. 


my | Tha 


ZEBRAS (£QUUS BOHM/) OUT ON THE OPEN 


VELT, 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


ee MAS. DONKEYS BRINIG IN ‘CAME; ESCORTED BY ARMED MEN. : BEARERS AARC G. TO SORT THEM AND. tO _UNBURDEN eM 


-~» After Elephants with Wandorobo 


Jandorobo would to the conditions of civilised life in 
urope. The one thing they are like us in being unable 
to forego is water—and even that they can do without for 
nger than we can. The most important factor in their 
é as hunters is their knowledge where to get water 
the different periods of the year. Their intimate 
acquaintance with the book of the velt is something 
beyond our faculty for reading print. Our experiences in 
r recent campaigns in South-West Africa have served 
to bring home the wonderful way in which the natives 
decipher and interpret the minutest indications to be found 
in the ground of the velt and know how to shape their 
‘course in accordance with them. 

This had already been brought home to me in the 
regions through which I had travelled. You must have 
__ had the experience yourself to realise the degree to which 
ivilised man has unlearnt the use of his eyes and ears. 
Whether it be a question of finding one’s bearings or 
deciding in which direction to go, or of sizing up the 
-elephant-herds from their tracks, or of distinguishing the 
tracks of one kind of antelope from those of another, or of 
detecting some faint trace of blood telling us that some 
: nimal we are after has been wounded, or of knowing 
where and when we shall come to some water, or of 
iscovering a bee’s nest with honey in it—in all such matters 
the native is as clever as we are stupid. We may make 
some progress in this kind of knowledge and capability, 
but we shall always be a bad second to the native-born 
hunter of the velt. 

With such men to act as your guides you get to feel 


390 


In Wildest Africa oy 


that traversing Nyika is as safe as mountain-climbing 
under the guidance of skilled mountaineers. You get to 
feel that you cannot lose your way or get into difficulties 
about water. One reflection, however, should never be 
quite absent from your mind—that at any moment these 
guides of yours may abandon you. That misfortune has_ 
never happened to me, and it is not likely to happen when 
the natives are properly handled. Moreover, your friend- 
ship with them can sometimes be strengthened by the 
establishment of bonds of brotherhood. A time-honoured 
practice of this kind, held sacred by the natives, can be 
of the greatest benefit. I am strongly in favour of the 
observance of these praiseworthy native customs, and 
have always been most ready to go through with the 


ceremonies involved. ) 
I endeavour to win the goodwill of my guides by | 4 
keeping to the pace they set—an easy matter for me. 
In every other way also I take pains to fall in with the = 
ways and habits of the Wandorobo, so as to attenuate q 
that feeling of antagonism which my uncivilised friends 
necessarily harbour towards the European. I owe it to | 
this, perhaps, that they did their utmost to find the : 
elephant-tracks for me. 
For hour after hour we continue our march, in and 
out, over velt and brushwood, coming every few hours 
to a watering-place, and meeting in the hollow of one 
valley an exceptionally large herd of oryx antelopes. 
Under cover of the brushwood, and favoured by the wind, 
I succeed in getting quite near this herd and thus in 
studying their movements close at hand. 


396 


Cc. GC, Schillings, phot. 


PEARL-HENS ON AN ACACIA TREE. 


A PAIR OF GRANT’S GAZELLES TAKING TO FLIGHT. 


-~» After Elephants. with Wandorobo 


; Tn the bush, not far from these oryx antelopes, I 
come unexpectedly on a small herd of beautiful dwarf 
-kudus. They take to flight, but reappear for a moment 
ina glade. This kind of sudden glimpse of these timid, 
‘pretty creatures is a real delight to one. Their great 
anxious eyes gaze inquiringly at the intruder, while their 
large ears stand forward in a way that gives a most 
curious aspect to their shapely heads. The colouring of 
their bodies accords in a most remarkable degree with 
‘their environment, and this accentuates the individuality 
| of their heads, seen thus by the hunter. Off they scamper 
again now, in a series of extraordinarily long and high 
@ _ jumps, gathering speed as they go, and unexpectedly 
darting now in one direction, now in another. It is very 
exciting work tracking the fugitive kudu, and when it is 
a question of a single specimen you may very well mark 
it down in the end; but according to my own experience 
it is next to impossible to follow up a herd, for one 
animal after another breaks away from it, seeking safety 
on its own account. 
_ Now we come again to an open grassy stretch of 
velt. With a sudden clatter of hoofs a herd of some 
thirty zebras some hundred paces off take to flight and 
escape unhurt by us into the security of a distant thicket. 
The older animals and the leaders of the herd keep 
looking backwards anxiously with outstretched necks. 
Even in the thicket their bright colouring makes them 
discernible at this hour of the day. But our attention 
is distracted now elsewhere. Far away on the horizon 


SAE pe 


7 i 
aa 
er... 
et ¥ 
mee 
. 
eo 
> 
ia ‘S 
i +1 
ee i* 
j 


‘appear the unique outlines of a herd of giraffes. The 
VOL. II 399 26 


In Wildest Africa -» 


timorous animals have noted our approach and are already 
making away—stopping at moments to glance at us—into 
a dense thorn-thicket. The wind favours us, so I quickly 
decide to make a detour to the right and cut them off. 
After a breathless run through the brushwood I succeed 
in getting within a few paces of one of the old members 
of the herd. This way of circumventing a herd of 
giraffes—my followers helping me by moving about all 
over the place, so as to put them off the scent—has not 
often proved successful with me, because it can only be 
managed when both wind and the formation of the country 
are in one’s favour. 

To-day I have no mind to kill the beautiful long- 
limbed beast, but it is delightful to get into such close 
touch with him. Now he is off, stepping out again, 
swinging his long tail, his immense neck dipping and 
rising like the mast of a sea-tossed ship, and the rest 
of the herd with him. 

Now, just because I have no thought of hunting, 


every kind of wild animal crosses my path! Their 


number and variety are beyond belief. We come upon 


more zebras, oryx antelopes, hartebeests, Grant’s gazelles, _ 


impalla antelopes ; upon ostriches, guinea-fowl (/Vumzda 
reichenowt and Acryllium vulturinum, Hardw.), and 
francolins. The recent rains seem to have conjured 
them all into existence here as though by magic. 

But everything else has to give precedence to the 
elephant-tracks, which now are all mixed up, though 
leading clearly to the next watering-place, towards which 
we are directing our steps down a way trodden quite 

400 


if 
i ee re ee ee ee Pe Re OM) 


A GOOD INSTANCE OF PROTECTIVE COLOURING. A HERD OF GRANT’S GAZELLES 
ALMOST INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM THEIR BACKGROUND OF THORN-BUSH. 


A GRANT’S GAZELLE BUCK STANDING OUT CONSPICUOUSLY ON THE DRIED-UP 
BED OF A LAKE NOW SO INCRUSTATED WITH SALT AS TO LOOK AS 
THOUGH SNOW-COVERED. 


FOUR GRANT’S GAZELLES. 


-~» After Elephants with Wandorobo 


hard by animals, evidently during the last few days. 


Large numbers of rhinoceroses have trampled down this 


way to the water, but neither they nor the elephants 
are to be seen in the neighbourhood while the sun is up. 


. They are too well acquainted with the habits of their 


enemy man, and they keep at a safe distance out on 
the velt. To-day, therefore, Iam to catch no glimpse 
of either elephant or rhinoceros. Wherever I turn my 
eyes, however, I see other animals of all sorts—among 
others, some more big giraffes. I am not to be put off, 
however, and I decide to follow up the tracks of a number 
of the elephants, evidently males, giving myself up anew 
to the unfailing interest I find in the study of their ways, 
and confirming the observations I had already made as 
to their finding their chief nourishment on the velt in 
tree-bark and small branches. 

Night set in more quickly than we expected while 
we were pitching camp before sunset in a cutting in a 
thorn-thicket. Spots on which fires had recently been 
lit showed us that native hunters had been there a few 
days before, and my guides said they must have been 


the Wakamba people, keen elephant-hunters, with whom 


they live at enmity, and of whose very deadly poisoned 
arrows they stand in great dread. Therefore we drew 
close round a very small camp-fire, carefully kept down. 
The glow of a big fire might have brought the Wakamba 
people down on us if they were anywhere in the neigh- 
bourhood. It seems that natives who are at war often 
attack each other in the dark. It may easily be imagined, 
then, that the first hours of our ‘night's repose” were 


405 


In Wildest Africa 


not as blissful as they should have been! After a time, 
however, our need of sleep prevailed, sheer physical 
fatigue overcame all our anxieties, and my Wandorobo 
slumbered in peace. They had contrived a ‘ charm,” 
and had set up a row of chewed twigs all round to keep 
off misfortune. Unfortunately it is not so easy for a 
European to believe in the efficacy of these precautions! 
It was interesting to observe that the Wandorobo 
evinced much greater fear of the poisoned arrows of the 
Wakamba than of wild animals. In view of my subse- 
quent experience, I myself in such a situation would view 
the possibility of being attacked by elephants with much 
greater alarm. 

As it happened, however, this night passed like 
many another—if not without danger, at least without 
mishap. 

Day dawned. No bird-voices greeted it, for, strange 
to relate, we found nothing but big game in this wooded 
wilderness, save for guinea-fowl (Wumzda reichenowr and 


Acryllhum vulturinum, Wardw.) and francolins. The 


small birds seem to have known that the water would 
soon be exhausted, and that until the advent of the 
next rainy season this was no place for them. 

In the grey of early morning we made our way out 
again into the velt. We had to visit the neighbouring 
watering-places and then to follow up some fresh set of 
elephant-tracks. It turned out that some ten big bull- 
elephants had visited one of the pools, and had left what 
remained of the water a thick yellowish mud. They 
had rubbed and scoured themselves afterwards against a 

406 


3 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
THE HERDS OF GRANT’S GAZELLES'|ARE SOMETIMES MADE UP ENTIRELY OF MALES, SOMETIMES ENTIRELY OF FEMALES. 


IN THIS PICTURE WE SEE A NUMBER OF YOUNG DOES IN SEARCH OF THE SCANTY FRESH GRASS ON A PORTION OF 
THE VELT WHICH NOT LONG BEFORE HAD BEEN BURNT UP. 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
A SMALL HERD OF GRANT’S GAZELLES, THE KILIMANJARO RANGE IN THE BACKGROUND. 


=n 
3 a 
¥- > 
ae... 
. ers 
> 
Six ; 
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Tye 

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a S, ene eS eg 


So 


es ee Pe a 


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ee 


-~» After Elephants with Wandorobo 


clump of acacia trees. Judging from the marks upon 
these trees some of the elephants in this herd must have 
been more than eleven feet in height. With renewed 
zest we followed up the fresh, distinct tracks through 
the bush, through all their twistings and turnings. Again 
we came upon all kinds of other animals—among others, 


YOUNG MASAI HARTEBEEST. I DID NOT SUCCEED IN MY EFFORTS TO BRING 
BACK A SPECIMEN OF THIS SPECIES. 


a herd of giraffes right in our path. But these were 
opportunities for the naturalist only, not for the sportsman 
who was keeping himself for the elephants and would 
not fire a shot at anything else unless in extreme danger. 
Later, at a moment when we believed ourselves to have 
got quite close to the elephants, I started an extraordinarily 
large land-tortoise—the biggest I have ever seen. I 
All 


In Wildest Africa -» 


could not get -hold of it, however—I was too much taken 
up with the hope of reaching the elephants; but after 
several more hours. of marching I had to call a halt in 
order to gather new strength. In the end we did not 
overtake them. They had evidently been seriously dis- 
quieted either by us or earlier by the Wakamba people. 
While we were pitching our camp in the evening, nearly 
a day’s journey from our camp of the night before, we 
sighted one after another three herds of elands and four 
rhinoceroses on their way out into the velt to graze. 
During these two days I had come within shot of about 
ten rhinoceroses while on the march, and had caught 
glimpses of many more in the distance. 


The third day’s pursuit of the elephants also proved ‘ 
entirely fruitless. We did not even come within sight of 
a female specimen, 

My guides were now of opinion that the animals must 
be so thoroughly alarmed that any further pursuit would 
be. almost certainly in vain, so we made our way back as 
best we could in a zigzag course to my main camp, and 
reached it on the morning of the fourth day. 

Most elephant-hunts in Equatorial Africa run on just 
such lines as these and with the same result, yet they are 
among the finest and most interesting experiences that 
any sportsman or naturalist can hope to have. The wealth 
of natural life that had been given to my eyes during those 
three days was. simply overpowering. But if you have 
once succeeded in getting within range of an African 
elephant, all other kinds of wild animals seem small fry to 
you. You have the same kind of feeling that the German 


412 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


A HERD OF HARTEBEESTS (sUBAZLIS coxes, Gthr.). 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


HARTEBEESTS WITH YOUNG, 


WATERBUCK, 


™ 
ay 


II 


VOL. 


-~» After Elephants with Wandorobo 


portsman has when after a Brunft stag—he cares for 
no other kind of game; he has no mind for anything 
gut the stag. But the elephant fever attacks you out 
in Africa even more virulently than the stag fever here 
at home. rad 
- Yet it is fine to remember one’s ordinary shooting 
expeditions in the tropics. You need some luck, of course 
_—the velt is illimitable and the game scattered all over 
it. But if the rains have just ceased, if you have 
secured good guides, if you yourself are equal to facing all 
the hardships, then indeed it is a wonderful experience. 
There is no doubt about it—you have to be ready for a 
_ combination of every kind of strain and exertion. You can 
_ stand it for a day perhaps, or two or three, but you must 
then take a rest. The man who has gone through with 
this may venture on the experiment of pursuing elephants 
for several days together. He will, I think, bear me out 
in saying that until you have done that also you do not 
know the limits of endurance and fatigue. 
__ The most glorious hour in the African sportsman’s life 
is that in which he bags a bull-elephant. When he 
_ succeeds in bringing the animal down at close range in a 
thicket such as I have so often described, his heart beats 
with delight—it is just a chance in such cases what your 
fate may be. Wide as are the differences in the views 
taken by experienced travellers and by other writers in 
regard to African sport in general, they are all agreed 
that elephant-hunting is the most dangerous task a man 
can set himself. The hunting of Indian or Ceylon 
elephants—save in the case of a ‘rogue’”—is not to be 


407 


iy 


£9 
o 
4 eg 


6 Marhaetu. 


In Wildest Africa » 


compared with the African sport as I understand it. I 
do not mean the easy-going, pleasure-excursion kind of 
hunt ordinarily gone in for in the African bush, but a 
one-man expedition, in which the sportsman sets himself 
deliberately to bag his game single-handed. ‘That, indeed, 
_is my idea of how one should go after big game in such 
countries as Africa in all circumstances whatever. 

Barely as many as a dozen elephants have fallen to— 
my rifle. Some of these I killed in order to try and get 
hold of a young specimen which | might bring to Europe 
in good condition—a desire which I have long cherished, 
but which has not yet been fulfilled. Others I killed so 
that I might present them to our museums. 

There were immense numbers of other bull-elephants 
that I might have shot, and that are probably now roaming 
the velt, but that I had to spare because I was more 
intent upon photographing them. My photographs are, 
however, ample compensation to me. While, too, it is 
pleasant to me to reflect that I have left untouched so 
many elephants that came within easy range, I hope, none 
the less, some day to bring down a specimen adorned with 
a really splendid pair of tusks. This is an aspiration not 
often realised by African sportsmen, even when they 
have been hunting for half a lifetime. Elephants with 
tusks weighing nearly five hundred pounds, like those 
in our illustration, are extremely rare—even in earlier 
times they were met with perhaps once in a hundred 
years. 

The hunting of an African elephant, I repeat in 
conclusion, is a source of the greatest delight to the 

418 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
THE SKINNING OF AN ELEPHANT. THIS SPECIMEN IS NOW IN THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, BERLIN. 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


PREPARING TO SKIN AN ELEPHANT, 


-~ After Elephants with Wandorobo 


sportsman, for even if he does not bag his game he is 
well rewarded for his pains by all the interest and excite- 
ment of the chase. But no one who has not himself gone 
through with it can estimate what it involves. Even with 
_the most perfected equipment in regard to arms, it is often 
a matter of luck whether you kill the animal outright and 
on the spot. | 

. An experience [| had in the Berlin Zoological Gardens 
illustrates this. I was called in to dispatch a huge bull- 
_ elephant which had to be killed, and which had rejected 
all the forms of poison that had been administered to it. 
In order to give it a quick and painless end I selected a 
newly invented elephant-rifle, calibre 10°75, loaded with 
4 gr. of smokeless powder and a steel-capped bullet. On 
reflection the steel cap seemed to me too dangerous in 
_ the circumstances, so I had it filed off. I shall allow 
_ Professor Schmalz to describe what now happened: ‘“ The 
_ first shot entered the skin between the second and third 
ribs, and then simply went into splinters. It did no 
_ serious damage to the interior organs, and a stag thus 
~ wounded would merely take madly to flight. A piece of 
the cap reached the lung, but only a single splinter 
had penetrated, causing a slight flow of blood. The 
second shot was excellently placed, namely just below 
the root of the lung. It lacerated both the lung 
arteries and both the bronchial, and thus caused instant 
— death.” 

_-‘The fact that, with such a charge, a bullet fired at a 
_ distance of less than four yards should have gone into 
splinters in this way says more than one could in a long 


423 


In Wildest Africa -» 


disquisition, and serves to explain the secret of many 
a mishap in the African wilderness.’ 


1 Latterly many sportsmen in the tropics have taken again to the use 
of very large-calibre rifles. Charges of as much as 21 gr. of black powder 
and a 26? mm. bullet are employed with them. It is to the kick of such 
a rifle that the author owes the scar which is visible in the portrait serving 
as frontispiece to this book-—an “untouched” photograph, like all the 
others. 


tial aa 


A MISSIONARY’S DWELLING NEAR KILIMANJARO IN WHICH I STAYED SEVERAL 
TIMES AS GUEST. 


424 


2 
‘. 3 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
HEAD OF A BULL-ELEPHANT KILLED BY THE AUTHOR. NOW IN THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, BERLIN, 


5 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


_A FINE SPECIMEN OF A BULL-ELEPHANT KILLED BY THE AUTHOR, 


i see izaees 


Soa 
I. SPLINTER FROM AN ELEPHANT-TUSK BROKEN OFF IN A ROCKY REGION. 2. PORTION OF A 
3. PORTION OF A POISONED ARROW WHICH 


PME Aaa a sir Sh 

C. G. Schillings, phot. 
SOME AFRICAN. TROPHIES. 
TREE BRANCH WHICH I FOUND STUCK IN THE JAW OF A CAPTURED LION, 
HAD Rd Se STICKING IN AN ELEPRANT THAT. i WAS TRACKING 5 _ ARROW OF THE KIND USED BY THE WAKAMBA HUNTERS. 
1 OUT OF SH HICH I BROUGHT DOWN AN ELEPHANT. §, IRON BULLET USED BY 


BLACK-HEADED HERONS (4XD£4 MELAOCEPHALA, VIG, Childr.). 


X 
Rhinoceros-hunting 


Baad sportsmen of to-day have no idea what 
. numbers of rhinoceroses there used to be in 
Germany in those distant epochs when the cave-dweller 
waged war with his primitive weapons against all the 
a war that came in the course 


mighty animals of old 
of the centuries to take the shape of our modern sport. 

The visitor to the zoological gardens, who knows 
nothing of “big game,” finds it hard perhaps to think 
of the great unwieldy “rhino” in this capacity. Yet I 
am continually being asked to tell about other experiences 
of my rhinoceros-hunting. I have given some already 
in With Flashlight and Rifle. Let me, then, devote 
this chapter to an account of some expeditions after the 
two-horned African rhinoceros—one of the most interesting, 
powerful, and dangerous beasts still living. 

VOL. II 431 28 


In Wildest Africa -» 


Rhinoceroses used to be set to fight with elephants 
in the arena in Rome in the time of the Emperors. It is 
interesting to note that, according to what I have often 
heard from natives, the two species have a marked 
antipathy to each other. It is recorded that both Indian 
and African rhinoceroses used to be brought to Europe 
alive. In our own days they are the greatest rarities in 
the animal market, and must be almost worth their weight 
in gold. Specimens of the three Indian varieties are now 
scarcely to be found, while the huge white rhinoceros 
of South Africa is almost extinct. The two-horned 
rhinoceros of East Africa is the only variety still to be 
met with in large numbers, and this also is on its way 
swiftly to extermination. 

The kind of hunt I am going to tell of belongs to 
quite a primeval type, such as but few modern sportsmen 
have taken part in. But it will be a hunt with modern 
arms. It must have been a still finer thing to go after 
the great beast, as of old, spear in hand. That is a 
feeling I have always had. There is too little romance, 
too much mechanism, about our equipment. In this 
respect there is a great change from the kind of hunting 
known to antiquity. 

It was strength pitted against strength then. Strength 
and skill and swiftness were what won men the day. 
Later came a time when mankind learnt a lesson from 


the serpent and improved on it, discharging poisoned 


darts from tightened bow-strings. The slightest wound 
from them brought death. Then there was another step 
in advance, and the hunter brought down his game at 


432 


iey 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


RHINOCEROS HEADS. 


RHINOCEROS HEADS, 


Schillings, phot 


. 


G 


JC. 


-» Rhinoceros-hunting 


eo 
even greater ranges with bullets of lead and steel. A 
slance through the telescopic sight affixed to the perfected 
rifle of to-day, a gentle pressure with the finger, and the 
rhinoceros, all unconscious of its enemy in the distance, 
meets its end. 
_ But there is at least more danger and more romance 
for the modern hunter in this unequal strife when it takes 
place in a wilderness where bush and brushwood enforce a 
fight at close quarters. Then, if he doesn’t kill his beast 
‘outright on the spot, or if he has to deal with several 
at a time, the bravest man’s heart will have good reason 
to beat fast. | 
Now for our start. 
We make our way up the side of a hill with the first 
rays of the tropical sun striking hot already on the earth. 
The country is wild, the ascent is difficult, and we have 
to dodge now this way, now that, to extricate ourselves 
from the rocky valley into which we have got. The 
vegetation all around us is rank and strange ; strong grass 
up to our knees, and dense creepers and thorn-bushes 
retard our progress. Here are the mouldering trunks of 
giant trees uprooted by the wind, there living trees standing 
strong and unshaken. But as we advance we come 
gradually to a more arid stretch, and green vegetation 
gives place to a rocky region, broken into crevices and 
chasms. Here we find the rock-badger in hundreds. — 
_ But the jeaders have given their warning sort of whistle, 
and they are all off like lightning. It may be quite a 
long time before they reappear from the nooks and 
crannies to which they have fled. Lizards share these 


437 


In Wildest Africa -» 


localities with them, and seem to exchange warnings 
of coming danger. A francolin flies up in front of 
us with a clatter of wings, reminding one very much 
of our own beautiful heath-cock. The “ cliff-springer ’ 
that miniature African chamois, one of the loveliest 


, 


of all the denizens of the wilderness, sometimes puts in 
an appearance too. It is a mystery how it manages 
to dart about from ridge to ridge as lightly as an india- 
rubber ball. If you examine through your field-glasses, 
you discover to your astonishment that they do not 
rest on their dainty hoofs like others of their kind, nor 
can they move about on them in the same fashion. They 
can only stand on the extreme points of them. It looks 
almost as though nature were trying to free a mammal 
from its bonds to mother earth, when you see the “ cliff- 
springer ” fly through the air from rock to rock. It would 
not astonish you to find that it had wings. Now here, 
now there, you hear its note of alarm, and then catch 
sight of it. It would be difficult to descry these animals 
at all, only that there are generally several of them 
together... . . Deep-trodden paths of elephants and 
rhinoceroses cut through the wooded wilderness; paths 
used also by the heavy elands, which are fitted for 
existence alike in the deep valleys and high up on the 
highest mountain. I myself found their tracks at a height 
of over 6,000 feet, and so have all African mountain-climbers 
worthy of the name, from Hans Meyer, the first man to 
ascend Kilimanjaro, down to Uhlig, who, on the occasion 
of his latest expedition up to the Kibo, noted the presence 
of this giant among antelopes at a height of 15,000 feet. 


438 


C. G, Schillings, phot. 


AN ELAND BULL (OREAS LIVINGSTONI, Sclat.). I MANAGED TO PREPARE THIS ANIMAL’S SKIN SUCCESSFULLY, 
AND IT MAY NOW BE SEEN IN FLAWLESS CONDITION IN THE BERLIN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. 


[p. 438 


-~ Rhinoceros-hunting 


It is strange to contrast the general disappearance of 
big game in all other parts of the earth with their endless 
profusion in those regions which the European has not 
yet opened out. I feel that it sounds almost incredible 
when I talk of having sighted hundreds of rhinoceroses 
with my own eyes: incredible to the average man, I mean, 


not to the student of such matters. Not until the mighty 


animal has been exterminated will the facts of its existence 
—in what numbers it throve, how it lived and how it 
came to die—become known to the public through its 
biographer. We have no time to trouble about the living 
nowadays. 

For weeks I had not hunted a rhinoceros—I had had 
enough of them. I had need of none but very powerful 
specimens for my collection, and these were no more 
to be met with every day than a really fine roebuck in 
Germany. It is no mean achievement for the German 
sportsman to baga really valuable roebuck. There are 
too many sportsmen competing for the prize—there must 
be more than half a million of us in all! 

It is the same with really fine specimens of the two- 
horned bull-rhinoceros. It is curious, by the way, to note 
that, as with so many other kinds of wild animals, the 
cow-rhinoceros is furnished with longer and more striking- 
looking horns than the bull, though the latter’s are thicker 
and stronger, and in this respect more imposing. The 
length of the horns of a full-grown cow-rhinoceros in 
East Africa is sometimes enormous—surpassed only by 
those of the white rhinoceroses of the South, now 
almost extinct. The British Museum contains specimens 


439 


In Wildest Africa -» 


measuring as much as 53% inches. J remember well the 
doubts I entertained about a 54-inch horn which I saw 
on sale in Zanzibar ten years ago, and was tempted to 
buy. Such a growth seemed to me then incredible, and 
several old residents who ought to have known something 
about it fortified me in my belief that the Indian dealer 
had ‘‘faked” it somehow, and increased its length 
artificially. It might still be lying in his dimly lit shop 
instead of forming part of my collection, only that on my 
first expedition into the interior I saw for myself other 
rhinoceroses with horns almost as long, and on returning 
to Zanzibar at once effected its purchase. A second horn 
of equal length, but already half decayed when it was 
found on the velt, came into my possession through 
the kindness of a friend. 1 myself killed one cow- 
rhinoceros with very remarkable horns, but not so long 
as these. 


There is something peculiarly formidable and menacing | 


about these weapons of the rhinoceros. Not that they 
really make him a more dangerous customer for the 
sportsman to tackle, but they certainly give that impres- 
sion. The thought of being impaled, run through, by that 
ferocious dagger is by no means pleasant. 

In something of the same way, a stag with splendid 
antlers, a great maned lion, or a tremendous bull-elephant 
sends up the sportsman’s zest to fever-pitch. 

It is astonishing how the colossal beast manages to 
plunge its way through the densest thicket despite the 
hindrance of its great horns. It does so by keeping its 
head well raised, so that the horn almost presses against 


440 


AN ELAND, JUST BEFORE I GAVE IT A FINISHING SHOT. 


C. G. Schillings, phot 


-» Rhinoceros-hunting 


2 back of its massive neck, very much after the style of 
r European stag. But it is a riddle, in both cases, how 
ley seem to be impeded so little. 

I felt nearly sure that I could count on finding some 
: -gamesome old rhinoceroses up among the mountains, and 
my Wandorobo guides kept declaring that I should see 
ome extraordinary horns. They were not wrong. 

I] strongly advise any one who contemplates betaking 
imself to the velt after big game to set about the 
nterprise in the true sporting spirit, making of it a really 
genuine contest between man and beast—a genuine duel— 
not an onslaught of the many upon the one. Many 
English writers support me in this, and they understand 
the claims of sport in this field as well as we Germans do 
at home. The English have instituted clearly defined 
tules which no sportsman may transgress. In truth, it 
is a lamentable thing to see the Sonnfagsjager importing 
himself with his unaccustomed rifle amid the wild life of 
Africa! 

I shall always look back with satisfaction to the great 
- Schiller expedition which I accompanied for some time 
in 1896. Not one of the natives, not one of the soldiers, 
ventured to shoot a single head of game throughout that 
~ expedition, even in those regions which until then had 
never been explored by Europeans. The most rigid 
control was exercised over them from start to finish. | 
have good grounds for saying that this spirit has prevailed 
far too little as a general thing in Africa. 

— Thave invariably maintained discipline among my own 
- followers, and they have always submitted to it. How 


443 


In Wildest Africa -» 


difficult it is to deal with them, however, may be gathered 
from the following incident which I find recorded in 
my diary. 

On the occasion of my last journey, a black soldier, 
an Askari, had been told off to attach himself for a time 
_to my caravan. Presently I had to send him back to 
the military station at Kilimanjaro with a message. A 
number of my followers accompanied him, partly to fetch 
goods, etc., from my main camp, partly on various other 
missions that had to be attended to before we advanced 
farther into the velt. The Askari was provided, as usual, 
with a certain number -of cartridges. When my men 
returned, a considerable time afterwards, I discovered quite 
accidentally that one of them bore marks on his body of 
having been brutally lashed with a whip. His back was 
covered with scars and open wounds. After the long- 
suffering manner of his kind, he had said nothing to me 
about it until his condition was revealed to me by chance— 
for, as he was only one of the hundred and fifty attached 
to my expedition, I might never have noticed it. It 
transpired that not long after he had set out the Askari, 
against orders, had shot big game and, among other 
animals, had bagged a giraffe, whose head—a valuable 
trophy—he had forced my bearers to carry for him to the 
fort. The particular bearer in question had quite rightly 
refused, whereupon the Askari had thrashed him most 
barbarously with a hippopotamus-hide,.whip—a syamédok. 
I need hardly say that he was suitably punished for this 
when I lodged a formal complaint against him. Had it 
not been for his ill-treatment of my bearer, however, I 


444 


ee Ns a 


-» Khinoceros-hunting 


should never have heard of the Askari’s shooting the 
giraffe, for he had succeeded in terrorising all the men 
into silence. 

Now we move onwards, following the rhinoceros-tracks 
up the hill-slopes, where they are clearly marked, and in 
among the steep ridges, until they elude us for a while 


AN ELAND BULL, THE LEADER OF A HERD WHICH AT THE MOMENT OF THIS 
PHOTOGRAPH WAS IN CONCEALMENT BEHIND THE THORN-BUSHES, 


in the wilderness. Presently we perceive not merely a 
hollowed-out path wrought in the soft stone by the 
tramplings of centuries, but also fresh traces of rhinoceroses 
that must have been left this very day. We are in for a 
first-rate hunt. 

We have reached the higher ranges of the hills and are 


445 


4ivVasi‘ae baa 


In Wildest Africa -» 


looking down upon the extensive, scantily-wooded slopes. 
Are we going to bag our game to-day? 

I could produce an African day-book made up of 
high hopes and disappointments. Not, indeed, that re- 
turning empty-handed meant ill-humour and disappoint- 
- ment, or that I expected invariable good luck. But a day 
out in the tropics counts for at least a week in Europe, and 
I like to make the most of it. Then, too, I had to reserve 
my hunting for those hours when I could give myself up 
to it body and soul. How often while I have been on the 
march at the head of heavily laden caravans have the most 
tempting opportunities presented themselves to me, only 
to be resisted—fine chances for the record-breaker and 
irresponsible shot, but merely tantalising to me! 

On we go through the wilderness, still upwards. I am 
the first European in these regions, which have much of | 
novelty for my eyes. The great lichen-hung trees, the 
dense jungle, the wide plains, all charm me. The heat 
becomes more and more oppressive, and I and my 
followers are beginning to feel its effects. We are weary- 
ing for a halt, but we must lose no time, for we have still 
a long way before us, whether we return to our main camp 
or press onwards to that wooded hollow yonder, four hours’ 
march away, there to spend the night. 

A vast panorama has been opening out in front of us. 
We have reached the summit of this first range of hills, 
and are looking down on another deep and extensive valley. 
My field-glasses enable me to descry in the far distance 
a herd of eland making their way down the hill, and two 
bush-buck grazing hard by a thicket. But these have 


446 


-» Rhinoceros-hunting 


© interest for us to-day: we are in pursuit of bigger 
game. Suddenly, an hour later, my men become excited. 
“Pharu, bwana!” they whisper to me from_ behind, 
pointing down towards a group of acacia trees on a plateau 
a few hundred paces away. True enough, there are two 
rhinoceroses, I perceive first one, then the other lumbering 
along, looking, doubtless, for a suitable resting-place. My 
field-glasses tell me that they are a pair, male and female, 
both furnished with big horns. Now for my plan of 
campaign. I have to make a wide circuit which will take 
me twenty-five minutes, moving over difficult ground. 
Arrived at the point in question, I rejoice to see that 
the animals have not got far away from where I first spied 
them. The wind is favourable to me here, and there is 
little danger at this hour of its suddenly veering round. 
1 examine my rifle carefully. It seems all right. My men 
crouch down by my order, and I advance stealthily alone. 
I am under a spell now, The rest of the world has 
_ vanished from my consciousness. I look neither to right 
nor left. I have no thought for anything but my quarry 
and my gun. What will the beasts do? Will this be 
my last appearance as a hunter of big game? Is the 
rhinoceros family at last to have its revenge? 
ie I have another look at them through my field-glasses. 
~The bull has really fine horns; the cow good enough, 
but nothing special. I decide therefore to secure him 
alone if possible, for his flesh will provide food in plenty 
for my men. On I move, as noiselessly as possible, 
the wind still in my favour. Up on these heights the 
_ rhinoceroses miss their watchful friends the ox-peckers, 


VOL. II 447 29 


In Wildest Africa -» 


so faithful to them elsewhere, to put them on their 
guard. 

Often have my followers warned me of the presence 
of a “ Ndege baya”—a bird of evil omen. Many of 
the African tribes seem the share the old superstitions 
— of the Romans in regard to birds. Certainly one cannot 
help being impressed by the way in which the ox-peckers 
suddenly whizz through the air whenever one gets within 
range of buffalo or hippopotami. 

The unexpected happens. The two huge beasts—how, 
I cannot tell—have become aware of my approach. As 
though moved by a common impulse, they swing round 
and stand for a moment motionless, as though carved in 
stone, their heads turned towards me. . . . They are two 
hundred paces away. Now I must show myself. Two 
things can happen: either they will both come for me 
full pelt, or else they will seek safety in flight. An instant 
later they are thundering down on me in their unwieldy 
fashion, but at an incredible pace. These are moments 
when your life hangs by a thread. Nothing can save 
you but a well-aimed bullet. This time my bullet finds 
its billet. It penetrates the neck of the leading animal— 
the cow, as always is the case—which, tumbling head 
foremost, just like a hare, drops as though dead. A 
wonderful sight, lasting but a second. The bull pulls up 
short, hesitates a moment, then swerves round, and with 
a wild snort goes tearing down the hill and out of sight. 
I keep my rifle levelled still at the female rhinoceros, for 
I have known cases when an animal has got up again 
suddenly, though mortally wounded, and done damage. 


448 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


RHINOCEROSES SHED’ THEIR HORNS FROM TIME TO TIME AND DEVELOP NEW ONES. THE COW-RHINOCEROS IN THIS 
PHOTOGRAPH HAD SHED BOTH OF HERS. THE RHINOCEROS WHICH I BROUGHT HOME AND PRESENTED TO THE BERLIN 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS HAS RENEWED HER FRONT HORN SEVERAL TIMES, 


C.G. Schillings, phot. 


A GOOD SPECIMEN. 


-» Khinoceros-hunting 


t on this occasion the precaution proves needless. The 
Ilet has done its work, and I become the possessor of 
o very fair specimens of rhinoceros horns. 

_ It was scarcely to be imagined that in the course of 
lis same day I was to get within range of eight more 
noceroses. It is hard to realise what numbers of them 
iere are in these mountainous regions. It is a puzzle 
‘me that this fact has not been proclaimed abroad in 
sporting books and become known to everybody. But 
en, what did we know, until a few years ago, of the 
xistence of the okapi in Central Africa? How much 
do we know even now of its numbers? For that matter, 
who can tell us anything definite as to the quantities 
of walruses in the north, or the numbers of yaks in the 
ibetan uplands, or of elks and of bears in the impene- 
trable Alaskan woods ? 

It seems to be the fate of the larger animals to be 
xterminated by traders who do not give away their 
knowledge of the resources of the hunting regions which 
yy exploit. English and American authors, among them 
so. high an authority as President Roosevelt, bear me 
out in this. I remember reading as a boy of a traveller, 
a fur-trader, who happened to hear of certain remote 
orthern islands well stocked with the wild life he wanted. 
He kept the information to himself, and made a fortune 
out of the game he bagged; but when he quitted the 
_ islands their entire fauna had been wiped out. The same 
thing is now happening in Africa. Our only clue to the 
extent of the slaughtering of elephants now being carried 
on is furnished by the immense quantities of ivory that 


453 


In Wildest Africa -» 


come on the market. So it is, too, with the slaughtering 
of whales and seals for the purposes of commerce. It 
is with them as with so many men—we shall begin to 
hear of them when they are dead. 

But to comeback to our rhinoceroses. Not long 
before sunset I saw another animal grazing peacefully on 
a ridge just below me, apparently finding the short grass 
growing there entirely to his taste. The monstrous 
outlines of the great beast munching away in among 
the jagged rocks stood out most strikingly in the red 
glow of the setting sun. It would have been no good 
to me to shoot him, for all my thoughts were set on 
finding a satisfactory camping-place for the night. Soon 
afterwards I came suddenly upon two others right in my 
path—a cow with a young one very nearly full grown, 
In a moment my men, who were a little behind, had 
skedaddled behind a ridge of rocks. I myself just 
managed to spring aside in time to escape the cow, 
putting a great boulder between us. Round she came 
after me, and I realised as never before the degree to 
which a man is handicapped by his boots in attempting 
thus to dodge an animal. It was a narrow escape, but 
in this case also a well-aimed bullet did the trick. -We 
left the body where it lay, intending to come back next 
morning for the horns. Some minutes later, after scurrying 
downhill for a few- hundred paces as quickly as we could, 
so as to avoid being overtaken by the night, we met 
three other rhinoceroses which evidently had not heard 
my shot ring out. They were standing on a grassy 
knoll in the midst of the valley which we had now reached, 


454 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


A SNAPSHOT AT TWENTY PACES WITH A HAND-CAMERA, WHICH I HAD TO THROW AWAY THE NEXT SECOND, FOR THE 
ig RHINO ”” MADE FOR ME AND ONLY TURNED ASIDE WHEN IT HAD GOT WITHIN THREE PACES OF ME! 


-» Rhinoceros-hunting 


and did not make off until they saw us. By the stream, 
near which we pitched our camp for the night, we came 
upon two more among some bushes, and yet another 
hing through a thicket which we had to traverse on 
ur way to the waterside. In the night several others 
ssed down the deep-trodden path to the stream, 
tunately heralding their approach by loud, angry- 
inding snorts. 

Many such nights have I spent out in the wild; but 
\ ould not now go through with such experiences very 
lingly, for I have heard tell of too many mishaps 
to other travellers under such conditions. That seasoned 
Rhenish sportsman Niedieck, for instance, in his inter- 
esting book Mzt der Biichse in fiinf Weltteilen, gives a 
iking account of a misadventure he met with in the 
Sudan, near the banks of the Nile. In very similar 
cumstances his camp was attacked by elephants during 
night ; he himself was badly injured, and one of his 
en nearly killed. This danger in regions where rhino- 
ceroses or elephants are much hunted is by no means 
to be underestimated. Rather it should be taken to 
heart. According to the same writer, the elephants in 
Ceylon sometimes ‘go for” the travellers’ rest-houses 
erected by the Government and destroy them. These 
_ things have brought it home to me that I was in much 
reater peril of my life during those night encampments 
of mine on the velt and in primeval forests than I realised 
at the time. 

In those parts of East Africa there is a tendency to 
lagine that a zareba is not essential to safety, and that 


457 


ie eu, 
thea’ 


In Wildest Africa -» 


acamp-fire serves all right to frighten lions away. It is 
a remarkable comment on this that over a hundred Indians 
employed on the Uganda Railway should have been seized 
by lions. In other parts of Africa even the natives are 


reluctant to go through the night unprotected by a zareba, 


because they know that lions when short of other prey 
are apt to attack human beings, and neither the hunter 
nor his camp-fire have any terrors for them. 

However that may be, the true sportsman and 
naturalist in the tropics will continue to find himself 
obliged to encamp as best he may @ a delle éovle, trusting 
to his lucky star to protect him-as he sinks wearily to 
wee * * * * * 

The long caravan is again on the move, like a snake, 
over the velt. Word has come to me that at a distance 
of a few days’ march there has been a fall of rain. As 
by a miracle grass has sprung up, and plant-life is reborn, 
trees and bushes have put out new leaves, and immense 
numbers of wild animals have congregated in the region. 
Thither we are making our way, over stretches still arid 
and barren. Watering-places are few and far between 
and hidden away. But we know how to find them, and 
hard by one of them I have to pitch my camp for a time. 

As we go we see endless herds of animals making for 
the same goal—zebras, gnus, oryx antelopes, hartebeests, 
Grant’s gazelles, impallahs, giraffes, ostriches, as well as 
numbers of rhinoceroses, all drawn as though by magic 
to the region of the rain. 

With my taxidermist Orgeich I march at the head of 


458 


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In Wildest Africa -» 


Suddenly, at last, the entire aspect of the velt 
undergoes a change, and we have got into a stretch of 
country which has had a monopoly of the downfall. It 
is cut off quite perceptibly from the parched districts all 
around, and its fresh green aspect is refreshing and soothing 
to the eye. On and on we march for hour after hour, 
the wealth of animal life increasing as we go. Early this 
morning I had noted two rhinoceroses bowling along over 
the velt. They had had a bath and were ean and 
glistening in the sun. 

Now we descry a huge something, motionless upon the 
velt, looking at first like the stump of a massive tree 
or like a squat ant-hill, but turning out on closer investiga- 
tion to be a rhinoceros. It may seem strange that one 
can make any mistake even at one’s first sight of the 
animal, but every one who has gone after rhinoceroses 
much must have had the same astonishing or alarming 
experience. 

In this case we have to deal with an unusually large 
specimen—a bull. It seems to be asleep. My sporting 
instincts are aroused. My men halt and crouch down 
upon the ground. I hold a brief colloquy with Orgeich. 
He also gets to the rear. I advance towards the rhinoceros 
over the broken ground between us—the wind favouring 
me, and a few parched-looking bushes serving me as cover. 
I get nearer and nearer—now I am only a hundred and fifty 
paces off, now only a hundred. The great beast makes 
no stir—it seems in truth to be asleep. Now I have got 
within eighty paces, now sixty. Between me and my 
adversary there is nothing but three-foot-high parched 

460 


a 


Sid: a 


-~ Rhinoceros-hunting 


shrubs, quite useless as a protection. Ah! now he makes 
a move. Up goes his mighty head, suddenly all attention, 
My rifle rings out. Spitting and snorting, down he comes 
upon me in the lumbering gallop I have learnt to know 
so well. I fire a second shot, a third, a fourth. It is 
wonderful how quickly one can send off bullet after 


A RHINOCEROS IN THE DRY SEASON, ITS BODY EMACIATED BY THE SCANTINESS 
OF GRAZING-GROUNDS AND DRINKING-PLACES, 


bullet in such moments. Now he is upon me, and I 
give him a fifth shot, @ dout portant. In imagination | 
am done for, gashed by his great horn and flung into 
the air. I feel what a fool | was to expose myself in 
this way. A host of such impressions and reflections 
flash through my brain. 

But, as it turns out, my last hour has not yet come. 

461 


In Wildest Africa -» 


On receipt of my fifth bullet my assailant swerves round 
and lays himself open to my sixth just as he decides to 
take flight. Off he speeds now, never to be seen again, 
though we spend an hour trying to mark him down— 


a task which it is the easier for us to undertake in that. 


‘he has fled in the direction in which we have to continue 
our march. 

Orgeich, in his good-humoured way, remarks drily, 
“That was a near thing.” 

Such ‘‘ near things” may fall to the lot of the African 
hunter, however perfectly he may be equipped, 

On another occasion, two rhinoceroses that I had not 
seen until that moment made for me suddenly. In trying 
to escape I tripped over a moss-covered root of a tree, 
and fell so heavily on my right hip that at first I could 
not get up again, Both the animals rushed close by me, 
Orgeich and my men only succeeding in escaping also 
behind trees at the last moment, 

* * * + * 

To descry one or two rhinoceroses grazing or resting 
in the midst of the bare velt and to stalk them all by 
yourself, or with a single follower to carry a rifle for you, 
is, I really think, as fascinating an experience as any hunter 
can desire. At the same time it is one of the most 
dangerous forms of modern sport. An English writer 
remarks with truth that even the bravest man cannot 
always control his senses on such occasions—that he is 
apt to get dazed and giddy. And the slightest unsteadiness 
in his hand may mean his destruction. He has to advance 
a long distance on all fours, or else wriggle along on his 

462 


, 


-» Rhinoceros-hunting 


s 


PIECE OF VERY HARD STONE FROM THE SIRGOI MOUNTAIN IN BRITISH 
EAST AFRICA, PRESENTED TO ME BY ALFRED KAISER. RHINOCEROSES 
WHET THEIR HORNS AGAINST THIS KIND OF STONE, MAKING ITS 
SURFACE QUITE SMOOTH. 


stomach like a serpent, making the utmost use of whatever 
cover offers, and keeping note all the time of the direction 
VOL. II 463 30 


In Wildest Africa -» 


of the wind. He has to keep on his guard all the time 
against poisonous snakes. And he has to trust to his 
hunter’s instinct as to how near he must get to his quarry 
before he fires. I consider that a distance of more than 
a hundred paces is very hazardous—above all, if you want 
to kill outright: I am thinking, of course, of the sportsman 
who is hunting quite alone. ef 

To-day I am to have an unlooked-for experience. 
A number of eland have attracted my attention. I follow 
them through the long grass, just as I did that time in 
1896 when the flock of pearl-hens buzzed over me and 
I started the two rhinoceroses which nearly “ did for” me.’ 
These antelopes claim my undivided attention. The 
country is undulating in its formation, and my men are 
all out of sight. I am quite alone, rifle in hand. The 
animals make off to the left and in amidst the high grass. 
I stand still and watch them. It would be too far to have 
a shot at the leader of the herd, so I merely follow in their 
tracks, crouching down. Now I have to get across 
a crevice. But as I am negotiating it and penetrating 
the higher grass on the opposite slope, suddenly, fifty 
paces in front of me, I perceive a huge dark object 
in among the reeds—a rhinoceros. 

It has not become aware of me yet, nor of the peril 
awaiting it. It sits up, turned right in my direction. 
Now there is no. going either forwards or backwards for 
me. The grass encumbers my legs—the old growth 
(spared by the great fires that sometimes ravage the whole 


velt between two rainy: seasons) mingling with the new 


1 See With Flashlight and Rifle. 
464 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
RHINOCEROSES OFTEN REMAIN IN THIS SITTING POSTURE FOR QUITE A LONG TIME, 


ee 


foe el 


ois ee 


-» Rhinoceros-hunting 


into an inextricable tangle. Such moments are full of 
excitement. It is quite on the cards that a second 
rhinoceros—perhaps a third—will now turn up. Who 
knows? Moreover, I have absolutely no inducement to 
bag the specimen now before my eyes—its horns are 
not of much account. I try cautiously to retreat, but my 
feet are entangled and | slip. Instantly I jump up again— 
the rhinoceros has heard the noise of my fall and is making 
a rush for me, spitting and snorting. It won’t be easy 
to hit him effectively, but I fire. As my rifle rings out 
I hear suddenly the singing notes like a bird in the air 
above, clear and resonant, and I seem to note the impact 
of the bullet. Next instant I see the rhinoceros dis- 
appearing over the undulating plain. 

I conclude that the bullet must have struck one of his 
horns and been turned aside, and that it startled the beast 
and caused him to abandon his attack. 

* % x % * 

But there are yet other ways in which you may be 
surprised by a rhinoceros. I had pitched my camp by the 
Pangani, in a region which at the time of Count Telekis’ 
expedition, some years before, was a swamp. Its swampy 
condition lasts only during the rainy season, but I found 
-my camping-place to be very unsatisfactory and unhealthy. 
I set out therefore with a few of my men to find a better 
position somewhere on dryer land, if possible shaded 
by trees, and at a spot where the river was passable— 
a good deal to ask for in the African bush. For hours 
we pursued our search through ‘“boga” and ‘“ pori,” 
but the marshy ground did not even enable us to get 


465 


minal 


In Wildest Africa -» 


down to the river-side. Endless morasses of reeds 
enfolded us, in whose miry depths the foot sinks even 
in the dry weather, in which the sultry heat enervates 
us, shut in as we are by the rank growth that méets 
above our heads as we grope through it. At last we 
reach some solid earth, and it looks as though here, 
beneath some sycamores, we have found a better camping 
place. Deep-trodden paths lead down to the waterside. 
We follow them through the brushwood, I leading 
the way, and thus reach the stream. ‘The rush and 
roar of the river resounds in our ears, and we catch the 
notes, too, of birds, Suddenly, right in front of me, the 
ground seems to quicken into life. My first notion is 
that it must be a gigantic crocodile; but no, it is a 
rhinoceros which has just been bathing, and which now, 
disturbed, is glancing in our direction and about to attack 
us or take to its heels—who can say? Escape seems 
impossible. Clasping my rifle I plunge back into the 
dense brushwood. But the tough viscous branches pro- 
ject me forward again. Now for it. The rhinoceros is 
“coming for” us. We tumble about in all directions. Some 
seconds later we exchange stupefied glances. The animal 
has fled past us, just grazing us and bespattering us with 
mud,-and has disappeared from sight. How small we 
felt at that moment | cannot express! In such moments 
you experience the same kind of sensation as when your 
horse throws you or you are knocked over by a motor- 
car. (Perhaps this latter simile comes home to one best 
nowadays!) You realise, too, why the native hunters throw 
off all their clothing when they are after big game. On 
466 


poe > 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


A ROCK-POOL ON KILIMANJARO, 


-» Rhinoceros-hunting 


such occasions even the lightest covering hampers you, 
and perhaps endangers your life. 
* * * * * 


Countless thousands of two-horned rhinoceroses are 


still to the good in East Africa. Yes, countless thousands ! 


Captain Schlobach tells us that he would encounter as 
many as thirty in one day in Karragwe in 1903 and 1904. 
Countless also are the numbers of horns which are secured 
annually for sale on the coast. But how much longer 
will this state of things continue? And the specimens 
of the white rhinoceros of South Africa which adorn 
the museum in Cape Town and the private museum of 
Mr. W. Rothschild (and which we owe to Coryndon 
and Varndell) are not more valuable than the specimens 
also to be found in the museums of the “ black” rhino- 
ceroses still extant in East Africa. 

This view of the matter will perhaps receive attention 
fifty or a hundred years hence. 


469 


MASAI KILLING A HYENA WITH THEIR CLUBS, 


XI 


The Capturing of a Lion 


IMBA Station—Lion Station—is the name of a place 
on the Uganda Railway, which connects the Indian 
Ocean with the Victoria-Nyanza. It is situated near 
Nairobi, and the sound of its name recalls vividly to 
my memory January 25, 1897, the great day when I 
came face to face with three lions. 
At that time no iron road led to the interior of the 
country ; there were neither railway lines nor telegraph 


wires to vibrate to the sound of the voice of the monarch — 
of the wilderness. But the white man was soon to bar 


his path by day and night along the whole length of 
the great railroad from lake to ocean. 

‘Lion Station” deserves its name, for in the vicinity 
of this spot over a hundred Indian workmen have been 
seized by lions. To me this was no surprise, for years 


470 


> 
\e 
we ; 
t 
Fr iue 
* 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


IN A BETTER TEMPER. 


- A LION CUB IN A BAD TEMPER. 


-» The Capturing of a Lion 


before I had visited the region, and had done full justice 
to its wilderness in my description of it. Some stir was 
caused when a lion killed a European in one of the 
sleeping-cars at night-time. In company with two 
others, the unfortunate man was passing the night in a 
saloon carriage which had been shunted on to a siding. 
One of the Europeans slept on the floor; as a pre- 
caution against mosquitoes he had covered himself with 
a cloth. Another was lying on a raised bunk. The lion 
seized the third man, who was sleeping near the two 
others on a camp-bed, killed him, and carried him away. 
One of the survivors, Herr Hiibner—whose hunting-box, 
‘“ Kibwezi,” in British East Africa, has given many sports- 
men an opportunity of becoming acquainted with African 
game—gave me the following account of the incident : 
“The situation was a critical one. The door through 
which the beast had entered the compartment was rolled 
back. I saw the creature at about an arm’s length from 
me, standing with its fore-paws on the bed of my sleeping 
friend. ‘Then a sudden snatch, followed by a sharp cry, 
told me that all was over. The lion’s right paw had 
fallen on my friend’s left temple, and its teeth were 
buried deep in his left breast near the armpit. For the 
next two minutes a deathly stillness reigned. Then the 
lion pulled the body from off the bed and laid it on 
the ground.” The lion disappeared with the corpse 
into the darkness of the night. It was killed shortly 
after, as might be expected. 

Such scenes were probably more frequent in earlier 
days, when, in the Orange Free State, a single hunter 


475 


In Wildest Africa -» 

would kill five-and-twenty lions. This was so even 
down to the year 1863, when impallah antelopes 
(4pyceros suara) had already become very rare in 
Bechuanaland, and in Natal a keen control had to be 
instituted over the use of arms. Times have changed. 
In the year 1899 much sensation was aroused by the 
fact that a lion was killed near Johannesburg, and so 
far back as 1883 there was quite a to-do over a lion 
that was seen and killed at Uppington, on the Orange 
River. To Oswald and Vardon, well-known English 
hunters, as well as to Moffat in Bechuanaland; the 
encountering of as many as nine troops of lions in a 
day was quite an ordinary experience, and I still found 
lions in surprising numbers in 1896 in German and British 
East Africa. The practical records of the Anglo-German 
Boundary Commission in East Africa, the observations 
made lately by Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, 
and the evidence of many other trustworthy witnesses, 
have confirmed these facts. 

Although I do not think that lions, at least in districts 
where game is very plentiful, are so dangerous as some 
would make out, yet I quite agree with the statement 
made by H. A. Bryden that a lion-hunt made on foot 
must be reckoned as one of the most dangerous sports 
there are. The experience of an authority like Selous, 
who was seized by lions during the night in the 
jungle, proves this. 

In the region in which I had such success lion- 
hunting in 1897, there were many mishaps. My friend 
the commandant of Fort Smith in Kikuyuland, . who 


476 


-~» The Capturing of a Lion 


was badly mauled by lions, has since had more than 
one fellow-sufferer in this respect. 

Captain Chauncy Hugh-Stegand, who, like Mr. Hall 
and so many other hunters of other nationalities, had been 
several times injured by rhinoceroses, was once within 
an ace of being killed by a lion which he encountered 
_by night, and which he shot at and pursued. Severely 
wounded, and cured almost by a miracle, he had to 
return to England to regain his health. ‘Such are 
the casualties of sportsmen in Central and East Africa” 
is the dry comment of Sir Harry Johnston in his preface 
to the English edition of my book With Flashlight and 
Rifle. 

When I read about such adventures I call to mind 
vividly my own. I live through them all again, and the 
magic of these experiences reawakes in me. 

To-day I would fain give the reader some account 
of the capturing of lions. Not of captures made by 
means of a net, such as skilful and brave men used in 
olden days to throw over the king of beasts, thus 
disabling him and putting him in their power, but of a 
capture that. was not without its many intense and 
exciting moments. 

Proud Rome saw as many as five hundred lions die 
in the arena in one day. That was in the time of Pompey. 
Nearly two thousand years have passed since then, and one 
may safely affirm that in the intervening centuries very 
few lions have been brought to Europe that were caught 
when full grown in the desert. The many lions that are 
brought over to our continent are caught when young, 


477 


In Wildest Africa -» 


and then reared, despite the credence given sometimes to 
statements to the contrary. 

It goes without saying that lions which have matured 
in confinement cannot compare with the lions that have 
come to their full development in the wilderness. Full- 
grown tigers and leopards are still nowadays in some cases 
ensnared alive, and we can see them in our zoological 
gardens in all their native wildness, and without any 
artificial breeding, marked with the unmistakable stamp 
common to all wild animals. It is an established fact that 
all captive monkeys show symptoms after a certain time 
of rachitis. This is also the case frequently with large 
felines. Lions brought up in captivity, however, have far 
finer manes than wild ones. 

Of course a certain number of the lions used in the 
arena-fights in Rome were probably reared in the Roman 
provinces by some potentate. But without doubt a large 
number were caught when fully grown by means of nets, 
pitfalls, and other devices of which we have no precise 
details. | 
It seemed to me worth while to make a trial of the 
means which had once been so successful. As I have 
already pointed out, there is a great difference between 
a man who scours the wilderness solely as a hunter, and 
one who makes practical investigations into the life of the 
animal world. The sportsman may possibly sneer at the 
use of pitfalls. He has no mind for anything but an 
exciting encounter with the lion, an encounter which, 
thanks to modern means of warfare, is much easier for the: 
man than formerly. 

478 


“ere Vio 


er ape sesh 
sd 


eee 


Sogtiee 
(een 


F aeases 
CE eente ae eue # A” 


hedek. 
VO pny cence 


ANOTHER OF MY HUNTING CARDS. THE RECORD OF MY LION-HUNT OF THE 
25TH JANUARY, 1897, ON THE ATHI PLAINS, WHEN I KILLED TWO LIONS 
Z AND A LIONESS (“‘ LOWE’’=LION ; LOWIN=LIONESS) 


VOL. II 


31 


~# The Capturing of a Lion 


However, I have no wish whatever to lay down the law 
on this question of the relative amount of danger involved 
in the shooting or the trapping of lions. In many parts of 
Africa lion-hunting is a matter of luck, above all where 
horses cannot live owing to the tsetse-fly, and where dogs 
cannot be employed in large numbers (as used to be the 
practice in South Africa) to mark down the lions until 
the hunter can come. For example, we have it on good 
authority that the members of an Anglo-Abyssinian Border 
_ Commission, aided by a pack of dogs, were able to kill about 
_ twenty lions in the course of a year. But on entering the 
- region of Lake Rudolf all the dogs fall victims to the tsetse- 
fly. Hunting with a pack of dogs is very successful. Dogs 
_ were used by the three brothers Chudiakow, who, some nine 
years ago, near Nikolsk on the Amur, in Manchuria, killed 
nearly forty Siberian tigers in one winter’ ; whilst a hunting 
party near Vladivostock killed in one month one hundred 
and twenty-five wild boars and seven tigers. Tigers are 
so plentiful near Mount Ararat that a military guard of 
three men is necessary during the night-watch to ward off 
_ these beasts of prey.’ 

My extraordinary luck on January 25, 1897, when I 
killed three full-grown lions, fine big specimens, was of 
course a source of much satisfaction to me. The little 
sketch-map of the day’s hunt which accompanies this 
chapter shows the route I took on that memorable 


1 In winter, Siberia affords a refuge to beautiful long-haired tigers, such 
as can be seen in the Berlin Zoological Gardens. 

? For this information I am indebted to the kindness of the experienced 
- Russian hunter Ceslav von Wancowitz. 


481 


In Wildest Africa -» 


occasion, and gives a good idea of the way in which I 
am accustomed to keep a record of such things in my 
diary, I must add that my adventures and narrow escapes 
while trying to secure lions have been of a kind such as 
would be to the taste only of those most greedy of 
excitement. 

In 1897 I had already observed that the lion was to be 
found in great troops in thinly populated neighbourhoods, 
where he was at no loss for prey and where he had not 
much to fear from man. As many as thirty lions have been 
found together, and I myself have seen a troop of fourteen 
with my own eyes. Other sportsmen have seen still larger 
troops .in East -Africa. Quite recently Duke Adolf 
Friedrich of Mecklenburg, who, on the occasion of his — 
second African trip, made some interesting observations in — 
regard to lions, has borne witness to the existence of very 
large troops. During the period in which I devoted myself 
entirely to making photographic studies of wild life, and 
consequently left undisturbed all the different species of 
game which swarmed around my camp, I was sometimes 
surrounded for days, weeks even, by great numbers of 
them, sometimes to an alarming extent. I have already 
described how one night an old lion brushed close by 
my tent to drink at the brook near which we were 
encamping, although it was just as easy for him to drink 
from the same stream at any point for miles to either side 
of us. On another occasion, as could be seen from the 
tracks, lions approached our camp until within a few yards 
of it. When I was photographing the lions falling upon 
the heifers and donkeys, as. described in W2th Flashlight 

482 


~*» The Capturing of a Lion 


and Rifle, 1 must have been, judging by the tracks, 


ee 


AT BAY. 


f surrounded by about thirty. I trapped a number of 
them, either for our various museums, where specimens 


483 


In Wildest Africa -» 


in various stages of development and age are much 


needed, or to protect the natives who were menaced 
by lions, or whose relatives had perhaps been seized 
by them. : 

It is the more necessary to have recourse to traps in 
that one may spend years hunting in Equatorial East Africa 
without getting a single chance of firing a shot at a lion. 
The hunt has to take place at night, for the lion leads 
a nocturnal life, and makes off into inaccessible thickets 
by day. | 

But what I was most anxious to do was to secure a 
specimen or two that I could bring alive to Europe. To 
do this, I required the lightest possible and most portable 
iron cages, which should yet be strong enough to resist 
every effort of the imprisoned animals to get free. This 
problem was solved for me as well as it could be by 
Professor Heck, the Director of the Berlin Zoological 
Gardens. Yet even he declared it to be impossible to 
make such cages under 330 lbs. in weight. For the 
transport of one such cage the services of six bearers would 
be necessary. I arranged for several such cages to be sent 
oversea to Tanga, and took them thence into the interior. 
Thus I had the assurance of keeping my captives in security, 
but first I had to get hold of them without hurting them. 
By means of a modified form of iron traps I was able to 
manage this eventually. Those who are not acquainted 
with the difficulties of transport in countries where every- 
thing has to be borne on men’s shoulders will hardly 
be able to realise the straits to which one may be put. 
Thus I was much hampered, when carrying back my 


484 


mi: 
ee 
7 ire 


RS. 


N AT CLOSE QUARTE 


ED LIO 


APP 


STUDIES OF A TR 


-» The Capturing of a Lion 


first lion (which was unharmed save for a few skin 
scratches), by a lack of bearers owing to famine and 
other causes. 

I had found the tracks of a lioness with three quite 
little cubs. I followed them for an hour over the velt— 
they then got lost in the thick bush. As I had already 
observed the tracks of this little band for several days, I 
- naturally concluded that the old lioness was making a stay 
in the neighbourhood. So I decided, as one of my heifers 
was ill from the tsetse sickness and bound to die, to pitch 
“my tent in the neighbourhood and to bait a trap with the 
sick animal. 

I found water at about an hour and a half’s distance 
from the spot where I had observed the lion’s tracks. I was 
thus obliged to encamp at this distance away. Later on in 
the evening, after much labour, I succeeded in setting a 
trap in such a way that I had every reason to hope for 
good results. 

In the early hours of the following morning I started 
out, full of hope, to visit my trap. Already in the distance 
I could see that my heifer was still alive, and I immediately 
concluded that the lions had sought the open. But it was 
not so, for to my surprise I presently found fresh tracks of 
the old lioness and her cubs. Evidently she had visited 
the trap, but had returned into the bush without taking any 
notice of the easy prey. The lie of the land allowed me 
to read the lion’s tracks imprinted into the ground as if 
in a book. They told me that the cubs had at one point 
suddenly darted to one side, their curiosity excited by a 
land-tortoise whose back was now reflecting the rays of 


487 


In Wildest Africa a 


the sun, and which in the moonlight must have attracted 
their attention. They had evidently amused themselves 
for a while with this plaything, for the hard surface of the 
tortoise’s shell was marked with their claws. Then they 
had returned to their mother. I concluded that the old 
lioness was not hungry and had no more lust for prey— 
another confirmation of the fact that lions, when sated, 
are not destructive. This new proof seemed to me to be 
worth all the trouble I had taken. . a 
The two following nights, to my disappointment, the 
lions approached my heifer again without molesting it.. — 
This was the more annoying because I had hoped by 
capturing the old lioness to obtain possession of all’ the 
young cubs as well. | 
‘In this case, as in’ many others, the behaviour ‘of the 
heifer was:a matter of great interest. As already remarked, 
in most cases I made use of sick cows mortally afflicted by 
the tsetse-fly. In many districts in German East Africa 
the tsetse-fly, which causes the dreadful sleeping sickness 
in man, also makes it impossible to keep cattle except 
under quite special conditions, . This heifer, then, was 
already doomed to a painful death through the tsetse 
illness, and the fate I provided for it was more merciful, 
for the lion kills its prey by one single powerful bite. 1 
observed, moreover, that the bound animal took its food 
quite placidly and showed no signs of unrest so long as 
the lion.:came up to her peaceably, as in this case. This 
accorded entirely with my frequent observations of the 
behaviour of animals towards lions on the open velt. 
Antelopes out on the. velt apparently take very little 
488 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


THIS LION, AN OLD ANIMAL WITH A FINE MANE, HAD DRAGGED AWAY THE IRON 


ME THE MOMENT I HAD TAKEN THIS PHOTOGRAPH AT NEAR RANGE, BUT THE 
A WELL-PLACED BULLET PUT AN END TO HIM, 


TRAP SOME DISTANCE. HE MADE FOR 
TRAP IMPEDED HIS MOVEMENTS AND 


[p. 488 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
CARRYING IN TRIUMPH TO MY CAMP A LION WHICH I HOPED TO BRING BACK WITH ME TO EUROPE. 


ee 


-~ The Capturing of a Lion 


notice of lions, though they hold themselves at a respectful 
distance from them. 

___Inspite of my want of success, I decided to try my luck 
once more, though the surroundings of my camp were not 
very alluring and game was very scarce with the exception 
of a herd of ostriches, which for hours together haunted 
the vicinity. I hoped this time the lioness would be 
~ bagged. But no, I never came across her or her young 
again. 

_ Instead, on the fourth morning, I found a good maned 
_ specimen—an old male—at my mercy. Loud roars 
- announced the fact of his capture to me from afar. The 
first thing was to discover whether he was firmly held by 
the iron, and also whether he was unhurt. I assured 
_muyself of both these points after some time, with great 
trouble and difficulty, and, needless to add, not without 
considerable danger. I leave the reader to imagine for 
himself the state of mind in which one approaches the 
King of Beasts in such circumstances. I can vouch for it 
that one does so with a certain amount of respect for His 
Majesty. 

The roaring of an enraged lion, once heard, is never 
to be forgotten. It is kept up by my captive without 
intermission, a dull heavy rumble suddenly swelling to a 
tremendous volume of sound. The expression of its face 
and head, too, show fierce anger and threaten danger. 
The terrible jaws now scrunch the branches within reach, 
now open menacingly. 

It was now necessary to free the lion from the trap 
_-and-to bring it into camp. It would take a week to get 


491 


In Wildest Africa -» 


my cage, but meanwhile I decided to fasten the animal by 
means of a strong chain and with a triple yoke specially 
made for such a purpose in Europe. 

But even the bravest of my men absolutely refused to 
obey my command. It needed the greatest persistence 
to persuade some of them, at last, to lend a helping hand 
to me and my assistant Orgeich. As usual they required 


A CAPTURED LIONESS, SNAPSHOTTED AT THE VERY MOMENT OF 
BEING TRAPPED. 


the stimulus of a good example. After some time I had, 
as can be seen on pages 485 and 499, set up my photographic 
apparatus right in front of the lion so as to take several 
photos of him at the distance of a few paces. 

Then we cut a few saplings about as thick as one’s 
arm, and with these we tried to beat down the lion so as to 
secure him. At first this did not succeed at all. I then 


492 


~* The Capturing of a Lion 


had recourse to strong cord, which I made into a lasso. 
_ It was wonderful, when I caught the head of the prisoner 
in the noose, to see him grip it with his teeth and to watch 
the thick rope fall to pieces as if cut with a pair of scissors 
after a few quick, angry bites. During this trial I made a 
false step on the smooth, grassy ground, so well known to 
_ African explorers, and was within a hair’s breadth of falling 


A TRAPPED LION, I HEARD HIM ROARING AT A DISTANCE OF A MILE 
AND A HALF. 


into the clutches of the raging beast had not my good 
taxidermist happily dragged me back. After various further 
efforts, during which my people were constantly taking 
fright, I at length succeeded in fastening the head as well 
as the paws of the beast. With the help of the branches 
the body was laid prostrate on the ground, a gag was 
_ inserted between the teeth, the prisoner was released from 


493 


In Wildest Africa -» 


the: trap-and, fastened’ to a_tree-trunk, .was~carried. into 
camp, : : 
‘But,what, takes only a few words to describe involved 
ae of work. It was a wonderful burden, and one not to 
be seen every day! In my previous book I have already 
described how we. carried a half-grown lion in a similar 
manner, and I have. given an illustration of the scene. 
Unfortunately some of my best photographs, showing - 
my bearers carrying this full-grown lion, were lost while — 
crossing a river. : 

I was full of delight at the thought of my captive as 
he would appear in my encampment. But to my great 
chagrin the lion died in it quite suddenly, evidently from 
heart failure. We could find no trace of any wound. 

There was something really moving at this issue to the 
struggle, in the thought that I, using wile against strength, 
should have overpowered and captured this noble beast 
only to break his heart ! | 

This failure made me fear that I should never saaeed 
in capturing a lion by such methods. It seemed almost 
better to use a large grating-trap in which it could be kept 
for several days and gradually accustomed ‘to the loss 
of its freedom. But this meant an expensive apparatus 
which was quite beyond the funds of a. private individual 
with narrow-means. like myself. My. efforts to capture 
lions by ‘means. of. pits dug. by the natives were quite 
unsuccessful, because the lions always found a way out. 

A younger male lion which was entrapped lived for 
nearly ay month chained up in-my camp. This one had 
hurt® its. paw when: captured, and in. spite of every care 


494 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH OF A LION. THE ANIMAL HAD MOVED SO SWIFTLY THAT THE APPARATUS WAS NOT QUITE IN 
TIME TO TAKE IN ITS WHOLE BODY. 


* The Capturing of a Lion 


a bad sore gradually festered. It wounded one of my 


=F _ people very badly by ripping open a vein in his arm when 


he went to feed it. 

_ Thus terminated my efforts to bring an old lion to 
Europe. 

Much that is easy in appearance is troublesome in reality. 
_ Even when the animal is overcome, the transportation 
of it to the coast is accompanied by almost insuperable 
_ difficulties. It means something to carry beast and cage, a 
_ burden amounting to something like eight hundred pounds, 
‘i : right through the wilderness by means of bearers. Even 
with the help of the Uganda Railway it has not been 
possible to bring home a full-grown lion. I have repeatedly 
caught lions for this purpose, but have always experienced 


ultimate failure. 


Sometimes the animals would not return to the place 
where | had tracked or sighted them, or would steer clear 
of the decoy. One often meets with this experience in 
India with tigers, which are decoyed in much the same 
way, and then shot from a raised stand. Interesting 
information about the behaviour of tigers in such cases 
may be found in the publications of English hunters, as 
well as in the very interesting book on tropical sport by 
P. Niedieck, a German hunter of vast experience. | 
might perhaps have succeeded on subsequent occasions 
in transporting old lions, but I never had the strong cages 
-athand. Now perhaps they are rusted and rotted, as well 
as the other implements which I hid or buried on the velt, 
not having bearers enough to carry them, and hoping to find 
them again later. 


497 


In Wildest‘ Africa -» 


I had a most interesting adventure, once, with a lion 
on the right bank of the Rufu River. 

For several nights the continuous roaring of a lion 
had been heard in the immediate vicinity of my camp. 
In spite of all my attempts to get a sight of the beast 
by day I could not even find the slightest trace of it. 
Moreover, the vegetation in the neighbourhood of the 
river was not at all suitable for a lion-hunt. I decided to 
try my luck with a trap. A very decrepit old donkey . 
was used as a bait, and killed by the lion the very first — 
night. But to my disappointment the powerful beast of 
prey had evidently killed the ass with one blow, and with 
incredible strength had succeeded in dragging it off into 
the thicket without as much as touching the trap. Very 
early the next morning I found the tracks, which were 
clearly imprinted on the ground. Breathlessly I followed 
up the trail step by step in the midst of thick growth — 
which only allowed me to see a few paces around me. I 
crept noiselessly forward, followed by my _ gun-bearer, 
knowing that in all probability I. should come upon 
the lion. 

‘The trail turned sharply to the left through some thick 
bushes. Now we came to a spot where the thief had 
evidently rested with his spoil; then the tracks led sharply 
to the right and went straight forward without a pause. 

‘We had been creeping forward on the sunlit sand like 
stealthy cats, with every nerve and muscle taut, my people 
close ‘behind me, I with my rifle raised and ready to fire— 
when, suddenly, with a weird sort of growl it leapt up 
right in front of us and was over the hard sand and away. 


498 


C, G. Schillings, phot. 


PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT A DISTANCE OF ABOUT FIVE PACES OF A LION WHICH I CAPTURED ALIVE AND BROUGHT BACK 
TO CAMP — A SPECIMEN OF THE MANELESS LIONS OF THE MASAI VELT, SOME OF THE VERY OLD LIONS DEVELOP 
MANES EVEN IN THIS REGION, BUT NEVER TO THE EXTENT USUAL WITH LIONS IN CAPTIVITY, OR WITH THE ALMOST 
EXTINCT SPECIES OF THE ATLAS COUNTRY OR OF SOUTH AFRICA. 


-» The Capturing of a Lion 


It is astonishing how the stampede of a lion reverberates 
even in the far distance ! 

A few steps further I came upon the remains of the 
ass. The lion had gained the open when I got out of 
the brushwood. It was useless to follow the tracks, for 
they led only to stony ground, where they would be lost. 
Discouraged, I gave up the pursuit for the-time, but only 


MY PLUCKY TAXIDERMIST MANAGED TO GET THIS CAPTURED HYENA UNHARMED 
INTO CAMP, PROTECTING HIMSELF WITH A BIG CUDGEL. 


to return a few hours later. Approaching very cautiously 
to the place where | had left the remains of the donkey, we 
found they were no longer there. The lion had fetched 
them away. We followed again, but to my unspeakable 
disappointment with the same result as in the morning. | 
managed this time, however, to get near the lion through 
the brushwood, but he immediately took to flight again— 
501 


In Wildest Africa -» 


when only a few yards from me, though hidden by bushes. 
Perhaps he is still at large in this same locality ! 

Lions—generally several of them together—killed my 
decoys on several occasions without themselves getting 
caught. I once surprised a lion and two lionesses at such 
a meal in the Njiri marshes, in June 1903. Unfortunately 
the animals became aware of my approach, and now began 
just such a chase as I had already successfully undertaken 
on January 25, 1897.’ 

I was able by degrees to gain on the satiated Fer 
A wonderful memory that! Clear morning light, a sharp 
breeze from over the swamps, the yellowish velt with its 
whitish incrustation of salt—-a few bushes and groups of 
trees—and ever before me the lions, beating their reluctant 
retreat, now clearly visible, now almost out of sight. | 

I try a shot. - But they are too far—it is no use. 
Puffing and panting, I feel my face glow and my heart 
beat with my exertions. At length one lioness stops 
and glances in my direction. I shoot, and imagine I have 
missed her. All three rapidly disappear in a morass near 
at hand. All my efforts seem to have been in vain... . 
Eight days later, however, I bag the lioness, and find that 
my ball has struck her right through the thigh. 

It may happen that a lion caught in a trap gets off 
with the iron attached to him, and covers vast stretches 
of country. The pursuer has then an exciting time of it. 
If the animal passes through a fairly open district the issue 
is probably successful. But I have sometimes been obliged 

1 Herr Niedieck also underwent a similar experience. See his book 
Mit der Biichse in fiinf Weltteilen, and my own With Flashlight and Rifle. 

502 


i 
oe ti 


a! L. = - cm | 
a we, To gen 
pa. Toe i) J ae” 
~S ie. ae 
Yee 


-» The Capturing of a Lion 


to wade through a morass of reeds for hours at a stretch. 
The hunter should remember that the irons may have 
gripped the lion’s paw in such a way that he may be 
able to shake them off with a powerful effort. Then 
the tables may easily be turned, and the lion may clasp the 
hunter, never to let him go again. 

On another occasion I caught two full-grown lions in 


MY HYENA, THE ONE I AFTERWARDS BROUGHT TO EUROPE AND PRESENTED TO 
THE BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. IT WAS CHAINED UP IN CAMP. 


one night. They had roamed about quite near my camp 
night after night. They had frightened my people, and 
had been seen by the night sentinels; but in the daytime 
no one had been able to catch a glimpse of them. At 
last one night a sick ass, that had been placed as a bait, 
was torn away. The trail of the heavy irons led, after 
much turning and twisting, to a reedy swamp. Here it 


595 


In Wildest Africa -» 


was impossible to follow the tracks further. Several hours 


passed before I succeeded finally in finding first one lion’ 


and then the other. To kill them was no easy matter. 


I could hear the clanking of the chains where they were. 


moving about, but I must see them before I could take 
effective aim. Meanwhile one of the lions was making 
frantic efforts to free himself. Supposing the irons were 


to give way! But these efforts were followed by moments — 


of quiet and watching. How the beasts growled! 


I cannot agree with those who condemn indiscriminately 
the trapping of lions. Of course, it must be done for a 
good purpose. I should not have been able to present 
the Imperial Natural History Museum in Berlin with such 
beautiful and typical lions’ skins had I not had recourse 
to these traps. | 

A lion story with a droll ending came to me from 
Bagamoyo. There a lion had made itself very obnoxious, 
and some Europeans determined to trap it. The trap 
was soon set, and a young lion fell into it. Several men 
armed to the teeth approached the place, to put an end to 
the captive with powder and shot. I cannot now exactly 
remember what happened next, but on the attempt of the 
lion to free itself from the trap the riflemen took to their 
heels and plunged into a pond. According to one version, 
the lion turned out afterwards to be only a hyena! 7 

At one time there was a perfect plague of lions near 
the coast towns—Mikindani, for instance. Hungry lions 
attacked the townsfolk on many occasions, and even poked 
their heads inside the doors of the dwellings. 

506 | 


— 
x 


C. G, Se illings, phot. 
MASAI MAKING GAME OF A HYENA WHICH HAD ATTACKED THEIR KRAAL AND 
WHICH I HAD TRAPPED AT THEIR REQUEST. THEY KILLED IT AT LAST WITH 
A SINGLE SPEAR-STAB THROUGH THE HEART. 


ations | 


oo 


ae 
Seater 
Pa 


4 


‘~» The Capturing of a Lion 


3 The extermination of wild life has been almost as great 
a disaster to the lions as to the bushmen of South Africa. 
_ Extermination awaits bushman and lion in their turn— 
not through hunger alone. 
I was more fortunate in my attempt to get a fine 
example of the striped hyena (Hyena schillingsc, Mtsch.), 
which I had previously discovered, and in bringing it to 
Germany, where I presented it to the Berlin Zoological 
Gardens. On page 501 is to be seen a picture of one of 
this species caught in a trap. Orgeich, my plucky 
assistant, had armed himself with a big cudgel, for use in 
the case of the beast attacking him, but never lost his 
- equanimity, and smoked his indispensable and inseparable 
pipe the whole time! Another illustration is of a hyena 
which was confined in the camp. This fine specimen, 
an old female, was very difficult to take to the coast. 
Something like forty bearers were needed to transport 
the heavy iron apparatus with its inmate as far as Tanga. 
This representative of its species was one of the first 
brought alive to Europe, and lived for several years in 
the Berlin Zoological Gardens. 

It is less troublesome to obtain possession of smaller 
beasts of prey. Thus I kept three jackals (Zhos. schmidtz, 
Noack) in my camp until they became quite reconciled to 
their fate. It is very interesting to study the various 
characteristics of animals at such times. Some adapt 
themselves very easily to their altered circumstances ; 
others of the same species do so only after a long struggle. 
The study of animal character can be carried on very well 
under the favourable conditions of camp life in the wild. 


599 


In Wildest Africa -» 


Although grown jackals may be fairly easily brought — 
over to Europe, we had great difficulty with members of 
the more noble feline race, and above all with the King 
of Beasts himself. I learnt by experience that lynxes and 
wild cats were only to be tamed with great difficulty, 
-and | once lost a captive lynx very suddenly in spite of 
every care. er, 

These things are not so simple. This is why it is 
not yet possible to bring many of the most charming and 
most interesting members of the African animal world to 
Europe. I much wish that it were possible to bring full- 
grown lions over. I would far rather see one or two of 
them in all their native wildness and majesty than-a whole 
troop of home-reared and almost domesticated specimens. 

But the hours I devoted to my own attempts in this 
direction were not spent in vain. They were memorable 
hours, full of splendid excitement. 


510 


A FEW SPECIMENS OF ELEPHANT-TUSKS SECURED BY THE EMISSARIES OF 
DEUSS & CO., IN PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA. 


XII 


A Dying Race of Giants 


~~ VERY one who knows Equatorial East Africa will 

bear me out in saying that it is easier nowadays 

to kill fifty rhinoceroses than a single bull-elephant 

carrying tusks weighing upwards of a couple of hundred 
pounds. 

There are only a few survivors left of this world- 
old race of giants. Many species, probably, have 
disappeared without leaving a single trace behind. The 
block granite sarcophagi on the Field of the Dead in 
Sakkarah in Egypt, dating from 3,500 years ago, are 
memorials (each weighing some 64 tons) of the sacred 
bulls of Apis: the mightiest monument ever raised by 
man to beast. Bulls were sacred to Ptah, the God of 
Memphis, and their gravestones—which Mariette, for 
instance, brought to light in 1851—yield striking evidence 

VOL. I 511 ce 


In Wildest Africa -» 


of the pomp attached to the cult of animals in those days 
of old. ee 

But no monument has been raised to the African 
elephants that have been slaughtered by millions in the 
last hundred years. Save for some of the huge tusks 
for which they were killed, there will be scarcely a 


trace of them in the days to come, when their Indian 


cousins—the sacred white elephants—may perhaps still 


be revered. 

John Hanning Speke, who with his fellow-countryman 
Grant discovered the Victoria Nyanza, found elephant 
herds grazing quite peacefully on its banks. The animals, 


nowadays so wild, hardly took any notice when some of © 


their number were killed or wounded : they merely passed 
a little farther on and returned to their grazing. 

The same might be said of the Upper Nile swamps 
in the land of the Dinkas, in English territory, where, 
thanks to specially favourable conditions, the English have 
been successfully preserving the elephants. Also in the 
Knysna forests of Cape Colony some. herds of elephants 
have been preserved by strict protective laws during 
the last eighty years or so. Experience with Indian 
elephants has proved that when protected the sagacious 
beasts are not so shy and wild as is generally the case 
with those of Africa. For the latter have become, 


especially the full-grown and experienced specimens, the . 


shyest of creatures, and therefore the most difficult to 
study. 
Should any one differ from me as to this, I would bee 
him to substantiate his opinion by the help of photo- 
512 


ofa 


. 
re peewe ra we we en 
ape Sarre 


Photographed at Zanzibar. 
THE HEAVIEST ELEPHANTS’ TUSKS EVER RECORDED IN THE ANNALS OF EAST 

AFRICAN TRADE. THEY WEIGHED 450 POUNDS. ITRIED IN VAIN TO SECURE 

THEM FOR A GERMAN MUSEUM. THEY WERE BOUGHT FOR AMERICA, 


» A Dying Race of Giants 


graphs, taken in the wilderness, of elephants which have 
~ not been shot at—photographs depicting for us the African 
elephant in its native wilds. When he does, I shall 
““oive him best”! 

The elephant is no longer to be found anywhere in 
“ its original numbers. It is found most frequently in the 
desert places between Abyssinia and the Nile and the Galla 
country, or in the inaccessible parts of the Congo, on 
the Albert Nyanza, and in the hinterlands of Nigeria and 
the Gold Coast. But in the vicinity of the Victoria 
-Nyanza things have changed greatly. Richard Kandt 
tells us that a single elephant-hunter, a Dane, who after- 
wards succumbed to the climate, alone slaughtered hundreds | 
in the course of years. 

_ According to experts in this field of knowledge, some 
of the huge animals of prehistoric days disappeared in a 
quite brief space of time from the earth’s surface. But 
we cannot explain why beasts so well qualified to defend 
_ themselves should so speedily cease to exist. However 
that may be, the fate of the still existing African elephant 
appears to me tragic. At one time elephants of different 
kinds dwelt in our own country.’ Remains of the 
closely related mammoth, with its long hair adapted to a 
northern climate, are sometimes excavated from the ice in 
Siberia. Thus we obtain information about its kind of 
food, for remnants of food well preserved by the intense 


1 Little elephants only a yard high used to inhabit Malta, and there 
still lives, according to Hagenbeck, the experienced zoologist of 
Hamburg, a dwarf species of elephant in yet unexplored districts of 
West Africa. 


515 


In Wildest Africa -» 


cold have been found between the teeth and in the 
stomach—-remnants which botanists have been able to 
identify. 


By a singular coincidence, the mammoth remains pre- 


served in the ice have been found just at a time when 
the craze for slaughtering their African relations has reached 
its climax, and when by means of arms that deal out death 
at great, and therefore safe distances, the work of annihila- 
tion is all too rapidly progressing. The scientific equip- 
ment of mankind is so nearly perfect that we are able to 
make the huge ice-bound mammoths, which have perhaps 
been reposing in their cold grave for thousands of years, 


speak for themselves. And it can be proved by means - 


of the so-called “ physiological blood-proof” that the 


frozen blood’ of the Siberian mammoths shows its kinship. 


with the Indian and African elephant! 
It is strange to reflect that mankind, having attained 
to its present condition of enlightenment, should yet have 


designs upon the last survivors of this African race of ~ 


giants—and chiefly in the interests of a game! For the 
ivory is chiefly required to make billiard balls! Is it not 
possible to contrive some substitute in these days when 
nothing seems beyond the power of science ? 

A. H. Neumann, a well-known English hunter, says 
that some years ago it was already too late to reap a 
good ivory harvest in Equatorial Africa or in Mombasa. 
He had to seek farther afield in the far-lying districts 
between the Indian Ocean and the Upper Nile, where 
he obtained about 45,000 worth of vOry during one 
hunting expedition. 

516 


ae 


A STORE OF ELEPHANTS’ TUSKS IN ONE OF THE WORKROOMS OF THE IMPORTANT IVORY FACTORY OF A. MEYER AT 


HAMBURG, 


IT SHOULD BE BORNE IN MIND THAT THERE ARE A NUMBER OF OTHER SUCH FACTORIES ON THE CONTINENT 


AND IN AMERICA, | 


~*» A Dying Race of Giants 


Meanwhile powder and shot are at work day and night 
in the Dark Continent. It is not the white man himself 
who does most of the work of destruction ; it is the native 
who obtains the greater part of the ivory used in commerce. 
Two subjects of Manga Bell, for instance, killed a short 
time back, in the space of a year and a half, elephants 
enough to provide one hundred and thirty-nine large 
tusks for their chief! There is no way of changing matters 
except by completely disarming the African natives. 
Unless this is done, in a very short time the elephant 
will only be found in the most inaccessible and unhealthy 
districts. It does not much matter whether this comes 
about in a single decade or in several. What are thirty 
or forty or fifty years, in comparison with the endless 
ages that have gone to the evolution of these wonderful 
animals? It is remarkable, too, that in spite of all the 
hundreds of African elephants which are being killed, 
not a single museum in the whole world possesses one 
of the gigantic male elephants which were once so 
numerous, but which are now so rarely to be met with. 
Accompanying this chapter is a photograph of the heaviest 
elephant-tusks which have ever reached the coast from 
the interior. The two tusks together weigh about 
450 pounds. One can form some idea of the size of the 
elephant which carried them! I was unfortunately unable 
to obtain these tusks for Germany, although they were 
taken from German Africa. They were sent to America, 
and sold for nearly £1,000. 

I should like the reader to note, also, the illustration 
showing a room in an ivory factory. The number of 


519 


In Wildest Africa -» 


tusks there visible will give an approximate notion of the 
tremendous slaughter which is being carried on. 

The price of ivory has been rising gradually, and is 
now ten times what it was some forty years ago in the 


Sudan, according to Brehm’s statistics. In Morgen’s 
‘time one could buy a fifty-pound tusk in the Cameroons 
for some stuff worth about sevenpence. In the last 


century or two the price of ivory has risen commensurately 
with that of all other such wares. Nowadays a sum 
varying from £300 to £400 may be obtained for the 
egg of the Great Auk, which became extinct less than 
half a century ago: whilst a stuffed specimen of the bird 
itself is worth at least £1,000. | What will be the price of 
such things in years to come! 

In the light of these remarks the reader will easily 
understand how greatly I prize the photographs which I 
secured of two huge old bull-elephants in friendly company 
with a bull-giraffe, and. which are here reproduced. It 
will be difficult, if not indeed impossible, ever again to 
photograph such mighty “tuskers” in company with 
giraffes. In the year 1863 Brehm wrote that no true 
picture existed of. the real African elephant in its own 
actual haunts. The fact brought to light by these pictures 
is both new and surprising, especially for the expert, who 
hitherto has been inclined to believe that giraffes were 
dwellers on the velt and accustomed to fight shy of the 
damp forests. That they should remain in such a region 
in company with elephants for weeks at a time was 
something hitherto unheard of. I do not know how to 
express my delight at being able after long hours of 

520 


AN AUK’S EGG, ABOUT THREE-FIFTHS OF AC 


EGGS COME 


U 


INTO THE MARKET IN ENGI 
TO TIME AND FETCH AS MUCH AS £300 APIECE 


(REPRODUCED HERE I! 
DR. I 


5 


Y 


AL SIZE. 


AND FROM TIMI 


KIND 


AUER VON FRL. ELFRIEDE ZIMMERMANN.) 


PERMISSION 


PHI 


( 


SPE 


LN 


NATI 


AT 


THE 


DI 


[EN OF 
RAL HIS 
tAST #1 


ECTOR 


THE 


STORY 


OOO 


OF 


IF 


PRESI 

EUM. 
FERI 

MUSE 


a 
x 


ae 


-~» A Dying Race of Giants 


patient waiting to sight this rare conjunction of animals 
from my place of observation either with a Goerz-Trizeder 
or with the naked eye, but only for a few seconds at a 
time, because of the heavy showers of rain which kept 
falling. How disappointing and mortifying it was to find 


_ oneself left in the lurch by the sun—and just immediately 


under the Equator, where one had a right to it! What I 
had so often experienced in my photographic experiments 
in the forests by the Rufu River—that is, the want of 


‘sunlight for days together—now made me almost desperate. 
At any moment the little gathering of animals might break 


up, in which case | should never be able to get a photo- 
graphic record of the strange friendship. Since the publica- 
tion of my first work I have often been asked to give some 
further particulars about this matter. Therefore, perhaps 
these details, supported by photographs, will not be 
unacceptable to my readers. 

I candidly admit that had I suddenly come upon these 
great bull-elephants in the jungle in years gone by I could 
not have resisted killing them. But I have gradually 
learned to restrain myself in this respect. It would have 
been a fine sensation from the sportsman’s standpoint, and 
would besides have brought in a round sum of perhaps 
4500; but what was all that in comparison with the 
securing of one single authentic photograph which would 


afford irrefutable proof of so surprising a fact? 


The western spurs of the great Kilimanjaro range end 
somewhat abruptly in a high table-land, which is grass- 
grown and covered in patches with sweet-smelling acacias. 
This undulating velt-region gradually slopes down until in 


523 


Cay tata. 
(deur! 


In Wildest Africa a 


its lowest parts the waters collect and form the western 
Njiri marshes, which at some seasons of the year are 
almost dry. Volcanic hills arise here and there on the 
plain, from whose summits one can obtain a wide view. 
One of the most prominent of these hills has a cavity at 


its summit. It is evidently the crater of an extinct volcano 


which’ is filled with water, like the volcanic lakes of my 
native Eifel district. A thicket begins not far from this 
hill, and gradually extends until it merges into the forest 
beyond. The burning sun has dried up all the grass up 


to the edge of the thicket. There is so little rain here 


that the. poor Xerophites are the only exception that can 
stand the drought. Only on the inner walls of the steep 
crater do bushes and shrubs grow, for these are only 
exposed at midday to the sun’s heat. | 
Thus a cool moisture pervades this hollow except 
during the very hottest season. Paths, trodden down by 
crowds of game, lead to the shining mirror of the little 
lake. It used to be the haunt of beasts of prey, and 
the smaller animals would probably seek drinking-places 
miles distant rather than come to this grim declivity. 
There is, however, a kind of road leading to the summit 
of this hill, a very uneven road, wide at first, then gradually 
narrower and narrower, which had become almost im- 
passable with grass and brushwood when I made my way 
up. This road was trodden by the cattle herds of the 
Masai. It may be that rhinoceroses and elephants were 
the original makers of it before the warlike shepherds. 
began to lead their thirsty cattle to this secluded lake. 
Be this as it may, my Masai friends assured me that they 


524 


a1a Ad GALINATAOAYA HONW ‘SNAHOIT HLIM DNOH ‘LAMOINL Vv 


‘NVW OL ZIAVUYLANAdWI LSOWIY SHWILANOS GNV SINVHd 


"poyd ‘sSuypiyas *) *D 


~*» A Dying Race of Giants 


brought their herds here time out of mind until the 
rinderpest devastated them. 

For weeks I had had natives on the look-out for elephants. 
They could only tell me, however, of small herds composed 
of cows and young bulls, and that was not good enough 
from the point of view of either sportsman or photographer. 
However, I made several excursions round the Kilepo Hill 
from my camp, never taking more than a few men with 
me—it so often happens that one’s followers spoil the 
chase, perhaps quite frustrate it. This is well known to 
natives and experienced elephant-hunters, 

I soon became familiar with the district and its 
vegetation. For hours | followed paths which led through 
thick undergrowth, and I had some unpleasant encounters 
with rhinoceroses. I knew well that the neighbourhood 
of the hills, with its tall impenetrable growth, was a 
most likely one for astute and cautious bull-elephants to 
haunt. 

Hunting elephants in this fashion, day after day, with 
only a few followers, is a delightful experience. It happens, 
perhaps, that one has to pass the night in the forest under 
the free vault of heaven, with the branches of a huge tree as 
shelter. The faint glow of the camp-fire fades and flickers, 
producing weird effects in the network of the foliage. 
How quickly one falls victim to atavistic terrors of the 
night! Terrors of what? Of the “pepo ya miti,” the 
spirit of the woods, or of some other mysterious sprite ? 
No, of wild animals—the same kind of fear that little 
children have in the dark of something unknown, dangerous 
and threatening. My followers betake themselves to their 

VOL. II § 527 34 


In Wildest Africa -» 


slumbers with indifference, for they have little concern for 
probable dangers. But the imaginative European is on 
the look-out for peril—the thought of it holds and 


fascinates him. . . . Somewhere in the distance, perhaps, _ 
the heavens are illuminated with a bright light. Far, far: 


away a conflagration is raging, devastating miles upon 
miles of the vale below. The sky reflects the light, which 
blazes up now purple, now scarlet! Often it will last 
for days and nights, nay weeks, whole table-lands being 
in flames and acting as giant beacons to light up the 
landscape! . . . My thoughts would turn towards the 
bonfires which in Germany of old flashed their message 
across the land—news, perhaps, of the burial of some 
great prince. . . . So, now, it seemed to me that those 
distant flames told of the last moments of some monarch 
of the wild. | 

At last I received good news. A huge bull-elephant 
had been seen for a few minutes in the early morning 
hours in the vicinity of the Kilepo Hill. This overjoyed 
me, for I was quite certain that in-a few days now we 
should meet them above on the hill. 

I left my camp to the care of the greater part of my 
caravan, but sent a good many of my men back into the 
inhabited districts of the northern Kilimanjaro to get fresh 
provisions from Useri. I myself went about a day’s journey 
up Kilepo Hill, accompanied by a few of my men, resolved 
to get a picture coute que coite. 

It was characteristic of my scouts that they could only 
give me details about elephants. As often as I asked 
them about other game I could get nothing out of them, 

528 


ee 


-» A Dying Race of Giants 


for what were giraffes, buffaloes, and rhinoceroses to them, 
and what interest could they have in such worthless 
creatures! The whole mind of the natives has been for 
many years past directed by us Europeans upon ivory. 


aS Native hunters in scantily populated districts dream and 


think only of ‘‘jumbe’”—ivory, and always more ivory, as 
the Esquimaux yearns for seal blubber and oil and the 
European for gold, gold, gold! In these parts giraffes 
and rhinoceroses count for nothing in comparison with the 
elephant—the native thinks no more of them than one of 
_ Our Own mountaineers would think of a rabbit or a hare. 
Only those who have seen this for themselves can realise 
how quickly one gets accustomed to the point of view! In 
the gameless and populous coast districts the appearance of 
a dwarf antelope or of a bustard counts for a good deal, and 
holds out promise to the sportsman of other such game— 
waterbuck, perhaps. I have read in one of ,the coast 
newspapers the interesting news that Mr. So and So was 
fortunate enough to kill a bustard and an antelope. That 
certainly was quite good luck, for you may search long in 
populous districts and find nothing. As you penetrate 
into the wilder districts conditions change rapidly, and 
after weeks and months of marching in the interior you 
get accustomed to expecting only the biggest of big game. 
The other animals become so numerous that the sight of 
them no longer quickens the pulse. 

I have already remarked that elephants are much less 
cautious by night than by day. The very early morning 
hours are the best for sighting elephants, before they 
retire into their forest fastnesses to escape the burning 


529 


In Wildest Africa » 


rays of the sun. But as at this time of the year the 
sun hardly ever penetrated the thick bank of clouds, there 
was a chance of seeing the elephants at a later hour and 
in the bush. So every morning either I or one of my 
scouts was posted on one of the hills—Kilepo especially— 
to: keep a sharp. look-out. It needed three hours in the 
dark and two in the daylight to get up the hill. It was 
not a pleasant climb. We were always drenched to the 
skin by the wet grass and bushes, and it was impossible 
to light a fire to dry ourselves, for the animals would 
certainly have scented it. We had to stay there in our 
wet clothes, hour after hour, watching most carefully and 
making the utmost of the rare moments when the mist 
rolled away in the valley and enabled us to peer into 
the thickets. It may seem surprising that we should 
have found so much difficulty in sighting the elephants, 
but one must remember that they emerge from their 
mud-baths with a coating that harmonises perfectly with the 
tree-trunks and the general environment, and are therefore 
hard to descry. Besides, the conditions of light in the 
tropics are very different from what we are accustomed 
to in our own northern clime, and are very deceptive. 
When fortune was kind I could just catch a glimpse 
during a brief spell of sunshine of a gigantic elephant’s 
form in the deep valley beneath. But only for a few 
instants. The next moment there was nothing to be seen 
save long vistas of damp green plants and trees. The 
decp rain-channels stood out clear and small in the 
landscape from where I stood. The mightiest trees 
looked like bushes; the hundred-feet-high trunks of 


53° 


eet . 


‘ 
f re . a 
. o o « 
» be . 3 f 
. ; 
, ~ : 2 
is t > at. . 
ee: { zi , , ps 
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ay 
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“ 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
A VELT FIRE. THE BONES OF AN ELEPHANT SOON TO BECOME FOOD FOR THE FLAMES, 


“aula LIAA V 


‘youd ‘sFuypiyrs *D *D 


oe 
ie 


% 


ce 


tal eet 


~*» A Dying Race of Giants 


decayed trees which stood up out of the undergrowth 
here and there looked like small stakes. In the ever- 
changing light one loses all sense of the vastness of things 
and distances. 

For once the mist rolls off rapidly ; a gust of wind 
drives away the clouds. The sun breaks through. Look! 
there is a whole herd of elephants below us in the 
valley! But in another second the impenetrable forest 
of trees screens them from my camera. At last they 
become clearly visible again, and I manage to photograph 


two cow-elephants in the distance. The sun vanishes 


again now, and an hour later I have at last the whole 
herd clearly before me in the hollow. How tthe little 
calves cling to their mothers! How quietly the massive 
beasts move about, now disappearing into the gullies, 
now reappearing and climbing up the hillside with a 
sureness of foot that makes them seem more like auto- 
matons than animals. Every now and again the ruddy 
earth-coloured backs emerge from the mass of foliage. 
A wonderful and moving picture! For I know full well 
that the gigantic mothers are caring for their children 
and protecting them from the human fiend who seeks 
to destroy them with pitfalls, poisoned arrows, or death- 
dealing guns. How cautiously they all move, scenting 
the wind with uplifted trunks, and keeping a look-out for 
pitfalls!’ Every movement shows careful foresight; the 
gigantic old leaders have evidently been through some 
dire experiences. 

Suddenly a warning cry rings out. Immediately the 
whole herd disappears ‘noiselessly into the higher rain- 


535 


In Wildest Africa -» 


channels of the hill—the ‘ Subugo woods” of the 
Wandorobo hunters. 


Had the elephants not got these places of refuge to 
fly to they would have died out long ago! This is the 
only means by which they are still able to exist in Africa. 
I feel how difficult it is to depict accurately the constant 
warfare that is going on between man and beast, and 
can only give others a vague idea of what it is like. 
Many secrets of the life and fate and the speedy annihi- 
lation of the African elephants will sink into the grave 
with the last commercial elephant-hunters. And once 
again civilisation will have done away with an entire 
species in the course of a single century. The question 
as to how far this was necessary will provide ample 
material for pamphlets and discussions in times to come. 

When one knows the ‘‘ subugo,” however, one under- 
stands how it has been possible for elephants in South 
Africa to have held out so long in the Knysna and 
Zitzikama forests until European hunters began to go 
after them with rifles in expert fashion. Fritsch visited 
the Knysna forests in 1863. ‘It is easy,” he says, “to 
understand how elephants have managed to remain in 
their forests for weeks together before one of their number 
has fallen, even when hundreds of men have been after 
them. There are spots in these forests—regular islands. 
completely surrounded by water—where they take refuge, 


and where no one can get at them.” 
Of course, Fritsch speaks of a time when the art of 


shooting was in its infancy. One must not forget that 
536 


C, G. Schillings, phot. 


AN OLD ACACIA TREE, 


ed aks ee 


= OF A eS ee ee 
F 


-» A Dying Race of Giants 
nowadays ruthless marksmen will reach the mighty beasts 
even in these islands of refuge—marksmen who shoot at 
a venture with small-calibre rifles, and who find the dead 
elephant later somewhere in the neighbourhood, with 
vultures congregated round the corpse.’ 


Now perhaps I may have to wait in vain for hours, 
days, and even weeks! Some mornings there is abso- 
lutely nothing to be seen—the animals have gone down to 
the lake to drink, or have taken refuge in one of the 
little morasses at the foot of the hill. Judging by their 
nocturnal wanderings it seems as if they must have other 
accessible drinking-places in the vicinity. A search for 
these places, however, is not to be thought of. If I were 
to penetrate to these haunts they would immediately note 
my footsteps and take to flight for months, perhaps, 
putting miles between themselves and their would-be 
photographer. 

For to-day, at any rate, all is over. The sun only 
breaks through the heavy masses of cloud for a few 
minutes at a time, and great sombre palls of mist hang 
over the forests, constantly changing from one shape to 
another. 

To obtain a picture by means of the telephoto-lens 
did not seem at all feasible. But a photo of bull-elephants 
and giraffes together !—so long as there was the faintest 
chance of it I would not lose heart. It was not easy, 
but I must succeed! So, wet through and perishing with 


1 Experienced German hunters make a special plea for the use of rifles 
of heavier calibre. Many English hunters are of the same opinion. 


539 


In Wildest Africa -» 


cold, I wandered every morning through the tall grass to 


the top of the hill and waited and waited. . 
The elephants seemed to have completely disappeared ; 


no matter how far I extended my daily excursions, they | 
were nowhere to be seen. At length I came across a 


fairly big herd, but they had taken up their stand in 
such an impenetrable thicket that it was quite impossible 
to sight them, After much creeping and: crawling through 


the elephant and rhinoceros paths in the undergrowth J] 


managed to get just for a few minutes a faint glimpse of 


the vague outline of single animals, but so indistinct that 


it. was impossible to determine their age, size, or sex. 


In East Africa elephants are generally seen under these 


unfavourable conditions. Very seldom does one come 
upon a good male tusk-bearing specimen, as well-meaning 
but inexperienced persons, such as I myself was at one 
time, would desire. : 
There is something very exciting and stintnlatinesds 
coming: face to face with these gigantic creatures in 
the thick undergrowth. All one’s nerves are strained 
to see or hear the faintest indication: of the whereabouts 
of the herd; the sultry air, the dense tangle through. 
which we have to move, and which hinders every step, 
combine to excite us. .We can only see a few paces 
around. The strong scent of elephant stimulates us. The 


snapping. and creaking of branches and twigs, the noises. 


made by the beasts themselves, especially the shrill ery of 
warning. given out.from time to time by one of the herd— 
all add.to the tension.. The clanging, pealing sound. of 
this cry has-something particularly. weird in it in the 


540 


THE TWO ELEPHANTS, 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 

THE TUSKS OF THE ELEPHANTS SEEMED EVEN LARGER THAN THEY REALLY WERE, AND OUT OF ALL PROPORTION TO 
THE SIZE OF THE ELEPHANTS, THOUGH THESE WERE EXCEPTIONALLY BIG BEASTS, NEARLY I2 FEET IN HEIGHT. 
THE GIRAFFE COMES OUT CURIOUSLY IN THIS PICTURE, RIGHT AT THE BOTTOM. 


[p. 540 


meen ine ape gee tnegrertine Miso wey aay Ace en aoe 


~*» A Dying Race of Giants 


stillness of the great forest. At such a signal the whole 
herd moves forward, to-day quietly without noise, and 
to-morrow in wild blustering flight. It is very seldom that 
one can catch them up on the same day, and then only after 
long hours of pursuit. . . . These forest sanctuaries, together 
with their own caution, have done more to stave off the 
extermination of the species than have all the sporting 
restrictions that have been introduced. 

Every morning I returned to my post of observation on 
the hill. I could easily have killed one or other of the 
herd. But I did not wish to disturb the elephants, and I 
had also good reason for believing that there were no very 
large tusks among them. Morning after morning | returned 
disappointed to my camp, only to find my way back on the 
next day to my sentry-box at the edge of the forest on the 
hill. Days went by and nothing was seen save the back 
or head of an elephant emerging from the ‘“‘subugo.” This 
‘““subugo” knows well how to protect its inmates. 

Every morning the same performance. At my feet the 
mist-mantled forest, and near me my three or four blacks, 
to whom my reluctance to shoot the elephants and my pre- 
occupation with my camera were alike inexplicable. When- 
ever the clouds rolled away over the woods and valley it 
was necessary to keep the strictest watch. Then I dis- 
covered smaller herds of giraffes with one or two elephants 
accompanying them. But this would be for a few seconds 
only. The heavy banks of cloud closed to again. A 
beautiful large dove (Columba aguatrix) flew about noisily, 
and like our ringdove, made its love-flights round about 
the hill, and cooed its deep notes close by. Down below 


541 


In Wildest Africa -» 


in the valley echoed the beautiful, resonant, melancholy 
cry of the great grey shrike ; cock and hen birds answered 
one another in such fashion that the call seemed to come 
from only one bird. There was no other living thing to 
see or hear. 

But now! At last! I shall never forget how suddenly 
in one of the brilliant bursts :of sunshine the mighty white 
tusks of two bull-elephants shone’ out in the hollow so 
dazzlingly white that one must have beheld them to under- 
stand their extraordinary effect, seen thus~ against that 
impressive background. Close by ‘was a_ bull-giraffe. 
Vividly standing out from the landscape, they would have 
baffled any artist trying to put them on the canvas. Il 
understood then why A. H. Neumann, one: of the most 
skilful English elephant-hunters, so often remarked on the 
overwhelming impression he received from these snow- 
white, shining elephant-tusks. So white do they come 


out in the photographs that the prints look as though they _ 


had been touched up. But these astonishing pictures are 
as free from any such tampering as are all the rest of my 
studies of animal life.’ 

Before I succeeded in getting my first picture of the 
elephants and giraffes consorting’ together, I was much 
tempted to kill the two huge bull-elephants. They came 
so often close to the foot of my hill that I had plenty of 
opportunities of killing them without over-much danger to 


1 The raison d@étre of these powerful weapons of the African elephant 
is a difficult question. Why did the extinct mammoth carry such very 
different tusks, curving upwards? Why has the Indian elephant such 
small tusks, and the Ceylon elephant hardly any at all, whilst the African’s 
are so huge and heavy ? 


542 


sat 9 hast ek ee 
A ee” | cl REN 


sages sss 
Pvt. rae 


ies 3 


- 
A Bs 2 de tig 


¥ 
. 
oy 
4 
% . 
j { 
. fear 
ws 
‘ 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


THE TWO ELEPHANTS. 


C. G, Schillings, phot. 
A QUAINT COMPANIONSHIP—ELEPHANT AND GIRAFFE. THE GIRAFFE MAY BE JUST MADE OUT IN THE FOREGROUND, AT 
THE BOTTOM OF THE PHOTOGRAPH, 


-~» A Dying Race of Giants 


myself or my men. As I caught sight of that rare trio 
_ I must honestly confess I had a strong desire to shoot. 
_ This desire gave way, however, before my still keener wish 
to photograph them. ‘The temptation to use my rifle came 
from the thought of the satisfaction with which I should 
see them placed in some museum. It might be possible 
to prepare their skins here on this very spot. In short, 
I had a hard struggle with myself. 

But the wish to secure the photographs triumphed. 
No museum in the world had ever had such a picture. 
That thought was conclusive. 

The accompanying illustrations give both the colossal 
beasts in different attitudes. The giraffe stands quite 
- quiet, intent on its own safety, or gazes curiously at its 
companions. What a contrast there is between the massive 
elephants and the slender, towering creature whose colour- 
ing harmonises so entirely with its surroundings! Wherever 
you see giraffes they always blend with their background. 
They obey the same laws as leopards in this respect, and 
leopards are the best samples of the ‘“‘mimicry” of protective 
colouring. 

What long periods of hunger must have gone to the 
formation of the giraffe’s neck ! 

It would seem as though these survivors of two pre- 
historic species had come together thus, at a turning-point 
in the history of their kind, for the special purpose of intro- 
ducing themselves by means of their photographs to millions 
of people. I owe it to an extraordinary piece of good 
fortune that I was able to take another picture of them 
during a second burst of sunshine which lit up the forest. 


547 


In Wildest Africa -» 


It is the event of a lifetime to have been the witness 
of so strange and unsuspected a condition of things as this 
friendship between two such dissimilar animals. The extent 
of my good luck may be estimated from the fact that the 
famous traveller Le Vaillant, more than seventy years ago, 
wished so ardently to see a giraffe in its natural surround- 
ings, zf only once, that he went to South Africa for that 
purpose, and that, having achieved it on a single occasion, 
as he relates in his work, he was quite overjoyed. Although 
I was aware that herds of giraffes frequented, this region 
without fear of the elephants, it was a complete revelation 
to me to find an old bull-giraffe living in perfect harmony 
for days together with two elephants for the sake of mutual 
protection. I can only account for this strange alliance 
by the need for such mutual protection. The giraffe is 
accustomed to use its eyes to assure itself of its safety, 
whilst elephants scent the breeze with their trunks, 
raised like the letter S for the purpose. In these valleys 
the direction of the wind varies very often. The struggle 
for existence is here very vividly brought before us. How 
often in the course of centuries must similar meetings have 
occurred in Africa and in other parts of the world, before 
I was able to record this observation for the first time? 
These pictures are a good instance of the value of photo- 
graphy as a means of getting and giving information in 
regard to wild life. 

Kilepo Hill willalways stand out vividly in my memory. 
Elephants may still climb up to the small still lake shut in 
by the wall-like hillsides, as they have done for ages, to 
quench their thirst at its refreshing waters. For hundreds 


548 


~*» A Dying Race of Giants 


of years the Masai, for the sake of their cattle herds, con- 
tested with them the rights of this drinking-place. Then 
the white man came and the Masai vanished, and again the 
elephants found their way to. the Kilepo valley. Later, 
white settlers came—Boers, ruthless in their attitude towards 
wild life—and took up their abede in the Kilimanjaro region, 
The day cannot now be far distant when the last of the 
elephants will have gone from the heart of Kilepo Hill. 
But these two, long since killed, no doubt, will continue to 
live on in my pictures for many a year to come. 


THE YOUNG LION THAT I MANAGED TO CAPTURE AND 
BRING ALIVE INTO CAMP. 


549 


ce 


MIMICRY.” 


A STUDY IN PROTECTIVE 


XIII 


A Vanishing Feature of the Velt 


“YX 7HEN men and beasts first emerged from the 
tree called ‘Omumborombongo,’ all was dark. 

Then a Damara lit a fire, and zebras, gnus, and giraffes 
sprang frightened away, whilst oxen, sheep, and dogs 
clustered fearlessly together.” So Fritsch told us forty 
years ago, from the ancient folk-lore of the Ova-Herero, 
one of the most interesting tribes of South-West Africa. 
If the photographing of wild life is only to be achieved 
when conditions are favourable, and is beset with peculiar 
difficulties in the wilderness of Equatorial Africa, one 
might at least suppose that such huge creatures as elephants, 
rhinoceroses, and giraffes could be got successfully upon 
the “plate.” But they “spring frightened away”! The 
cunning, the caution, and the shyness of these animals 
make all attempts at photographing them very troublesome 

550 


7) we vi 


} rere ' 
, ‘ ; 
F ¥ ee) 7 ; ; 
J F ; j ed : i “ F 
Ps ue 3 
7’ : 4 2 . 
ae ; . ie Sick. een me ee Dae ‘ ; 
aes > pee FS : : , 
. 3 -. ee “te ® . me oF - a r r ~ “~~ gee . - . 
* a eA { * * 
- 3 
we : 1 , 
« . F : I 
z he * . 
oa ~ : > 
j . \ ro | 
. 2 i . - . 3 
Ae | t > ‘ ; a 


€, 


G. Sch illings, phot. 


A GIRAFFE IN FULL FLIGHT. 


5 ne 


.C. G. Schillings, phot. 


A GIRAFFE BULL IN AN ACACIA GROVE, 


-» A Vanishing Feature of the Velt 


indeed; for to secure a good result you need plenty 
of sunlight, besides the absence of trees between you and 
the desired object. And when everything seems to favour 
you, there is sure to be something wanting—very probably 
the camera itself. Fortune favours the photographer at 
sudden and unexpected moments, and then only for a very 
short while. One instant too late, and you may have 
to wait weeks, months, even years for your next oppor- 
tunity. I would give nine-tenths of the photos I have 
taken of animal life for some half-dozen others which I was 
unable to take because I did not have my camera to hand 
just at the right moment. Thus it was with the photo- 
graphing of the three lions I killed on January 25, 1897, 
and of the four others I saw on the same day, on the then 
almost unknown Athi plains in the Wakikuju country. 
Also with that great herd of elephants which so nearly did 
for me, and which | should have dearly liked to photograph 
just as they began their onrush. (I have told the story 
in With Flashlight and Rifle.) 1 remember, too, the sight 


of a giraffe herd of forty-five head which I came across 


on November 4, 1897,’ about two days’ journey north-west 
: of the Kilimanjaro. The hunter of to-day would travel 
] over the velt for a very long while before meeting with 
| anything similar. In earlier days immense numbers of 


long-necked giraffe-like creatures, now extinct, lived on the 
velt ; the rare Okapi, that was discovered in the Central 
African forests a short time ago, has aroused the interest 
of zoologists as being a relative of that extinct species. 
Within the last hundred or even fifty years, the 
? On that occasion I had not at hand a telephoto-lens of sufficient range. 


555 


Myhiebu. 


In Wildest Africa -» 


giraffe itself was to be found in large herds in many parts 
of Africa. The first giraffe of which we know appeared 
in the Roman arena. About two hundred years ago we 
are told some specimens were brought over to Europe, and 
caused much astonishment. The Nubian menageries some 
years ago brought a goodly number of the strange beasts 
to our zoological gardens.‘ But how many people have 
seen giraffes in their native haunts ? When, in 1896, I saw 
them thus for the first time, I realised how thin and 


wretched our captive specimens are by the side of the — 


splendid creatures of the velt. Le Vaillant, in his accounts 
of his travels in Cape Colony and the country known to-day 
as German South-West Africa, gives a spirited description 
of these animals, and tells how after much labour and 
trouble he managed to take a carefully dried skin to the 
coast and to send it to Germany. That was seventy years 
ago. Since then many Europeans have seen giraffes, but 
they have told us very little about them. The German 
explorer Dr. Richard Béhm has given us wonderfully 
accurate information about them and their ways. But the 
beautiful water-colours so excellently drawn by a hand so 
soon to be disabled in Africa, were lost in that dreadful 
conflagration in which his hunting-box on the peaceful Wala 
River and most of his diaries were destroyed. Dr. Richard 
Kandt, whilst on his expeditions in search of the sources 


of the Nile, found the charred remains of the hut. ‘* Ubi 


sunt, qui ante nos in mundo fuere ?” 
Zoological experts tell us that there are several species 


1 The well-known naturalist, Hagenbeck, remembers the immense 
numbers of giraffes which were bagged in the Sudan some thirty years ago. 


556 


é 


C. G, Schillings, phot. j : 
A SUCCESSFUL PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN AFTER A LONG PURSUIT AND MANY FAILURES. 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
TELEPHOTO STUDIES OF GIRAFFES (G/RAFFA SCHILLINGSI, Mtsch.). 


VOL. II 36 


Ee 
~- 


a a tae 


Re eee ney et pe a ne 


-» A Vanishing Feature of the Velt 


of giraffe inhabiting separate zoological regions. In the 
districts I traversed, I came across an entirely new species. 
... Lheir life and habits interested me beyond measure. 
I often think of them still—moving about like phantoms 
among the thorny bushes, and in and out the sunlit woods, 
or standing out silhouetted against the horizon. 

Though by nature peaceful, the giraffe is not defenceless 
—a kick from one of its immense legs, or a blow side- 
ways with the great thick-necked head of a bull, would 
be quite enough to kill a mere man. But this gigantic 
beast, whose coat so much resembles that of the blood- 
thirsty tiger, leopard, and jaguar, never attacks, and only 
brings its forces into play for purposes of defence. It 


harms no man, and it has lived on the velt since time 


immemorial. It is the more to be deplored, therefore, that 
it should disappear now so quickly and so suddenly. 

I have already remarked several times on the way 
giraffes and other African mammals harmonise in their 
colouring with their environment. Professor V. Schmeil 
has pointed out how my opinion in this respect accords 
with that of earlier observers.’ The way in which giraffes 
mingle with their surroundings as regards not only their 
colour but also their form, is especially astonishing. The 
illustration on page 550 proves this in a striking manner, 
for it shows how the outlines of the giraffe correspond 
exactly with those of the tree close to it. 


1 Later observers questioned this fact. When I have used the word 
“mimicry,” I have done so not in the original sense of Bates and Wallace, 
but as denoting the conformity of the appearance of animals with their 
environment. 


561 


In Wrldest Africa -» 


One may spend days and weeks on the velt trying 
to get near giraffes without result. Far away on the 
horizon you descry the gigantic ‘ Twigga’’—as the 
Waswahili call it—but every attempt to approach is in 
vain. Then, all of a sudden it may happen—as it did once 
to me near the Western Njiri marshes, Nov. 29, 1898—that 
a herd of giraffes passes quite near you without fear. On 
the occasion in question, as is so often the case, | had 
not my photographic apparatus at hand. I could have got 
some excellent pictures with quite an ordinary camera. 
The giraffes came towards me until within sixty paces. 
They then suddenly took wildly to flight. The little herd 
consisted of nine head: an old very dark-spotted bull, a 
light-spotted cow, three younger cows with a calf each, and 
finally a young dark-spotted bull. Orgeich and I had been 
able to observe the animals quietly as they stood, as if 
rooted to the spot, with their long necks craned forward, 
their eyes fixed upon us.’ I cannot explain why the 
animals were so fearless on that occasion. It was a most 
unusual occurrence, for ordinarily giraffes manage to give 
the sportsman a wide berth. 

Again, it may happen, especially about midday, that the 
hunter will sight a single giraffe or a whole herd at no 
very great distance. At these times, if one is endowed with 
good lungs and is in training, one may get close enough to 
the creatures before they take to flight. 


1 Some years earlier one of our best zoologists, after a long stay in the 
Masai uplands, had described the giraffes as “‘rare and almost extinct” : 
a striking proof of the great difficulty there is in coming upon these 
animals. 


562 


Hauptmann Merker, phot. 


GIRAFFE STUDIES. 


wonene | 


GIRAFFE STUDIES. 


Pe ee TONES Oey eS ene Se ere 


~*» A Vanishing Feature of the Velt 


Or it may happen that you will sight giraffes about 
noontide sheltering under the fragrant acacia trees. | 
remember one occasion especially, in the neighbourhood 
of the Gelei volcanic hills. I had hardly penetrated 
for more than about a hundred and twenty paces into 
an acacia wood, when I suddenly saw the legs of several 
gigantic giraffes—their heads were hidden in the crowns 
of mimosa. The wind was favourable. I might within a 
few minutes find myself in the middle of the herd! But, 
a moment later, I felt the ground tremble and the huge 
beasts with their hard hoofs were thumping over the 
sun-baked ground. They crashed through the branches 
and fled to the next shelter of mimosa trees. Although 
‘I might easily have killed some of them, it was absolutely 
impossible to take a photograph. But I was at times more 
fortunate in snapshotting single specimens. Carefully 
and cautiously, I would creep forward, of course alone, 
leaving my people behind, until I came within about twenty 
paces of the giraffe. By dodging about the trees or shrubs 
near which it stood I have sometimes managed to obtain 
good pictures of the animal making off in its queer way. 
The utmost caution was necessary. I had to consider 
not only the place where the animal was but the position 
of the sun, and that most carefully. The possibility of 
photographing giraffes with the telephoto lens is very 
slight indeed. One’s opportunities are turned to best 
account by the skilful use of an ordinary hand-camera. 

In this way, also, I managed to get pictures of the 
peculiar motion of giraffes in full flight. My negatives 
are a proof of the comparative ease with which native 


567 


In Wildest Africa -» 


hunters may hunt giraffes with poisoned arrows. I have 


often met natives’ in possession of freshly killed oiraffe 
flesh. 


In most cases bushes and trees are a great hindrance 


to the taking of photographs, especially of large herds. At 
such times it was as good as a game of chess between the 
photographic sportsman and the animals. For hours I 
have followed them with a camera ready to snapshot, but 
the far-sighted beasts have always frustrated my plans. 
Thus passed‘hours, days and weeks. But good luck would 
come back again, and I was sometimes able to develop an 
excellent negative in a camp swarming with mosquitoes. 


It is especially in the peculiar light attendant on the 


rainy season and amidst tall growths that giraffes mingle 
so with their surroundings. It is only when the towering 
forms are silhouetted against the sky that they can be 
clearly seen on the open velt. At midday, when the velt 
is shimmering with a thousand waves of light, when every- 
thing seems aglow with the dazzling sun, even the most 
practised eye can scarcely distinguish the outlines of single 
objects. By such a light the sandy-coloured oryx antelopes 
and the stag-like waterbuck look coal-black ; the uninitiated 
take zebras for donkeys—they appear so grey—and rhino- 
ceroses resting on the velt for ant-hills. But giraffes 
especially mingle with the surrounding mimosa woods at 
this hour in such a way as only those who have seen it 
could believe possible. 


When you see these animals in their wild state, your 


thoughts naturally revert to the penned-up tame specimens 


in zoological gardens or those preserved in museums. 


568 


Tea) We oT aT ere ae 


Cc. G. Schillings, phoi. 
A HERD OF GIRAFFES: THE LEADER, A POWERFUL OLD BULL, IN THE FOREGROUND. 


({p. 568 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
TWO GIRAFFES OUT OF A HERD I CAME UPON IN THE VICINITY OF THE MASAI COLONY CALLED KIRARAGUA, NOW 
ALMOST BEREFT OF WILD LIFE OWING TO THE IMMIGRATION OF THE BOERS. THE ANIMALS MAY HERE BE SEEN 
IN VERY CHARACTERISTIC SURROUNDINGS, ACACIA WOODS ALTERNATING WITH WIDE EXPANSES COVERED WITH 
BOWSTRING HEMP, 


ce 
Abe "ay ‘ ong 


uw 


Peg 


a 
omey 


HEAD OF A GIRAFFE (G/RAFFA RETICULATA De Winton), KILLED IN SOUTH SOMALI- 
LAND BY THE EXPLORER CARLO VON ERLANGER. (BY KIND PERMISSION OF 
THE BARONESS VON ERLANGER.) 


-~*» A Vanishing Feature of the Velt 


Well do I remember that the first wild zebra I saw looked 
to me little like a tame specimen in a zoological garden. 
The death-knell of the giraffe has tolled. This wonderful 
and harmless animal’ is being completely annihilated! Fate 
has decreed that a somewhat near relative should be dis- 
covered in later days—namely the Okapi, which inhabits 
the Central African forests. It may be safely asserted that 


these unique animals will exist long after the complete 
extermination of the real giraffe. The species of giraffe, 


however, which has been dying out in the north and south 
of the African continent will be represented in the future 
by pictures within every man’s reach. Every observation 


as to their habits, every correct representation obtained, 


every specimen preserved for exhibition is of real value. 
And this I would impress on every intelligent man who 
has the opportunity of doing any of these things out in 
the wild. 

Professor Fritsch saw giraffes in South Africa as late 
as 1863. Shortly before these lines were printed he gave 
a glowing account of the impression they then made on 
him, an impression which was renewed when he saw my 
pictures. . 

Large herds of giraffes still flourish in remote districts. 
My friend Carlo von Erlanger, whose early death is much 
to be regretted, found the animals particularly timid in 
South Somaliland when he traversed it for the first time. 


! The author has often heard it asserted that the giraffe does much 
harm to the African vegetation and therefore should be exterminated. 
Such assertions should be speedily and publicly denied. They are on 
a level with the demand for the complete extermination of African game 
with a view to getting rid of the tsetse-fly. 


o71 


In Wildest Africa -» 


A fine stuffed specimen of these beautifully coloured giraffes 
is to be found in the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfort- 
on-Maine. An illustration gives the head of a giraffe killed 


by my late friend, and proves to the reader how much the 


two species differ—namely the South Somaliland giraffe as 
here depicted,’ and that which I was the first to discover 
in Masailand. We have in Erlanger’s diary and in this 
illustration the only existing information about the presence 
of the giraffe in South Somaliland, a region which none 
but my daring friend and his companions have so far 
traversed. 

Hilgert, Carlo von Erlanger’s companion, mentions the 
frequent presence of the South Somali giraffe, but says that 
they showed themselves so shy that the members of the 
expedition generally had to content themselves with the 
numerous tracks of the animals or with the sight of them 
in the far distance. 

Meanwhile an effort is being made to save and protect 
what remains of the giraffe species in Africa. But there is 
little hope of ultimate success. I do trust, however, that a 
wealth of observations, illustrations, and specimens may be 
secured for our museums before it is too late. In this way, 
at least, a source of pleasure and information will be pro- 
vided for future generations, and the giraffe will not share 
the fate of so many other rare creatures which no gold will 
ever give back to us. 

With sad, melancholy, wondering eyes the giraffe seems 
to peer into the world of the present, where there is room 
for it no longer. Whoever has seen the expression in 

1 Giraffa reticulata de Winton and Giraffa schillingst, Mtsch. 

572 


BRS. 
a’. ) ania l 


Hauptmann, Merker phot. 


GIRAFFE STUDY. 


C. G, Schillings, phot. 


A TELEPHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT A DISTANCE OF 200 PACES. 


™ 


c9N 


II 


VOL. 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


GIRAFFA SCHILLINGSI, Mtsch. 


[p. 576 
ahitin 4 
gate ty 
oy f “Mtn! eh 
a TY se) 
= ( } ig 


(ied, 


\ 
eer 


‘poets in song and ballad for thousands of years, will 
not easily forget it, any more than he will forget the strong 
s impression made on him when he looked at the “ Serafa ” 
_ of the Arabs in the wilderness. 

_ The day cannot be far distant when the beautiful eyes 
of. the last ‘“ Twigga” will close for ever in the desert. 
No human skill will be able to prevent this, in spite of the 
_ progress of human knowledge and human technique. The 
giraffe can never enter the little circle of domesticated 
animals. Therefore it must go. Perhaps its eyes will 
close in the midst of the Elelescho jungle, thus lessening 
still further the fascination of that survival from the youth 
of Pe world. 


+ 


CRESTED CRANES ON THE WING. 


577 


| a 


a 


HUNGRY VULTURES IN THE VICINITY OF MY CAMP, 


XIV 


Camping out on the Velt 


MONG tthe happiest days of my life I reckon those 
which I spent camping out in the heart of the Nyika. 
Nearly every hour there had something fresh to arouse 
my interest, not. only in the life of the wild animals that 
roamed at large all about, but also in that of the specimens 
which I had caught or my_ men had brought to me, and 
whose habits and ways I could observe within the enclosure 
of the camp. Of course our unique menagerie could not 
boast members of all the most attractive species of the 


African fauna, but it included some very rare and 


interesting animals which Europe has never seen. To 
know these one must go and live in wildest Africa and see 
them at home. . 7 

My camp at times was like a little kingdom. Many 
of my people went out for weeks together to barter for 


578 


— 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


PITCHING CAMP WITH A VIEW TO A LONG STAY. 


-~* Camping out on the Velt 


fruits and vegetables with agrarian tribes. With the rest, 
I spent my days out in the open, hunting, collecting, 
and observing. My zoological collection increased daily, 
time flew by with all the many jobs there were to be 
done—drying, preserving, preparing, sorting, labelling, and 
sending off specimens. The primitive camp life was full 
of interest in spite of its seeming monotony. | It was like 


va 


MY TAXIDERMIST, ORGEICH, AT WORK. 


ruling and ordering a little State. I thoroughly enjoyed 
this simple existence, in which I seemed to forget the 
artificial worries of civilisation and to be able to give 
myself up to my love for nature. 

Then | learned to appreciate the natives. Of course 
they are not to be judged from a European standpoint as 
regards habits and customs, but I shall always remember 

581 


In Wildest Africa w 


with pleasure certain strong and good characters among 
my followers. 

Nomadic hunters—shy and suspicious as the animals 
they hunted—sometimes paid us passing visits, whilst 
the whole world of beasts and birds thronged around 
our ‘outpost of civilisation,’’ so suddenly planted in 
their midst. 

My goods and chattels were stowed away in a hut 
which I had put up myself, and which was protected from 
wind, rain, and sun by masses of reeds and velt grasses. 
This hut was of the simplest construction, but I was very 
proud of it. It was useful not only for protecting zoological 


collections from the all-pervading rays of the sun, and 


from rain and cold, but also from the numerous little 
fiends of insects against which continual warfare has to 
be waged. The destructive activity of ants is a constant 
source of annoyance to travellers and collectors; I 
remember how my _ one-time  fellow-traveller Prince 
Johannes Lowenstein had the flag on his tent destroyed 
by them in a single night. In one night also these ants 
bit through the ticket-threads by which my specimens 
were classified; in one night, again, the tiny fiends 
destroyed the bottoms of several trunks which had been 
carelessly put away ! 

One has to wage constant warfare against destroyers a 
every kind. 

My cow, which was very valuable to me, not only as 
giving milk to my people, but also for nourishing young 
wild animals, was penned at night-time within a thick 
thorn hedge. My people made themselves more or less 

582 


3 
* 
< 
* 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


TERMITEN ANT-HILLS, 


Bae i 
DY eh 


-» Camping out on the Velt 


skilfully constructed shelters under the bushes and trees. 
Thus a miniature village grew up, of which I was the 
despotic ruler. The native hunters who visited us would 
sometimes accompany me on long expeditions. 

For me there are no “savages.” When an intelligent 
man comes across a tribe hitherto unknown to him he will 
carefully study their seemingly: strange habits, and thus 
will soon recognise that they have their own customs and 
laws which they regard as sacred and immutable, and which 
order their whole existence. He will no longer desire the 
natives to adopt the manners and customs of the white man, 
for which they are absolutely unsuited. 

But by the time I got friendly with these nomads they 
were off again. It is against their habits to stay long in 
one place, and they do not willingly enter into close relations 
with a European—or indeed with any one. Suddenly one 
fine morning we find their sleeping quarters empty ; they 
have disappeared, never to return. No obligation, no 


command, would ever bind these wanderers to one place. 
Children of the moment, children of the wilderness, their 


lives are spent in constant roaming. 

I hardly ever had a leisure hour, for there 
was much to arrange and see to in my camp. I 
had many functions to perform. I was my own 
commissioner of public safety; I looked after the com- 
missariat ; I was doctor and judge. I supervised all the 
other offices and pursued a number of handicrafts. Like 
Hans Sach I followed with pride the avocations of 
shoemaker, tailor, joiner, and smith, my very scanty 
acquaintance with all these various trades being put to 


585 


In Wildest Africa » 


astonishingly good use. I was like the one-eyed man 
among the blind. 

What judgments of Solomon have I not given! Once 
two of my best people quarrélled, an Askari and his wife. 
The serious character of the quarrel could be estimated 
from the noise of weeping and the sound of blows that had 
proceeded from their tent. The man wished to separate 
from his wife. 

‘Why did you beat your wife last night?” 

The Askari (who has served under both German and 
English masters) stands to attention. : | 

‘“Because she was_ badly pehavers will not cee 
her any more—I am sending her away.” 

“But why—rafiki yangu?—my friend? Such things 
will happen at times, but it is not always so bad—see? 
Who will look after you? who will prepare your meals? 
Look at her once more; she is very pretty—don’t you 
think so? And she cooks very well” (both parties, as 
well as the bystanders, are smiling by now). ‘Go along, 
then, and make friends.” | 

And they go and make friends. 

A deputation of the Waparis come to the camp. They 
crouch down near my tent and beg for a ‘‘ rain charm” to 
bring down showers upon their fields. It is somewhat 
difficult to help them. I take the. gifts which they bring to 
pay for the charm and make them a more valuable return, 
and by means of the barometer I am able to foretell rain. 
They gaze at the wizard and his charm wonderingly, and 
come again later to see them both. 

Countless similar events succeed one another, and ever 

586 


° Wesigam 


AN UNUSUALLY LARGE ANT-HILL. INSIDE THIS STRONGHOLD THE ‘‘ QUEEN ¥ 
ANT IS TO BE FOUND WALLED UP IN A SMALL CELL. SHE IS CON- 
SIDERABLY LARGER THAN THE OTHER ANTS AND DEVOTES HERSELF 
EXCLUSIVELY TO HER TASK OF LAYING EGGS. THE KING ON THE OTHER 
HAND, NOT MUCH LARGER THAN THE REST, IS IN COMMAND OF THE 


, 


‘f WORKERS’ AND THE SOLDIERS. 


-» Camping out on the Velt 


MY FELLOW TRAVELLER PRINCE LOWENSTEIN, WHOSE TENT WAS ONCE 
ENTIRELY DESTROYED BY ANTS IN A SINGLE NIGHT. 


the everyday monotony of the simple camp life has its 


delights. 
Day by day my menagerie increases. To-day it is a 
589 


In Wildest Africa -» 
young lion | add to it, to-morrow a hyena, a jackal, a 
monkey, a marabou, geese, and other velt-dwellers, all of 
which I instal as members of my little community and try 
to become friends with. My efforts have sometimes been 
amply rewarded. Once during the early morning hours we 
discovered a large troop of baboons. It was cool: the 


; 


THE ANT-HILLS ARE SO STRONGLY BUILT AND SO HARD THAT THEY OFFER 
AN EXTRAORDINARILY STRONG RESISTANCE TO ALL EFFORTS TO DESTROY 
THEM BY PICK AND SHOVEL. 


cold, damp morning mist grew into a drizzling rain; the 
animals huddled up closely together for the sake of warmth. 
Later they came down to seek their food. Cautiously we 
posted ourselves as if we had not noticed the monkeys. 
But remembering their long sight, I organised a_battue, 
which succeeded admirably and secured me several young 
ones. At first the comical creatures obstinately withstood 


59° 


~ 
+ 


; 


‘“poscHo! POSCHO!’’ MY CARAVAN-LEADER HANDING OUT PROVISIONS. \ 


BEARER’S WIFE GETTING READY THE EVENING MEAL. 


wise’ 3 —f§ 


YOUNG OSTRICHES, 


-~» Camping out on the Velt 


all efforts to tame them. Soon, however, they got to 
recognise their attendant, and became attached to him. 
Unlike other species of monkeys, baboons are full of 
character. Like some dogs, they are devoted to their 
masters but antagonistic to other people. They show their 
dislike for strangers very clearly. I was always much 
touched, when I came back from a long tramp on the velt, 


MARABOU NESTS. 


to be met with outbursts of joy by my chained-up baboons. 

They recognised their master in the far distance, reared 

themselves on their hind legs, and gave demonstrations of 

joy in every possible way as they saw him approaching. 
Sometimes, too, other inmates of my camp evinced 

their pleasure at my appearance. This was especially 

the case with a marabou which I had caught when fully 

595 


In Wildest Africa a 


grown. As he had been slightly hurt in the process 
of capture, I tended him myself most carefully, and 
experienced great satisfaction on his restoration to health, 
From the time of his recovery the bird was faithful to 
me, and did not leave the camp any more, although he 
was only caged at night-time! He attached himself to 
my headman, and tried to bite both men and _ beasts 
whom he considered as not to be trusted, and generally 
sat very solemnly in the vicinity of my camp and greeted 
me on my home-comings by wagging his head and 
flapping his wings. Such a clatter he made as he 
gravely rushed backwards and forwards! Not until I 
caressed him would he be quiet. After a time he began 
to build himself a nest under the shade of a bush quite 
close to my tent. The dimensions of this nest gradually 
increased in an extraordinary manner. This eyrie he 
defended to the utmost, and would not allow my blacks 
to go near it, or any of his animal companions. Great 
battles took place, but he always made his opponents 
take to their heels, and even the poor old donkey, if it 
happened to come his way. On the other hand, he was 
very friendly with my young rhinoceros. It was an 
extraordinary sight to see the rhinoceros with its friends, 
the goats and the solemn bird. Two fine Colobus 
monkeys, three young lions, young ostriches, geese, and 
various other creatures made up my little zoological 
garden. They all were good friends among themselves 
and with my tame hens, which used to prefer to lay 
their eggs in my tent and in those of the _ bearers. 
Sometimes I used to entrust some francolin eggs to 


596 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
ONE OF MY MARABOUS, NOW IN 


THE BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, 


BUILT A GREAT 


NEST IN MY CAMP, 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
TWO DENIZENS OF THE VELT WHO BECAME MEMBERS OF MY CAMP AND ARE NOW IN THE BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 


i + " Pg . 
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= £ ; ; 
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| HdVaYDOLOHd dO-daxXIN AAHIVA V 


youd ‘sFurpiyrs “9 *D 


-~» Camping out on the Velt 


these hens. (Hardly any of the many beautiful East 
_ African species of francolins have so far been brought 
_ alive to Europe.) Once I had for weeks the pleasure 
of seeing some beautiful yellow-throated — francolins 
(Pternistes leucosepus infuscatus, Cab.) running about 
perfectly tame among the other animals in camp. 

I was often able to contemplate idyllic scenes among 
my quaint collection of animals. The behaviour of my 
___ baby rhinoceros interested me greatly. It was the pet 
e of my caravan, and I was very proud of having reared 
it, for | had longed for two years for such a little 
creature, and had made many vain attempts to obtain 
one. Its friendship with two goats I have already 
mentioned in my previous book. They formed a strange 
trio. Very often the kid used the rhinoceros as a cushion, 
and all three were inseparable. The beast and the two 
goats often made little excursions out into the immediate 
neighbourhood of my camp. At these times they were 
carefully guarded by two of my most trustworthy people. 
The ‘‘rhino” was provided with its accustomed vegetable 
_ foods. When the little beast was in a good humour it 
4 would play with me like a dog, and would scamper about 


in the camp snorting in its own peculiar way. Such 
merry games alternated with hours of anxiety, during 
which I was obliged to give my foster-child food and 
_ medicine with my own hands, and to fight the chigoes 
— ~~ (Sarcopsylla penetrans, L.), commonly called “jiggers,” those 
: horrible tormentors which Africa has received from 
= America. 


In the evening my flocks and herds of sheep, goats 
603 


IniWildest Africa -» 


and cattle came home, and among them some gnus 
which I had been able to obtain from an Arab through 
the friendly help of Captain Merker. It reminded one 
of pictures of old patriarchal days to see the animals 
greet their expectant calves and kids. It was always 
interesting, too, to watch the skilful handling of the 
cattle by the Masai herdsmen. The cows in Africa all 
come from Asia, and belong to the zebu family. They 
will only give milk when their calves have first been 
allowed to suck. Only then can the cow be milked, 
and that with difficulty, whilst a second herdsman holds 
the calf for a while a little distance off. Thus it was I 
obtained, very sparingly at first, the necessary milk for 
my young rhinoceros. Some days there was a grand 
show of varied animal life. Cows, bullocks, sheep, 
goats, my rhinoceros, young lion-cubs, hyenas, jackals, 
servals and monkeys, hens, francolins and marabou, 
geese, and other frequenters of the velt were in the 
camp, some at liberty and some chained, which caused 
many little jealousies and much that was _ interesting 
to notice. 

My kitchen garden was invaded by tame geese and 
storks, which lived on the best of terms with the cook. 
It was irresistibly funny to see the sage old marabou 
acting as cook’s assistant, gravely crouching near him 
and watching all his movements. Very often the tame 
animals in my camp had visitors in the shape of wild 
storks and geese, which came and mixed among the 
others, so that often one could not distinguish which 
were wild and which tame. We could see all kinds of 

604 


. . a oe 
: q . 
in = - 
q : 
‘ 
F n . 
Dees; - 
Pir 
P eae: 
3 
‘ 
; F 
% 
i > 
i> 
‘ 
b, \ 
» ed 
i > 
? , * oe: 
og ae 
t 
: 
, 
2 s 4 
Pi 
‘ . 
- ie 
. 
ak 
as 
- * 
« 


C.G. 


Schilling 


Ss, phot. 


—AS SHE WAS IN MY VELT CAMP 


he ps ame 
C. G. Schillings, phot. 


MY RHINOCEROS AS SHE IS TO-DAY IN THE 


BERLIN 


“e 


zoo, 


II 


VOL. 


-~» Camping out on the Velt 


limals coming close to the camp. I have even followed 
the movements of rhinoceroses with my field-glasses for 
‘some time. 

_ Some of my captives were not to be tamed at any 
price. _ We had a young hyena, for instance, which 
struggled obstinately with its chain. On the other hand, 
some hyenas, especially spotted ones, became so domesti- 
cated that they followed me about like dogs. 

A young lion which I had had in my camp for some 
time, and which had grown into quite a fine specimen, 
often made itself so noticeable at night that, as my watch- 
man told me, it was answered by other lions from outside. 
_ This made it necessary to take active precautions for the 
night, and my menagerie was brought into the centre of 
my camp for greater safety. 

Many of the friendships which I formed with my 
protégés have been kept up. My marabou still remembers 
me, and greets me with great joy in his cage in the 
Berlin Zoological Garden, much to the irritation of his 
neighbour in the cage next door. I have no need to 
avoid the grip of his powerful beak, which the keeper 
has learnt to fear. He has never used this weapon 
against me. In whatever dress I may approach him he 
always recognises me, and greets me with lively demon- 
strations of pleasure. Even the rhinoceros seems to 
recognise his one-time master, although one cannot be 
quite sure of this in so uncouth a creature. 

It is very difficult to know how to manage a rhinoceros. 
It was quite a long time before I succeeded in discovering 
its best diet. Young rhinoceroses almost always succumb 
609 


ula he VER 


in captivity, though seemingly so robust. We have not 
yet succeeded in bringing an elephant from German or 
British East Africa to Europe, or indeed any of the 
other animals, such as giraffes and buffaloes and antelopes, 
which live in the same districts. It appears that it is 
just these interesting wild animals which are the most 
difficult to accustom to captivity and to keep alive. The 
attempt to bring home alive a couple of the wonderful 
Kilimanjaro Colobus apes (Colodus caudatus, Thos.) resulted 
in one of the monkeys dying a few days after my arrival ; 
the other lived for two years only, and was the sole 
specimen of its kind ever seen in Europe. Every 
zoologist and lover of animals who. goes into the 
colonies has a wide field of activity open before him in 
this respect. If only more people could be made to 
take an interest in these things we might buoy ourselves 
up with the hope of obtaining and keeping some of the 
best and rarest specimens of African animal life, perhaps 
even a full-grown gorilla from the West Coast—perhaps 
even an Okapi! 

I was only able to keep my little menagerie together 
for a few weeks at a time, as I had to be constantly 
setting out on fresh expeditions. On these occasions | 
was accustomed to leave the animals in some village 
under the care of trustworthy blacks, so that I could 
take them again on my return journey to the coast. 
The weeks and months | spent in camp with my animals 
were a great source of pleasure to me. At night-time 
there were occasions when ‘“‘rhinos” and ‘ hippos” paid 
us visits, as could be plainly seen by the tracks found 

610 


we teal pd 


” 


HOW MY CAPTIVE YOUNG “‘ RHINO WAS CARRIED TO CAMP, 


CARRYING A DEAD LEOPARD, TO AN ACCOMPANIMENT OF IMPROVISED SONGS. 


5 = 
$9 Se. 
a 2 = 


— 


De eet ete 
‘ein Peek ob 
“ FATIMA”’ (AS I CHRISTENED MY ‘“‘ RHINO’’) AND HER TWO COMPANIONS 
ON THEIR WAY TO THE COAST, 


A YOUNG HYENA, WHICH I HAD EXTRACTED FROM ITS LAIR, RESISTED AT 
FIRST ALL EFFORTS AT TAMING IT. 


” 
q 
> 
e 
a 
. 
~ 
& 
P 


-» Camping out on the Velt 


_ the next morning.’ Hyenas and jackals came very often, 
and even lions sometimes came to within a short distance 


of the camp. Thus my zoological garden, in spite of its 
size, could well boast of being, so to speak, the most 
primitive in the world. 

But we had our anxious moments. Death levied its 
toll among my people, and the continual rumours of 
uprisings and attacks from outside gave plenty to talk 
about during the whole day, and often far on into the 
night over the camp-fire. When one of these charming 
African moonlit nights had set in over my homestead, 
when the noise of the bearers with their chatter and 
clatter had ceased, and my work, too, was done, then | 


-used to sit awhile in front of the flickering flames and 


think. Or I would wander from fire to fire to exchange 
a few words with my watchmen, to learn their news and 
their wishes and to ask much that I wanted to know. 
This is the hour when men are most communicative, and 
unless there be urgent need of sleep the conversation 
may continue far into the night. 

There is something strangely beautiful about those 
nights in the wilderness. My thoughts go back to an 
encampment | once made at the foot of the volcanic 
mountain of Gelei, close to a picturesque rocky gorge, in 
the depths of which was a small stream—a mere trickle 
during the hot weather. Its source lay in the midst of 
an extensive acacia wood, which tailed off on one side 
into the bare, open ‘‘ boga,” while on the other it became 
merged in a dense thicket of euphorbia trees, creepers, 

1 Cf. With Flashlight and Rifle, 
615 


In Wildest Africa -» 


and elelescho bushes, impenetrable to men but affording 
a refuge to animals, even to elephants. On the day before 
I had noted the fact that Masai warriors had recently 
encamped in the neighbourhood, with cattle which they 
had got hold of on a marauding expedition (and some of 
which they had here slaughtered), and that with their booty 
they had betaken themselves over the English frontier. 
It was quite on the cards that roaming young Masai 
warriors would suddenly turn up while I was there. It 
was several days’ journey to the nearest inhabited region. 
For weeks together one would see no human soul save 
for a nomadic hunter every now and again. 

The great barren wilderness, which then in the dry 
season could boast of no verdure save the evergreen 
Hunger-plant, so well suited to the arid velt ; the romantic 
site of my camp; the beautiful moonlight night, darkened 
over from time to time by great masses of clouds, heralding 
the approach of rain; the dangers lurking all around: 
everything conspired to produce a wonderful effect upon 
the mind. The night had come upon us silently, mys- 
teriously, jet-black. Before the moon rose, one’s fancy 
foreshadowed some sudden incursion into the death-like 
darkness, the bodeful silence. There was something weird 
and unnatural about the stillness—it suggested the calm 
before the storm. Faint rustlings and cracklings and 
voices inaudible by day now made_ themselves heard. 
The world of the little living things came by its own, 
and crackled and rustled among plants and branches and 
reeds and grass. Hark! Is that the sound of a cock- 
chafer or a mouse, or is it the footstep of a foe?... 

616 


a. 
4 


q 
5 
a 
. 


Wed 


oh det OT = Peli, doe nn 


i~ ~ . 
; ee eae 
4 ‘ Se ie ‘ t . 
[ > 
7 
. 
“ ; 
(es 
. ; : 
% 
, 
' 
« 
, : 
* = 
Wy 
- 
x 9 
bs 
v6 


C. G Schillings, phot. 


C. G. Schillings, phot. . 
' e VULTURES HOVERING OVER THE CARCASE OF A GNU WHICH HAD BEEN KILLED BY A LION, 


; : 
at ee sm ig D a “ ah ~ ew i . 7 "| yeve a 
Rae Le ar Ce ee Pe 


a ™ 
“2. pint Oy gies 


Hi hone tains nia et ee ee 


a 
— 


C. G. Scniliings, phot. 
VULTURES MOVING AWAY FROM A CARCASE, STARTLED AT MY APPROACH. (WHEN FIGHTING OVER A CARCASE, THEY GIVE 
OUT A HISSING KIND OF SOUND.) 


a ee ee ee 


4 


Pep eee kf ign ape 
pi lel SIE ee ae 


me Gs Scthilings, phot. 

MY PELICANS ( TANTALUS IBIS, i3,); WHICH AFTERWARDS TOOK UP THEIR ABODE IN 
THE BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, 

VOL. II 40 


wo Camping out on the Velt 


Even within my tent there are evidences of life. Rats 
bestir themselves upon their daring enterprises, to meet 
their end, here and there, in my traps. Emin Pasha has 
told us how he experienced the same kind of thing. How 
dormice and beautiful Sterkulien made their home in his 
camp, gleefully climbing up and down the canvas of his 


A SIESTA IN CAMP. THE MIDDAY HOUR, 


tent during the night—doubtless gazing at the strange 
white man with their great, dark, wide-open eyes, as they 
did at me. . . . Save for these sounds there is complete 
stillness, broken only by the voice of the night-jar, 
mournful and monotonous, as it wings its eerie, noiseless 
flight in and out of the firelight and round and round the 
camp. 
625 


In Wildest Africa 


Beyond the glow of the camp-fire our eyes cannot 
travel—we cannot see what is happening outside the camp, 
even quite close at hand. This intensifies one’s feeling of 
insecurity, for I know well how suddenly and with what 
lightning speed the great felines manage their attacks. It 
is in just such circumstances that so many men fall victims 
to lion and leopard. One evening a leopard will snatch a 
small dog from your feet, the next it will carry off one of 
the native women before the eyes of the whole population 
of your camp. You must have had such things happen 
to you, or hear of them from eye-witnesses, to realise 
the danger. 

Near my tent stand two hoary old trees all hung with 
creepers. In the uncertain firelight they seem to be 
a-quiver with life, and they throw phantom-like shadows. 
I hear the soft footsteps of the watch—they recall me to 
actualities. Now the moon emerges, and suddenly sheds 
its brilliant radiance over the entire velt. It is like the 
withdrawing of a pall. My thoughts wander away upon 
the moonbeams, and travel on and on, over land and sea, 
like homing birds. .. . The reader who would steep himself 
in the beauty and strangeness of this African camp-life 
should turn to the pages of that splendid work Caput 
Nit, by my friend Richard Kandt. There he will find 
it all described by a master-hand in a series of exquisite 
nature-pictures. In language full of poetic beauty he 
gives us the very soul of the wilderness. These studies 
and sketches, from the pen of the man who discovered the 
sources of the Nile, are a veritable work of art. It is 
easier for the nature-lover to give himself up to the 

626 


ae a 
ue 
ty, 
’ 
Fakes 
‘ 
: 2 
. 
L ; 
, 
> 
* J > 
ae = 
: c 
(Men 
3 
> 
i 
i 
: wae 
- 
7 . 
- R ; 
; - 
She ; 
ee — 
— 
‘ 


SO, 
C. G. Schillings, phot. 

A STRANGE FRIENDSHIP SPRANG UP BETWEEN A SMALL APE AND A GOSHAWK THAT I HAD AT HOME AT AN EARLIER 
DATE. THE APE USED OFTEN TO PULL THE BIRD ABOUT PLAYFULLY, WHILE TWO STORKS LOOKED ON WITH INTEREST, 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
FATIMA ’”’ PROWLING ROUND. SHE WAS ON PARTICULARLY GOOD TERMS WITH THE MARABOU, 


i aA ee ar sy oe 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
CARRYING A FINE LEOPARD, WEIGHING 145 POUNDS, INTO CAMP. IT HAD BEEN TRAPPED. 


as os —_ 


THE BEARERS ALWAYS LIKE TO ‘“‘KILL’’ THE GAME IN ACCORDANCE WITH 
MOHAMMEDAN RITES, EVEN WHEN DEATH HAS ALREADY BEEN ENSURED 
BY THE HUNTERS AND HAS BEGUN TO SET IN. WHEN THESE RITES 
CANNOT BE FULFILLED, THEY. WILL SOMETIMES REFUSE TO EAT THE 
FLESH. 


bg 5 7 ae. a: Fe : . t ts 
WHILE THE GAME IS BEING CUT UP, THE NATIVES OFTEN HAVE RECOURSE TO 
INNOCENT HORSEPLAY BY WAY OF VENTING THEIR HIGH SPIRITS. 


oh Camping out on the Velt 


charms of this African solitude than to set them forth 
adequately in words. 

Wonderful, indeed, is the. beauty of those African 
moonlight nights. Their radiant splendour is a thing 
never to be forgotten. How faint and faded in com- 
parison seem our moonlight nights at home! 


A TRAPPED LEOPARD, 


Through the camp, past the smouldering and flickering 
fires, the Askari sentry wanders noiselessly. He is a man 
well on in years—a tried man who has often been with 
me before. Years ago he vowed he would never again 
return to the wilderness with a “ Safari,” yet every time 
I revisit Africa the spell of the wild has come over him 
anew, and he has been unable to resist. 


635 


In Wildest Africa wy 


He comes’ to me now and says, as he has had so often 
to say before: ‘‘ Master, do you hear the lions yonder in 
the distance?” And he makes his way towards the great 
fire in the centre of the camp and throws some fresh logs 

upon it. Flames spring up, blazing and flickering in the 
“moonlight. - 


THE BABOON AND THE LITTLE BLACK LADY, 


636 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


MOONLIGHT ON THE VELT, 
[p. 636 


ba xt 


Bar 


gone 
sy 


ns aah a ~~ * 
Ss SOR te 


= 


A FOWL OF THE VELT (P7TEROCLES GUTTURALIS SATURATIOR, Hart). 


XV 


Night Photography under Difficulties 


HERE is a notion prevalent, due to superficial 
observers, that there are certain drinking-places to 
which the wild animals are bound to come to quench 
their thirst, in all circumstances, during the hot season. 
Were this so the animals would have ceased ere now to exist. 
The poisoned arrow of the native, or the rifle of the white 
man, would long since have exterminated them. It is 
the case, however, that you can count upon finding game 
at specific drinking-places in the hot weather under certain 
‘circumstances, though much depends upon the direction 
of the wind and other things. The appearance of the 
larger beasts of prey by the waterside is enough, for 
instance, to make the others keep their distance for a 
considerable time. 
When I have encamped in such localities it has generally 
been with a view to securing specimens of rare birds, 


637 


In Wildest Africa - 


and apart from this I have confined myself to making — 
observations of the life of the animals. Very large 
bull-elephants were the only kind of big game that I had 
any mind to shoot, for I was never at a loss for other 
kinds. Elephants roam about in the hot season from 
“one watering-place to another, sometimes covering great 
distances. They know the danger they run in frequenting 
any one particular watering-place too regularly. \ This is 
true of herds of other animals as well. 

These watering-places are, of course, very productive 
to the natives, who make -no account of time and who 
spread ‘themselves out over a number of them during the 
hot weather, thus multiplying their chances. But the 
havoc worked among the wild animals by their poisoned 
arrows or the other methods of hunting which they 
practise, when they have not taken to powder and shot, 
is not serious. They have been hunting in this way 
since prehistoric ages, and yet have been able to. hand 
over the animal kingdom to us Europeans in all the 
fulness and abundance that have aroused our wonder and 
admiration wherever we have set foot for the first time. 

In the course of my last journey I encamped for the 
second time at the foot of the Donje-Erok mountain 
(the circuit of which is a two-days’ march), to the north- 
west of Kilimanjaro. The region had been well known to 
me since 1899. Previously to then it had been traversed 
only by Count Teleki’s expedition. His comrade, the 
well-known geographer Ritter von Héhnel, had marked 
its outlines on the map. No one, however, had pene- 
trated into the interior, and here a wonderful field offered 

638 


3 
fie 
- 


~» Night Photography under Difficulties 


itself to the sportsman and explorer. A number of small 


streams take their rise on the Donje-Erok. In the dry 


weather these are speedily absorbed by the sun-dried soil 
of the velt, but in the wet season they have quite a long 
course, and combine to form a series of small swamps. 
When these have gradually begun to dry and have come 
to be mere stretches of blackish mud, they reveal the 


A RIVER-HORSE RESORT. 


tracks of the herds of animals that have waded through 
them, elephants and rhinoceroses especially—mighty auto- 
graphs imprinted like Runic letters upon wax. 

In the dry season great numbers of animals made 
always for a source—very speedily dried up—to the south 
of the mountain. It was in this vicinity that I proposed 
to secure my pictures of wild life. 

VOL. II 639 41 


In Wildest Africa » 


My caravan was very much on the guz vive when at 
last, after a long march, we were able to strike camp. 
We had been attacked by a band of Masai warriors 
during the night and had driven them off. It was only 
natural, therefore, that we should exercise some caution. 
~ But our fatigue overcame all anxiety as to another attack. 
We had made a long forced march, and were worn out 
with our exertions and our sufferings from thirst and the 
heat. Some of the bearers, succumbing under the weight 
of their burdens, had remained behind. We had started 
on the previous morning, each of us provided as well as 
was practicable with water, and had marched until dark, 
passing the night waterless and pressing on at daybreak. 
It was absolutely essential now to get to a watering-place, 
so we put out all our efforts, just succeeding in reaching our 
goal after nightfall. This march was the more exhausting 
in that we had had only two hours’ sleep before the fray 
with the Masai. The bearers we had been obliged to 
leave behind were afterwards brought into camp safely 
by a relief party. 

On exploring our vicinity next morning we found that 
our camp, which was to some degree safeguarded by a 
thorn-fence—a so-called ‘‘ boma ”—adjoined several earlier 
camps of native elephant-hunters, protected by strong 
palisades : a thing that had often happened to us before. 
These camps are to be recognised by the empty powder- 
casks left about or by the erection somewhere near of 
a fetich or charm to ward off evil, or something of the 
kind. It is only the natives who use firearms that have 
resort to such practices. So far as I know neither the 

640 


~* Night Photography under Difficulties 
Wakamba nor the Wandorobo are addicted to them. 
In this particular case the charm took the shape of an 
arrangement of large snail-shells in the midst of a small 
enclosure four feet square. That it proved efficacious 
was suggested by the spectacle of the skulls and remains 
of some twenty recently killed rhinoceroses within a few 


ONE OF THE PEAKS OF DONJE-EROK, IN THE VICINITY OF KILIMANJARO. 


paces of the camp. . . . I had met with just the same state 
of things in 1900. These ‘ sanctioned” elephant-hunters 
—or, to use the recognised term, these ‘ trustworthy 
Fundi’—are an absolute pest. The arch exterminator 
of the elephants in the Kilimanjaro region was Schundi, 
the former slave of a Kavirondo chief. Schundi, in his 
Capacity as a political agent and licensed elephant-hunter, 
641 


In Wildest Africa -» 


scoured the entire country with his men from 1893 to 
1900." 

In the heart of the thicket we came suddenly upon a 
quite recent camp of native hunters of some kind—not 
Wandorobo, we judged, from utensils which they left 
behind, of a sort the Wandorobo never use. I was aware 
that other tribes had taken to hunting the animals in this 
region, the Masai themselves setting about it quite in the 
Wandorobo fashion, Our chief “find” in the camp, however, 
was a collection of some forty. zebra-hides, quite freshly 
secured, and about the same number of hides of gnus as 
well as others of smaller game. Most of these skins 
were stretched out on the ground to dry, fixed with pegs. 
Probably the fugitives had taken a number of others away 
with them. I came to the conclusion that the natives were — 
of the class that hunt on behalf of Indian, Greek, and 
other traders—a class far too numerous nowadays. The 
traders pay them very little for their labours, and themselves 
make huge profits out of it all. 

I took possession of the skins, prepared the best of 
them very thoroughly and carefully, and then sent them 
to Moschi, for despatch to the Berlin Museum. This task 
occupied me for two days, but I undertook it with gusto, 
for I knew that by reason of the variety of species of 
zebras and gnus frequenting this region, this big collection 
of skins was of great scientific value. And I rejoiced the 


1 Recent reports from West Africa confirm what I say about the 
disastrous results of allowing the natives to hunt with firearms. The same 
regrettable state of things prevails in every part of the world in which this 
is permitted. 


642 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 

WHEN STARTING ON A LONG af TELEKESA-MARCH ”—A MARCH OF MORE THAN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS BEFORE REACHING 
THE NEXT WATERING-PLACE—MY MEN PROVIDED EY COUL 

ih ne he re pee ° : age = le 2 \eRGNS 


Una OE ays Fay weet) oe ee tena raid tien iaeiees Seal ti 


i: 
4 
ee 
“Ss 
a 
z 
el 
i 
be 
= 
‘k 
Wi 
Bt 


-» Night Photography under Difficulties 


more over my treasure-trove in that it exempted me from 


shooting any more zebras or gnus myself. But my 


calculations were all to be upset. On my notification to 
the station that I had not bagged the animals myself, but 
had found them lying about in a bush-camp where they 
had been abandoned by nomadic native hunters, it was 
decided that they could not be recognised as my property 


VULTURES. 


without further proceedings. Eventually the matter was 
decided in my favour by a governmental decree, but in 
the meantime the skins were considerably damaged by 
insects and otherwise. Could I have foreseen this, | 
should not have been at the trouble and serious expense of 
saving them, but should have left them as a welcome feast 
to the hyenas and jackals. What I was still able to save 
out of the lot I sent later to the Berlin Museum. 


645 


In Wildest Africa » 


Near some of the drinking-places along the river 
I found the cleverly contrived reed-shelters behind 
which the natives take refuge. The immense numbers 
of vultures and jackals and hyenas showed that these 
gluttonous creatures had found an abundance of provender, 
-especially near the deserted camp. The vultures, which 
were of various species, came down from their perches on 
the trees and settled on the ground quite near us. It was 
brooding-time for some of the larger species, and presently 
I found a great number of their nests with young birds 
in them. It was very interesting to watch the old birds 
and their young together. 

It took me about a week to decide on the spots best 
suited for my flashlight photographs. After a good deal 


of really hard work, and after any number of unsuccessful | 


efforts, I was at last satisfied that my three cameras were 
so placed as to promise good results if I had any luck. 
But the fates seemed against me. There were hundreds 
of different drinking-places along the course of the stream, 
and with so great a choice at their disposal the animals 
appeared to give my camera a wide berth, 

Some days later we had an unpleasant surprise. One 
of my Askaris had gone at daybreak, as was his custom, 
to examine one of my jackal traps. Suddenly we heard 
the sound of shots in the direction of the trap, about 
twenty minutes’ walk from the camp. As in view of my 
strict orders against shooting at game there could be no 
question of this, we at once assumed that we had to 
reckon with an attack by natives. In a trice I had all 
my arrangements made. Dividing my armed followers 

646 


se eeres at re] 


: ; 
. 
“+S ‘ : 
‘ 
pare - 
\ 
cs : 
~ % 
% 
= : 
1 
a 
i 2 
eee 
. 
= 


*“SHdVUYDOLOHd LHDITHSVTSI 


704 ‘sFunppryIS *D *D 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS OF HYENAS (H#Y4:V4 SCHILLINGSI, Mtsch.) AND JACKALS. 


-~» Night Photography under Difficulties 


_ into two sections, I set out instantly with one of them in 
the direction of the Askari, leaving the other with Orgeich 
~ to defend the camp. 

What had happened? It was the old story, so familiar 
to all experienced travellers, and showing how easily one 
may be drawn into a fight, yet how easily trouble may 
be avoided if one takes the right line. My Askari, 
normally a very steady and reliable man who had been 
in the service of the Government, had been startled by the 
sudden apparition right in front of him of a great band of 
Masai warriors armed with spears. They had raised their 
_ spears, no doubt instinctively, at the sight of the rifle- 
____ bearing soldier. He, for his part, and his two unarmed 
j e comrades, jumped simultaneously to the conclusion that 
___ these were the same Masai who had previously attacked 
us. He decided at once to fire. In an instant the Masai 
vanished in every direction. 

It was not a laughing matter. There had been recent 
_ fights in the neighbourhood of my camp between Masai 
warriors and the inhabitants of the Uferi district—the 
remains of men who had been killed in these frays bore 
witness to the truth of what my guides had told me about 
them. And it was not long since certain European cattle- 
dealers, at a spot some two days’ journey farther on, had 
been murdered by the Masai. These facts, taken in 
connection with the night-attack, made us realise the need 
of caution. 

On reaching the scene of the incident, I ascertained 
that a great band of Masai, accompanied by their wives, 
had been seen on the previous evening in the neighbour- 

651 


In Wildest Africa -» 


hood of the stream, and that they had encamped for the 
night in a mouldering old. kraal in the thorn-thicket, and 
it was while slumbering peacefully in this that they were 
disturbed by my Askari. Scattered all over the place 
were goods and chattels of various descriptions which they 
‘had left behind them in their hasty flight, and which ] 
now had carefully collected together. From their nature 
I concluded that the Masai were making for some place 
at a considerable distance, and that there was, therefore, 
no danger of unpleasant consequences. I returned to my 
camp to reassure my people, and at once got some of my 
Masai friends, who had been with me for a long time, to 
go after the fugitives and bring them back. ‘That was 
the only way..to effect an understanding—any other 
messengers would. have failed in the mission. : 
Towards midday my Masai returned to camp with 
some thirty of the spear-armed warriors and a number 
of their women-folk.._I1 gave them back their belongings, 
together with a present by way of amende for their fright. 
This they accepted with equanimity after the manner of 
all natives. Then they took their departure, the incident 
being thus happily terminated without bloodshed. 
Curiously enough, Orgeich had had a somewhat similar 
encounter with Masai a short time before. He had been 
for a turn in the neighbourhood of the camp, and was 
coming back in the dark along a rhinoceros-track. When 
he had got to within a quarter of an hour’s walk of the 
camp, there was a sudden clatter right in front of him, 
and in the uncertain moonlight he descried a band of 
armed Masai. Remembering the recent night-encounter 
652 


# 


-» Night Photography under Difficulties 


he instantly raised his rifle to fire. But the veteran soldier 
had self-control enough to resist the impulse, and in this 


4 ; * “sy 
SE UG Ne SER SANE? 
28 Aa 


MY NIGHT-APPARATUS IN- POSITION, READY TO WORK. 
case also there were no ill consequences. But, as he still 
continues to declare, it was a near thing. 

653 


In Wildest Africa -» 


Such incidents, it will be recognised, can veg easily 
lead to serious results. 
Later I was to have an unpleasant experience in 


regard to natives. A band of nomadic hunters, perhaps 


those who had encamped where I found the zebra-skins, 
had “ gone for” two of my cameras. They had taken away 
all those parts of them that could be of any use to them, 
and left them of course quite useless to me. It is note- 
worthy that they did not smash them to pieces, as 
Europeans might have done. They had merely detached 
the metal portions and others which they could turn to 
some account. This loss was, however, very annoying 
to me, and I found it necessary to establish two relays 
of men on guard to look after the sole remaining 
apparatus throughout the day. 


A PET OF THE CARAVAN, 


- 654 


™ 


7 
" 
a 

: 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 

A BAOBAB (ADANSONIA DIGITATA), THESE TREES ARE OFTEN BELIEVED BY THE 
NATIVES TO BE INHABITED BY GHOSTS. THEY USED TO COME INTO. THE 
STORIES TOLD BY MY FOLLOWERS. 


VOL. II 42 


ee i 


eo1 * : 
ate teal Sey 9S sa 


THE FIRST FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH WITH WHICH I HAD ANY MEASURE OF 
SUCCESS ! A MONGOOSE MAY BE JUST GUESSED AT UNDER THE THORN-BRANCH. 


XVI 
Photography by Day and by Night 


HERE is an old German recipe for the catching 
of a lion: you put the Sahara through a sieve— 
and behold the King of Beasts ! 

The photographing of lions is not to be managed 
so easily. I am always being asked how I took my 
photographs. I shall try to give an answer in the 
following pages. 

Before With Flashlight and Rifle was published, the 
only successful photographs taken by night that were 
known to me were some few excellent pictures of certain 
species of American deer, secured by an enthusiastic 
sportsman (a legal official in the service of the Govern- 
ment of the United States) after years of untiring effort. 
After any number of fruitless attempts, this gentleman 
contrived to photograph these animals grazing by night 
near the banks of a river down which he drifted in a 


657 


In Wildest Africa -» 


boat. He set up a row of cameras in the bow of his 
craft, and when it passed close to the deer standing in 
the water, he let his flashlight flame out, and in this way 
produced—-in the course of ten years or so—a number 
of very interesting photographic studies, which made 
his name well known in his own country and which won 
him a gold medal at a Paris Exhibition, where his work 
aroused much attention. I was familiar also with the 
‘telephoto ” pictures which Lord Delamere brought home 
from East Africa.t Those of Mr. Edward North Buxton 
were published first in 1902, so far as I know. I myself, 
I should explain, do not profess to be a complete master 
of the photographer’s art. Indeed, I rather rejoice in 
my ignorance of many of the inner secrets of the craft 
known only to experts, because I believe it has helped 
me to get a certain character into my pictures which would 
perhaps have eluded one whose mind was taken up 
with all the difficulties involved in the task. 

At first sight the photographing of animals may seem 
a simple enough matter, but if we look at the photographs 
taken in zoological gardens or in menageries or game 
reservations, or photographs taken during the winter at 
spots to which the animals have had to come for food, 
or at the various touched-up photographs one sees, we 
shall find that there are very few of any real worth from 
the standpoint of the naturalist. Whoever would take 
photographs of value should take care that they be in 


1 T do not know of any “telephoto” picture of animals in rapid motion 
having been published anywhere previously to my own. ‘Those I refer to 
here are of animals at rest or moving quite slowly. 


658 


THE APPARATUS WHICH I FIRST USED FOR MY NIGHT-PHOTOGRAPHS, 
WITH THE SHUTTER KEPT OPEN (see p. 687). 


THE GOERZ-SCHILLINGS NIGHT-APPARATUS, 


~~ 


a 


-» Photography by Day and by Night 


no way altered or touched up. Touched-up photographs 
are never to be trusted. 

The story of my progress in the art of animal photo- 
graphy is soon told. 

In 1896 and 1897 I was not adequately equipped, 
and I took only a few photographs, all by daylight. 

After going. through a careful course of instruction 
in Kiesling’s Photographic Institution, I did not succeed 
in entirely satisfying myself with the daylight photographs 
I took on my second expedition of 1899—1900. It was 
impossible at that time to photograph objects at great 
distances, the telephoto lens not yet carrying far enough. 
My efforts to photograph the animals by night proved 


entirely fruitless, for one reason because the flashlight 


apparatus would not work. It was exasperating to find 


that my heavy and expensive ‘accumulators ”—procured 


after consultation with technical experts—refused to act, 
and I remember vividly how I flung them out into the 
middle of a river! I achieved but one single success 
at this period with a self-acting apparatus, namely the 
photograph of two vultures contending over carrion, here 


_ reproduced ; one of them has been feeding, and the other 


is just about to assert its right to part of the meal. The 
attitudes of the two birds are very interesting, and one 
feels that it would have been very difficult for a painter 
to have put them on record. But all my other attempts 
failed, as I have said, from technical causes, and I had 
to content myself for the most part with photographing 
the animals I hunted, though I did succeed in getting 
pictures of a waterbuck and a giraffe at which I had not 
663 


In Wildest Africa -» 


shot. My photographs won so much approval from 
experts on my return home that I was encouraged to go 
further in this direction. 

But what difficulties I had to overcome! So far 
“back as the year 1863 a German explorer, Professor 
Fritsch, now a member of the Privy Council, had set 
about the ‘task of photographing wild animals in South 
Africa. Those were the days of wet collodion plates, 
and it is really wonderful how Professor Fritsch managed 
to cope with all the difficulties he had to face so far from 
all possibility of assistance. He succeeded in the course 
of his expedition in photographing an African wild animal 
upon a dry plate for the first time on record. By his 
kindness I am enabled to reproduce this historical picture 


here—it is a thing of real value It is the photograph — 


of an eland, at that time an animal often met with in 
Cape Colony, where game of all kinds has now been 
almost completely exterminated. Professor Fritsch’s 
account of his experiences should be heard for one 
to form any notion of the wealth of animal life that 
then adorned the South African velt. His photo- 
graphs are especially interesting as the first of their 
kind. It was not until nearly forty years later that the 


English sportsmen already mentioned and I myself — 


embarked systematically upon similar enterprises. 

On my third expedition in 1902 I tried to photograph 
with two telephoto cameras which had been placed at 
my disposal by the Goerz Optical Institute. Without 
attempting to explain the complicated mechanism of these 
apparatus—the idea of which came first to English 

664 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
AUTOMATICALLY TAKEN PHOTOGRAPH OF TWO VULTURES ENGAGING IN A CONTEST OVER CARRION. 


-» Photography by Day and by Night 


travellers—I may say that they are beset with difficulties. 
They require a long exposure, and are best suited, there- 
fore, for stationary objects. If you wish to photograph 
animals in motion, you must learn to expose your negative 


THE FIRST DRY-PLATE PHOTOGRAPH, PROBABLY, EVER TAKEN IN THE AFRICAN 
DESERT. THE WORK OF ONE OF THE OLDEST OF AFRICAN EXPLORERS, 
PROFESSOR FRITSCH, IT REPRESENTS AN ELAND WHICH HE HAD KILLED 
—A SPECIES THEN FREQUENTLY MET WITH IN CAPE COLONY. 


long enough to secure a clear impression, yet not so long 

as to make the moving animals come out quite blurred. 

I am strongly of opinion that it is not of much advantage 

to make out a table of calculations as to the time of 
667 


In Wildest Africa -» 


exposure. Experience alone can enable you to judge 
what exposure to allow. When you have got your 
shutter to the correct speed and chosen the correct 
diaphragm for your lens, you must get into the way of 
~using the camera as quickly and deftly as your rifle. — 

In this way, just as in shooting, you will learn to allow 
for the movements of the object you are aiming at—you 
will let your camera move accordingly. This needs a lot 
of practice. At the period when I was using the Goerz 
apparatus, a large number of similar cameras of all sizes 
were returned to the manufactory by practical photographers 
as unuseable. This shows how difficult it is to form any 
opinion as to the possibilities of the telephoto lens without 
going in for thorough and repeated experiments. 

It is only on rare occasions that you are able to use a 
stand-camera for photographing objects at a distance. In 
most cases you must shoulder your photographic gun, and 
it may be easily imagined what dexterity is required for its 
proper management. In-following up the moving object 
with your lens you inevitably make the background some- 
thing of a blur. You are apt at the same time to under- 
expose. The change of diaphragm and the modification 
of the speed of the shutter involve many failures. The 
telephoto lens has this advantage, however, that you can 
generally get good results with it at a hundred paces. In 
the case of birds on the wing, either rising or flying past 
you, you have to get into the way of reckoning the 
distance—a difficult matter. Of course you must always 
have the sun more or less behind you. The conditions of 
the atmosphere in the tropics—the shimmering waves of 

668 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
THIS PHOTOGRAPH BEARS WITNESS TO THE DESIRABILITY OF HAVING PERFECTED FILMS TO WORK WITH, FOR GLASS PLATES 
ARE APT TO BREAK AND GOOD PICTURES TO BE QUITE SPOILT IN CONSEQUENCE, 


eer are ee 


t 


Es 
3 
i 


-» Photography by Day and by Night 


light that rise up out of the scorched soil, for instance— 


make it peculiarly hard to calculate the time of exposure, 


. and many photographs turn out failures which you have 


felt quite sure of having taken properly. This is specially 
disappointing in the case of animals that you may never 
have another opportunity of photographing. In such cases 


IT make a practice of giving as many exposures as possible, 
in the hope of one or other of them turning out right. 


You often miss splendid chances, of course, simply 
through not having your camera at hand. A few moments’ 
delay may lose you an opportunity that will never come 
to you again. ‘Then, again, you are just as apt in Africa 
as elsewhere to make the mistakes so well known to 
all photographers—wrong focussing, using the same plate 
twice, not getting your objects properly on the plate, etc. 
Nor can you always avoid having a tree or bush or branch 
between you and the animal you want to photograph. 
These things are often enough to quite spoil your picture. 


The weight of the camera, too, is in itself a hindrance. 


It is not every one who can handle a 13 x 18-cm. tele- 
photo camera. Even ag X 12-cm. is heavy enough. It 
must be remembered that on one’s journeyings through 
the wilderness it is almost as much as one can do to carry 
with one a sufficient supply of water—that most essential 
thing of all. And one has to be most careful of the 
apparatus, for mischances may occur at any moment. 
Though my experiences and those of others will have 
had the effect of smoothing the way for all who go photo- 
graphing in future in Equatorial Africa, still, hunting with 
the camera will remain a much more difficult thing than 
VOL. II 671 43 


In Wildest Africa -» 


hunting with the rifle. The practised shot needs only a 
fraction of a second to bring down his game—often he 
scarcely even ‘sees it, and fires at it through dense shrubs 

or bushes, whereas the photographer can achieve nothing 
“until he has contrived to secure a combination of favour- 
able conditions, and he wants in many. cases to “bring 
down” not just one animal,-but a whole herd. His most 
tempting ‘chances come to him very often when he is 
unprepared, That is why I ‘insist upon. the desirability 


of his shouldering a camera like a gun. At short range ° 


you can secure -wonderful pictures even with an ordinary 
small hand-camera, but for this kind of work you must 
of course have good nerves. .°. . It was in this way | 
took the photographs of the rhinoceroses in- the pool 
reproduced in. With Flashlight and Rifle, some of the 
best I ever secured. One’ of these, taken at a distance 
of fifteen or twenty paces, shows the ‘“ rhino,” not yet 
hit, rushing: down upon Orgeich and me. In another 
instant I had thrown my little hand-camera to the 


ground, and just managed to get a bullet into him in the 


nick of time. He swerved to one side and made off 
into the thicket, where I eventually secured him. He is 
now to be seen in the Munich Museum, 

A fruitful source of disillusionment lies in the fact that 
the plates are sensitive to the light-to a degree so different 
from our eyes. As.the blue and violet rays chiefly act 
upon them, they cannot render the real effects of colouring. 
It is greatly to be desired that we should manage to 
perfect orthochromatic ‘plates, sensitive to green, yellow 
and red rays of light. I. myself have been unable to secure 

672 


ee 


C. G. Schillings, thot. 

A PLATE WHICH I EXPOSED TWICE BY MISTAKE—SUCH MISTAKES WILL HAPPEN SOMETIMES, HOWEVER CAREFUL ONE MAY 
BE. IN ADDITION TO THE GNUS AND ZEBRAS WHICH STAND OUT CLEARLY IN THE PICTURE, FAINT OUTLINES OF 
HARTEBEESTS (ON A SMALLER SCALE) MAY BE DESCRIED. 


-~» Photography by Day and by Night 


good results with orthochromatic plates with the tele- 
photo lens, as I have found them always too little sensitive 
to white light for instantaneous work. Latterly there has 
been produced a new kind of panchromatic plate which 
only needs an exposure of one-fiftieth part of a second, and 
I would strongly recommend its use for the photographing 
of animals for this reason. 

In the animal pictures of the Munich painter Ziigel, 
we see admirably rendered all the many shades of colouring 
we note, under different conditions, close at hand or far 
away, when we have the actual wild life before our eyes. 
There we note that the upper part of the animal’s body 
often reflects so strongly the cold blue of the sky that 
its own colouring is, as it were, cancelled, or at least very 
greatly modified. We note, too, that an animal in reality 


reddish-brown in colour becomes violet owing to the blue 
in the atmosphere. Refinements of form and hue are lost 


in the glare of the sun, and only the stronger outlines 


-and more pronounced colours assert themselves. Some- 


times the sun’s rays, reflected from the animals’ skins, 
produce the effect of glowing patches of light, sometimes 
they are absorbed ; sometimes the animals look quite black, 
sometimes absolutely white. Photographs of animals 
taken under such conditions do not, of course, give a good 
idea of the normal colouring of the animals. The success 
of a photograph depends, therefore, very largely upon the 
nature of the light. 

For an effective picture you need to have a group 
of animals either standing still or in motion, and this you 
can very seldom get at close quarters, though now and 


675 


In Wildest Africa -» 


again you may happen upon them standing under trees ; 
and when this occurs you may hope for good results, 
because the way.in which the blue rays of light are 
reflected from the trees has a favourable effect upon 
‘the bromide-silver plates. | 
While it is true that there can be nothing more 
disappointing than the discovery, when developing one’s 
photographs of animals in a country like Africa, ’ that 
negatives of which one had great hopes are no good, 
this very possibility adds to the fascination of the work, 
and is, as it were, a link between the sport and that of 
our fathers and grandfathers. The kind of rifle-shooting 
we go in for nowadays has nothing in common with that 
of the hunter who was dependent upon a single bullet 


the effect of which he could only get to make sure of 


after long experience. To the true sportsman the camera 
is the best substitute for the: old-fashioned gun, inasmuch 
as it involves very much the same degree of difficulty 
and danger. . 


How keenly I regret ney I had not the advaniaey 


from the first of the perfected photographic apparatus 


that has come into existence as the result of long ex- 


perience! I look back with regret upon the many 
failures I experienced in my earlier efforts, the ex- 
citement of the moment often causing me to neglect 
some necessary precaution. Lions, rhinoceroses, hippo- 
potami, giraffes, and antelopes innumerable—nearly all 
my attempts to photograph them were fruitless. When 
I came to develop the negatives at night-time I would 
find a blurred suggestion of the objects I had seen so 
676 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
A TELEPHOTOGRAPH OF OSTRICHES, SCARCELY DISCERNIBLE TO THE LEFT OF THE PICTURE, 


— es, ae 


ES aT eer eC ee ee ee 


iad 


— 
° 


-» Photography by Day and by Night 


distinctly before me in the daylight, or else, owing 
to some mishap, an absolute blank. All the greater 


was my joy when on rare occasions I did succeed in 


getting such pictures as those of the rhinoceroses already 
referred to. 
I made it a practice to develop at night in my tent, 


as soon as I possibly could, all negatives that 1 thought 


at all likely to be successful. The only negatives I sent 
to Europe were duplicates of those which I had already 


developed myself. At home, of course, the developing 


can be done much more carefully. No one who has 
not had the experience can realise what it means to have 
to develop plates in the heat and damp of Equatorial 
Africa and with the kind of water at one’s disposal there. 
When I found that my negatives were successful, not 
content with developing them, I always made a number of 
bromide-silver copies of them. These were put away in 
separate cases and the original was despatched home as 
soon as possible. If this original negative got lost ex 
route, | was almost sure of having one of the copies, 
even if some of the packing-cases got lost also. 

The photographer can always console himself with 
the reflection, in the midst of all his hardships and 
mishaps, that the pictures he does succeed in taking 
count for more than so many head of game. 

It is very interesting to note that my photographs of 
birds on the wing have put so many people, especially 


painters, in mind of the work of Japanese artists. Doflein, 


in his book Ostastenfahrt, speaks as follows of the peculiar 


faculty the Japanese have in this field of art. ‘The 
are 
ggtiltr m, 
> per Eg 
ww 
a re 
pe {) i} 


In Wildest Africa -» 


Japanese animal painters,” he says, ‘‘show a more highly 
developed power of observing nature than that of their 


Western fellow-workers. They render the swift, sudden 


motion of animals with astonishing dexterity. . . . They 
had learned to see and reproduce them correctly before 
the coming of instantaneous photography. ... The 
Japanese seem to have a very highly developed nervous 
organism. Their art is evidence of this, no less than 
their methods of warfare—their effective use of their 
guns at sea, for instance.” 

I would add to this my own opinion that an 
inferior shot would have no success whatever with a tele- 
photo lens. You must have learnt to stalk your quarry 
warily—this is as important as a steady hand. A practised 


shot who knows how to get within range of the animals — 


is peculiarly well fitted for the work. The least twitch 
at the moment of taking the photograph ruins everything, 
for even in the case of moving objects the exposure is 
not what can be accurately called instantaneous, owing 
to the peculiarity of the lens. 
I have already expressed my view that this non- 
instantaneous exposure (when not too prolonged) imparts 
a certain softness and vagueness to the photograph which 
give it an artistic effect. It gives scope also for the 
personal taste and preferences of the operator. When 
taken against the horizon photographs require less exposure 
than with the velt for background. The dark green of the 
trees and shrubs no less than the red laterite soil offering 
unfavourable backgrounds for photographs of animals in 
Africa, as elsewhere, one has to pay particular attention, 
680 


7 ¥ 

$e Noe et 
Set a han 
eae BR in Ae 


of 


— ave ee ae 


a 


RPC NSPE hh neh Oe SEEM TR Re ee ean ee oe 


ves 


C. G, Schillings, phot. 


PHOTOGRAPHS OF BIRDS TAKEN WITH THE TELEPHOTO-LENS AT DISTANCES VARYING FROM 20 TO 200 PACES. I. SPURRED 
GOOSE (PLECTROPTERUS GAMBENSIS, L.).. 2. DARTER OR ‘‘SNAKE-NECK”’ (ANHINGA RUFA LACEP, Daud.). 3. GREATER 
CORMORANT (?HALACROCORAX LUCIDUS LUGUBRIS, Ripp.). 4. YELLOW-FLUTED FRANCOLIN (PTERNISTES LEUCOSEPUS 
INFUSCATUS, Cab.). 5. A BIRD OF PREY (MELIERAX POLIOPTERUS, Cab.) (?) 6, BEE-EATER (MELLITOPHAGUS MERIDIONALIS, 


Sharpe). 7. SHRIKE (Z4\/US CAUDATUS, Cab.). 8. PELICAN (PELICANUS RUFESCENS, Gm.) 


- Photography by Day and by Night 


TELEPHOTOGRAPHS OF BIRDS ON THE WING. FIRST ROW: THE STORK-VULTURE 
(SERPENTARIUS SERPENTARIUS [MILLER]). SECOND ROW: HAMMERHEAD (SCOPUs 
UMBRETTA, Gm.), SMALL BUSTARD (07/S GinDIANA [OUST]) SADDLE STORK 
(ZPHIPPIORHYNCHUS SENEGALENSIS [SHAW]). THIRD ROW: BATELEUR EAGLE 
(HELOTARSUS ECAUDATUS[DAUD.]), VULTURE (PSEUDOGYPS AFRICANUS SCHILLINGS:, 
Erl.), MARABOU (ZEPTOPTILOS CRUMENIFER, [CcUV.], Less.). 


of course, to the effects of shadows, shadows which to 
the eye seem quite natural producing extraordinary effects 
upon the negatives. 
Some of the photographer's difficulties are avoided 
683 


In Wildest Africa -» 


when he uses a heavy lens with a long focus. These 
can be easily used in a _ strong light. On the 
other hand they have many drawbacks—they are too 
-apt, especially, to give a blurred effect to the back- 
ground in the case of objects photographed near at hand. 
This entails the loss of one of the essential elements 


TELEPHOTOGRAPH OF A DWARF GAZELLE (G4Z£LL4A THOMSON/, Gther.) IN FULL 
FLIGHT, TAKEN AT A DISTANCE OF 60 PACES. WHEN ANIMALS IN RAPID 
MOTION ARE THUS PHOTOGRAPHED, THE BACKGROUND ALMOST INEVITABLY 
COMES OUT BLURRED. 


of such pictures, namely the representation of the animal 

in its natural surroundings. However, I would like to 

call the attention of all travellers to the fact that such 

apparatus are available. Their weight and ‘size entail 

the putting: forth of great strength and energy, both in 

the carrying of-them and the handling of them, but to 
684 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


JACKAL TAKING TO FLIGHT, STARTLED BY THE FLASHLIGHT. 


a Ne i le 


-» Photography by Day and by Night 


my mind no trouble and no exertion could be excessive 
in the work of securing records of what is left us of 
animal life, in the spirit in which Professor Fritsch 
achieved his task in South Africa. 

The impossibility of securing sharp, clearly defined 
impressions of the animals with the telephoto lens at a 
hundred paces or more, and the few chances I had of 
photographing them close at hand by daylight, were 
responsible partly for my determination to go in for flash- 
light pictures by night. At first my idea was discouraged 
and opposed by expert advisers, but the Goerz-Schillings 
apparatus was evolved out of my experiments and makes 
it possible now to secure excellent representations of wild 
life. 

As I have said already, I did not succeed with my 
flashlight photographs on my second expedition. And 
my third expedition, on which I managed to take a few, 
was brought to a sudden end by severe illness. At that 
time I had not found a way to combine the working of 
the flashlight with that of the shutter, essential to the 
photographing of objects in rapid motion. My cameras 
stood ready for use in the dark with the lens uncovered 
and the plates exposed, the shutter being closed auto- 


_ matically when the flashlight contrivance worked. To my 


surprise and disappointment this arrangement proved too 

slow ; the exposure was too long in the case of animals 

moving quickly. Jackals emerged from my negatives with 

six heads, hyenas with long snake-like bodies. Unfor- 

tunately I destroyed all these monstrosities, and cannot 

therefore reproduce any of them here. Now and again, 
VOL. II 687 44 


In Wildest Africa -» 


however, J was fortunate enough to get a’ picture worth 
having—for: instance, that of a hyena making off with 
the head of a-zebra, and that of three jackals, included 
-in the illustrations to Wirth Flashlight and Rifle. The 
first photograph’I succeeded with’ in 1902 was that of a 
mongoose coming’ up to the bait-placed for him. On 
page 657. the reader may see this marten-like animal taking 
to flight among the thorn-bushes. I secured a number 
of other pictures, notably “of hyenas, both spotted and 
striped, and of jackals, in all kinds of strange positions, 
moving hither and.thither in search of prey. 

What a state of’ excitement and’ suspense I used to 
be in. at first when the flashlight flamed: out—until I got 
to realise that owing to the rapid movements of the animals 
most. of the photographs were sure to be failures. » 

‘My “illness’ and return’ from: this expedition proved 
really an advantage in the long run,- inasmuch as they 
enabled me ‘to get the apparatus brought to such perfection 
as to render possible the photographing of even the most 
rapid movements. This was brought about ‘in the Goerz 
Institute, Herr M. Kiesling contriving to secure the 
simultaneous operation of the flashlight and the shutter. 

Equipped with this ‘new ‘apparatus, I set out on my 
fourth. expedition, betaking myself for two reasons to 
districts with which I was already familiar. In’ the first 
place, success» was much more’ likely: in a country the 
speech .of whose inhabitants and. all. their habits and 
customs were* known. to mé; but my chief reason was 
that ‘I; wished to achieve a: pictorial record of: the wild 
life of the German region of Africa. As a matter of 

688 


G G. Schillings, phot. 


LIONESS FRIGHTENED AWAY FROM CARCASE BY THE FLASH-LIGHT, 


TAPER 7 Mean OAS NAPE , cor ty E 


, 


fas cs ected as! oe, 


i> 


ee 


BEd 


* 
os 
cm 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
AIMING AT A PIGEON AND HITTING A CROW! I FOUND THIS SPOTTED HYENA ON THE PLATE INSTEAD OF 
THE LION FOR WHICH IT WAS INTENDED, 


[p. 


66 & 


a 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
PHOTOGRAPH 


PHOTOGRAPH OF A JACKAL, TAKEN WITH A SMALL HAND-CAMERA. 


OF A JACKAL TAKEN WITH 


MY FIRST, PRIMITIVE NIGHT-APPARATUS, NOT TOO SUCCESSFULLY ! 


-» Photography by Day and by Night 


IN ORDER TO ENSURE SUCCESS WITH MY FLASHLIGHT-PHOTOS, I USED TO MAKE 
CONTINUAL EXPERIMENTS BEFOREHAND, I USED TO MAKE SOME OF MY 
MEN ACT AS MOVING MODELS, AND GET THEM TO WAVE CLOTHS IN THEIR 
HANDS. 


fact, with this kind of object in view, a man might spend 
a lifetime in any such region, and find that, however 
691 


In Wildest Africa -» 


narrow its boundaries, it could always offer him fresh 
subjects for study and observation. 

On arrival the photographic outfit proved so cumber- 
some, both as regards transport and management, that 
both Prince Lowenstein, who accompanied me, and who 
was not easily to be daunted by obstacles, and also Orgeich 
gave expression to pessimistic views as to the possibility 
of fulfilling my purpose. 

No one, indeed, had been able to boast of success 
until then with this new apparatus! I had yet to satisfy 
myself that it was really efficacious—that, for instance, 
it would enable me to photograph a lion falling upon its 
prey. Many were the fruitless experiments witnessed by 
the Pangani forest. We experimented night after night, 
now at one spot, now at another—my men learning to 
enact the role of lions and other animals for the purpose. 
The Oriental and the negro are alike in their bearing — 
on such occasions, but these flashlight operations did 
really succeed in arousing the wonder of my followers. 
The laughter of my chief man still rings in my ears. 
‘But the lions are far away, master!” he would declare, 
utterly unable to understand my proceedings. It took me 
long, and I had had a large number of failures, before I 
succeeded in overcoming his attitude of incredulity. 

As I have already intimated, the efficacy of the 
telephoto lens in the tropics depends to an extraordinary 
degree on the conditions of the atmosphere. The efficacy 
of the flashlight apparatus depends upon the precise 
absolutely simultaneous working of the flashlight and the 
shutter. It took me weeks and months (and | very 

692 


C. G. Schillings, photo. 

FLASHLIGHT FAILURES II. BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES COMING DOWN TO THE WATER-SIDE TO DRINK. THE BLEMISHES 
WERE CAUSED BY BITS OF THE MATERIAL WITH WHICH THE FLASHLIGHT POWDER WAS COVERED TO PROTECT IT 
FROM DAMP BEING BLOWN INTO THE AIR AND BURNING AS THEY FLEW IN FRONT OF THE LENS. 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
HOW MY FLASHLIGHT PICTURES WERE APT TO BE SPOILT. I. THE ZEBRA IS BEHIND THE STICK TO WHICH 
COMMUNICATING STRING IS ATTACHED. 


-~» Photography by Day and by Night 


nearly gave the thing up as hopeless) before I managed 
to get good results in the wilderness, though theoretically, 
and to a certain extent in practice at home, the apparatus 
had been perfected. The heavy dew of the tropical 
the 
flashlight unless the apparatus has been thoroughly safe- 


) 


night, or a sudden shower of rain, may easily ‘do for’ 


guarded. And there are any number of other mishaps 


FLASHLIGHT FAILURES Im. TWO TURTLE-DOVES (ONE ON THE WING) SET 
MY NIGHT-APPARATUS WORKING. MISHAPS OF THIS KIND OFTEN OCCUR. 

to be provided against. On one occasion hyenas carried 
off the linen sandbags that form part of the apparatus ; 
mongooses made away with the aluminium lid of the 
lens-cap and hid it in their stronghold, an ant-hill; ants 
gnawed the apparatus itself. And when the photograph 
has at last been taken, a lot of other harmful contingencies 
have to be kept in mind. The fact that several shillings’ 


697 


In Wildest Africa -» 


worth of powder is consumed in each explosion of the 
flashlight is in itself a serious consideration. Of course, 
there is always the additional danger of the cameras being 


stolen or destroyed by natives—a misfortune I experienced 


more than once. 
I would give the intending photographer a special 


FLASHLIGHT FAILURES IV. A BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPE DOE SWERVES 
SUDDENLY ROUND DURING THE FLASH. 


warning against careless handling of the explosive mixture. 
The various ingredients are separately packed, of course, 
and are thus quite safe until the time has come to mix 
them together (I know nothing of the ready-made mixtures 
which are declared to be portable without danger). This 
business of mixing them with a mortar is dangerous 
undoubtedly, for the introduction of a grain of sand is 
698 


= = 
" ” in 
ae oe he 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 
PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES OF ANTELOPES SHOT BY THE AUTHOR AND NOW TO BE SEEN 
PRESERVED IN GERMAN MUSEUMS, _ I, 2. WATERBUCK (COBUS. AFR. ELLIPSIPRYMNUS, 
Ogilb.), MALE AND FEMALE. 3. ELAND (0RZ4S LivinGsToNi, Sclat.), FEMALE. 
4. MASAI HARTEBEEST (sUz4zis coxes, Gthr.), YOUNG BUCK. 


Bias 
_ 


-» Photography by Day and by Night 


enough to cause an explosion. I myself, as well as others, 
have had some very narrow escapes whilst thus occupied, 
and, as every photographer knows, the work has had 
fatal results in several instances of recent years. 

My apparatus revealed several shortcomings even in the 
improved form. It was not absolutely light-proof, and 
it had to be set up always, for its automatic operation, in 
the brief tropical dusk. If no animal presented itself for 
portraiture the plates exposed were always wasted, unless 
at dawn they were withdrawn again. (This is not the 
case with the apparatus as since perfected.) 


- Many wrong impressions are current in regard to 
this kind of photography. It can be managed in two 
ways. Either the photographer himself remains on the 
’ spot to attend in person both to the flashlight and the 
: 


Se i Le SF ete or ee 


exposure, or else the mechanism is worked by a string 
against which the animal moves. Before I took my 
photographs I had been a spectator of all the various 
incidents represented in them, watching them all from 
; hiding-places in dense thorn-bushes, thus coming, as it 
_—swere, into personal touch with lions and other animals. 
= Though not so dangerous really as camping out on 
the velt, where one’s fatigue and the darkness leave one 
defenceless against the possible attacks of elephants or 


4 rhinoceroses, you need good nerves to spend the night in 
your thorn-thicket hiding-place with a view to flashlight 
snapshots of lions at close quarters. In that interesting 
work Zu den Aulthans, by Count Hoyos, and in Count 
Wickenburg’s Wanderungen in Ostafrika, the reader will 
find interesting and authentic accounts of night-shoots 

701 


Pe ee ae ee 


In Wildest Africa -» 


which correspond with my own experiences. . Count 
Coudenhove in his first book describes very vividly the 


effect upon the neérves of ‘the apparition of numbers of 


lions within a few paces of him, when concealed in a 


thorn-bush at night. 


There is a wonderful fascination at all times in lying. 


in wait by night for animals, and watching their goings 


and comings and all their habits. Even here at home, 


in our game preserves, the experience of passing hour 


after -hour on the look-out has a charm about it difficult | 
to describe in words. Out in the wilderness it is increased 


immeasurably. It is an intense pleasure to me to read 
other, people’s impressions of such experiences, when | 
feel the accounts are trustworthy. They are so different 
in some: respects, so much alike in others. In my first 
book I. cited’ Count Coudenhove, mentioned , above, in 


this connection, as a man of proved courage, who writes 
at once sympathetically and convincingly, Here let 


me give a passage from the book of another sportsman, 
Count Hans Palffy. In his Wzld und Hund he speaks 
as follows : ‘T had been waiting for two hours or so in 
the darkness without being able to descry the carcase 
of the rhinoceros” [which he himself had shot and which 
he was using as a bait for the lion], ‘“‘when suddenly I 


heard a sound like that ofa heavy body falling on the 
ground, and then almost immediately the lion began 


growling beside the dead animal. I could hear the King 

of Beasts quite distinctly, as he began to pull and bite 

at the flesh. . ... He would move. away from it every 

ten or twenty minutes, always in the same direction, to 
702 


ee 


C. G. Schillings, phot. I 2 
JACKALS, ONLY ONE Is VISIBLE, BUT THE GLEAMING EYES OF TWO OTHERS (NOS. 2 AND 3) GIVE A PECULIAR 
INTEREST TO THIS PHOTOGRAPH, 


[p. 702 


Or ee ge pe ee fae ee nee gee Tae 


“eS 


‘ 


PHOTOGRAPHS OF EAST 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 


AFRICAN ANTELOPES SHOT BY THE AUTHOR AND NOW 
SMALL KUDU (ST7REPSICEROS IMBERBIS, 
THOMSONI, Gthr.), BUCK. 
4. BUSH- 


PRESERVED IN VARIOUS MUSEUMS. I. 
Blyth), BUCK. 2. DWARF GAZELLE (G4ZELLA 
3. WHITE-BEARDED GNU (CONNOCHA:TES ALBOFUBATUS, Thos.), BULL. 
BUCK (7RAGELAPHUS MASAICUS, Neum), BUCK. (THE FEMALE OF THE FIRST- 
NAMED AND LAST-NAMED SPECIES HAVE NO HORNS.) 


VOL. II 45 


CS a ee er eo 


ee a a 


ene 


~~ oe os 


-~» Photography by Day and by Night 


give out a series of roars. The effect of this was magnifi- 
cent beyond description. Beginning always with a soft 
murmur, he gradually raised his mighty voice into a 
peal of thunder—I never in my life heard anything so 
beautiful.” 

Both on account of the hardships and fatigue involved— 
which are calculated in the long run to ruin his constitu- 
tion—and also because he really cannot manipulate his 
cameras successfully except on starry or moonlight nights, 
it is most desirable for the photographer to provide 
himself with an apparatus working automatically. You 
cannot count upon its working as you would wish. The 
string which sets it in action may be caught and pulled 
by a bat or even a cockchafer instead of a lion you 
want to photograph. The photograph reproduced on 
p. 697, for instance, was the work of the turtledoves 
therein visible. The motion of their wings, it may be 
noted, was too quick for a clearly defined record. 

This picture, taken in the early morning, is a good 
instance of the way in which I have always enforced my 
rule as to never touching up my photographs. The plate 
was broken on its way home, but the cracks which resulted 
were left as they were.’ I remember one case in which 
I had put up my apparatus with a view to securing 
photographs of certain lions, and in which I had to be 
content with a picture of a spotted hyena splashing its 
way in fuil flight through the swamp. The hideous 


1 Flashlight photographs may be taken by daylight, as is proved 
by this photograph and some of those of rhinoceroses in With Flashlight 
and Rifle. 


795 


In Wildest Africa -» 


cowering gait of the animal came out very strikingly on 
the negative. : 

There is wide scope for a man’s dexterity and resource- 
fulness in the setting up of a flashlight apparatus. All 
the qualities that go to the making of a big-game hunter 


are essential to success in this field also. You have 


to keep a sharp look-out for the tracks of the different 
animals and to watch for their appearance, taking up 
your position in some thorn-bush hiding-place or up a 
tree if you propose to operate the camera yourself by 
means of a string. In the case of most animals you have, 
of course, to pay special attention to the direction of the 
wind. ‘This is not necessary, however, in the case of 
lions. Lions take no notice whatever of the man in 
hiding. Elephants, on the contrary, are very easily excited, 
and when this is so they are apt to force their way into 
his thorn retreat and trample on him or to drag him 
down from his point of vantage. 


Future workers in this field will find that my labours 
have served to some extent to clear the ground for them, 
and we may look forward to many interesting achieve- 


ments. There can be no doubt that the explorer who — 


provides himself with the necessary photographic equip- 
ment will find ample scope for his activities. 

My own process was simple enough. I stretched lines 
of string round the heifer or goat which was to serve 
as a bait, and the lions, hyenas, etc., falling on their prey 
pulled these strings, which worked the flashlight—the 
animals thus taking their own photographs. Some of these 

706 


C. G. Schillings, phot. 

MORE ANTELOPES. I. BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPE (PYCEROS SUARA, Mtsch.), BUCK. 
2. MOUNTAIN REEDBUCK (CERVICAPRA CHANLERI, Rothsch.). 3. GRANT’S GAZELLE 
(GAZELLA GRANTI, Brooke), DOE. 4. ORYX ANTELOPE (ORYX cALLoTIs, Thos.), 
BUCK. 


7 ~ 


~*~ ELL 
: 


-» Photography by Day and by Night 


pictures record new facts in natural history. In my first 
book, for instance, there is a picture of a lioness making 
off with her tail raised high in the air in a way no artist 
would have thought of depicting, and no naturalist have 


believed to be characteristic. 


In the course of my labours I had to overcome every 
description of obstacle, and had constantly to be making 
new experiments. By the time I had got things right 
I had so small a stock of materials left at my disposal 
that I ought to congratulate myself upon my subsequent 
success. The number of good pictures I secured was far 
less than I had originally hoped for, but on the other 
hand it far surpassed what, in those moods of pessimism 
which followed upon my many failures, I had begun to 
think I should have to be contented with. 

Among my successful efforts I count those which record 
the fashion in which the lion falls upon his prey, first 
prowling round it; and those which represent rhinoceroses 
and hippopotami, leopards and hyenas and _ jackals, 
antelopes and zebras making their way down to the water- 
side to drink ; those also which show the way in which 
hyenas and jackals carry off their spoils, and the relations 
that exist between them. But a point of peculiar interest 
that my photographs bring out is the way in which the 
eyes of beasts of prey shine out in the darkness of night. 
I have never been able to get any precise scientific 
explanation of this phenomenon. I have often seen it for 
myself in the wilderness. Professor Yngve Sjéstedt, 
a Swedish naturalist, who has travelled in the Kilimanjaro 
region, tells us that he once saw, quite near his camp, 


799 


In Wildest Africa wD 


the eyes of at least ten lions shining out from the darkness 
exactly like lights. I find the following passage, too, in an 
old book, printed at Nuremberg in 1719: ‘Travellers tell 
-us (and I myself have seen it) that you can follow the 
movements of lions in the dark owing to the way in which 
their glowing eyes shine out like twin lights.” 

Even with a small hand-camera it is possible to 
secure pictures worth having, such as the studies of 
heads reproduced on the accompanying pages. These 
must always have a certain value, as they depict for the 
most part species of animals which have never yet. been 
secured for zoological gardens. 

I repeat that there is an immense harvest awaiting the 
man who is prepared to work thoroughly in this field. 
Why, for instance, should he not succeed in getting a 
picture by night of an entire troop of lions? My photo- 
graphs show how a mating lion and lioness fall on their 
victim—from different sides ; and how three lionesses may 
be seen quenching their thirst at midnight, all together. 
With good luck some one may manage to photograph a 
troop of a dozen or twenty lions hunting their prey—that 
would be a fine achievement. Or he might secure a 
wonderful group of bull-elephants on their way down to 
a drinking-place. The possibilities are immense. 

Who has ever seen a herd of giraffes bending down in 
their grotesque impossible attitudes to quench their thirst ? 
A photographic record of such a sight would be invaluable 
now that the species is doomed to extinction. But, apart 
from such big achievements as these, trustworthy photo- 
graphs of wild life in all its forms—even of the smallest 
710 


ra 


; - age 


ieee 


PHOTOGRAPHS OF (1) A SPOTTED HYENA (CROCOTTA GERMINANS, Mtsch.) ; (2) AND (4) 
STRIPED HYENAS (HY4:NA SCHILLINGSI, Mtsch.), AND (3) A JACKAL, 


a 


i 

( 
an 
| 
44 
at 
ie 
iH 
B 
| 
Be 


Photography by Day and by Night 


beasts and birds—are of the utmost value, recally in 
the case of rare species that are dying out. 

This is true not merely of Africa, but of other parts of 
the world as well. Who is attempting to secure photo- 


graphic records of the great elk and mighty bears of 


SNAPSHOT OF A JACKAL IN FULL FLIGHT. 


Alaska? or of the wild life of the Arctic zone—the polar 
bear, the walrus, and the seal ? 

The Arctic regions should be made to tell their last 
secrets to the camera for the benefit of posterity, nor 
should the wild sheep and ibex of the unexplored 
mountains of Central Asia be overlooked. 

These things are not to be easily achieved, and they 
involve a considerable outlay of money. It would be, 
however, money well spent. Money is being lavished 


7¥3 


In Wildest Africa -» 

upon many other enterprises which could very well wait, 
and which might be carried out just as successfully some 
time in the future., These are possibilities, on the other 
hand, that are diminishing every year, and that presently 
will cease to exist. I trust sincerely that it may be my 
lot to continue working in this field. 

“If only the matter could be brought home to the 
minds of the right people,” wrote one of our best natural- 
ists, after examining my work, ‘tens of thousands of 
pounds would be devoted to this end,” 


714 


— ee 


GUINEA-FOWL. 


Envoi 


MAY be permitted a few words in conclusion to 

reaffirm certain views to which I cling. I would 
not have my readers attach any special importance to what 
I myself have achieved, but I would like them to take to 
heart the moral of my book. 

It may be summed up in a very few words. I maintain 
that wild life everywhere, and in all its forms, should be 
religiously protected—that the forces of nature should not 
be warred against more than our struggle for existence 
renders absolutely inevitable ; and that it is the sportsman’s 
duty, above all, to have a care for the well-being of the 
whole of the animal world. 

Whoever glances over the terrible list of so-called 
“harmful” birds and beasts done to death every year in 
Germany must bemoan this ruthless destruction of a 
charming feature of our countryside, carried out by sports- 
men in the avowed interest of certain species designated 


Tt 


Envoi » 
as ‘‘useful.” “The realm of nature should not be regarded 
exclusively from the point of view of sport; the sportsman 
should stand rather in the position of a guardian or trustee, 
responsible to all nature-lovers for the condition of the 
fauna and flora left to his charge. 

I would have the German hunter establish the same 
kind of reservations, the same kind of “sanctuaries” for 
wild life that exist in America. In our German colonies, 
especially in Africa, we should model those reservations 
on English examples. Such institutions, in which both 
flora and fauna should be really well looked after, would 
be a source at once of instruction and enjoyment of the 
highest kind to all lovers of natural history.’ 


FAREWELL TO AFRICA! 


Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 


716 


ey 


CHEAP EDITION 


“The most remarkable travel book that has ever been published.’’—Graphic. 


With Flashlight 
and Rifle 


A Record of Hunting Adventures and Studies in Wild Life 


By C. G. SCHILLINGS 
Translated by FREDERIC WHYTE 


With an Introduction by Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 
Illustrated with 302 of the Author’s ‘‘untouched’’ photographs 
taken by day and night. 


Printed throughout on English art paper, in one handsome 
vol., 824 pages super-royal 8vo, 12s. 6d. net 


PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT wrote of Mr. Schillings’s book: 

*‘His extraordinary photographic work among the teeming wild 
creatures of East Africa. ... He is a great field naturalist, a trained 
scientific observer, as well as a mighty hunter; and no mere hunter can 
ever do work even remotely approaching in value that which he has done. 
His book should be translated into English at once.” 


Some Exceptional Reviews 
** An entrancing work. His photographs are positively wonderful ; his 
letterpress is vivid.”—Standard. 
** A book of singular value.”— Yorkshire Post. 
“ This remarkable book.’”— Sporting and Dramatic News. 
‘A unique and most remarkable book.” —Sco¢sman. 


“Space forbids any mention of the author’s hunting adventures or of 
his many thrilling escapes from death, but all through the two volumes 
the human interest is as strong as the scientific.” — Graphic. 


“A remarkable book. Nobody else has ever obtained so wonderful 
a series of photographs.” —77ruth, 

“An entirely remarkable book, containing the greatest triumph in 
photography of wild animals ever achieved.”—Out/ook. 


LONDON: HUTCHINSON ®& CO., PATERNOSTER ROW 


Nearest the Pole 


By Commander R. E. PEARY 
(U., S. Navy; President of the National Geographic Society) 
Author of “‘ Northward over the Great Ice,’’ etc. 


With an introduction by President Roosevelt and numerous 
illustrations selected from a collection of 1,200 of the 
Author’s photographs 


In Crown 4to, cloth gilt and gilt top, 218. net. 


In this book Commander Peary relates the thrilling story of his 
endeavours to reach the North Pole. Although he did not succeed in 
his attempt, he managed to get nearer to the Pole than any of his 
predecessors. Sailing in the Roosevelt from Etah, North Greenland, 
on August 16th, 1905, the expedition soon encountered ice which made 
their progress both dangerous and difficult. After being icebound for 
some weeks, the vessel was extricated, but. not floated again until the 


following summer. The sun disappearing from sight in October, was. 


not seen again until March. ‘The expedition re-started in February on a 
sledge trip in the direction of the Pole, and after dividing the party, Peary 
and his followers journeyed towards their goal, encountering on their way, 
among other mishaps, a gale which lasted six days, during which time 
they found themselves some seventy ‘miles out of their course. ‘They then 
endeavoured to get intelligence of the other portion of their party, but had 
to abandon their attempt as their scouts could not locate their where- 
abouts. At length, by forced marches, Commander Peary, on April 2tst, 
reached &7° 6’ N. 

On this expedition Commander Peary did for the American segment 
of the Polar Basin what Nansen did for the Asiatic. ‘The narrative is 
exceedingly dramatic. The explorer tells how he built the Roosevelt 
on an entirely different plan from any other Arctic ship, and not only 
adopted Eskimo clothing and made camps like Eskimos in ice and snow, 
but took Eskimos with him as guides. It is the seventh time that Peary 
has been North—oftener than any other explorer : and the Hubbard Gold 
Medal that President Roosevelt presented him on behalf of the National 
Geographic Society is: the fifth he has received for his distinguished 
achievements in exploration. ‘Thete will be an introduction to the book 
by President Roosevelt, and the beautiful pictures with which the 


book will be illustrated are selected from a collection of 1,200 of the © 


author’s photographs. 


LONDON: HUTCHINSON @& CO., PATERNOSTER ROW 


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