LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

SANTA BARBARA

From the col 1 ect i oncof
ELSPETH HUXLEY

t. T.

A/
v

WITH FLASHLIGHT AND RIFLE

VOL. 1

WITH FLASHLIGHT
AND RIFLE

A RECORD OF HUNTING ADVENTURES
AND OF STUDIES IN WILD LIFE IN
EQUATORIAL EAST AFRICA BY

C. G. SCHILLINGS

TRANSLATED BY

FREDERIC WHYTE

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

SIR H. H. JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.

ILLUSTRATED WITH 302 OF THE AUTHOR'S "UNTOUCHED
PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY DAY AND NIGHT

VOL. I

LONDON: HUTCHINSON AND CO.

PATERNOSTER ROW

1906

TO
MY FRIEND

HERNY SUERMONDT

i

DEDICATE
THIS BOOK

A BULL GIRAFFE ON THE QUI

Author's Preface

THE illustrations in this book, with a very few
exceptions, which are indicated, have been repro-
duced from the original photographs taken by myself.

Dr. Ludwig Heck, in the course of his appreciative
introduction to the German edition, refers to these
photographs as Natururkunden — certificated records, as
it were, of the scenes from wild life therein depicted.
And the fact that they are absolutely free from "re-
touching" of any kind will be held to justify him in the
use of that term. Absolutely the only photograph that
has been worked up in any way is the one (on p. 393)
of two lions attacking an ox. The negative of this
was damaged while I was developing it. I have
described elsewhere the feeling of satisfaction with
which, six months afterwards, I received a telegram
from the Fatherland to announce that it was gerettet —
restored !

My pictures may be classified as (i) ordinary photo-
graphs taken by daylight at varying ranges; (2) those
taken with a telephoto-lens ; (3) those taken at night
time by flashlight.

ix b

Author's Preface -*

The telephoto pictures should not be held too close to
the eye. To get them into focus, so to speak, the reader
should hold them at arms length.

*****

Conspicuous among those to whom I owe grateful
acknowledgments for encouragement and assistance in
connection with my work are the following : Duke
Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg ; the Duke of Ratibor ;
Prince Eulenberg ; Prince Franz Arenberg ; Freiherr
von Richthofen ; Dr. Stiibel ; Count Gotzen ; Herr von
Soden; Freiherr von Varnbiiler, Count von Hohenthal
und Bergen ; Freiherr von Reischach ; Herr von Plato ;
Count Bylandt-Rhendt ; my uncle Field-Marshal Ritter
von Keil ; Dr. Moebius ; Dr. Thiel ; Major Thiel ;
Professor Lampert ; Professor von Steindachner ; Hon.
Walter Rothschild ; Dr. E. Hartert ; Dr. Ritter Lorenz
von Liburnau ; Professor Volkens ; Professor Tornier ;
Dr. Griinfeld ; Professor L. C. Neumann-Toulouse ; and
Herr Oscar Neumann.

Dr. A. Reichenow and Professor Matschie have
supported me in the kindest and most friendly way for
years past, and I must single them out for special thanks.
Herr Goerz has also been intimately connected with my
enterprise through his generosity in giving me facilities
for perfecting my photographic equipment in his optical
establishment. I am indebted also in an extreme degree
to my friends Herr Henry Suermondt, Dr. Ludwig
Heck, Dr. Kiinstler (who went through some bad times
with me on my expeditions), and, finally, Captain Merker,
who furthered my plans and assisted me in every way.

x

-* Author's Preface

Without Captain Marker's valuable " expert " advice I
should hardly have been able to carry out my journeys ;
and during my severe illness in 1902 he took some
capital photographs with my telephoto-lens, five of
which are included in this work.

Dr. Eggel, Dr. Groothufen, and Dr. Phillips, Herr
Warnholtz and Herr Meyer, Professor Schweinfurth,
Dr. Richard Kant, and Messrs. Louis Draemann, Felix
Schiill, Alfred Kaiser, C. W. Hobley, and Tomkins (to
whose great kindness I have referred on p. 672), and
Captain von der Warwitz have also earned my gratitude
in various ways.

*****

In spite of my best endeavours, this work will be
found to have many faults : I can only hope that my
readers will be merciful to them. I find photographing
lions an easier matter than writing books !

o

C. G. SCHILLINGS.

GiJRZENICH BEI DC'RKN, GERMANY.

NOTE. — Thanks are due from the translator to Mr. W. von
Knoblauch, who has kindly read the proofs for him ; and to Mr. R.
Lydekker, who has revised the spelling of all the zoological and
geographical names.

XI

Introduction

CONSCIOUSLY or unconsciously, Herr Schillings
has followed in the footsteps of Mr. Edward North
Buxton, who was the first sportsman of repute having
the courage to stand up before a snobbish public and
proclaim that the best sport for a man of cultivated mind
is the snapshotting with the camera (with or without the
telephotographic lens), rather than the pumping of lead
into elephants, rhinoceroses, antelopes, zebras, and many
other harmless, beautiful, or rare beasts and birds. If
any naturalist-explorer previously deprecated the frightful
devastation which followed in the track of British sports-
men, and a few American, Russian, German, or Hungarian
imitators, it was thought that he did so because he was
a bad shot, or lacked the necessary courage to fire at a
dangerous beast. Mr. Buxton, however, had proved his
manhood (so to speak) in the many sporting adventures
which preceded his conversion. Therefore people have
listened to him, and the way has been paved for such
a work as that of Herr Schillings.

xin

Introduction -*

This is the sportsmanship of the future. The
present writer does not mean to say that he or any
other explorer, when and if they visited Africa, would
not still use every opportunity of obtaining good
specimens of rare wild beasts, birds, and reptiles for
our museums, and most of all for the information of
zoologists, who must perforce carry on many of their
studies within the pale of civilisation. Neither does
the writer of this Introduction condemn the killing of
leopards, lions, hyaenas, jackals, hippopotamuses, or
elephants — at any rate in moderation - - where they
become really dangerous to human beings, to the
keeping of domestic animals, or to the maintenance of
cultivated crops.

But these concessions do not cover, excuse, or indem-
nify the ravages of European and American sportsmen,
which are still one of the greatest blots on our twentieth-
century civilisation.

Herr Schillings refers to the case of the late Dr. Kolb,
a German who came out to British East Africa in con-
nection with a Utopian undertaking called " Freeland,"
and who, when his political scheme became impossible,
applied himself to the reckless slaughter of the big game
of British East Africa. In the course of two or three
years he had slain — for no useful purpose whatever — one
hundred and fifty rhinoceroses (a companion killed one
hundred and forty more), each one being a far more
interesting mammal than himself. At the end of this
career of slaughter, a rhinoceros killed him — perhaps
appropriately.

xiv

--•> Introduction

In spite of game regulations and the creation of
game-reserves (to which admission can generally be
obtained through the exercise of special influence, some-
times rightly exercised in the cause of science), one has
only to look through the columns of "Society" infor-
mation in the London weekly and daily press to realise
that this work of wanton destruction of the big game
of tropical Africa is still going on at a considerable rate.
It seems to be still the accepted panacea in British or
Continental society that a young or a middle-aged man,
who has been crossed in love, or has figured in the
Divorce Court, or in some way requires to faire peau
neuve, must go out to Africa and kill big game. Make
a note of the names mentioned if you will, and inquire
twelve months afterwards what has become of the
creatures thus destroyed. Many, of the trophies, after
the carriers of the expedition had feasted on the flesh
of the slain, were ultimately abandoned on the line of
march as being too heavy to carry. Even those that
reached the home of the sportsman were ultimately
relegated to obscurity, and did not add to our zoological
information. In short, there is very little set-off in
gain to the world's knowledge for the destruction of
one of Africa's most valuable assets — its marvellous
Mammalian fauna. A Schillings, a Lord Delamere, a
Major Powell Cotton, a Delme Radcliffe, a Sydney
Hinde, or a Carlos d'Erlanger may kill a relatively
large number of beasts and birds in their sporting ad-
ventures ; but — if one may put it thus — every shot tells.
All the persons named — to say nothing of Mr. E. N.

xv

Introduction -•>

Buxton and others recently at work in Northern Nigeria — •
have killed with discretion and strict moderation, and
with the definite object of increasing our store of know-
ledge and enriching the national collections, while they
have accompanied their cautious toll of the African fauna
by valuable studies — generally photographic — of the
animals' life-habits.

It is not against the actons of such men as these that
Herr Schillings or the writer of this Introduction raises
any protest ; it is against the idea that the destruction
of the African fauna is part of a fashionable man's
education, against the damage done by a hundred obscure
shooters that the protest is necessary. For this reason
public opinion should strengthen as far as possible the
wise action of Governments in protecting the world's
fauna all the world over, wherever the creatures thus
protected do not come into too dangerous competition
with the welfare of human beings. Moreover, it is
for the welfare of humanity in general that this plea is
entered. The world will become very uninteresting-
if man and his few domestic animals, together with
the rat, mouse, and sparrow, are its only inhabitants
amongst the land vertebrates. Man's interests must
come first, but those very interests demand food for
the intellect. /Esthetically, the egret, toucan, bird of
paradise, grebe, sable, chinchilla, and fur-seal are as
important as the well-dressed woman. The viper, lion,
tiger, crocodile, wolf, vulture, and rhinoceros have all
their places to fill in our world-picture. They are
amazingly interesting, and therefore their destruction

xvi

-* Introduction

should only be carried out to the degree of keeping
them in their proper sphere.

This lesson that we are learning in Africa applies
also at home, where we should learn to value the natural
beauties of our home scenery, especially its own in-
dividuality. It should be made illegal to carry on the
worship of the pheasant (a toothsome and a beautiful
bird, but not a true native) at the expense of the lives
of owls and stoats and weasels that are true British
subjects, and without which our landscapes lose part of
their national character. The otter is quite as valuable
as the salmon ; the fox is not more worthy of encourage-
ment than the wild swan. A nice balance must be struck ;
and our clergy must inveigh against the national sin
of scattering greasy paper over the loveliest nooks of
English scenery.

We have not yet reached the greasy-paper outrage
in the African wilderness ; but, as Herr Schillings points-
out, the African fauna is rapidly disappearing before
the uncontrolled attacks of man. He is quite right -to
lay stress on this important fact, that all the wrong-doing
does not rest with the white man. The Negro or the
Negroid, armed with the white man's weapons, is carrying
on an even more senseless work of devastation. The
present writer has witnessed in East Africa troops of
uncontrolled Somali adventurers, and Swahilis from the
coast, led by Goanese, invading the wilder districts of
East Africa, and slaughtering beasts by hundreds and
even thousands for their meat, horns, tusks, and, above
all, their hides. It is an irony which has entered into

xvii

Introduction -*

the soul of Major Powell Cotton, that, while the institu-
tion of the game-reserve rigidly excludes the cautious
European naturalist from the killing of one " protected "
bird or beast, in and out of that reserve African natives
or half-castes apparently pursue their game-destruction
unchecked. The reason of this is want of money to pay
for close supervision and gamekeeping. These African
Protectorates and Colonies, under no matter what flag,
are poor. They yield as yet a local revenue which leaves
a considerable gap when compared with their narrowest
expenditure. To maintain an efficient control over these
vast game-reserves needs the expenditure, not of a few
hundreds of pounds annually, but of a few thousands. Yet
this control over these future National Parks could be
maintained efficiently for a relatively small sum of money.
Will not the growth of education, the dawning aesthetic
sense amongst the governing authorities in Britain, France,
Germany, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Egypt, Spain, and
Liberia bring about the provision of sufficient funds to
preserve for the delight and wonderment of our descendants
the vestiges of the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene
fauna of Africa ?

It may be said without exaggeration that only one
other such work of real African natural history, as that
in which Herr Schillings describes the wild life of Eastern
Equatorial Africa, has hitherto been presented to the
stay-at-home reader, and that is Mr. J. G. Millais'
Breath from the Veldt, The writer of this Introduction
subscribes with pleasure to the remarkable accuracy of

xviii

-•> Introduction

Herr Schillings' observations on the habits of the birds
and beasts he mentions and illustrates. With Herr
Schillings it is an illustration of the old nursery story
of Eyes and No Eyes. It gives one somewhat of a
feeling of shame to think that this quite young man
should in some seven years have learnt and recorded
more that was true and new about the wild life of East
Africa than has been accomplished by officials, traders,
and explorers, both German and British, of twenty,
fifteen, and ten years' acquaintance with this part of
Africa. His book is a real " Natural History," in the
true sense of the words.

What we require nowadays is the work of the
biologist, the anatomist who can examine and describe
minutely and accurately the physical characteristics of
living forms. Then, in addition, we want the natural
historian, the individual who can as faithfully and
minutely record the life-habits of the same creatures —
a study quite as important as that of their anatomy,
and a study in which there is an enormous leeway to
make up. As Herr Schillings points out, until, say, ten
years ago, there was a great inaccuracy and sparsity in
the information given (very often copied by one author
from another) of the life-habits of wild beasts and birds
in Africa. Either these were not thought worth studying,
or the writer, the explorer, deemed it sufficient to repeat
stories told him by the natives, or rash conclusions at
which he had himself arrived after very little evidence.
It is interesting to listen to all that natives can record

o .

of the habits of birds and beasts ; and yet, although

xix

Introduction -•>

they can tell one many. a true detail, they will mix up
the true and the false, the mythical and the fabulous,
as readily as did our forefathers in these British Islands,
who could repeat in one natural-history book after another
the ridiculous story that barnacle-geese were produced
by bivalve molluscs, or that swallows hibernated at
the bottoms of ponds, or that toads were found alive
after being embedded in the rocks for countless centuries.
The natural historian of to-day must be an educated
man, not jumping too rashly at conclusions, and not
even trusting his own eyes and ears too implicitly, but
checking his information over and over again before he
gives it to the world.

The writer of this Introduction has travelled more widely
and extensively in Africa — even in East Africa — than
Herr Schillings ; but his time and attention have often
been occupied by many other matters than natural history.
In his observations, therefore, on the life-habits of these
East African birds and beasts he willingly retires into>
the background, and would in almost all cases subscribe
without cavil to the correctness and value of Schillings'
descriptions. He has, however, here and there ventured
to correct his spelling of East African words, where this,
through oversight or mishearing, has been incorrectly
rendered. Herr Schillings has not been able to excel in
every branch of African research, and has evidently not
studied to any extent the structure of the Masai language
(a Nilotic Negro tongue), or he would attach no im-
portance to the theory of Captain Merker that the Masai
are a branch of the Hebrew race. The writer of this

xx

-* Introduction

Introduction had hoped that at last the lost ten tribes of
Israel had been allowed to rest in peace, and it is a matter
(to him) of much regret that Captain Merker, who has
written such valuable studies on the folklore and customs
of the Masai, should have again revived this hobby of
the nineteenth century by deducing from his observations
that the Masai — an ancient mixture of Negro and Gala —
are a people of Semitic origin. The linguistic evidence
to support this theory is valueless, if a careful study is
made of the other idioms of the Nilotic Negro peoples.
The slight non-Negro element in the Masai tongue is
akin to Somali and Gala, and has either been borrowed
direct from contact with those peoples of Hamitic
(Caucasian) stork, or may have arisen from the ancient
fusion of the two races on the Negro borderland. The
Somali and Gala languages belong to the Hamitico-Libyan
family, which possibly included the ancient Egyptian
speech ; and this group has an extremely distant con-
nection in its most remote origin with the Semitic
languages, of which Hebrew is one of the many dialects.
The customs of the Masai, which Captain Merker deems
to be particularly Hebrew, are met with in othsr groups of
Nile Negroes, amongst Hamite peoples, South Arabians,
and ancient Egyptians. In venturing to express, very
humbly, his deep appreciation of Herr Schillings' natural-
history studies, the writer of this Introduction does not wish
at the same time to endorse the theories attributed to
Captain Merker. These, however, form no essential part
of the most beautiful, accurate, and complete picture of
the East African wilderness which has -yet been given to

xx i

Introduction -*

us by any writer. This book is equivalent, in the case
of the stay-at-home reader, to a sojourn of six months
amongst the wild animals of the Ethiopian region ; while
it is bound to produce nostalgia in the minds of returned
veterans.

H. H. JOHNSTON.

XXII

Contents of Vol. I

I. THE TRAGEDY OF CIVILISATION . . I

II. INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS OF WILD LIFE 1 6

III. THE MINDS OF ANIMALS » , ' *..; .. 32

IV. MASAI-NYIKA . . k •? . ..'.-." ..." ' 42
V. TO KILIMANJARO WITH PRINCE LOWENSTEIN . 59

VI. BY THE NJIRI LAKES . •.'•-. ,;..« ,,.^ ^ 90

VII. EVENING ON THE MARSHES . "' / ;.V **;.'' 112

VIII. BY THE STREAM . . . . -• ; .•....: . ';•'.' 1 2O

IX. THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT . . . . 14!

X. ELEPHANT-HUNTING . . . . . 1 68

XI. RHINOCEROSES . . . . . 204

XII. CATCHING A YOUNG RHINOCEROS . . . 244

xxiii

Contents of Vol. I -•>

CHAP.

XIII. THE HIPPOPOTAMUS

XIV. BUFFALOES AND CROCODILES

XV. GIRAFFES . . .

XVI. ZEBRAS . . .

XVII. LIONS .

XVIII. A LION-HUNT

PAGE
26l

282

30/

35

XXIV

List of Illustrations in Vol. I

Frontispiece : Portrait of the Author .
A Bull Giraffe on the qui vive . . ix
Euphorbia-tree .... xxviii
Gnus roaming over the Velt . . I
Candelabra Euphorbia-trees . . 3
Skeleton of a Rhinoceros ... 5
Some Remaikable Specimens of Ele-
phant-tusks and Rhinoceros-horns . 7
Elephant Skull and Bones . . .11
Egyptian Geese on the Wing . . 15
One of my Cameras . . . . 17
Orgeich setting the Men to Work . 20
Lioness stealing upon an Ox . 23, 24
My Photographic Equipment . . 26
The Effect of the Flashlight . . 28
Storks wintering in Masai-Nyika . 32
" Fatima," a Young Rhinoceros, and

her Messmate, the Goat . . -34
Marabous with the Cook . . -36
Tame Birds wandering about the Camp 38
Marabous and Vultures . . .40
A Long Line of Waterspouts . . 42
Scene on the Rufu River . . .43
Look-out over Nyika . . . -45
Drinking-places in the Rocky Districts

of the Velt 47

Typical Bit of Succulent Velt Vegeta-
tion in the Rainy Season . . 49

VOL. I. XXV

Kilimanjaro, with the Kaiser Wilhelm
Peak . ... . .51

Bit of the Succulent Velt with Pyren-

acantha inah'ifolia . * -53

Bit of the so-called Thorny "Fruit

Garden" Velt ..'..'» -55
White-ant Hill on the Velt near the
Coast .. .. .. .. .,' . 56

Thorn-bush on the Velt . . -57
Arab Dhows . . . .. . . 59

Cape Guardafui , . . .60
Askaris being put through their Exer-
cises at Tanga 6 1

Prince Johannes Lowenstein and the
Author ...... 64

A Flock of White Storks . .67

Storks taking to Flight . . .69
Mire-drums and Black-headed Herons 71
A Pair of Thomson's Gazelles . . 73

Darters 75

Herons ...... 77

A Big Haul of Fish . . . .79

Oryx Antelopes 81

Vultures on the Wing . . . -83
Tantulus Ibises in a Swamp . . 85
The Military Station at Moshi . . 87
Egyptian Geese on the Swamps . . 90
The Velt in the Rainy Season . .91

List of Illustrations in Vol. I

PAGE

Flamingoes on the Wing . . . 92
A Pelican . . . . ;' . 94
The Caravan on the March . . 95
Cormorants . . . -97

Egyptian Geese 99

Vultures 103

Tropical Vegetation near the Coast . 105
Two Huge Pythons .... 106
Marching through Inundated Swamps 107

Vultures 108

Zebras drinking at Night . . . 109
Vultures and Marabous fraternising . 112
Kingfishers looking out for Small Fish 113
Marabous and White Storks . . 115
A Large Flock of Guinea-fowl . . 1 1 7
Crested Cranes in Flight . . .118
Old Bulls acting as Sentries to Herds

of Gnus 120

The Author in his Tent . . .121
Bustard in Flight . . . .125

Vultures 127

Waterbuck grazing in the Open . .129
A Pair of Large Vultures . . . 131

Zebras 135

Veil Vegetation in the Rainy Season . 138
A Lioness and her Prey . . . 139
Candelabra Euphorbia-trees . .141
Two Large Bull Elephants . . . 143
A Wonderful Elephant-tusk . . 145
Armed Natives (" Fundi T)) . . 151
A Caravan Load of Elephant-tusks . 157
Removing the Skin of an Elephant . 165
Distant View of Kilimanjaro . . 168
Orgeich and the Carriers preparing an
Elephant-skin .... 171

Herd of Elephants .... 175

Mimosa-trees broken down by Ele-
phants . . . ... 177

Another Instance of a Broken Mimosa-
tree . . . . .- .181

A Dricd-up Stream ... . 183

PAGE

Elephant Skull and Bones . . . 187
A Huge Dead Elephant . . .189
Scraping the BeJ of a Dried-up Stream

for Water 193.

Elephant-tusks 197

Young Elephant. .... 199
Two Bull Elephants and a Bull Giraffe 201
Skull of an Elephant .... 203.
View on the Njiri Swamps during the

Inundations ..... 204
Rhinoceroses bathing . . . 206, 207
Remains of a Rhinoceros . . .211
Rhinoceros photographed at a Distance

of I 20 Paces . . . . .215
Rhinoceros settling down . . .219
Rhinoceros with Birds on its Back . 219
Rhinoceroses charging . . .221
Two Dead Rhinoceroses . . . 225
Rhinoceros throwing up its Head . 229
Cow Rhinoceros with her Young . 231
Four Photographs of Rhinoceroses

under a Tree .... 234, 235
Dead Cow Rhinoceros . . -237
Dead Bull Rhinoceros . . . 239
Acacia Velt ..... 241
Stormy Weather in the Nyika Country 244
Young Rhinoceros drinkingina Swamp 245
Dead Bull Rhinoceros . . . 249
Young Rhinoceros taking his Milk . 251
Another Photograph of the Above . 255
Young Rhinoceros, with Goats and

Mbega Monkey . . . -257
Dead Cow Rhinoceros with her Young

One beside her .... 259
Snow-white Herons and Black -and-

White Ibises 261

Old Bull Hippopotamus . . . 263
Mawenzi Mountain and Kilimanjaro . 265
Young Cow Hippopotamus . . 269
Dragging the Body of a Hippopotamus

out of a Pond 273

XXVI

-•> List of Illustrations in Vol. I

Hippopotamuses at Home . . . 275
A Newly Discovered Vulture on the

Skull of a Hippopotamus . . 277
A Crocodile-infested Stream . . 282

Buffaloes 283

The Rufu River 287

A Flock of Flamingoes . . .291
Vultures on a Dead Buffalo . . 295
Skull of a Buffalo . . . .301
Flocks of Marabous on the Merker

Lakes 3°5

Giraffes ambling away . . . 307
Schillings' Giraffe .... 309
Bull and Cow Giraffe . . . .313
Giraffes taking to flight among Flute-
Acacia Trees 315

Bull Giraffe 3>17

Giraffes taken with Telephoto Lens

A Wounded Bull Giraffe at Close

Quarters

Female Zebras and a Foal ..

A Halt on the Waterless Velt ..

319

323
323
326

PAGE

A Herd of Gnus and Zebras . .327
Remarkable Colour-blending of Zebras

with their Surroundings . . • 329-
A Herd of Zebras . . . . 331
Zebras approaching a Drinking-
place ...... 333

Zebras drinking 337

View near the Kitumbin Volcano . 343.
A Frightened Lioness . • • 347
On the Gilei Volcanic Mountain . 351
A Bull Gnu, a Thomson's Gazelle,

and a Gerenuk Gazelle . ' v -,• 35S
Three Full-grown Lionesses . • 357
Male Ostrich near its Nest . . • 363.
An Ostrich's Nest .... 363.
The Author questioning an Ol

Morani 'concerning the Habits of

Ostriches . .,:»*.-«.* * 367
Orgeich superintending the Transport

of a Young Lion into Camp . . 371
The Skins of Three Lions shot by the

Author . . . * ... 373-

XXV11

FA'PHORBIA-TREE

GNUS WERE TO BE SEEN IN THOUSANDS ROAMING OVER' THE VELT

'

With Flashlight and Rifle

0

I

The Tragedy of Civilisation

IN the course of his strenuous career of conquest,
civilised man has succeeded during the last hundred
years or so in bringing- the entire globe more and more
under his dominion. Modern inventions have enabled
him to make his way into its remotest extremities. A
glittering network of iron rails carries us into lands
which it would have taken us months and years to get
to a short time ago ; and ever fleeter vessels bear us in
a few weeks to the most distant coasts.

Wherever he goes, the pioneer of civilisation, manages
to open up for himself new resources, even in regions
where they are only to be wrested from Nature with
the utmost difficulty ; and he strives untiringly to create
new assets and to make ready the path of progress.
But, side by side with this same progress, much is being
destroyed that hitherto has lived undisturbed, working
out its evolution in harmony with its environment. Far

VOL. I. I

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

from the smoky centres of civilisation, with their rush
and turmoil and the unceasing throb and rattle of their
machinery, there is at this present moment being enacted
a grave and moving and unique tragedy.

As the explorer ruthlessly pursues his victory in every
direction, he destroys directly and indirectly everything
that stands in his way. The original inhabitants of entire
countries have to go under when they cannot hit it off
with the invader. With them disappears a rich and
splendid fauna, which for thousands of years has made
existence possible for the natives, but which now in a
few years is recklessly slaughtered. Never before in
the history of the world have whole hordes of animals — the
larger and stronger animals especially — been killed off so
speedily by man.

The flora follows the fauna. Primeval forests are
destroyed, or at least injured, and wooded districts
often changed into artificial deserts. With the colonist,
who drives out the aborigines, there corne in other animals
which help to drive out the aboriginal fauna ; and in the
same way the vegetable world also is supplanted. Kitchen
gardens and weeds spread everywhere, imprinting a new
stamp upon the flora. Those who are familiar with all
these circumstances cannot be in doubt as to what is bound
to follow. The result must indubitably be this : that the
colonist, forcing everything under his rule, will destroy
everything that is useless to him or in his way, and
will seek only to have such fauna and flora as answer
to his needs or his tastes.

Examples of this state of things are to be found in

2

-*> The Tragedy of Civilisation

all parts of the world. The Indians of North America
and many branches of the Polynesian race may be
instanced : their scattered remnants are hastening towards
complete disappearance. For centuries past civilised

THE CANDELABRA EUPHORBIA TREES ARE A DIS-
TINCTIVE FEATURE OF THE NYIKA COUNTRY

colonists have been waging a war of extinction in the
Arctic regions against those animals which provide us
with furs and blubber.

The Hudson Bay Company has made heavy inroads
on the number of fur-bearing animals in its own region.

3

With Flashlight and Rifle *

The fur of a sea-otter is now worth over ^100; but a
complete skin of this animal, such as could be exhibited
in a museum, has for years past been unobtainable !

War to the knife was lon» declared against whales

o o

-the largest mammals of our time. (The popular notion
that they are fish seems, by the way, almost ineradicable.)
But for long they were able to escape complete annihila-
tion in Arctic regions, their capture involving the death
of so many determined men engaged in the struggle.
Now, however, that the harpoon is no longer slung by
the experienced whaler, but is shot into the whale's body
out of a cannon ; now that whaling has become a science,
carried out with the most elaborate and highly finished
implements, the last whale will very soon have dis-
appeared.

" Very soon " ; for what are a few centuries, when
we think of the long ages which were needed for the
evolution of the whale to its present form ? Large
" schools " of whales are still to be seen in the Arctic
regions, and still redden the waters, year in, year out,
with their blood, shed in a futile conflict with an over-
powering enemy. But soon all this will belong to the
realm of legend and tradition, and in future times man
will stand in wonder before the scanty specimens to be
found in the museums, preserved therein thanks to the
foresight of a few.

It is shocking and distressing to realise the number
of instances of the same kind of slaughter among
horned animals. A few decades ago millions of American
bisons (Bison biroii} roamed over their wide prairies.

4

-•> The Tragedy of Civilisation

To-day these millions have gone the same way as the
vanished Indian tribes that once lived side by side with
them. It was feared that the buffaloes, as they are called
in America, would damage the Pacific Railway, as Heck
has pointed out in his book Das Tierreich. So buffaloes
in their myriads had to make way for the steam-engine.
The number of buffalo-skins dealt in by traders during

A SKELETON OF A RHINOCEROS, PROBABLY KILLED BY THE " FUNDIS "
— NATIVES LICENSED TO CARRY FIREARMS AND HUNT BIG GAME

the last seventy years of the preceding century is
almost beyond belief. Only a few hundreds are now in
existence !

Soon a long list of other noble specimens of the
American fauna will follow them. President Roosevelt
himself is not blind to this prospect, and he favours
everything which seems calculated to stave off this inevit-
able calamity. Through the introduction of barbed-wire

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

fencing many kinds of deer, for instance, have been ex-
terminated in America. In Australia the kangaroos fall
victims to the snares of the farmers. In Asia the annihila-
tion of many kinds of wild beasts proceeds apace. The
Indian rhinoceros, wild goats, wild horses, and wild sheep
of the Asiatic hill countries of the interior are being
recklessly exterminated. In Germany the aurochs, which
figures so largely in our old legends, has long disappeared.
It is scarcely possible now to form a clear idea of this
splendid animal, so scanty is the material at hand for
the purpose. The bison (Bison, bonassus], its power-
ful cousin, only exists now in small herds, which are
degenerating through breeding-in. The steinbock has
been exterminated in the Alps, only a small number
surviving in the valleys of the Aosta, and that under
royal protection. The elk (A Ices alecs] disappeared from
Germany long ago, and is now to be found only in
small numbers under royal protection, like the bison, and
like the beaver also in the Elbe district.

But the way in which wild life is annihilated nowadays
in South Africa is simply terrible. A short time ago
there were countless herds of splendid animals in Cape
Colony. The Boers, trekking into the interior, had to
fight their way step by step by slaughtering the animals
they found grazing in their path.

Civilisation brought about only the checking of the
growth of the native races, not their extermination like
the American Indians. And the natives applied them-
selves to the work of destroying the wild life with the
help of the arms brought in by the Europeans, and on

6

-*> The Tragedy of Civilisation

behalf of the white traders who equipped them for the
purpose.

Thus disappeared the white-tailed gnu (Connochtetes
gnu], the bontebok (Damaliscus Pygargus}, the blesbok
(Damaliscus albifrons], the true quagga (Equus quaggd],
the mountain zebra (Equus zebra], the splendid roan
antelope (Hippotragus leiicophceus], the Cape buffalo
(Bubalus caffer], the elephant, the so-called white rhino-
ceros {Rhinoceros simus], the black rhinoceros (R. bi-
cornis], the giraffe, the hippopotamus, and the ostrich
— except for a few preserved individuals in the case
of the first three ; completely in the case of all the
others. The number of animals still to be found there
in the last third of the previous century was immense,
but it is hard to realise the dense crowds of them that
must have existed there a hundred years before that.
And side by side with them from earliest times lived
the coloured races. Like the American Indians, they
levied their toll upon the animal kingdom without im-
pairing it. It was left to the reckless and purposeless
slaughtering indulged in by civilised man to achieve the
seemingly impossible, and turn this thickly inhabited
region into a desert.

To my mind there is a groundwork of truth under-
lying the myth of a Paradise, in which the animal world
lived all together in harmony. Trustworthy observers
have told us that in the Arctic regions the sea-lions—
creatures of exceptional intelligence — and seals and rein-
deer and birds do not budge an inch on the approach
of men, and show no trace of fear. This must have

9

With Flashlight and Rifle *

been true of the entire world before the beginning ol
the supremacy of Homo sapiens.

What was found, indeed, in those polar regions
uninhabited by man, I myself have often observed in
that land of blinding sunshine which goes by the name
of the Dark Continent. Enormous herds of harmless
animals, as well as beasts of prey, forming one general
community, are to be found together at certain times in
desert places.

Where the natives do not hunt, wild animals are
to be found on almost as friendly terms with them as
singing birds and other such pets are with us, or as storks,
swans, squirrels, and all the other naturally wild animals
that have come under our protection, and have come to
trust us.

Thus it is that in the wild regions of Equatorial -Africa
we find the animal kingdom flourishing almost to the
same extent as was once the case in the south.

I say " almost," because it must be allowed that the
herds of elephants in the interior have been thinned
and the herds of buffaloes decimated by the rinderpest
introduced by Europeans into Africa. At certain times
oJf the year, however, for weeks and months at a time,
I have seen such numbers and such a variety of animals
as simply cannot be imagined, and I am able thus to
form a notion ot what things must have been like in
the south.

I can give no adequate notion of the extraordinary
profusion of wild life there is still in Equatorial Africa,
and I would fain raise my voice in order to induce

10

-•> The Tragedy of Civilisation

all those who have influence in the matter to save and
maintain what can still be saved.

By this I mean, not merely the maintenance so far as
is possible of the present state of things, but also the
getting together of an immediate and comprehensive col-
lection of specimens of all the different species for our
museums. To-day there is still time in the case of many
species. In a few years it will be too late.

I could bring forward the names of many men, famous
in the world of geography and natural history, such as
those of von Richthofen, Schweinfurth, Ludwig Heck,
Paul Matschie, Wilhelm Bolsche, and Professor Lampert,
who agree with me on this point.

It is a regrettable fact that we Germans know very
little of the animal life of our colonial possessions.

By means of comprehensive collections of large series
of skins, skulls, skeletons, etc., I myself have done some-
thing towards providing our museums with zoological
specimens, many of which were hitherto unfamiliar. As
I had to do this out of rny private means, and without
any help from the State, this meant very considerable
personal sacrifices.

I maintained rigorously the principle of keeping my
caravan (in which I had never less than 130 men) upon
a vegetable diet for the most part, allowing them meat
only to a very small .extent, and then merely as an
adjunct to their meals. In the famine year of 1899 my
provisions cost me more than 20,000 marks, which
might have been brought down to a trifling sum had I
taken heavier toll of the game, as the natives were

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

always ready to barter vegetables for animals I had
killed.

In addition to pecuniary sacrifices, I had, more-
over, to face the envy and disfavour with which all
private travellers are apt to be regarded in our German
colonies.

Where an unexplored region full of wild life is in
question, the interests of the explorer and collector
should always be put before those of the sportsman. It
is infinitely easier to slaughter whole hosts of big game
with the help of Askaris than it is to prepare a single
giraffe-skin and convey it in safety to Europe. This
is a laborious task, needing much personal supervision
and involving several days' work — work that at times goes
on all night. The lack of careful handling and expert
knowledge in the preparation of skins is the reason why-
serviceable zoological specimens hardly ever reach us in
Europe.

The recognition I have been accorded by the authorities
in the field of zoology enables me to treat the slanderous
reports of some of our colonial traders with the contempt
they deserve.

It has been a great satisfaction to me to find "my
animals " restored by expert taxidermists in German
museums — from the smallest dwarf antelope to the giraffe,
from the rock badger to the rhinoceros and the elephant.
These stuffed specimens are the only possible substitute
for the reality for those who can never see with their
own eyes the life and growth of the animal kingdom
in foreign climes.

-* The Tragedy of Civilisation

Already a great number of the inmates of our zoological
museums have been struck out of the book of living
things, though they existed in millions in the time of our
fathers. The work of destruction entered upon by civilised
man goes on with terrible swiftness.

May this cry of warning be of some use !

EGYPTIAN GEESE ON THE WING

II

Instantaneous Photographs of Wild Life

INSTANTANEOUS photographs of living wild
animals ! An every-day matter, surely ! And yet I
venture to maintain that until the recent successful photo-
graphing of American wild life,1 and a few similar
photographs taken subsequently by Englishmen, all the
ostensible pictures of this kind we have seen have been
of animals not in absolute freedom and not in their natural
surroundings.

Photographs taken in zoological gardens and closed
preserves, or photographs of animals in captivity, sur-
rounded by stage properties specially arranged for the
purpose — photographs which, in addition, have been more
or less retouched afterwards — pass current, and are often
taken for representations of actual wild life. Anschutz
rendered great services in Germany in the field of animal
photography, and produced some beautiful pictures
Zoological works continued, however, to be illustrated

1 Camera Shots at Big Game, by A G. Wallihan, contains a number
of very successful photographs of different kinds of deer. The photographs
of pumas and bears are interesting, too ; but the pumas had been hunted
with dogs, and the bears had been caught by means of traps.

16

VOL. I.

<••> Instantaneous Photographs of Wild Life

chiefly by drawings which, for good reasons, failed in
many respects to interpret the character of the animal
world correctly. For not only had the artists no oppor-
tunity of studying the animals from the life, but they were
frequently dependent upon ill-mounted museum specimens
as models from which to produce life-like sketches. A
few artists were in the position to make studies from life
and on the spot, and to these we owe some valuable
pictures ; often, however, the animal pictures presented
to us were stiff and wooden, and calculated to give quite
wrong impressions.

Incredible things were perpetrated in this branch of
art. Zoological works and works of travel were illustrated
with "cuts" which were simply ridiculous to any one
with any special knowledge of the subject. We find,
indeed, even in publications of to-day, not merely photo-
graphs of single stuffed animals, but photographs of whole
groups of them, passed off as studies of wild beasts taken
in their wild state; and certain excellent photographs
by Anschiitz of caged lions are constantly to be met
with served up in all manner of forms — various kinds
of vegetation and other accessories being introduced at
different times ! This kind of thing can only be de-
scribed as a fraud upon the reader, and only too often
it is in keeping with the accompanying text, in which
people, who in their own country are scarcely capable of
killino- a hare, describe the most wonderful adventures

O

they experienced, and lay down the law with the
greatest assurance upon the most difficult zoological
questions.

19

With Flashlight and Rifle <+>

An agreeable contrast to such publications is offered by
quite a number of volumes by English writers, the illustra-
tions to which are remarkable both for their artistic merit
and for their accuracy from a naturalist's point of view. I
may instance especially Lord Delamere's photographs of
elephants, giraffes, and zebras in The Great and Small
Game of Africa.

ORGEICH, MY TAXIDERiMIST, SETTING OUR MEN — " FUNDI " — TO WORK
AT THE PREPARATION OF SOME SKINS

President Roosevelt remarks very rightly, in his preface
to Wallihan's Camera Shots at Big Game, that it would
be extremely ridiculous if people who could not themselves
face the hardships and fatigue of shooting expeditions,
or who lacked the training essential, were to decorate
their rooms with rare trophies not secured by themselves.
Many people, however, would seem not to realise this.

-•» Instantaneous Photographs of Wild Life

Hunting by proxy — in the persons of guides or Askaris —
unfortunately plays too big a role in East Africa. The
" sportsman " then describes his own adventures, relying
on information supplied by the natives and adducing the
trophies in his possession as documentary evidence.

We are still very much in the dark over many biological
questions regarding our own wild animals, and we lack really
good photographs of most of the animals of our country
in their natural surroundings. Here is a wide field for

O

artistic endeavour, and it would be a matter for great
satisfaction if it were cultivated as soon as possible. The
same is true still more of wild beasts in foreign lands.
Even the slightest item of original observation is really
valuable. Photographs taken in complete freedom, how-
ever, are biological documents of the highest importance
in the opinion of my friends Professor Matschie and
Dr. Ludwig Heck, and in that of Wilhelm Bolsche, who
has referred to my pictures in most gratifying terms in his
work Weltblick. I am tempted here (if only to encourage
other sportsmen to combine photography with shooting in
the same way) to quote the words in which yet another
zoological authority, Professor Lambert, of Stuttgart, has
alluded to my work in this field. "These pictures," he
declares, " are of the greatest importance. In them, the
wild animals of Africa will live on long after they have
been sacrificed to the needs of advancing civilisation."

It was in 1896 that I had my first opportunity of getting
to know the velt of the interior of Africa ; and it was

25

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

then the great desire arose in me in some manner or other
to seize on all these wonderful phenomena from the animal
world, and to make them common property and accessible
to all. This desire grew in me side by side with the
conviction that there was here a wide field for valuable
work to be accomplished without delay ; for the East
African fauna was rapidly disappearing before the continued

MY PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT

advance of civilisation. But good advice was hard to
get. The faculty of depicting the animal world with
the artist's pencil was denied me ; I possessed, only in a
small measure, the ability to describe in tolerable clearness
this beautiful, virgin, primeval world. Since the days
when the unfortunate Richard Bohm was seized with a
malignant fever on the far Upemba Lake in 1884, and

26

<* Instantaneous Photographs of Wild Life

since those of Kuhnert, who was for a short time at
Kilimanjaro, no artist has had an opportunity of familiarising
himself with the animal world of West Africa. The artist
or painter, however, who attempts to put before the eyes
of the public the wonders of the animal kingdom of inmost
Africa would undoubtedly be received with incredulity.
How could those accustomed to the zoological conditions
of over-populated Europe believe such an animal kingdom
possible ?

The only feasible and desirable records seemed to be
trustworthy photographs, which could not deceive. Here
were, however, many difficulties to be overcome with but
limited means. In the mutual exchange of my ideas with
Ludwig Heck, who was never tired of strengthening me
in my resolutions, we always came back to this point.
We always said to ourselves that a way must be found
to render the highly developed technique of photography
serviceable for the object I had in view — for work
in the wilderness. What a seductive aim — to put on a
photographic plate those wild herds in such marvellously
picturesque assemblage — unique and rare inhabitants of
the jungle, little known, if known at all !

The only way to achieve this object was to work
hard for long and weary years. We always seemed
to be encountering new difficulties. Occasionally our
flashlight experiments failed ; the explosive compound
smashed our apparatus, so much so that the iron parts
of it, which were nearly a third of an inch thick, were
torn and bent. Some hindrance always seemed to be
cropping up and thwarting our plans. So we studied

27

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

and planned, and after a vast amount of preparatory

THE EFFECT OF THE FLASHLIGHT

labour I started out a second time, extensively equipped,
for Equatorial Africa.

28

-•> Instantaneous Photographs of Wild Life

I spent a whole year there acquiring experience,
and failures and trials taught me daily something new.
Again, on my return to Europe, lengthy experiments
were made. This time Kommerzienrat Goerz, proprietor
of the well-known optician's establishment in Friedenau,
placed at our disposal one of his laboratories to further
this scientific work. Owing to his kindness we found it
possible to devise more suitable apparatus for photograph-
ing by night, and thus I v/as enabled to reproduce on
the plate the most secret habits of animal life.

After this I started afresh for Africa with an extensive
equipment. This time I was accompanied by my friend
Dr. Kiinster, and set out from Tanga for the interior
with a party of 130 people. Things proved very different
in practice from what we, had worked out in theory.
Hard days of disillusionment, aggravated by the difficulties
of the climate, fell to our lot. After three months'
suffering from acute heart disease and from malaria, I
was obliged to throw up the whole expedition and to
find my way home. At that time the doctors thought
it more than questionable whether I should ever reach
home alive, so much had the malaria, in conjunction
with the heart trouble, pulled me down. But these
troubles also were overcome : my tough constitution
withstood all assaults.

Afterwards I recommenced my studies, turning my
experiences to account, and for the fourth time, after
experiencing many disappointments, I started out to try
to achieve, at least partially, the purpose on which I
had set my heart. In a tropical country that is constantly

29

With Flashlight and Rifle *

being tabooed for private individuals — in a country where
the climate is so unfavourable to the European — there are
many hindrances and difficulties to overcome. A naturalist
travelling on his own account encounters almost insuperable
obstacles.

A passport which would have ensured the holder
thereof respectful treatment in any other part of the world
was of no avail here on German territory to save us from
long hours of Customs vexations in the hot rays of a
burning sun. I experienced later in the year 1899 a
still greater annoyance.

With infinite trouble I had secretly made my plans
to explore on English territory the distant and virgin
land Korromoeyo, lying round about Rudolf Lake. I had
obtained the permission from the English Government
by means of the kind intercession of influential friends ;
and I had provided the necessary credentials. Then
suddenly, just as I was about to start from Kilimanjaro,
the permission, after all my long preparations, was
withheld.

According to rumour, some influential English
gentlemen had been refused permission to travel in
German East Africa. What wonder, then, that like to
like should be repaid ! All my plans were nipped in the
bud.

But, in spite of all, [ would not have missed all these
hardships and difficulties ! — not even the hours, the days,
and the weeks which Dr. Kiinster — who had accompanied
me on my third expedition as friend and physician—
and I passed during my illness on the borders of the

30

-•» Instantaneous Photographs of Wild Life

silent Rufu River. Were it not for his zealous nursing,
and that of the staff-physician. Dr. Groothufen, as
well as of my friend Captain Merker, I should have
died.

But I look upon those days of suffering and strenuous
work, in that far-off wilderness as the right inauguration
for my project.

OUR FRIENDS THE STORKS WINTERING IN MASAI-XYIKA

III

The Minds of Animals

WHAT Brehm has put on record so admirably in
telling of his sojourn in the Sudan, concerning
the way in which his feathered and four-footed friends
there displayed their trust in him and feeling of comrade-
ship with him in times of illness or distress, I also am
able to give as my experience during my sojourn in
Equatorial Africa.

Any one who makes his way through that unexplored
and unfamiliar region — not bent solely on making
money, but lingering here and there and giving himself
time for the purpose — will find so much to win his sym-
pathies in the intelligence of the animals, so much to
fascinate him in the study of their life, that he will not
often catch himself yearning for the civilised existence of
home. A thousand questions call for answering, a
thousand problems await solution, but the observer who
would cope with them must hasten, for many members
of the African fauna are doomed to speedy destruction

32

+i The Minds of Animals
at the hands of the invader. And he must be able to

-

enter into the soul and heart of the individual animal
he would study, coming to the task sympathetically and
with a desire to understand and appreciate.

No one wonders nowadays at the way in which the
Indian elephant, born in the wilderness arid captured in
maturity, enters in a few weeks into friendly, if dependent,
relations with man, and learns to be an excellent instrument
in his hands.

I am indebted to the Prince of Pless for the information
that the "mahouts" or keepers of the Indian elephants,
understand about a hundred distinct utterances — words,
practically — used by the elephants, and that they, in turn,
may be said to follow every word used by the " mahouts."
The weaker brain gives way naturally to the stronger,
with animals as with ourselves. But we find a number
of species among them which come quickly into entirely
unselfish relationship with men.

For nearly twenty years no one had succeeded in
bringing a young African rhinoceros alive to Europe.

It seemed to me that the cause of so many of the
young animals pining away when brought home without
a mother must lie in the neglect of what I may call a
spiritual need. In all cases the mothers had been killed.
In the case of my young rhinoceros, I replaced the
mother by a she-goat. After a few days the young
" rhino " had made such friends with her, without being
suckled by her, that he followed her about everywhere,
and even now, in captivity, is not to be parted from her
and the kid she has since produced.

VOL. i. n l

With Flashlight and Rifle. ^

The massive young rhinoceros consorting with these
two East African goats is a curious sight ! The
public — that is to say, the public which frequents our
Zoological Gardens on a Sunday — does not know what to
make of them. " Look, children," you may hear pater-

" FATIMA," MY YOUNG RHINOCEROS, AND HER MESSMATE, THE GOAT.
THIS GOAT STILL KEEPS HER COMPANY IN THE BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL
GARDENS

familias remark ; " look at the rhinoceros and the poor
little goats. Isn't it sad ? He will eat them up."

It does not enter the good man's head that an unselfish
feeling of friendship, a crying need of companionship,
can find a place in the heart of this uncouth denizen of
the wilderness. You will look in vain for any under-
standing of the great thick-skinned exile in the minds of
the thousands of human visitors who imagine themselve ,
quite wrongly, so infinitely his superior.

34

-* The Minds of Animals

But this dictum of our paterfamilias is often surpassed
by that of the visitor who, seeing above the cage the
words " East African Rhinoceros," jumps at once to the
conclusion that it is a case of two small rhinoceroses with
their old mother ! There is no reason for this observer
to suppose that a young rhinoceros does not look like
a goat !

Whoever may doubt the truth of this should convince
himself by questioning- the keeper of the rhinoceros in the
Zoological Gardens in Berlin.

You will generally gather from books that the
rhinoceros is a dull and unintelligent animal. Dull and
unintelligent he is undoubtedly from a merely human
standpoint ; but he should, of course, be regarded in quite
another light, and would then be found to be gifted with a
specially directed intelligence of a very highly developed
kind. These animals cannot, of course, make deductions
and draw conclusions from their past experiences like men,
who inherit these intellectual treasures from remote ages,
transmitted in an enriched form from one generation to
another by means of the gift of speech.

But, on the other hand, if a century ago every
rhinoceros had been endowed merely with the intelligence
ot an average civilised man, and thus endowed had been
the prey of reckless unsparing sportsmen, not a single
one of them would now be alive. In just the same way
must it be accounted for something that elephants have
mastered so important a piece of knowledge during the
last lew decades as how to save themselves from the
deadly fire of modern rifles. It is a great mistake to

35

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

attempt to judge animals' brains by our own. We have
to remember that many animals have senses which we
are without, and that other senses which we have in
common are much more highly developed in them than
in ourselves.

I can only say that this young rhinoceros attached
himself to me in a very few weeks, and got to dis-

MY MARABOUS MADE GREAT FRIENDS WITH OUR COOK

tinguish quite clearly between the large number of men
who came into touch with him, bearing himself quite
differently with different individuals, just as he still singles
me out from all the thousands who approach him now
in the Gardens.

If a zoologist were to ask me to explain the incredible
topographical instinct of rhinoceroses, I should reply that
these animals are enabled, out of the treasure of experience

-+> The Minds of Animals

and knowledge stored up in their brains, to recognise in
detail the topography of the velt, and to find their way
with ease about the surrounding country.

Herein lies the explanation of the fact that I was able
very frequently to take up a rhinoceros track which led me
in the driest season in a direct easterly course after four
hours to a dried-up ditch which led due south to a small
pool which still held water. I have noticed this kind
of thing hundreds of times in the vicinity of the velt,
where only intermittent showers of rain fill the pools
temporarily with water. How helplessly and hopelessly
lost does the educated man feel himself to be in that
.wilderness! In what a masterly and wonderful manner
does the rhinoceros find his way !

The friendship between my rhinoceros and the two
goats was founded on an absolutely unselfish basis. It
arose from purely spiritual needs. Of this I am positive.

Many other animals in this distant black country were
to us a real source of enjoyment and consolation. Take,
for example, my young elephant, who loved me with child-
like simplicity, till I unfortunately lost him for want of
a foster-mother : also my tame baboon, who used to be
almost mad with joy when he saw me, a mere speck
on the horizon, returning to the camp from one of my
excursions — his sight is infinitely keener than ours.
From earliest times we have heard tell of an unusually
wise bird that our ancestors nicknamed the " philosopher."
This is the marabou-stork, specimens of which I have
come across whose wisdom and fondness for human
companionship would scarcely be credited.

<•> "7

o/

With Flashlight and Rifle

Storks and marabouts, which perhaps have lived a
man's lifetime or more in the distant velt, have attached
themselves to me in the friendliest manner, albeit caught
after many difficulties and by strategy. A specimen, well
on in years, which I brought with me to Berlin still singles

MY TAME BIRDS USED TO WANDER IX AND
THE CAMP

me out from all the other visitors by peculiar marks of
affection !

Of course it means many a hard struggle, and it is
not easy to win the friendship of such old and peculiarly
obstinate birds. For weeks and months one must feed
them by force with pieces of meat before they make up
their minds to feed themselves. One must tend them
oneself, wait on them constantly, and occupy oneself with
their needs. Then, one day, quite suddenly, all mistrust

38

-* The Minds of Animals

and fear are overcome, and one is repaid a thousandfold
for all one's trouble by making a genuine friend of the bird.

It must be remembered that I am not speaking of
young birds reared by men from infancy, but of birds
caught perhaps at the age of thirty or forty years, or even
older. For marabous attain a very great age, like large
ravens or vultures, one of which lived in captivity under
favourable conditions for a hundred years. My marabous
moved about in the camp free and unrestrained. They
built their nests, and did not try to fly away. They greeted
me on my return with joyful cacklings ; they planted them-
selves close to my tent as sentinels, and caressed me with
their powerful and dangerous bills. For a long time my
black cook had taken on the duty of feeding them, and
their affection for me was not at all the result of my giving
them dainties, but of my just and intelligent conception
of their habits.

I could write a great deal more about the sagacious
deeds of "these birds. I must, however, restrict myself,
and will only mention that Dr. Ludwig Heck, to whom
thousands of wild animals were attached, could not help
remarking, on the steamer near Naples, the affection my
marabous showed me.

" There are more things in heaven and earth than are
dreamt of in our philosophy," Dr. Heck wrote at that
time in an essay on his own observations. Hamlet's
phrase often recurs to me, also, in this connection. I am
convinced by what I have myself seen of animals that
their minds are highly developed, though we have been
unable to discover how they work.

39

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

Is it, then, so difficult to watch with sympathetic eyes
the tragedy that is to-day being unfolded ? I speak of
the annihilation of a powerful and mighty race that has
done hurt to no man — of the African elephant, an animal
that, whenever and wherever tamed, evinces- for man the
most lively sympathy.

Here, as in many other realms of natural science, there
are unfortunately great difficulties that can only be over-

THE MARABOUS AND THE VULTURES GOT ON TOGETHER VERY WELL

come with much labour. When we become fully alive
to the importance of the matter, it may be too late to
subject many of the highly developed kinds of animals
to careful study ; for they may have been exterminated on
our planet and struck off the roll of life. I am alluding
now to the infinite difficulty that every man will encounter
when he undertakes the study of foreign races and their

40

-* The Minds of Animals

peculiar habits, if he wishes thoroughly to investigate in
a truly critical spirit their psychological emotions. Only
he who has for many, many years lived in the midst of a
foreign people and has given himself up to his task with
heartfelt zeal," and who possesses an innate aptitude for
the subject, can undertake such a work.

It appears that certain kinds of animals remain, as a
whole, unchanged for long periods of time. It also seems
to me that the mind acts according to certain inherited
tendencies ; this is called instinct. When carefully ex-
amined, however, it will be found that these so-called
instincts resolve themselves often into more or less
deliberate actions, although it may be that these actions
are committed within very narrow limits and in accordance
with sharply denned rules. I call as witnesses those
thousands and thousands of dog-owners and sportsmen
who are convinced of the fact that their own animals,
which have been with them in many a tight corner, under-
stand them and love them. This may seem to others, in
many cases/ hard to understand, and appear at times
exaggerated. These lack the long and sympathetic study
of the finest differences of the animal minds in question —

There are more things in heaven and earth .

FATA MORGANA \ A STRANGE EFFECT AS OF A LONG LINE OF BLUISH WATER-SPOUTS

ON THE HORIZON

IV

Masai'Nyika

WITH what an ever -changing beauty did the Masai-
Nyika break upon our view ! The mountain
ranges as viewed from the velt seemed almost near
enough to be touched, in spite of their distance and
vastness. The clear, dustless atmosphere deceived our
eyesight.

In the old days this never-ending velt, with its
inhabitants, seemed to the newcomer to be an insoluble
conundrum. But to-day, after millions and millions of
footsteps have been imprinted on velt and on mountain, in.
swamp and in forest, the wanderer has mastered its speech,
thus finding new and rich pleasures in the illimitable solitude.
The velt does not indeed betray its secrets wholesale.
Those who would unravel them must be prepared to search
and study. ,*They will succeed only by the sweat of their
brow ; and -they must, above all, be fearless of consequences.
Thirst, hunger, and the dread of malaria have to be faced
in the long run, whether willingly or not.

42

C. G. Schillings, phot.

SCENE ON THE RUFU RIVER

•* Masai-Nyika

So it is not presumption when the sportsman or the
explorer, who has done all this, says to himself that he has
acquired a certain right to interpret what he has seen and
struggled with. No one could possibly do this without
taking upon himself endless labour and trouble.

The velt is a book difficult to decipher; actually we
find the various tracks and trails of the animal world

I LOOK OUT OVER NYIKA

recorded as though with a pencil in the loose, moving sand
of the velt, in clammy clay, and in swamps : a book which
is always full of charm, and in the study of which not a
single weary hour would be spent.

And there, where the giants of the animal kingdom
have left imprints of their tremendous strength on trees
and brushwood, in swamps and marshes, we find, as it
were, punctuation-marks to its pages.

45

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

Right and left; on our path, trees of vast strength
are to be seen broken like bits of straw, showing where
a herd of elephants have made their way. Large holes in
the ground are come upon, which have been made by the
elephants in the wet season, and which remain visible for
a year or more. There is not a little danger of falling into
these, because of the thick grass. Wherever the explorer
sets his foot he always finds something new, something
full of meaning.

The rhinoceros, too, leaves his mark. For many miles
long tracks, which cross and recross, are found leading to
watering-places. These tracks are especially noticeable
in the vicinity of the pools and streams, and gradually
get lost in the distance. And like the elephant,
the rhinoceros levies toll upon the shrubs and thorn-
bushes.

The East African wilderness varies in its formation.
It is sometimes flat, sometimes undulating, or sharply
broken by more or less high hills, steep rocks, mounds, and
inclines. In the volcanic region of the great mountain
Kilimanjaro a whole range of mountains rises from the
plateau. The highest point of Kilimanjaro, the Kibo
peak, reaches over 6,000 metres. This peak is perpetually
•covered with snow and ice, whilst Mawenzi, which comes
next to it in height, is only covered intermittently. Its
summit, which rises sharply in the air, is connected with
Kibo by a ridge 5,000 metres high. Less than sixty years
ago, when the missionary Rebmann brought the first news
of this glacier-world under the equatorial sun, the learned
•declared it to be a product of his imagination. Ice and

46

-•> Masai-Nyika

snow at the Equator ! Nowadays we are more exactly
informed about the "genesis" of these great volcanoes
Professor Hans Meyer has done much by his wonderful
explorations to open up the matter. It is chiefly from his
works that we derive our information as to the geological
conditions of this district.

The formation of the district is the outcome of volcanic

A TYPICAL BIT OF SUCCULENT YELT VEGETATION IN THE RAINY
SEASON. CARALLUMA CODOXOWI-S IN THE FOREGROUND

causes, and my friend Merker justly observes that this
is peculiarly remarkable on Kilimanjaro, Meru, and Ol
Doinyo 1'Eng ai. In the neighbourhood of the last, which
is an active volcano, hill after hill is found between the
steep descent of the Mutiek Plateau and the Gilei and
Timbati Mountains, each of which has the remains of a
crater. The whole scenery is of the kind we are familiar
with in photographs of the moon.

VOL. i. 49 4

With Flashlight and Rifle *

Some two days' journey distant from Kilimanjaro
rises the neighbouring sinister-looking Mount Meru, nearly
5,000 metres high, and still further away, in the direction
of the Victoria Nyanza, several separate hills and volcanoes
are ranged. In the midst of this world of mountains there
extends before us in the bright sunshine an immeasurable
plateau, the "High Velts," at an elevation of some
thousands of feet above the level of the sea. According to
the season — whether in the Masika, the season of
heavy rain, or the drought — Nyika is to be seen garbed
in a green shimmer of young grass and adorned for miles
by separate rain-water streams like silver threads, or looking
brown and grim under a desert of decayed vegetation. In
the latter case our eyes find resting-places here and there
in the valleys in which acacias, the ever-green Terminalia,
or other flowers and shrubs, find moist ground whereby to
preserve their freshness. It would be difficult for any but
a botanist to describe the character of this plant world.
Professor Volkens has done so, in his work on Kilimanjaro,
in a masterly manner.

Later we come across vast open spaces flooded in
rainy seasons, but in the time of drought covered with
,a white, salty incrustation which only permits of the
sparsest vegetable life, with now and again patches of
green or sun-scorched grass. We may find acacia-bushes,
which stretch for immeasurable distances, or thorn-trees
that :look like fruit-trees, and indeed cause the name of
." fruit gardens " to be given to the velt where they
grow. The acacia sometimes has the appearance of a
tree, sometimes, especially when young, of a bush. Other

50

-•> Masai-Nyika

bushes and shrubs of various kinds spring up amidst the
grass which, after the rainy season, grows as high as a
man ; and there is often an undergrowth of thorny plants
of all kinds.

Many kinds of euphorbias give the whole a tropical
aspect.

But shrubs and thorn-bushes of rare kinds — grey-green

A BIT OF THIi SUCCULENT YELT WITH PyRK\.-IC.-l.\'THA MALV1FOL1A
— GREAT HEAVY BOULDERS UPON WHICH WILD GROWTHS SPRING
UP IN THE RAINY SEASON

clumps many feet across, seemingly lying loose on the
ground — go to form another style of velt vegetation.
During the rainy season they shoot out prickles and
creepers, whilst during the drought they appear
absolutely dead.

A certain group of plants called succulents, peculiarly
adapted to the climate of the velt, which live through

53

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

several years of drought, is to be found in great
abundance.

In the Nyika one constantly comes across large white-
ant heaps, several feet high and of considerable width.
During the night the tiny builders are untiringly active
in raising and building their fortresses, which are very
strongly put together. At the approach of the rainy season
the ants, which by this time are winged, arise from the
ground in swarms to set out on their long wedding journey
in the air to lay the foundations of new colonies elsewhere.
Most of them know perfectly how to use their little white
pinions, although it is the first and only time in their lives
that they rise from the dark depths of the ground in the
damp evening atmosphere. Some, however, flutter to
the ground in a piteous plight, with their wings broken.
They will never undertake the striven-for journey. But
what does it matter, since there are myriads left to fulfil
their vocation ?

Here and there the steppes are adorned with the
well-known monkey-bread tree (Adansonia digitate}.
Covered with a shining bright grey bark, this tree often
attains a circumference of many yards, and, in spite of
its grotesqueness, charms us with its primeval appear-
ance. The traveller soon learns to value it, for often
rich stores of water lie hidden in the hollow trunk — stores
that have been supplied by the rainy season — which
may be the only water to be found in the district for
several days' journey.

Sometimes one comes across deep ravines and gullies
that cut through the landscape. For months and years

54

-* Masai-Nyika

they remain hard and dry, when suddenly a mighty fall
of rain transforms them into rushing torrents, which the
caravan will most probably find an insuperable obstacle
to its progress.

When these desert regions lie in bright and beautiful
sunlight, and the eye can see a vast stretch of country,

A BIT OF THE SO-CALLED THORNY "FRUIT GARDEN" VELT

the traveller is seized with a great sense of freedom,
and a longing to explore and investigate.

Even the experienced eye is easily deceived with
regard to distance in this riot of dazzling light. Thus
I found that, where Oskar Baumann pointed out the
Kiniarok Lake in the Nyika, there was only barren desert,
and I had to retrace my steps hastily, in order to save
my people and myself from perishing of thirst. . . . But

55

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

at the time of the Masika the country round about would
be covered with water for miles.

It is not difficult to travel in the Masai-Nyika during
the rainy season when water is abundant, apart from the
simple difficulty of finding one's way between the thorns
and the bushes and extricating oneself from the long
rank grass, often as high as a man. It is very different

A WHITE-ANT HILL ON THE VELT NEAR THE COAST

during the drought. Unless one has reliable knowledge
beforehand, one is never sure where the next clrinking-
place will be found. Even if information is obtained
'with regard to some spot where water was found only
a short time before, it is not to be relied on, for in the
fiery breath of the sun and the wind of the plains it will
evaporate in a few days ! We have often been obliged
to travel back more than twenty miles to find water, and

56

-•> Masai-Nyika

this with bearers who have carried burdens weighing
60 Ib. on their heads since the early morning ; or we have
been obliged to make a so-called " Telekesa " march,
following a very old and practical method. After midday
the caravan decamps and journeys towards its destination
until the evening. At the approach of darkness the
camp is pitched at a spot where there is no water. In

A THORN-BUSH ON THE VELT

all probability the day has been hot, the burden has lain
heavily on our heads, and a sudden whirlwind has made
the sand of the plain dance and By in all directions ; but
•every man squats down by his burden, so as to be ready"
to start again in the early morning, or even by moonlight
if the way lies clear, and so as to reach the longed-for
drinking-place as quickly as possible. Very often it is
not until the evening that this can be. done.

57

With Flashlight and Rifle *

Under ordinary conditions carriers will never throw up
the sponge ; their traditions forbid them to do this. I have
often known them to fall beneath a heavy load, but I have
scarcely ever known them abandon it to go and seek for
water. On the contrary, it is the custom (dasturi] for those
who arrive first at the camp to carry the replenished cala-
bash back to revive their friends (rafiki] left behind, it
maybe over an hour's journey away. In the generous dis-
tribution of food among themselves the carriers are most
brotherly and helpful to one another. And under what-
ever conditions they find themselves, wet or dry, the blacks
know better than any how to find the best spots on the velt,
or to discover hidden sources of water, to spy out the rare
berry-bearing shrubs, to find wood for fuel where ap-
parently no wood is to be seen, to light their camp-fires-
quickly, and to contrive sheltered nooks for themselves
out of their own cloths and wraps. They know, too, how
to keep off vermin by certain herbs, whose strong smell
our European nerves can hardly stand.

Alfred Brehm once said of the Tundra, the Asiatic
counterpart of Masai- Nyika, after he had experienced many
hardships there: " I shall never go back to the Tundra!""
I also have a great dread of the Nyika. No northerner
will ever live there for long.

Yet those who have learnt to know it are apt to hear
it calling to them again and again !

_: 4 , ?

THE LITTLE ARAB DHOWS WHICH BROUGHT US TO ZANZIBAR

V
To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

1^ H E mail-steamer Biirgermeister brought us to Tanga
in the first days of February. For the fourth
time I set foot upon the East Coast of Africa ; for the
third time I set out from it for Germany's highest
mountain, the gigantic ice-covered and snow-clad volcano,
Kilimanjaro.

Prince Johannes Lowenstein-Rosenberg and I had
taken seven mules on board at Naples in the expectation
that these wiry beasts, accustomed in Southern Italy to-
every kind of hardship, would be admirably fitted for our
riding. The transport was carried out all right, but the
mules unfortunately got the Acarus mange on the way.
A dog — a " Great Dane " — which had been despatched
from Hamburg to Dar-es-Salaam for scientific purposes,
and which had been inoculated experimentally against
infection by the tsetse-fly, had given them the disease.
Being familiar with the treatment of this kind of mange, I
took the dog in hand when on board ; but, in spite of all

59

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

my efforts, the mules became infected after they had lost
their winter coats of long hair, with very damaging effects
upon their skin. So for several weeks we had the task
of subjecting the rather obstinate and troublesome beasts
twice daily to a thorough good wash — a process finally
crowned by success.

Thanks to my previous experiences and to our relations

ONCE MORE I SAW CAPE GUARDAFUI BEFORE ME, OUTS 1 RETCHED LIKE A
RESTING LION. IT WAS THE EIGHTH TIME I HAD VOYAGED THIS WAY

with the officials of the German East African Company,
our caravan of 1 70 bearers, Askaris and others, under
the supervision of my tried and trusty headman, Mniam-
para Maftar, was organised in a few days, and the railway
took us to Korogwe, at that time its terminus.

This saved us a wearisome two-days' march along the
•coast. We made our way over Mombo, where the
-experimental cotton-plantations had unfortunately been

60

-*> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

destroyed by the heavy rains, and where we were genially
entertained by Herr Yeith, the very friendly and helpful
manager of the plantations ; then across Masinde, leaving
the caravan road upon the right ; and finally across
Mkomasi, now greatly swollen, and along the Rufu River
towards our provisional destination, Kilimanjaro.

Rain had been falling in unusual quantities, and we
found the vegetable world in great luxuriance. It was
my seventh journey through this district, but it was only
the second time that I had found the vegetation in this
state ; I had generally known it in the dry season.
Far and wide the land was now covered with grass ; the
remarkable succulent plants were in full life, and the
grotesque monkey-bread trees adorned with leaves. Butter-
flies and hordes of other insects were to be seen in every
direction.

It would be hard for a newcomer to realise that all
this organic life must disappear in a very short time, and
that the velt would spread out round us a barren, withered
plain.

As the result of the rains, the health of the Europeans
was, as usual, very bad. All the resident officials of
the German East African Company had been obliged,
turn by turn, to go to the hospital. The temperature
reached 32° Celsius in the shade, never falling below
21° at night, when the south-easterly wind blew per-
sistently.

We purchased large stores of provisions, sent about
eighty donkey-loads of maize on ahead, and continued
our march for some days up-stream. The animal world,

6*

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

finding food and drink everywhere now, was scattered
over the whole region.

Prince Lowenstein brought down some Grant's
gazelles (Gazella grant i}, but our chief interest was centred
in the immense number of storks (Cicoma alba], which
were preparing to set forth on their flight to Europe,

PRINCE JOHANNES LOWENSTEIN (TO THE RIGHT) AND THE AUTHOR

and were now lying in wait for the locusts. Rising high
in the air in flocks of thousands, these storks went
through the most wonderful evolutions.

The weaver-birds, which here fix their hanging nests
upon the trees in great numbers, were also extraordinarily
full of life just now, and their nests full of eggs and
young. While the old birds fed their young only a few

64

-*> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

days out of the shell with locusts, the slightly bigger
ones found their nourishment in ripe grass-seeds.

The weaver-bird which I myself discovered in 1899
{Ploceus schillings?} was now mating ; and the prince
collected a number of specimens of this handsome bird, of
which the males when old are coloured a beautifully
gleaming gold, and which always builds its nest right
over the water, either in bushes or among reeds.

A female ostrich which I shot, and of which I pre-
sented the contents of the stomach to the Berlin Museum,
had been eating nothing but grass-seed in enormous
quantities and had produced an egg out of season.
But for this one egg the ovaries were completely
inactive. The natives told me that when the grass
grows so suddenly ostriches lay single eggs not in-
frequently, out of the breeding-season, when straying on
the velt.

We moved our camp down-stream for some days, and,
while Prince Lowenstein had the good luck to bring
down a fine rhinoceros running close to me, we suddenly
came upon a herd of buffaloes out in the open on the
same day — more than sixty of them — enjoying their siesta
in the shade of some acacia-trees, side by side with
water-buck {Cobus aff. ellipsiprymnus] and Grant's gazelles
(Gazella granti}.

Most unfortunately I did not succeed in photographing
them, either standing still or running ; I had not got
my apparatus yet into complete working order, and the
light, moreover, was unfavourable.

Out of this herd the prince and I shot one bull and

VOL. i. 65 5

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

one cow. Our joy was intense over this piece of rare
luck, and we camped near the river in order to undertake
the preparation of the skins. By putting forth all our
efforts we succeeded, in spite of the burning sun, in
making really valuable zoological specimens of them, and
thus saving them for science. The cow was pregnant,
the young being of a dark coffee-colour. We were able
to treat its skin successfully also. These operations called
forth the best efforts of every one in the caravan ; and it
was a matter for great satisfaction that they were crowned
with success.

Here I may give the measurements of the bull. The
length of the skin from the muzzle was 4 metres ; the
greatest girth, round the belly, 3*60 ; the skull weighed
25 kilos; that of the cow, 15.

As rain set in, we had to salt the skins. The animals
were, as usual, covered with ticks (Rhipicephalus appen-
diculatus], those pests- of the African buffalo.

So, by good luck, I had at last seen a herd of buffaloes
by daylight out in the open ! Until then I had never
beheld a buffalo except in thickets or among reeds.
We reflected mournfully on the time when, before the
devastations of the rinderpest, such a sight was to be
encountered daily in these regions of East Africa.

Two days later the Prince brought down a male
giraffe, but we did not succeed in preparing the skin. Like
all males, it had five projections from its forehead. Its
measurements were as follows : Length of line from nose
to the longest of these forehead projections, 88 centimetres;
length of projections, 22 centimetres ; circumference of

66

-*> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

head above the eyes, i metre 6 centimetres ; circumference
of the projections at their bases, 25 centimetres, up above,
22 centimetres. Weight of head, with about 30 centi-
metres of neck attached, 40 kilos.

During the next few days we made several excursions
on the velt, in the course of which I got some guinea-
fowl and a corncrake (Crex crex], so well known in

STORKS TAKING TO FLIGHT

great

our meadows at home, and also came upon a
number of giraffe-tracks.

Upon the little island in the river were to be found
the nests of mire-drums (Bubulcus ibis] and of herons
of other kinds, whose eggs I was able to get. Here
also were still larger colonies of my weaver- bird (Ploceus
schillings^). A golden cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus), had
chosen the nest of one of these birds for hatching her

69

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

eggs, and her young birds had ejected their foster-
companions into the river, therein to be drowned !

Having by this time familiarised myself with the
telephoto apparatus, I succeeded in taking a number of ex-
cellent photographs of fringe-eared antelopes (Oryx callotis).
This entailed a very interesting but fatiguing pursuit,
as the antelopes, whose young ones had put in an
appearance only a few weeks before, were very shy.

In the course of an expedition together one day
Prince Lowenstein and I were suddenly surprised by a
discharge of guns, which caused us to fire off ours, so
as not to run further into danger. The discharge came
from the Askaris of a heliograph detachment, which was
on its way coastwards from Kilimanjaro, and which,
having left the caravan-track, was relying for provisions
upon the big game they got en route.

Most of our people soon went back with great stores
of maize which we had laid in at Ruroto for the pro-
visioning of our caravan, and as zebras were to be met
with as well as antelopes, ostriches, and other big game,
we proceeded slowly upstream in order to give the
Prince his wished-for chance of sport, while I busied
myself with my photography.

The heat affected us more and more. The grass
dried up, and the ground split in the river-bed from the
dryness. Locusts of various kinds belonging to the
genera Schistocerca and Pachytyhis made their appearance
in immense quantities, marabous lying in wait for them
in long rows on the velt, often with storks to keep
them company.

70

-* To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

As we made our way through the high grass, the long
caravan starting up clouds of locusts at every step, a
hundred or more hawks of small size came round us
from every direction, seizing the insects with their beaks
and eating them in full flight. These were the beautiful
night-hawk and a graceful species of kestrel hawk
(Cerchneis vespertinns and Cerchneis naumanni), and it

DURING MARCH THE MIRE-DRUMS AND THE BLACK-HEADED HERON WERE
HATCHING THEIR EGGS ON THE ISLETS OF THE RUFU RIVER

was beautiful to see them winging their way through the
air, sometimes coming to within a few feet of us in their
eager pursuit.

Suddenly, just as I was about to get on my mule,
the Prince and I caught sight of three lions disappearing
in a thicket of thorns. There was no possibility of a shot
then, so we pitched camp in the neighbourhood with a

7*

With Flashlight and Rifle *

view to setting at them later. This, unfortunately, we

* ^5 O * • w

did not succeed in doing. Our halt, however, gave us
a wonderful opportunity for ornithological research in
this river-side region.

Shortly before sundown a Cape stone-curlew (CEdic-
nemus capensis} flys past over the dark waters of the
stream with whirring wings and a curiously shrill whistle,
which sounds like Vee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee ! getting
quicker and sharper with each repetition, the last of all
being so shrill and piercing that it impresses itself un-
forgettably upon the ear. The bird is breeding just now,
and only a few minutes before sundown — but then all the
oftener and more strenuously — it gives out its song of joy
and love over this mournful river-side, from sandbank
to sandbank. It knows well how to keep out of the
way of its dreaded neighbour the crocodile, as does
also the Egyptian goose (Chenalopex cegyptiacus] now
sitting on the sandbank.

Suddenly there emerges in mid-stream, silently and
only just perceptibly, the head of a crocodile more than
four yards in length. The goose has espied him, and,
raising herself, gives out a quick cry of warning. The
crocodile remains motionless, but the goose keeps her
weather eye open.

Kingfishers (Ceryle rudis] make use of this twilight
hour for diving into the water and snatching at the small
fish. The water splashes up in the light of the setting
sun, and drops fall" from the feathers of the bird, which
takes up its place again upon a dry branch above the
stream, ready to pounce down again next moment. Now

72

-•> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

flit past a number of those very remarkable birds aptly
termed clapper-bills (Anastomus lamelligerus}.

Ibises and herons alight from their slow flights
upon neighbouring islands ; the sun has gone below the
horizon, and a species of goat-sucker (Caprimulgus fossei]
begins its monotonous song hard by our camp. Far off
the velt is reddened by a fire. Darkness comes on

DARTERS, WITH THEIR SNAKE-LIKE NECKS, WERE ON THE WATCH. WE
FOUND THEIR BLUISH EGGS, COVERED BY WHITE CHALKY STUFF, IN
THE ACACIA-BUSHES ON THE ISLANDS

quickly. The camp-fires flame up, and African camp-
life is to be witnessed in all its romance. Then follow
often hours of photographic work and experiment in the
stifling atmosphere of a hermetically closed tent. After
which, when fever is not on us, sleep demands its turn,
and the weary body finds in slumber new stores of
strength for the efforts of the coming day.

75

With Flashlight and Rifle *

At a distance. of some miles from the camp I found
a large pond in the bed of a dried-up river. Put upon
the alert by seeing a vociferous sea-eagle {Haliaetus
vocifer), I found in the pool great quantities of fish, which
were doomed to destruction by the unexpectedly quick
drying up of the stream. They had left it at spawning
time, and been cut off. My men took over three hundred
kilos of much-needed fish this day, and the news of
their big haul gave much joy in the camp.

By this pond a pair of Egyptian geese had hatched
their eggs. The young birds that still lived were about
three weeks old ; others had been swallowed by two small
crocodiles, which were caught by my men when they
were drawing in the fish. In one of these crocodiles,
only about a yard in length, one of the goslings was
found almost whole and entire !

Next day I was to come near meeting the same
fate as this young gosling. Crossing the river in a fragile
boat, two blacks and I got entangled in a thicket, lost an
oar, and with it all control of our course. Next moment
we were being swept along as swift as an arrow by the
current in mid-stream.

Below was a deep, quiet pool, in which a great
number of big crocodiles lay in wait for their prey.
Fortunately our boat came suddenly upon a rock and
capsized. We owed our salvation to the fact that both
my men and myself were accustomed to the water, and
that we were all of tall stature. This enabled us,
standing upon the rocks in the water, to hold on to the
upturned boat, without, however, being able to move away,

76

-•> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

as the deep rushing water on each side of us made this
impossible.

All this happened quite close to our camp. As quick
as lightning, our soldiers and carriers were aroused and
the former opened fire from their Mauser rifles in order
to keep the crocodiles from attacking us.

While the bullets whizzed round our heads, Prince

HERONS HAD MADE THEIR HOME IN THE BRANCHES OF THE TREES
OVERHANGING THE STREAM

Lowenstein, without losing a moment, jumped into the river
to try and save us. This action on his part deserves the
warmest praise, though of course it was not possible for
him to secure our safety by himself. Our rescue needed
the combined efforts of a large number of our men, who,
roped together, drew near to us and brought us to land
under the continued fire of the Askaris. However, we
owed our rescue from a very tight corner chiefly to the

77

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

initiative of the Prince. In such moments one gets to
know and appreciate one's comrades better than one might
in years of companionship at home.

We gave up all hope of coming again upon the lions
we had observed. When we sighted them they had just
been tearing a hen-ostrich to pieces (as I found the day
after), but they did not return to its carcase.

My ornithological collection had been appreciably
expanding, and now included a considerable number of
prepared skins and eggs. Slowly following the course
of the stream, we gradually drew closer to Kilimanjaro.

Now, towards the end of March, the approaching
rainy season — the " Masika mkubwa "-— gave signs of
its coming. We came in for a tremendous storm one
night, which deluged our camp in a few minutes and
filled our tent with water. The thunder crashed above
us, the atmosphere was charged with electricity. No
one who has not experienced a tropical storm in the
desert can form any impression of this marvellous,
phenomenon.

A series of forced marches over the now sodden marsh-
land brought us to the Kahe district, a small oasis
of cultivation in the midst of the velt at the foot of
Kilimanjaro.

My old friend of former years, the chief, had been
murdered. His successor did not seem to me to have
much authority.

On arriving at the station of Moshi on Kilimanjaro,,
we found that my friend Captain Merker, who received
us most cordially, was just on the point of going back to

78

-•> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

Europe on leave after seven years' uninterrupted residence.
One needs a rare degree of energy to survive seven
years' residence in the unhealthy climate of East Africa
without a break !

The rains now came on and kept us at Moshi.

Prince Lowenstein, who is an ardent climber and who-

A BIG HAUL : MY MEN RETURNING TO CAMP LADEN WITH SEVERAL
HUNDREDWEIGHT OF FISH

had purposed making his way up to the heights of
Kilimanjaro for collecting purposes, suddenly received
news which obliged him to alter his plans and depart for
South Africa. He went off to the coast with Captain
Merker, and I pursued my journey alone.

The departure of the Prince deprived me of a first-
rate comrade. The loss came home to me doubly because
many hardships and difficulties had taught me to appreciate

79

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

a true and sympathetic companion in good times and bad,
a man with his heart in the right place, and with a faculty
for coping with the hardships of life in the wilderness not
easily equalled.

Unfortunately a number of deaths had occurred among
the asses at Moshi, which to my mind is just as unhealthy
as any other such place in East Africa. The Greek
merchant Meimarides, who lives there, had lost more than
a hundred of his native Masai asses. This did not surprise
me very much, as I had long known that domestic animals
were apt to sicken in this neighbourhood. Asses — especially
the superior breed of Muscat asses and mules — soon die
there, lasting only two or three years under the most favour-
able circumstances ; horned animals are kept by the
Wadshagga in closed sheds by stall-feeding, cattle allowed
to graze in the open invariably dying very quickly.

This stall-feeding is not due to fear of the Masai, but
to the knowledge that the animals can only be kept alive
in these sheds of the Wadshagga, which smoke protects
from the gadflies.

It was interesting to me to find here at the beginning
of April the species of genet (Genetta suahehca) which I
myself had discovered. One of these black genets was
killed at night by a shepherd just as it was about to fall
on a kid belonging to my herd of goats. This black
colouring is not infrequently met with among carnivora
in East Africa.

It is reported from Abyssinia that it has long been
a practice of the Negus to bestow a black leopard's skin

80

-* To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

as a mark of rare distinction upon persons whom he
wishes to honour. It would seem that the black leopard
is sometimes to be met with in these regions — a counter-
part to the black leopard of the Malay countries so well
known in our Zoological Gardens.

Similarly the serval was known in its black variety
to the Kilimanjaro people, and I myself had succeeded

WE HAD TO TAKE SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS WHEN WE WENT AFTER
THE TIMID ORYX ANTELOPES

in bagging specimens. Lions have never been seen
with entirely black skins, though they have been known
to have black manes. The black genets were new
to zoologists when I found them at Moshi in
April 1903. I found two young Coke's hartebeest
{Bubalis cokei] and a young zebra in the possession
of the Moshi station. Unfortunately it proved impossible
VOL. i. 81 6

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

to bring them up, as was the case also with a number of
other animals procured for the station by the natives, who
were under orders to hand over the young of all animals
taken by them.

Captain Merker had three splendid specimens of the
white-tailed guereza (Colobus cadatus] caught for me by
natives. We wanted to see whether I could not bring
them back to Europe alive. Unfortunately I did not
succeed in this. The guereza which I myself got hold of
in 1900, a male, and which I presented to the Zoological
Gardens at Berlin, is still the only living specimen in
Europe.

At last, after continual downpours, there came a really
fine day soon after the departure of the Prince and Captain
Merker, and I availed myself of it to set forth from
Moshi on my march to the Njiri swamps, intending to
pitch my camp by the Himo River.

On the same day the natives told me of two large
bull-elephants which had been observed for some days
past in the neighbourhood of the station. I did not like
to interfere in any way with the elephant-hunt which
the acting commandant of the station had at once
organised ; but I should have been glacl to seize the
opportunity Doth of photographing the elephants in such
bright, sunny weather, and also of securing one of them
for a museum. This could only be done in the neighbour-
hood of a station. So big an undertaking would fail
out in the open for lack of facilities. Unfortunately
both elephants were shot in such a way (as was also
an immense bull-elephant, which fell to the rifle of

82

-•> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

a Greek dealer) that the skins could not be prepared for
zoological purposes.

The Governor, Count Gotzen, has now, it is very
gratifying to state, started a preserve for elephants within
the confines of the station, in response to representations
made to him by Captain Merker and myself ; so it is
to be hoped that, instead of being decimated as they

VULTURES ON THE WING

have been of late, they will find a haven of refuge in
this district. This is all the more satisfactory in that
it is only near the station that regular elephant-hunts
are practicable. Out in the velt there is, of course, no
means of controlling the shooting of big game. It is
well that the station officials should set a good example.
Stringent rules regarding big-game shooting are in force
in British East Africa in the neighbourhood of the Uganda

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

Railway, with the result that great herds of wild animals
may be seen quite near the railway lines.

On this day, to my delight, I succeeded in getting
some good pictures of zebras and hartebeest antelopes,
taken at a distance. I was the more pleased because, owing
to the complete lack of control over the shooting by Askaris
in the neighbourhood of Moshi, the whole district had
been practically denuded of wild life. In this Moshi
region, where one of the first commandants, Herr von
Eltz, had killed as many as sixty rhinoceroses, nowadays
even a single rhinoceros is seldom seen.

You no longer see herds of a hundred zebras, such
as Professor Hans Meyer found here years ago. It is
not to the rifles of sportsmen, however, that they have
fallen. They mainly owe their destruction to the un-
checked shooting of the black soldiers, who had the
ammunition stores at their disposal. In 1896 I myself
came very near to being shot by these gentry.

The fable about "slaughterings" by sportsmen —
especially English sportsmen — being the cause of the
disappearance of the fauna in lands like East Africa seems
impossible to root out of people's minds.

In German East Africa, and in other unhealthy and
fever-infested countries, very few sportsmen, good or bad,
have been at work up to the present. The great
expense of sporting expeditions is enough in itself to
keep them away.

But millions of bullets from the rifles of Europeans
of all descriptions, of Askaris, and, last but not least, of
the natives, have been whistling over the fields of German

84

'•> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

East Africa for the last twenty-five years. I know of
one case in which a detachment of Askaris shot down
twelve elephants at one go. What countless thousands
of wild animals have been destroyed by cattle-dealers
and other travellers of all kinds ! What thousands
must be put down to the account of the so-called Ostrich
Farming Company of Kilimanjaro, the former directors

TANTALUS IBISES IN A SWAMP

of which and their officials have reduced the wild life of
the district by one-half in seven years !

In regard to so important a matter, a frank word is
not out of place.

Next day we marched in a heavy downpour to
Marangu, where I was much interested in inspecting
the ostrich farm of Sergeant Merkel, who entertained me

85

With Flashlight and Rifle *

there. This enterprising man had reared an imposing
stock of birds in one year, and had achieved much
more in this short period than the Ostrich Farm-
ing Company, which, owing to bad management, has
no profits to show for all these years, with large means
at their disposal.

A long march brought our caravan next to the Rombo
plantation, the scene of the murder of Dr. Lent and
Dr. Kretschmer in 1894. How long will it be before
numbers of other such calamities, here and everywhere
in our colonies, bring it home to us that it is only
possible to establish a civilised administration, in our
sense of the term, over such regions, when we can sup-
port it by an adequate number of troops and police,
maintained in every corner of it at a correspondingly
enormous expense ?

From Rombo we proceeded through dense banana
groves, by narrow shady paths, to Useri, where the Mangi
(chief) Mambua generously provided me with beans, and
where we had to strike camp in the middle of a banana
plantation.

This Useri district, with its winding, intricate, densely
shaded paths and banana-plantations, is still little known.
Its inhabitants are shy and retiring, and water is so scanty
here that they can only get it from the banana stalks.

More long marches followed now. We crossed the
Ngare-Rongai (of which the water was icy cold and most
excellent), and presently I got to the Njiri swamps by
way of the watering-place Marago-Kanga.

These swamps are called Ngare-O'Ssiram by the Masai,

86

-•> To Kilimanjaro with Prince Lowenstein

because the lesser kudu (Strepsiceros imberbis}, in their
language, o'ssiram, used to frequent them.

I had been the first European to describe these
marshes and their surroundings in 1899, the year of the
rising. In spite of the unhealthiness of the region I
pitched my camp here for a lengthy stay, so that I might
be able to take plenty of photographs of animals,
and make a careful study of the whole neighbourhood.
Only the western Njiri marshes have as yet been described
thoroughly in the works of the Austrian Count Wicken-
burg ; they are, however, by no means of the extent
and importance indicated upon the maps hitherto executed,
though naturally their extent is much greater in the wet
season than in the dry. They seem to me to have been
formerly more extensive than they are now, as is the
case with most of the other marshes and inland seas
throughout East Africa.

89

EGYPTIAN GEESE ON THE SWAMPS

VI

By the Njiri Lakes

TH E time of the great rains came to an end that year
as quickly and suddenly as it had set in. In the
course of three weeks immense expanses of water had
spread over the parched velt, and pools and lakes
had filled. The scorched and blackened soil had become
covered as though by magic with rich green. Trees and
bushes had been awakened into life out of their winter
sleep, and swollen streams took the place, for a brief period,
of empty river-beds.

In the deep valley to the west of Kilimanjaro, the
lowest declivities of which form the west and east Njiri
swamps, the masses of water coming together formed one
great lake.

For weeks the greater portion of the animal world
had roamed at large over the watered and grass-grown
steppes. The remotest regions had been made accessible
to man and beast. Elephants, rhinoceroses, and antelopes
wandered everywhere, so scattered in every direction that

90

-* By the Njiri Lakes

it was hard for the native hunter to bag much game. But
with startling rapidity all this ephemeral vegetation withered.
The waters dried up, the green faded away, and once again
the animals went back to the oases which they make
their winter quarters during the long periods of drought.
The swamp-frequenting birds found a feast spread out for
them, however, upon the Njiri Lakes, now slowly subsiding

IN THE RAINY SEASON THE VELT WAS FLOODED

and leaving behind them a wealth of floating and seed-
bearing plants.

Immense flocks of geese and ducks covered the surface
of the lakes. On the banks were clustered thousands of
gnus and zebras ; and, come hither from the furthest
limits of the velt, rhinoceroses found their way into
their accustomed drinking-places among the reeds ; while
waterbuck, hartebeests, gazelles, and a few buffaloes had

With Flashlight and Rifle *

returned to the vicinity of the swamps, or actually to the
swamps themselves. It was fascinating for a sportsman
— fascinating even for a mere observer — to be able again
to see and study these animals and their ways. But
like conscientious warders of the wilds, myriads of fever-
bringing mosquitoes lurked among the reeds and thickets
of papyrus.

However, fever need not frighten the sportsman and

FLAMINGOES ON THE WING PRESENT A SUPERB SPECTACLE, THEIR ROSE-
HUED FEATHERS CONTRASTING BEAUTIFULLY WITH THE BLUE OF
THE SKY

observer in those regions. He is aware that here, far
away from human habitations, the mosquitoes are less
dangerous, less harmful than in inhabited districts or near
caravan routes, where the slightest uncleanliness gives the
fever-germs their chance. So I moved my camp into
the midst of the treeless and bushless plain, salt-

92

-* By the Njiri Lakes

encrusted and glittering in its whiteness, surrounded
by the sedgy lakes and lagoons, leaving behind me
everything I could do without, especially the asses and
cattle, which would have been fly-bitten to death. Wood
for burning and fresh water had to be fetched by day.
The ground was only covered here and there by scanty
grass growing in plots, broken by patches of quite bare
soil. The sand was blown into dune-like hills by the
wind, and small isolated ponds, quite without vegetation,
lay scattered all round the camp.

From the reeds of the regular marshes upon the brink
of which the camp-tents were pitched, clouds of flies
swarmed every night in search of their prey. Hundreds of
them were to be found in the tent itself, and were not easy
to scare away. These flies, and the ibises enlivening
the neighbouring air with their soft call, are unfailing
accessories to this lonely life upon the marshes.

Photographic work, here particularly troublesome,
begins in the evening and entails the wearing of clothes
more suited to the Arctic regions. One's body thus saved
from the stings of the bloodthirsty insects, one has to
protect one's face and hands as best one may. Even so,
one must be prepared to be stung dozens of times in the
course of an evening.

My blacks, although stretched out at their ease in the
smoke of the smouldering camp-fire, were not able to close
an eye during the night. During the day they made up
for this by sleeping in the blazing sunshine upon some
bare sandy spot.

In such circumstances carpe diem is a good motto.

93

With Flashlight and Rifle

But for all disadvantages there was ample compensation in
the wonderful opportunities one had for observation during
the daytime. In places where the receding water had
allowed fresh grass to spring up, were deep holes dug out
by the natives to serve as hiding-places in which they
crouched, and from which they took their toll with poisoned
arrows from the herds of gnus and zebras coming down

A PELICAN

to drink. In the numerous holes they had made they
could conceal themselves according to their need and the
direction of the wind, and thus they were able, working
together in small groups, to kill even rhinoceroses by the
light of the moon. The whitened skulls of these animals
shining in the sunshine near these holes as we passed
them during the day told their own story.

Now, however, no Ndorobo, no Mkamba was to be

94

<+> By the Njiri Lakes

seen, and the wild animals came down to quench their thirst
in no way disturbed by my presence. For days together
I occupied myself exclusively with photography, getting
any number of pictures and so managing that hundreds
and hundreds of gnus and zebras hung round my camp
almost like tame deer. Here they grazed along with flocks
of the beautiful crested cranes and Egyptian geese :

CORMORANTS (PHALACROCORAX AFRICANUS, GM.) DRYING THEIR FEATHERS

IN THE SUN

hundreds of Thomson's gazelle grazed like sheep among
them, and wherever the eye turned it saw the rough, dark,
strongly marked forms of the old gnu-bulls as they grazed
apart, cut off from the herds.

For miles there are no shallows in these lakes.

Where currents issuing from the velt flow to the regular

marshes, the water reached up to our waists. Thickets of

reeds border the banks far and wide, and the water is full

VOL. i. 97 7

With Flashlight and Rifle -+>

of the European floating plant Potamoyeton, first dis-
covered by myself in German East Africa ; but only the
seed-pods are to be seen, barely perceptible above the
surface. Often I and my men wandered for miles over
this world of water, seeing wherever we looked the
beautiful great white egret, the black-and-white sacred
ibises, black-headed weaver-birds, the small white mire-
drums, and hundreds and thousands of Egyptian geese
and great black-and-white spurred-geese ; while in the
far distance flocks of beautiful flamingoes flashed about

o

on the banks

The duck known as Nyroca capensis, many other kinds
of ducks, beautiful whydah-birds, waterhens, grebes, long-
legged plovers {Himantopus nimantopur} and countless
other kinds of birds moved about before our eyes,
while every now and again some splendid vociferous
sea-eagle would swing past above us, emitting its shrill
whistle. On the banks plovers flew hither and thither—
stragglers perhaps from flocks of these winter guests
from the far North ; while the white- winged black
tern (Hydrockelidon leucoptera] swooped down upon the
water.

Now, however, our gaze is arrested by the sight of a
bird which is not often seen, and to which our presence
is a matter of very keen anxiety. This is the beautiful
avocet, black and white {Recurvirostra avocetta], a bird
which used once to nest on the German sea-coast, but
is now to be seen there no more. This is the first
time I have found it breeding in German East Africa.
It has brought up its young upon these salt and alkaline

98

-* By the Njiri Lakes

marshes and its bearing is very curious and interesting
when it knows them or its nest to be in danger.

With lively, constantly repeated cries it flies high above
our heads hither and thither, drops down to the water,
stoops its head down on to the surface, and in that position
goes from one cluster of weeds to another, and then
as far out into the open as the depth of water permits.
Thus it infallibly betrays the position of its young. Very
interesting it is then to see these swift-winged black-and-
white birds, full of anxiety for their offspring, flit from the
sand to the cloudless sky or on to the dirty-grey water,
made muddy by the flocks of living things. The way
in which their long legs hang down adds to the quaint-
ness of their appearance. Now the sharp tones of the
avocet, have produced commotion in the entire world
of birds and a beautiful spur-winged lapwing (Hoplopterus
speciosus] decides to make off.

What a wealth of dazzling light, of majestic isolation,
of boundless distance and endless space !

Numbers of young avocets not yet able to fly we now
see running along inland to save themselves, almost hiding
their black-and-white feathers as they scamper over the
ground with outstretched necks and beaks ! How white
the land here under its coating of salt, as though covered
by newly fallen snow ! Where the broad gleaming ponds
merge in the deeper waters of the permanent marshes,
and clusters of reeds stand up at first sparsely, but
gradually become denser and denser, we see every inch
of water covered by birds. Among the reeds the notes
of small warblers and the curious little marsh-hens

101

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

(Limnocorax uiger] are to be heard chirping away, the
quarrelsome crested coot (Fu/ica cristata] wings its
way over the surface, numbers of moorhens (Gallinnla
chloropus], single dwarf \\-aterhens (Ortygoiuctra pit si I la
obscura] and the long-legged parra {Actophilits africanns)
display themselves before our eyes.

The sun hangs heavily over the expanse of water,
covered by its carpet of plants, and the atmosphere is
stifling. These plants are delusive in their island-like
aspect, and it is with difficulty that we make, our way
through them cautiously step by step. Here and there,
upon islands upon which acacia-bushes grow, flocks of
cormorants have settled and are drying their feathers
with their wings outstretched ; but these enemies of fish,
backed up by all the other members of the world of
beasts and birds, have never been able to decimate the in-
habitants of these lakes which swarm with fish. Wherever
we turn our steps, we see in front of us little eddies and
whirlpools which tell us of fish pursuing their prey.
'\ hrow a line, and in halt an hour you have caught such
a number of fish weighing five pounds and more that
four men will find it difficult to carry the burden back
to camp.

Up to the arms in water, hidden by the reeds, it is
very enjoyable to remain here watching the birds. If it
were not for the mosquitoes and another kind of small
fly, which creeps into the eyes and nose and ears and
stings viciously, one could remain thus occupied for days
together.

O

A wonderfully beautiful little bird glides suddenly on

102

-•> By the Njiri Lakes

to the water. Is it a young parra ? No, apparently
not ; and to my delight I recognise for the first time
the dwarf parra (Microparra africana capensis).

The extraordinarily long feet of these tiny birds
make it intelligible how they manage to run over the
surface of the water and with them they are enabled

TROPICAL VEGETATION NEAR THE COAST

to utilise as footholds the smallest morsels of floating
vegetation.

Round us go whistling and twittering countless numbers
of small warblers, now coming towards us inquisitively,
then flying right away. Suddenly a shrew-mouse makes
its appearance right at our feet in the midst of this watery
world — that tiny beast of prey with a bite so terrible for
its size ; and by way of contrast to this pigmy there
resounds the tremendous roar of the greatest of all the

105

With Flashlight and Rifle <••>

inhabitants of this neighbourhood, the hippopotamus. To
be sure, it is not always that one is left in such complete
tranquillity in these hours of observation.

The neighbourhood was, I knew, free from crocodiles ;
which is a curious fact, as the permanent marshes contain
fresh drinkable water and it is only the periodical floods
that are salty.

At the beginning of my stay I was making my way

I CAME UPON TWO HUGE PYTHONS

through one of these temporary lakes when, suddenly,
while I was still some distance from the bank, there was
a violent commotion in the water just in front of me.
Waves broke in every direction and my men fled back in
the greatest confusion, leaving me in the lurch and calling
out "Mamba! Mamba!"

I myself thought I saw two crocodiles making for me,

1 06

-* By the Njiri Lakes

and, not knowing ho\v many others there might be to
deal with, I also took to Bight.

As may be imagined, flight was no easy thing, either
for my men or for myself, waist-deep in water. When we
got to a shallower part I tried to rally my men, but failed
completely, so great was their alarm. On the bank,
however, I took counsel with some of my Masai, and

\VE MARCHED FOR HOUR AFTER HOUR THROUGH THE INUNDATED SWAMPS

presently came to the conclusion that it was not crocodiles
that had frightened us, but huge snakes. Again I
approached the spot where we had encountered them, and
by dint of much exertion succeeded in killing three
pythons — for such they were — of extraordinary size.
They had been after the eggs of the marsh-birds and the
birds themselves.

Here it \vas very enjoyable to take up one's position of

107

With Flashlight and Rifle -+>

an evening on the small islands of these lakes. Lying
flat on the ground I watched and listened to the birds of
all kinds that flitted and fluttered all round me. There
was an added spice of suspense in the possibility always
of a hippopotamus coming upon one suddenly — a very
ugly customer to meet in such surroundings. During the
day they kept always in the deeper waters of the marsh,

VULTURES

but at sunset they would sometimes come to these shallower
lakes.

If the twilight — far too brief, alas! in the tropics-
provided rich enjoyment, dawn, hastening up, offered the
most enchanting pictures of the magnificent plovers.
Their wonderfully picturesque flight and their lively call
are things no traveller can forget. The days passed
away thus in studying the birds and taking photo-
graphs. Hunting for a time was put aside. I had no
mind for it, so fascinated was I by these scenes which
I have tried to describe.

1 08

-»> By the Njiri Lakes

Often during the nights there were also new and
exciting matters to hold our attention. One dark,
cloudy night it would be lions that provided our lullaby ;
another night perhaps it would be a rhinoceros or two.
The sight of these gigantic brutes standing out in the
moonshine on the glistening snow-white velt is still
vivid in my memory. ... In the far distance the
glacier-bound Kaiser Wilhelm peak of stupendous Kili-
manjaro soared above our heads in lonely majesty, as
seen through the flood of moonbeams.

1 1 i

VULTURES AND MARABOUS FRATERNISING TOGETHER

VII

Evening on the Marshes

EVENING on the marshes in Equatorial Africa is a
i marvellous thing. To the northerner the sudden
disappearance of the sun below the horizon is an ever
new surprise.

With the coming of night, thousands of glow-worms—
the Kimurri-murri of the natives — make their appearance,
and grasshoppers mingle their chorus with the curiously
wooden, monotonous croaking of the frogs.

Then there is the buzzing of the mosquitoes also, which
infest these localities in myriads, swarming out of the
papyrus-beds in their bloodthirsty search for prey. It
would not be possible to remain here at all without
some protection against their attacks. The mosquito-nets
we have with us enable us to hold to our posts, though
we do not escape some very painful stings through our
clothes.

Livelier and busier they become ; their buzzing, louder
and louder, mingling now with the voices of the marsh-
birds, which are most active during the night. There is

112

-»> Evening on the Marshes

a quick succession of curious twitterings. It is a blue
water-hen that joins in the general chorus. During the
daytime also its mysterious notes may be heard. "It
is conversing with the fish," one of my men tells me,
and the others back up his opinion. There is, of course,
no truth in this, but these bird-calls are certainly full
of the character of the swamp. The circumstance that

BEAUTIFULLY COLOURED KINGFISHERS WERE LOOKING OUT FOR THE
SMALL FISH IN THE LAKES

a fish gives out a somewhat similar sound when caught
causes the natives to have this notion about an under-
standing between fish and bird.

Now there is a sudden outbreak of many voices,
from the hoarse croaking of the night-heron (Nycticorax
leiiconotus] to the monotonous song of the little
warblers, and the loud warning cry of the waterfowl.
My camp-fires flicker in the distance, the pale crescent

VOL. I. I I * 8

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

of the moon comes out from behind the clouds, and there
resounds and reverberates throughout the marshy wilder-
ness a voice of which the Bible makes mention — so
Brehm reminds us — as one of the mightiest voices of
animals in days of old. " And when Rehoboth lifts up
his voice. . . \." Yes, when Rehoboth lifts up his voice,
the whole world .seems to tremble. The sound is so tre-
mendous that its effect the first time you hear it is startling
in the extreme.

At long intervals the old bull hippopotamus thunders
out in this way over his kingdom, and the effect is
magical — all the more so for the mournful aspect of the
landscape. It means that he is emerging from his trodden,
almost tunnelled paths and haunts, and betaking himself
to some spot up on the dry land to graze.

Shortly -before sunset yet another fascinating picture,
full of life, is offered to our gaze. Hundreds of thousands
of finch-like birds and weavers fly hot-haste to the
swamp for their evening drink, before betaking themselves
for the night to the security of the papyrus-thickets.
Hither they have hurried in wave-like throngs, rising and
falling, keeping a serpentine course along the level
of the papyrus— looking indeed like some monstrous
serpent seen afar off in the twilight. A kind of mighty
humming noise accompanies their flight, so strong and
loud that the stranger is apt to be frightened by it at first.
It is extraordinary how exactly they keep to certain
distinct courses in their flight every evening.

On previous occasions I had been struck by the way
in which the individual birds kept together in their

114

-»> Evening on the Marshes

compact flocks — I was now almost convinced that they
have signs imperceptible to human eyes and ears, by which
they communicate with each other and are enabled to
carry out like automata all the elaborate evolutions which
their leader in these flights shows them he thinks necessary.
Countless pigeons of various kinds now appear upon
the water, flitting to arid fro nervously and cautiously.
After drinking they also betake themselves to the swamp
for their night's rest. Then come great flocks of guinea-

A LARGE FLOCK. OF GUINEA-FOWL PERCHED ON A TREE NEAR ME

fowl. Settling on a tree close by, they are silhouetted
sharply against the violet-hued horizon.

Yet another picture follows. A flock of tall crested
cranes (Balearica regulorum gibbericeps], standing out like
ghosts against the indescribably beautiful tints of the
equatorial sunset, draws near with slowly flapping wings
to seek secure sleeping-places on the small islands in the
swamp. Evening after evening these beautiful birds come
here at exactly the same minute. A creaking noise like

117

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

that of unoiled. wheels accompanies their flight. It is one
of the strangest sounds I have ever heard given forth
by birds, and may often be noticed on a clear moonlight
night for hours together. Now they have settled down
on the tree-branches for their night's rest, and their
imposing outlines form a superb accessory to the
ornithological inise-en-scene.

The darkness grows apace, once the sun has set.
Great flocks of geese and ducks have already taken flight,

CRESTED CRANES WINGED THEIR WAY TO THEIR SECURE NIGHT-
RESORTS — THE ACACIA-TREES ON THE ISLANDS IN THE SWAMPS

but strange sounds betray the presence still of many
feathered inmates of the marsh, and the whizzing of the
numerous night-herons is now more audible than ever.

If we are in luck, we shall perhaps hear now a long-
drawn, reverberating roar. The king of beasts is getting
ready for the chase, and for a few minutes his mighty
voice lends to the tropical evening its greatest magic.

Wherever the eye turns it sees the gleaming lights
of the fire-flies swaying hither and thither, up and down,

118

-* Evening on the Marshes

like fairy lanterns emitting their bright,- clear radiance
over the otherwise jet-black marshland. Deep stillness
alternates with the varied sounds from all the innumer-
able throats.

It is time to return to camp. One of the striped
hyaenas, that seem but now to come to life, is howling
somewhere near. Two jackals answer back. On our
road, straight in front of us, almost at our feet, starts
up some wild creature, only to disappear in terrified
flight among the reeds. From the panting sounds given
forth we are able to recognise a reedbuck (Cervicapra).
Through the marsh — water welling up round our feet — our
path leads out of the night and the wilderness to the
security of our camp, with its numerous fires flashing out
like beacons to show us the way home.

OLD BULLS STAND APART FROM THE HERDS OF GNUS AS SENTRIES

VIII
By the Stream

THE extraordinary number and variety of animals
that assemble during the season of drought in the
neighbourhood of the drinking-places defies all description.

If they should be disturbed, or have reason to suspect
an enemy — whether man or beast — these wild herds
immediately seek another drinking-place, shunning perhaps
a certain one by night, to seek it out next day at noon.

I shall never forget the immense assemblies of tropical
animals which I observed whilst on my fourth expedition
in E.ast Africa during the autumn of 1903.

I encamped in the neighbourhood of a stream that
meandered between steep rocks and after a few miles
suddenly dried up. During its course between these sharp
precipices it was barely accessible to the wild animals, but
there were countless trodden passes which I discovered,
all leading to the stream. Numbers of lions roamed
among the thorn-bushes, tall grass, and reeds which
flourished round about the river. At the point where it
had commenced to dry up there were considerable tracts

i 20

•+> By the Stream

of swampy ground covered with sedge-weed. These reedy
marshes afforded resting-places during the day to both
lions and rhinoceroses, but at night the bed of the stream-
was alive with thirsty animals of all kinds, as well as the-
prey they were pursuing.

Early in the morning large coveys of sand-grouse lead
the procession of thirsty animals from the arid velt.
These gorgeous birds are represented by three beautifully
coloured species (Pterocles gutturalis, decoratiis, and
exustus\ During the daytime they frequent the driest
parts of the Nyika.

With the swiftness of an arrow the first kind fly tO'
the water after sunrise, their coveys numbering about
thirty or more. With lively and far-reaching cries which
sound like gle-gle-gle-la-gak-gle-gle-gle-la-gak, the beautiful
birds fly quickly past. Their manner of flying resembles
that of the woodcock.

Quickly and suddenly they descend to the water.
With the large flights of these sand-grouse single speci-
mens of the Pterocles exustus often come too. These
latter have lancet-shaped tail-feathers, and are smaller
altogether. The Pt. gutturalis reach the ground before
arriving at the water, and then run to it. The smallest
kind, the Pt. decoratus, on the contrary, mostly swoop
straight down on to the water. They satisfy their thirst
in a quick and hurried manner, and soon rise in the air
to regain their resting-places. Sand-grouse are not really
trustful birds, and at the approach of man they rise with
a clatter of wings and fly away.

Every morning this same glorious spectacle takes place

123

AVith Flashlight and Rifle *

at the same spot. Noiselessly the strange umbretta (Scopus
umbrella] makes its appearance. It never fails to put in
.an appearance at every large pool or drinking-place. This
bird builds its extraordinarily large nest, composed of
three compartments, always fairly close to the water, in
the fork-like branches of an acacia. Here it lays three
white "eggs. We were constantly coming across this bird
by the pools and lakes and river-sides as we journeyed.
Although we once robbed a bird of two eggs it did not
^eem inclined to forsake its nest. Sometimes it flies up
from almost beneath one's feet to find its way in a
crouching attitude to some gnarled branch in the vicinity of
the water, reminding one of the night-heron in its manner.

Single specimens of the Egyptian goose (Chenalopex
(Zgyptiacus] are to be seen scattered about in every
direction. Vultures and marabous keep to special resorts
of their own.

Here and there we saw marvellously coloured shrikes,
and amongst them the great grey shrike (Dryoscopus
funebris], in large numbers. These birds associate and
sing in pairs. The male will begin a harmonious note, to
be answered so exactly by his spouse that it gives the
impression of one bird singing. The song of these
beautiful birds sounds like the chiming of glass bells
among the thick river-side growth ; while from the summit
of an acacia-tree comes the quaintly jubilant note of the
shrike-like tschagra {Telephcnus senegalus] — Too-ri-ay,
Too-ri-ay, Too-ri-ay !

The impalla antelopes (sEpyceros nielanipus] are
.almost the only mammals that visit the water during

124

•>+> By the Stream

WITH A HEAVY FLAPPING OF WINGS THE BUSTARD RISES FOR
ANOTHER SHORT FLIGHT IN THE AIR

the day, the other and larger species coming to drink at
night time.

The native hunters make good use of these drinking-
places, and put together shelters of reeds and undergrowth
from which they shoot their poisoned arrows at the wild

125

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

herds. The impalla antelopes are fond of eating the
fresh grass sprouting chiefly in the little hollows near the
water. About this season of the year one finds herds of
from fifty to a hundred heads of both sexes. Later the
pregnant females betake themselves to the dense under-
wood and high grass, there to give birth to their young.

At the approach of man the impallas take to flight
in a series of the most wonderful leaps and bounds. They
sometimes jump as high as three yards above the ground.
Their cries when alarmed remind one of those of our
roebucks. Both sexes give out the same kind of cry.

Towards evening we come upon some of Kiell's
-dwarf antelopes {Madoqua kirki). Their colouring blends
to such an extent with their surroundings that the eye
needs long training before it can make them out. I
myself, in spite of my experience with the fauna of the
North of Europe, could not see one of these dwarf ante-
lopes in the brushwood, not more than twenty paces
from where I stood, although a black pointed him out.
These beautiful creatures live, singly or in twos or threes,
in the midst of prickly brushwood, a few bounds bringing
them into safety in their inaccessible retreat.

One of my greatest pleasures was to observe the habits
.and customs of these animals in their hiding-places when-
ever I could get well into hiding for the purpose. With
their fine sensitive snouts sniffing attentively on all sides
hither and thither, these large-eyed, gracious creatures
•present a wonderful sight for the animal-lover.

The same may be said of Neumann's steinbok
{Raphiceros neumanni], which frequents similar places

126

-* By the Stream

in the somewhat more open grass velt, and, owing to
its brown colouring, is more easily seen than some of
the other small antelopes.

As the sun sinks further and further in the west the
neighbourhood is more and more enlivened by the arrivals
from the animal world. My above-mentioned friends, the
wise storks, have, in company with vultures of various

VULTURES

;sorts, alighted on the branches of high trees close at
hand. Here and there also an eagle puts in an appear-
ance. Long chains of guinea-fowl run into the under-
wood ; in the glow of the evening sun the wonderfully
coloured " rollers " fly busily here and there. They have
to complete their hunt for insects before night sets in.
The clear song of the little wood francolins (Franco -
linns granli} makes itself heard, with now and again

127

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

the hoarse cry of the rarer Hildebrandt's francolin
(Franco/inns kildebrandli}.

Loud and clear, by contrast, sounds the call of the
common large golden francolin {Pternistes Ie2icosccpu$
infuscatus] from the velt.

Over the neighbouring chain of undulating hills, from
which many beaten passes lead to the watering-places,
come groups of zebras, under the leadership of an ex-
perienced old stallion. They have stopped grazing, and
approach the drinking-place warily, seeking out a spot
on the stream which is sheltered from the wind, and
then slowly and carefully assuring themselves by nose
and eyes that no enemy lies hidden. The leaders give
a quick look round, then their burning thirst overcomes
their fears, and with long gulps they begin to drink.
Feeling themselves safe, the last members of the herd
come up, and the bed. of the stream is crowded with about
a hundred of these grand creatures — an incomparable scene.

Sometimes in their company, sometimes a little later
in separate herds, come the white-bearded gnus {Connochfetes
albojiibatus}. These also come across long tracts from
the velt. Now and again small companies, of Thomson's
gazelle (jGazella thomsoni] show themselves. The sun
sinks further and further to rest.

The last rays of the sun setting on a misty horizon
light up the charming and striking "scene that I have so
often gazed upon. Some of the zebras begin to paw the
water with their front hoofs ; another pressing up too
near a gnu, the latter with a shake of its head pushes
it on one side, but without hurting.

128

VOL. I.

-*> By the Stream

Two grotesque secretary-birds and a thirsty bustard
had sought out the water long before the arrival of the
zebra herds and then flown heavily away. Now the dead
branches of mighty fig-trees are besieged by numbers
of vultures ; their dark forms silhouetted against the flaming
red evening sky.

Zebras and gnus have now quenched their thirst,

A PAIR OF LARGE VULTURES BUILT THEIR NEST NEAR MY CAMP

when from the hills comes a breeze. It touches me gently
as I stand. The leader of the herd utters a loud call ; in
the same moment the water splashes high in the air, and
with a noise as of thunder the whole herd gains the river-
bank. Covered with a cloud of dust they clatter wildly
over the velt, their peculiar neigh growing fainter and
fainter in the distance.

From different points of the velt an answering

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

neigh shows that several other herds of these beautiful
animals are in the neighbourhood. Away they gallop
over the hard ground of the velt to a distant place of
refuge. Darkness has now set in and obliges me to
relinquish my post of observation.

As I return to the camp the darkness of night has
fallen. It is not long, however, before it is quite clear,
and a most beautiful moon shines magically over the
sleeping steppes. Jackals give out their querulous call
and the hyaena's unlovely laugh is to be heard.

.Now I hear the impallas whinnying. A leopard roars
not far from the camp. Then for several minutes all is
still again. Once more the neighing of the zebras is
heard as they resume their wild scamper ; but at present
we wait in vain for the most thrilling concert that human
ear can wish for. It is scarcely ever to be heard before
midnight.

By the tracks and trails I had discovered I knew that
at least thirty lions must have taken up their nightly
quarters somewhere in the neighbourhood. Owing to
the nature of the ground and the very thick undergrowth
in this region I had not yet had an encounter with the
king of beasts. But I waited patiently, for I wanted
more than the passing view the hunter considers himself
lucky to get. It was my intention to photograph His
Majesty at night time. To do this I had to wait patiently
and learn the customs and haunts of the animals in this
spot.

It was not without reason that the herds of wild
beast roamed round and about during the night. I knew

132

-* By the Stream

that the hartebeests, and perhaps also the shy oryx and
huge elands, had come to the water. But all these
animals feared their arch-enemy, the lion, who lay hiding
among the reeds in waiting for their arrival.

The rays of the moon glimmered softly, reflecting
here and there the white blocks of quartz that were to
be found among the rocks in the vicinity of the camp.
More and more animated became the life and movement
of the animal crowds in the neighbourhood of the stream ;
I seemed to have a foreboding — I might almost say I
felt what was about to happen. There ! What was that ?
We were not deceived. It was the earth-shaking, inde-
scribably impressive roar of the lion ! Almost immediately
several other lions join in the chorus ! As if reverberating
from the very bowels of the earth the mighty sound
swells stronger and fuller, sinking at last into a weird
low rumble that strikes the soul of man with terror.

He who has listened night after night, as I have,
in a fragile tent to whole herds of lions roaring with all
the power of their great lungs, will not fail to admit that
it is an experience not easily surpassed !

For one moment the whole night-world seemed to
listen to the voice of its lord ; then, all around, one
heard again the sound of animals betaking themselves
in terror to the velt. Later, tortured by thirst, they
returned once more to the stream to find some other
drinking-place.

I have never seen more than seven lions together.
Here by the river I could tell by the sound that there were
as many, for they gave their grand nightly concert from

i ^

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

quite different directions. Free from the every-day levelling
influences of the outer world, experiencing such things on
a tropical moonlit night — a night almost as bright as
day — it is not difficult to imagine the life of our ancestors,
the troglodytes of the ice-world, who must have had the
same experience every night !

Thus the lonely man in a little camp spins out his
thoughts ; the wings of fancy carry him home ; he sinks
imperceptibly from consciousness into sleep and dreams.
But it is not for long ; loud roars soon waken him again.

This time the roaring sounds threateningly near ;
black sleepy figures take courage and poke the camp-
fires into a blaze. Those who are taking their rest by the
confines of the camp come in to find greater safety,
and the watchful Askari doubles his attention. . . . Next
morning, only a few steps from the spot where some
carriers had slumbered, we find the imprints of huge
paws. Had I not ordered a thorn-hedge to be piled
up on this side of the camp — who knows what would
have happened ?

I was lucky in having such a number of lions near my
camp, but I had to use all my wits to persuade them
to come within reasonable distance of my apparatus at
night time. My attempts were at first without satis-
factory results, until at last I hit upon a method that
brought me to the desired goal.

As my photographs indicate, lions when possible creep
along the ground towards their prey. Further, it appears
that the lioness is always the aggressive party. The
pictures give only single lions, but in reality there

134

-+> By the Stream

were several others in close proximity. They had
gradually surrounded their prey and approached it from
different sides.

The illustration in which a lion and lioness are making
an attack together was unluckily spoilt by myself whilst
" developing," but it was put all right at home. In the
desert after many months a laconic telegram reached me
from home with the word " Saved ! "

There may seem to be something gruesome about
sacrificing oxen and donkeys in this way ; but they
would otherwise fall victims probably to the tsetse fly — a
horribly painful death ; whereas lions kill very quickly and
surely ; they just give one bite in the neck, and do not
torture their prey. I can vouch for this myself from
having witnessed the sight repeatedly from my thorny
hiding-place. Death was instantaneous in every case ; and
so stealthily does the lion creep up to its prey that it is
only at the last moment that the latter tries to break away.

Deep stillness lies over the velt, in the dark night \.
a gentle rustling is heard now and again in the thick
foliage and branches. Suddenly a roaring, mighty some-
thing strikes the ear and a heavy thud follows as the prey
is captured. There are never more than a few scratches
to be found on the booty ; a crunching bite in the neck
is always the cause of death. Many men killed in this
manner have never even uttered a cry. Many other
witnesses bear me out in this.

It is impossible to describe the joy with which we
watched, some nights later, the forms of the great world
of booty and rapine appear truly and accurately mirrored

137

With Flashlight and Rifle

on the little glass • plate. Even the not too intelligent
niggers were overjoyed, and for a long while it was
the subject of their talk at the camp-fire.

I never once came within range or sight of a lion by
day at that time. As soon as I laid my snares for them,
however, I succeeded in bagging quite a number, including
•one unbroken series of seven big-maned specimens.

VELT VEGETATION IN THE RAINY SEASON

Some lions look with disdain on oxen ; they approach
until within a few -paces, but keep night after night to
their accustomed prey — the wild herds of the velt.

Days., and weeks pass thus until rain-clouds appear
•on the distant horizon, and, as with one stroke, the
mighty concourse of animal life at the pools vanishes.
Their fine instinct tells them that rain-pools and fresh
grass are now to be found on the velt.

138

CANDELM5RA EUPHORBIA TREES

IX

The African Elephant

OUR knowledge of the ways of the African elephant
is very scanty. We know that from the days
of Scipio man began to break him in to service like
his Indian cousin, but there is little to be learnt about
him during the intervening centuries, beyond that he
continued to flourish in his hundreds and thousands all
over the vast regions in which he dwelt. So it was until,
with the arrival of the European traders, ivory became
all at once a much-coveted article. The supply of
elephants' tusks appeared inexhaustible. In the west of
Africa, especially, there were undoubtedly large treasure-
stores of ivory, accumulated by native chiefs. The
invention of the modern rifle made the slaughtering of
elephants an easy matter. It would be difficult to calculate
the tremendous numbers of elephants that were killed.
The natives, seeing the gain to be got, took part zealously
in the annihilation with their primitive weapons.

141

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

Immense quantities of ivory have been exported in>
recent years. In the last ten years the Antwerp ivory
market has taken on an average the tusks of 18,500
elephants yearly ; from 1888 to 1902 it took 3,212,700 kilos
of ivory, each tusk weighing on an average about 8^ kilos ;
nearly the whole was taken from the Congo district. It
is just the same with regard to the other ivory-markets
in the world, and the above figures give a very true, if
sad, picture of the destruction of the noble animal. Soon,
when the elephants are all destroyed, dealers will put
up prices, and then ivory will become an article of fashion,
obtainable only at a fancy figure.

All these elephants are killed merely on account of
their ivory. It does not say much for the highly developed
science of our .day that it has not been able to produce
a substitute. Fortunately the Indian elephant has a
happier fate in store, for the females carry but little
ivory, and even the bulls do not grow very large tusks
compared with those of their African cousins. The female
elephants in Africa have tusks weighing from 10 Ib.
to 30 Ib. each — sometimes, but very seldom, as much as
40 Ib. The males have extraordinarily large tusks. But
they vary very much in size, and an average of about
half a hundredweight would come near the truth. At
any rate, the English officers in British East Africa
considered a tusk weighing one and a half hundredweight
a suitable \vedding-present for the Prince of Wales.

This was far from being a record weight. In 1898
some native hunters shot a very old bull with tusks weigh-
ing together mere than 450 Ib. Both tusks were for sale in

142

n o

-»> The African Elephant

the Zanzibar market. Unfortunately I was unable to
procure them for a museum at home, although I had
been commissioned to offer a large sum for them. They
were sent to America, and my repeated efforts to obtain
them only resulted in a wire demanding 21,000 marks.
Later one of these tusks found its way to the British
Museum in London. I think I may safely say that these

A WONDERFUL ELEPHANT-TUSK. ONE OF A PAIR WEIGHING TOGETHER
-MORE THAN 450 POUNDS. THE ELEPHANT, A VERY OLD ONE, WAS.
KILLED NEAR KILIMANJARO IN 1899

were the largest tusks seen anywhere in Africa for
some time. They made a great sensation among the
commercial world of the East African coast. No such
tusks had ever been seen there. The accompanying illus-
tration shows the size of one of the pair.

This reminds me that unfortunately up to the present
time not a single museum in the world has secured one
VOL. i. 145 10

With Flashlight, and Rifle -*

of these huge African male elephants, for reasons I
have stated in another place.

Tusks weighing over 100 pounds are not often met
with. The size of the tusks does not always depend on
the age and size of the elephant ; it depends more
on the race, although even single families have tusks
varying in size. It seems also that in South Africa the
tusks are not as large as in Equatorial Africa.

So far as we know, the weight and size of the heaviest
and longest elephant-tusks as known in the whole world
are as follows l :

African Elephant

(Elephas africanus)

Indian Elephant

(Elephas maximus)

Mammoth ^ -

, (Elephas primigenius] \

The so-called solitary elephants, big old bulls, with
very large tusks, are not generally more to be feared
than ordinary ones, though on account of their size and
tremendous heads they are much more difficult to kill.
Among the herds tuskless cows are sometimes to be
found, but not often ; tuskless bulls are still rarer. Both
are known to be very ferocious and dangerous. Elephant-
hunters tell us that it sometimes requires a tremendous

1 These figures are taken from the book by Rowland Ward entitled
Records of Big Game,

146

Weight.
lb.

Length,
ft.

Greatest
Circumference.

in.

Y

247

9.10

I9|

i
r

226|

IO.2g

24j

J

'75

8-5

23|

V

109

6.1

—

I

106

6. 1 1

15!

)

IOO

Si

6

8.9

17!

-•> The African Elephant

number of shots — fifty or more — to kill a large old bull.
It is a well-known fact, too, that whereas, in districts where
nature is favourable to them, elephants have sound and
undamaged tusks, in hilly neighbourhoods they are often
broken. There are various theories to account for this.
It is doubtless caused chiefly by the way in which they
tear up the roots of trees. Following herds in narrow
passes, I have often come upon large numbers of big
pieces of tusks broken off in steep and rocky places. I
have preserved several such pieces in my collection.

The elephant uses his tusks with great skill in tearing
off the bark from trees. He chews this bark or sucks
out the sap and then throws it away. He chiefly attacks
trees of which he can detach the bark with one prod
of his tusk without stopping. I could often follow the
track of the herds for miles by the help of these marks
on the tree-trunks. It set me thinking of Robinson
Crusoe, who records the same thing. One often finds,
too, smaller trees which have been quite trodden down
or snapped in two. I fancy that the rending off of the
bark and the breaking of the trees helps to develop
the tusks, apart from the exercise obtained by the fighting
of the bulls amongst themselves. In some cases the
branches of the trees seemed to be broken off without
any desire for food on the part of the animal which made
the onslaught.

The tracks of the elephants are often extraordinarily
deep in the " Masika " — the rainy season. In the dry-
sand of the velt during the drought one can tell
whether the track is a recent one or not by the foot-

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

prints being sharply defined or somewhat blurred. The
bulls are recognised by the long and narrow tracks of the
hind feet. Those of the cows are more round and uniform.

I have assured myself of the fact that in West Africa
the food of elephants consists exclusively of the branches,
bark, and fruit of trees, and of all kinds of grasses. Pro-
fessor Volckens, who on several occasions examined
the elephants' dung in the Kilimanjaro district (some
6,000 and 9,000 feet high), found traces of Panic um
and Cyperus as well as sedge-grasses. All the best
authorities on this matter are of the same opinion as
myself.

On the other hand, I have often found that the elephant
eats many kinds of "bow-string" hemp (Sanseviera
cylindrical), but that he drops the chewed stalks, which
are bleached by the sun and can be seen fora great distance
around on the velt. These chewed bundles, of which I have
some specimens in my collection, are of a large size. It
seems that a certain quantity of this hemp gets retained
in the stomach in the same way as in that known hemp-
eater, the lesser kudu (Strepsiceros imberbis). It must
be remembered that this hemp has a great power of
retaining water, and in the very arid velt it is for the
elephant a much-needed aid.

The usual abode of the elephant in East Equatorial
Africa is not, as might be imagined, the cool and shady
virgin forests, but rather those places where he knows
himself less likely to be followed : in the wooded districts
in the rainy season, and at other times in the tall grass
or by the reed-grown river-side and in the thick under-

148

-* The African Elephant

growth which is found on a certain level on the mountain-
side, and which forms a shady and inaccessible retreat.
These districts which are patronised by the elephant are
generally at such a height as secures them rain more
or less during the whole of the year. They are distin-
guished by the word " subngo" in the Masai and Wando-
robo districts. From these the elephant often roams
far afield during the rainy season. The cunning old bulls,
at any rate, only leave the great mountain forests, at
this time impenetrable. These districts are often of such
an impassable nature that they can only be explored
by means of the tracks trodden by the elephants and
rhinoceroses. While our thick-skinned friend knows how
to traverse with ease these luxuriant tracts, man has
to make his way slowly and with much trouble. When
wounded or ferocious elephants are in pursuit, the hunter's
flight is hindered at every step, whilst the elephant and
rhinoceros easily overcome all these obstacles, and may
be very dangerous to the hunter.

The haunts of the elephant are usually confined within
restricted areas, and as in regions where he is hunted
he only emerges from them at night time, it often
happens that Europeans pass many years without obtain-
ing a sight of him. The former commander of a fort in
the Kilimanjaro district told me that, in spite of numerous
expeditions he made, it was seven years before he saw
an elephant. Most Europeans have had similar ex-
periences, whatever may be said 'to the contrary. Even
careful observers have been misled in estimating the
number of elephants in certain districts by the fact that

149

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

the same animals are constantly reappearing. Elephants
are very active, climb mountains easily, and keep
continually on the move.

Thus Hans Meyer, in his wonderful work The Kili-
mandjaro, talks of the abundance of elephants on this
mountain and of the large quantities of ivory to be secured
there. He said this at a time when elephant-shooting
was a monopoly of traders and the supply was already
nearly exhausted. By " exhausted " I mean in this case a
reduction to about a thousand heads in the whole district
of Kilimanjaro — an immensely vast region, bounded on
one side by a line which, beginning at the English
boundary, skirts Nguruman, Eyasi Lake, and Umbugwe
until it reaches English territory again by way of the
Pare Mountains. In this territory there was a supply of
many thousands of elephants some years ago. To-day
not more than 250 or 300 elephants could be found.

I am able to state this for a fact with the greatest
confidence, and have therefore never been able to under-
stand why the insane custom was introduced of compelling
the native chiefs, by way of punishment, to deliver a
certain amount of ivory to the officials of the Govern-
ment. It would seem almost as though they wished to
induce the natives to destroy the few remaining elephants.

In South Africa the authorities have since 1830
succeeded in retaining some large herds of elephants in
Cape Colony, in the Zitzi Kamma and Knysna forests.
Should this, then, be impossible in the case of natural
elephant-haunts like the forests of Kilimanjaro ?

One must bear in mind that the largest portion of

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•+> The African Elephant

the mountain is enveloped in rain-clouds, and could
never be colonised by either natives or Europeans, while
the possibilities of existence for Europeans there, as all
over East Africa, seem up to the present day to be nil.
In former days an elephant-hunt was very different
from what it is now. A few mounted men would fasten

" FUNDI," ARMED NATIVES PERMITTED TO HUNT BIG GAME. THESE GENTRY
HAD BEEN AFTER ELEPHANTS AND RHINOCEROSES. THEY CAME TO ME
TO BEG FOR POWDER, HAVING RUN SHORT, BUT THEY HAD TO DO
WITHOUT !

on the heels of the herd, and when the elephants bore
down upon them other riders would divert them from
the object of the attack. By these methods whole herds
were often destroyed.

The elephant has now almost disappeared from South
Africa, with the exception of a few small herds in very
unhealthy spots and a number of protected individuals in

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

the neighbourhood of Cape Town. To the former wealth of
elephants in East Africa the accounts of the blacks testify.
It is but a short while since these blacks travelled in
caravans, consisting of hundreds of men, laden with quan-
tities of exchange goods to barter for. ivory. In German
East Africa these caravans started from Pangani, the
emporium of the slave traffic, to travel to Masailand by
way of Arusha Chini and Arusha Ju. For a year or more
they journeyed through the country between the coast and
Lake Victoria, exchanging their wares for ivory, which
they derived chiefly from the VVandorobo, an offshoot of
the Masai. Later, however, having their attention drawn
to the value of ivory, the Masai-El Moran themselves
went in for elephant-hunting, and sold the coveted article
to coast caravans. The coast-people passed their nights
in camps surrounded by thorn-hedges, by which they
protected themselves against the attacks of the Masai
warriors, who often sought to plunder them. Great
bartering and haggling went on by day. Patience was
needed for this kind of trading, for it often took days
and even weeks to buy a few tusks. At last the
caravan would be laden with ivory, and would return to
the coast to deliver up hundreds of tusks. Many pre-
cautions had to be taken. Oscar Baumann informs us
that no caravan dared take a tusk over a beanfield, for
that would be unlucky. Many of those who went with
the caravan succumbed to the fatigues of the journey,
or lost their lives in fighting against the Masai. Every
man was armed with a muzzle-loader. These caravans
were organised by Arabs or Indians on the coast, who

-*> The African Elephant

paid their men in advance, but kept the lion's share of
the profits for themselves.

Thus was the desert scoured in all directions, with
the result that by the end of last century it was denuded
entirely of ivory and elephants. The transport of ivory
was undertaken in combination with the slave-trade,
slaves being made to carry the valuable goods to the
coast on their shoulders. And the chief purpose of all
this was to provide the billiard-players of the world
with material for their balls — the beautiful soft ivory
obtained from the African female elephant !

Nowadays the conditions are quite different. Smaller
caravans, fitted out for this trade, still travel over the
country ; but very few larger expeditions of this kind
are undertaken by the blacks, now that they would be
obliged to penetrate very far into the interior. Some
years ago I came across one such caravan comprising
about four hundred men. Their goal was the country
between Lake Rudolf and the Nile, a district then very
little known, but which still hides a large store of
elephants. I was naturally much astonished to find this
company in possession of breech-loaders. The leader
informed me with pride that for months — nay, years —
the caravan had lived entirely on the flesh of wild
animals, and that no bullet left their Mausers in vain !

Soon the ivory-trade will be a thing of" the past.
Already the European visitor laughs incredulously when
he is told how matters stood formerly. It is easier for
me to realise it, remembering as I do the vast numbers
of rhinoceroses I have come across, and comparing them

153

With Flashlight, and Rifle -*

with the elephants, whose fate they will undoubtedly
share — and that indeed more quickly now, for the value
of their horns is increasing.

The way in which the " Tembo," as the Waswahili
call the elephant, adapts himself to the altered conditions
of to-day is very remarkable. According to the accounts
of reliable witnesses, in days long gone by the elephant
hardly feared man at all.

Tn the rainy season the elephants disperse over the
green, well-watered plains, whilst during the drought they
hide in thick, inaccessible places. In South Africa the
few remaining herds live in this manner. The finding of
a new elephant-track is not a guarantee to the hunter
that he will reach the herd. Elephants move with great
swiftness, in many cases outstripping a fast runner, until
the next bit of cover, the next marsh or hill, or until they
reach some spot a tremendous distance away. When a
herd becomes suspicious, it is possible to follow it for
hours through the Nyika without being able to discover
of how many individuals it is composed. One animal steps
in almost exactly the same footprints as the other, and
this is done until they feel safer, when they walk further
apart. Elephants can go for a long time, too, without
resting, and change their haunts so quickly that it is
impossible to catch them up. They have an extra-
ordinary faculty for foretelling rain when it is still some
days off They disappear suddenly, and remain in the
neighbourhood of the pools on the plains until these
dry up or other animals come to disturb them. I will
leave it to others to decide whether they are capable of

154

-•> The African Elephant

deducing things correctly from past observations and
recurring experiences, thus learning to know when and
where to find water.

It goes without saying that one comes now and again
upon elephants suddenly, sometimes even right in one's
path. Indeed, I have observed that certain cunning
beasts, finding themselves disturbed by the hunters in
their own quarters, often take refuge in the proximity of
native colonies, and hide there for days and weeks, knowing
well by experience that this would be the last place in
which they would be looked for. In this way a Greek
trader of ten years' experience trapped, in the vicinity of
Moshi, a bull which had been there for days, and had
been pointed out to him by natives.

It is interesting to notice how the sporting fever has
seized those Europeans who at home would hardly touch
a gun, yet here have had no peace until they have joined
with others to try the effects of their small-bore rifles
on the great beasts, and then have immortalised them-
selves as skilful elephant-hunters by being photographed
on the spot.

It is just in the neighbourhood of the stations and of
the railways that it is possible to protect the remains of
the animal fauna. If protection is not adopted there, how
can we expect to exercise any control over either European
or native away in the heart of the desert ? It has happened
that whole parties of Askaris under European leadership
have together opened fire on elephant-herds. Lately these
conditions have been changed, because in place of the
vague and confused directions of earlier years the Governor,

155

With Flashlight, and Rifle ^

Count Gotzen, has instituted special rules and regulations,
which secure the immunity of the elephants in the neigh-
bourhood of the Moshi station.

This is a matter for rejoicing, and will, it is to be
hoped, do away with the existing abuses, upon which
Dr. Ludwig Heck comments severely in his book The
Animal Kingdom ; and will put an end to those
"tali stories" of elephant-hunting, which he holds up
to ridicule.

If this is sad information about the disappearance of
the African elephant, it is a fitting conclusion to the
" elaborate " fables of those persons who tell us in the
sporting papers that they propose to go for the rhinoceroses
and hippopotamuses when they return to the colony. Un-
fortunately, such persons are more numerous than might
be supposed. For instance, I heard the remark made
that German East Africa could only develop commercially
when all the wild animals were destroyed. Germans
must indeed learn how to colonise ! I admit this openly,
without shame !

The rate at which elephants move, especially when
attacked or fleeing, is extraordinary. They go at a quick
trot, and not at a gallop. This trot is perfectly noiseless
in the rainy season, and enables the mighty beasts to travel
at night time in an almost ghostly manner, like the
rhinoceros and the hippopotamus. In the dry season,
however, the moving herd makes a thundering noise on
the hard ground. Elephants climb steep mountains, and,
like the rhinoceros, tread deep paths among the rocks of
the highest peaks. They go over the steepest ranges, and

156

-* The African Elephant

come down in a half-sitting posture, as if they were
tobogganing — very much as we have seen them in hippo-
dromes and circuses at home. One must have seen how
a thirty-seven-year-old gigantic Indian male elephant gets
through the tiny door of a special railway truck to

From it photograph procured l>y the author at Tanga.

A CARAVAN LOAD OF EIGHTY LARGE AND HUNDREDS OF SMALL ELEPHANT-
TUSKS, BROUGHT BY A TRADING CARAVAN TO THE COAST

understand how skilfully these heavy creatures know how
to move about.

According to my experience, the elephant's method
of attack is to approach very swiftly with widely flapping
ears, and with a piercing, trumpet-like cry. On two
occasions, however, no sound was made. Trustworthy
natives, whom I had known for many years, have related
how in some cases the elephant has seized hold of the
black ivory-hunter, thrown him down, and bored him

157

With Flashlight, and Rifle ^

with his tusks. Once an old bull ripped a hunter to pieces
by putting its foot on the man's head, and slashing his body
with its tusk as if it had been using a knife. There are many
similar stories told of fatalities with elephants ; one of the
saddest was the death of Prince Ruspoli in Somaliland.
When flight is necessary, it is best made sideways ;
for the elephant makes his attack, as a rule, straight in
front of him. This is all the more to be recommended
because it is by an extraordinarily developed sense of
smell that the elephant finds his way, and not by his weak
eyes. His hearing also is excellent. Observers who
doubt this fact do not know that in most cases the elephant
is aware of the approach of an enemy solely by his sense
of smell long before his hearing can come into activity ;
also that elephants are so accustomed to the noise of the
snapping of branches, when they are in the herd, that they
would not notice the sounds made by a hunter. Solitary
elephants, however, are agitated by the slightest suspicious
rustle. From some vantage-point I have often watched
these animals in the valley beneath, and have had
excellent opportunities of noticing how, with the help of
their trunks lifted high over their heads, they were able
to recognise the ever-changing breezes of the hillside,
and to watch over their own safety and that of the herd.
Personally I am quite convinced that either the
animals have a sense unknown to us, or that, by a quite
unsuspected highly developed acuteness of known senses,
they are able to understand one another to some extent.
Moreover, they have a much keener and surer suscepti-
bility to sound than man.

158

-•> The African Elephant

Once I found two elephants keeping company with an
old male giraffe. For about eight days I was able to watch
the three friends together. The services they rendered
one another for their mutual safety were quite patent, and
proved completely the theory that the elephant depends
for safety on his sense of smell and the giraffe on his
hearing. As far as I know, this is the first cited case of
the elephant and giraffe making friends, whilst the English
hunter, A. H. Neumann, found elephants and Grevy's
zebras and Grant's gazelles together, as he tells us in his
admirable book Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial
Africa. I do not consider it merely a matter of chance
that the elephant prefers to stay in the mountainous districts,
for the direction of the wind varies according to the sun's
altitude, and he is dependent for his safety on his sense of
smell. When the elephant thinks himself secure, or by
night, his movements are quite free and easy, but during
the day, and in places where danger lurks, he is very shy
and careful. Moving noiselessly, remaining the whole day
in a small space, standing for hours under the shadow of
the trees, he makes no sound except the unavoidable noises
of digestion. Should an elephant utter a cry it would be a
sure sign of approaching danger. But he cannot avoid the
noises made by his digestive organs, for, of course, the
enormous quantitiesof branches and leaves which are required
to sustain such an immense body can hardly be expected
to work noiselessly in that mighty laboratory — his stomach !
This fact is valuable to the hunter, for it enables him
to discover the whereabouts of single elephants.

Another reason which influences the elephant in his

159

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

choice of a refuge is the arrival of parasites, especially
the Oestriden of the genus Cobolldia, which annoy and
tease him exceedingly, and to be rid of which he retires
helplessly into the jungle.

The blacks say that when the elephant discovers a
man-track he tests it with his trunk, even if it be hours
old, and then for safety's sake takes himself miles away
from his momentary resting-place. This does not seem
improbable when one considers the habit these animals
have of taking up earth and sand with their trunk. I
have not been able to prove this statement for myself,
but know it to be true that the slightest suspicion causes
them to seek safety in flight.

I remember once getting a bird's-eye view of a whole
herd suddenly taking to flight as the leading cow reached
a track which had been trodden by myself and some
blacks two days earlier.

The extraordinary skill with which elephants draw
conclusions from unfortunate experiences has been
known for a long while. Even the cleverest trainer
could not succeed in making an elephant mount again
on a stage of which he had once broken through the
boards. In the same way a wild elephant avoids for a
lifetime a place where he has discovered a pit-hole.

It appears that in the Masai highlands several small
herds are in the habit of grouping themselves together
in larger ones about the month of October. But every
herd keeps independent.

At this time, too, the herds which are composed of
middle-aged bulls join these bands. The larger herds

1 60

-* The African Elephant

also make a division of sexes ; especially when the
elephants settle down under the trees during the day.

Lately the herds in Masai-land, which have been so
much thinned, have not been able to keep up so strictly
the order and division into separate age-classes as when
there was a good supply of elephants.

It is a much-debated question whether the old bulls
which go about alone or in couples attach themselves at
times to the herds for breeding purposes. Personally I
do not believe this, but am of opinion that the stronger
herd-bulls with tusks weighing about 50 Ib. are those
which are the principal propagators, whilst in most cases
the quite old solitary bulls are more or less incapable
specimens of their kind.

It is a remarkable fact that an elephant calf whose
mother is dead is immediately adopted and cared for by
other cows, but, of course, only if it is big enough to
join in an escape. This fact, which I am positive of,
testifies to the close social union in which the herds live
and to their strongly developed family feeling.

The lactation period extends itself over several years,
as is the case with rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses.
As with the Indian elephant, the time of gestation lasts
about twenty-two months. I do not think that the females
are capable of conception before the age of fifteen years,
while the males develop their generative power some-
what earlier. At twenty-five a male elephant has reached
his prime, although he sometimes attains a very great age.

I repeatedly found small herds composed of what
appeared to be very old females with sucklings and five
VOL. i. 161 ii

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

or six young calves of the most varied sizes. I am
inclined to believe, in common with the natives, that the
younger beasts are all brothers and sisters, and offspring
of the old females, and, I believe also, that a female
elephant under favourable circumstances is capable of
conceiving every six or seven years.

Although one very seldom finds ticks in their skins,
elephants are greatly given to rolling themselves in the
mire, bestrewing themselves with sand and earth, and
rubbing their skin against trees, the so-called "sign-
post " trees. From this cause, like rhinoceroses, they
are often variously coloured, according to the colour of
the earth of the locality. In the highland woods, through
which they wander nightly, one finds hundreds of trees
against which they have rubbed their bodies. Such
rubbing-places indicate the size of the animals. On
July 23rd, 1903, I found such a mark 15 ft. high.
Crooked trees are used by preference, so that the elephant
can lean against them slanting-wise and with all his weight.
If elephants come upon open places in the forest, or go
away into the plains, they make use of the same strong
trees over and over again, until the bark is completely
worn away. Many gigantic trees bear witness to the
fact of their having been thus visited nightly during the
course of some hundred years.

The thirst for ivory has for many years been the
cause of the formation of armed hordes in German East
Africa. These hordes either pursue the elephants with
powder and shot on their own account or are hired by
native agents. They often travel through wide districts,

162

-•> The African Elephant

clearing the place entirely of elephants. They are
exceptionally well armed with rifles, and are accustomed
to hunt large elephants in bands of three or more.
They hunt them in their customary refuges — in the
dense jungle, and only fire when quite close. They take
flight after a few shots, as the animal often makes a
rush towards the dense clouds of smoke. Often they
follow the wounded beasts for several days. Every
rifleman marks his own particular shot with a peculiar
sign in order that it may be ascertained who gave the
death-wound.

These so-called " trustworthy Fundi," as they were
euphemistically christened some years ago, know how to
keep their secrets, and always give rosy reports to the
authorities with regard to their doings. They always
report upon a number of herds of which they know. As
to the destruction of these herds, they are as innocent as
new-born children! In reality they play a shameful part.
Only he who tracks them for years is aware of their tricks
and artifices. There is no doubt about the fact that they
are exterminating the elephants in the same way as, in the
middle of the last century, the musket-armed negro-traders
were commissioned by white men to destroy every trace
of elephant and rhinoceros. These hunters wear amulets,
to which they trust for protection ; and in firm belief in
their magic spell they often approach elephants without
fear. Naturally this gives them a certain advantage over
the cautious European.

After killing a number of elephants (fortified always
by their witchcraft) they give themselves out as qualified

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hunters, and organise shooting expeditions, but keep in
the background, having learnt -wisdom by unfortunate
experiences. It is noteworthy that in the neighbourhood
especially known to me, they never dared to take any
women when the hunt promised to be a very successful
one. They are accustomed on approaching the elephants
to take off nearly every particle of clothing, and carefully
rub the whole body, especially under the armpits, with
earth. In this they follow the example of the prey
they pursue. There is no doubt that the elephant and
rhinoceros wallow in the mire, and put sand on their
bodies, for the same reason that the Masai people rub
themselves with ochre and grease, namely, to keep off
parasites. These hunters possess a large store of
knowledge about the habits of the animals they hunt, but
at is exceedingly difficult to get them to disclose any of
their secrets. This they will only do when one manages
to be regarded as their colleague. Otherwise they prefer
to give currency to the most incredible fables.

About the year 1896 the native "political agent" of
the station at Moshi, who hailed from Kavirondo, and
was named Schundi, unfortunately had the monopoly of
the elephant-shooting in the Kilimanjaro. His people
traversed the whole district in large bands. The less
practised and trustworthy people of the company provided
the caravans with wild game of all kinds, the best shots
devoting themselves to the elephants. At some springs
I found dozens and dozens of rhinoceroses, murdered
by these " Makua." TneY also succeeded in destroying
numbers of giraffes, much sought after on account of their

164

-•> The African Elephant

hides. The same reports were heard about other parts of
the country at the same time. Happily these abuses have
in a great measure been remedied by the wise restrictions
instituted by the Governor, Count Gotzen.

It is worthy of remark that the elephant, when at
large, appears scarcely ever to lie down. If there are
exceptions to this rule. I believe it to be those cases

WE HAD TO OVERTURN THE ELEPHANT IN ORDER TO REMOVE HIS SKIN

where the animals have been shot and are ill. Ele-
phant-hunters have a superstition that whoever meets an
elephant lying down will soon die. I cannot say if these
conditions are the same in countries where the elephant
is not so much sought after as on the Masai plains.

Pitfalls, formerly common in the Kilimanjaro dis-
trict, but not so often met with nowadays, are often
avoided with much skill by the elephant. Still, as they

165

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

are cunningly covered and well placed, they often fulfil
their aim. These traps do more than anything else to
drive away all manner of game, especially elephants.

The Wandorobo, especially the Wakamba, shoot the
elephants with poisoned arrows. The wounded beasts
have often to be followed for days. The animals are
very seldom lost, as the natives are very clever at finding
the dead bodies, guided by the vultures and marabous.
Some Wandorobo races are wont to use poisoned spears,
though only poisoned arrows are used in the neighbour-
hood of the Kilimanjaro. Twice whilst following herds
which had just been chased by the Wakamba I have
found broken arrow-shafts.

There can be no doubt that the African elephant can
be tamed in the same way as his Indian cousin. Still,
I agree with English authorities, that in Equatorial
Africa such tamed elephants would be useless, as in the
dry season there are no visible means of sustenance on
the plains. In any case, the conditions are so totally
different in the two countries that it is impossible to draw
any conclusion from what is done in India as to the em-
ployment of the elephant in West Africa. The taming,
in the hands of expert natives from India, ought to
present no insuperable difficulties, although our keepers
have observed that the Indian elephant is easier to handle
than the African. Experiments of this kind, however,
would need a great deal of capital, and would have to be
undertaken speedily, in view of the rapid disappearance
of the elephant.

What a change can come about in little more than

1 66

-* The African Elephant

fifty years ! Fifty years ago elephants and rhinoceroses
were still to be found in the districts now called German
South-West Africa ; earlier, both animals were to be found
in great numbers up to the coasts by Walfisch Bay.

" In those times," wrote the famous hunter W. Cotton
Osvvell : " Vardon was the most enthusiastic rhinoceros-
hunter ; he filled his waggon with horns as I did mine
with ivory ; he used to shoot four or five every day."

Those were the times when Oswell and others month
after month and day after day decimated the elephant-
herds in South Africa, and when the Boers penetrated
farther and farther into the heart of the country and
effected such a destruction of game as only can be
realised by those who, like myself, have had opportunities
of forming a mental picture of the condition of things in
the primeval forests.

What happened fifty years ago in South Africa is
now happening under the Equator ; about that there is
no doubt. Nowadays we unfortunately see black hunters
in the German Cameroons slaughtering elephants with
breech-loaders and with the sanction of the Government.
We can but delay the work of annihilation ; we cannot
stop it. The day is not far distant when it will be asked :
"•Quid novi ex Africa?" And the reply will be: "The
last African elephant has been killed."

167

A DISTANT VIEW OF KILIMANJARO

X

Elephan1>Hunting

FOR months I had been trying in vain to get some
good photographs of elephants with my telephoto
lens, and also to get hold of a young elephant alive.
My many disappointments were more than made up for,
however, one September morning. Troubled apparently
by the poisoned arrows discharged at them by the
Wakamba, a large herd of elephants had made their
way down from the mountains and paid a visit during the
night to the stream by my camp. They had destroyed
the scares, fashioned out of sheets of white paper, which
I had left on the water with a view to frightening the
animals away to other drinking-places, where I could
photograph them conveniently.

With the exception of lions, I had found that all
animals fought shy of these scares, but in the bright
moonlight they seem, on the contrary, to have attracted
the elephants ; for, to my astonishment, I found that my

1 68

-•> Elephant-Hunting

nocturnal visitors had taken possession of them, pulled
them to pieces, and stamped them under-foot in the
mire. This bore out what I had often heard from native
hunters about the aggressive character of the elephants
of this part of Africa at night.

The herd had crossed and recrossed the stream
several times and had then come up about three hundred
yards towards the camp. Though I felt almost certain
they must have gone back to the security of their moun-
tains, I followed their tracks as usual, just to see what
I could make of them. To my surprise I found, after
about half an hour, that they had suddenly formed
themselves in a more or less distinct line and set out in
the direction of the desert.

This suggested two possibilities. Either, after drinking
their fill, they had started for the next watering-place,
two days' journey away — and this seemed to me the more
likely alternative — or else they were taking up their quarters
for a day or two on the dry plains, so as to keep out
of reach of the Wakamba and their arrows. In either
case I had to look sharp. Returning to the camp, I
got ready for the march in a very few minutes, and set
out with some of my best men and about forty carriers.
I saw that they brought with them in their calabashes
as much water as they could carry and a good supply
of rope. It was clear from the tracks that there were
young elephants in the herd, and I made up my mind
to direct all my efforts towards capturing one of these,
though I fully realised the danger involved in the attempt,
considering the number of animals I had to deal with, and

169

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

that I would probably have to conduct my operations out
in the open. We reckoned the herd as numbering about
twenty in all, of which a number were very large females.
The bulls were distinguishable by the long and compara-
tively narrow shape of their hind-feet.

Before us, in any case, was a march of several hours.
It was worth while to make every effort to catch up the
elephants before sunset, probably resting under some
cluster of trees upon the velt. We should then have
to spend the night out on the desert — without any
fresh supply of water, of course — returning next day to
camp.

After following the tracks for about an hour, we found
that there must be more than twenty elephants in the
herd, for here and there, when they had come to difficult
places — certain dried-up river-beds, for instance — they had
made their way out of them one by one, some to the
right, others to the left, and this enabled us to reckon
up their numbers more precisely. Here and there as
we went I found a bundle of chewed bowstring hemp,
out of which the sap had been sucked, and a piece of
chewed bark torn from a tree by the elephants' tusks.
But the herd had evidently made no halt, and had con-
tinued on their way without loitering to eat.

The sun was scorching, and it was necessary to put
out all our energy, and to place our trustiest men in the
rear in order to keep the long column together at the
rate at which we had to go. There was something very
fascinating in this almost silent march of ours over the
glistening plains hour after hour, our eyes fixed upon

170

-* Elephant-Hunting

the tracks, a whispered word exchanged between us now
and again. Though he may not count upon getting at
his quarry for six or eight hours, yet every hour in such
cases as this intensifies the hunter's suspense. Perhaps
the elephants, feeling themselves safe, will have stopped
to feed. In that case it will be possible to get at them
by midday! There are always such possibilities. In

ORGEICH, MY TAXIDERMIST, AND ALL THE CARRIERS AT WORK PREPARING
AN ELEPHANT-SKIN

our case, however, this did not happen, and the herd
kept on its way. Hour after hour goes by, the arid,
barren desert, without a sign of life on it, unrolling
itself monotonously before us in its unchanging line — hill
after hill rising before us in the distance only to disappear
again behind us as we move on and on. The dreariness
and loneliness of Nyika combine with the intense heat
to sap the energy of even the most strenuous ; but we

171

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

move forward like automatons, adding thousand after
thousand of footsteps to the thousands we have left
behind.

Suddenly our eyes note a black speck rising in the
vicinity of a group of lofty acacia-trees. My excellent
field-glass discloses to us that it is a bull giraffe which
has taken up this solitary position. Nearer and nearer
we come to him, until, eyeing us curiously and anxiously,
he takes to flight and ambles away unmolested.

We have now to get over an unusually deep river-bed,
dried up since the rains. Reaching the opposite bank
at the head of my men, I suddenly espy in front of me,
about sixty steps away, a dark mass under a rather tall
salvadora-bush. At once I sink noiselessly on my knee,
my men doing the like, acting in unison like clockwork.
At the same moment a number of twittering rhinoceros-
birds fly away from the dark mass to a bush hard by,
while the mass itself, in which we now recognise a
rhinoceros, quickly assumes a sitting position, and a young
rhinoceros appears suddenly beside it, as though out of
the ground. At a sign from me, my camera, always kept
in readiness, passes into my hands from the hands of
the bearer told off to carry it. Unluckily, just at this
moment the sun goes behind some clouds. After a few
minutes of anxious suspense, however, I am able to take
a photograph, and then my rifle rings out like the crack
of a whip ; it is worth while to get hold alive of that
much-sought-after prey, a young living rhinoceros. While
the mother goes raging about in a circle, "snorting and
spitting, in a cloud of dust, looking for its foe, I get

172

-* Elephant-Hunting

my chance of laying her low with a second bullet, giving
the word at the same moment in a low voice to my men
to spread themselves out, on hands and feet, over the
ground in order to catch the young one. But the little
animal proves itself too strong and dangerous. It makes
for the men nearest to it, and they take to their heels.
My own eftbrts fail too, and off it goes with its tail
raised high in the air.

Much disappointed at seeing the little beast disappear
over the velt, I find myself wishing again for a good
horse — a very vain wish in these regions — so that I could
go after it and catch it. Failing a horse, there is no
way of getting hold of it, so, leaving three men behind
us to convey to camp the big horns of the old rhinoc-
eros, we must proceed again on our chase after the
elephants.

Hour after hour now passes without further break. At
last, towards four o'clock in the afternoon, all hope is almost
lost, and I begin to feel sure that the elephants, which
have kept in a bee-line all the time, have gone right
ahead to the next drinking-place.

We halt for a brief space. The countenances of my
men denote exhaustion and discouragement. Their
thoughts are of the fleshpots of the well-watered camp,
As so often happens, however, their simple dispositions
are untroubled by some of the circumstances of the
situation that are most vexing to me. We hold a small
" council of war," with the result that we decide to go
on for a few more hours and then spend the night upon
the velt.

173

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

I notice now two small owls of a rare species
(Pisorhina capensis] not yet included in my ornithological
collection, and I am tempted to bring them down with
my flintlock, which I have always handy. By this
time I have myself given up all hope of getting at the
elephants — we have a long streak of the rising country
ahead of us in view. This calls down on me the reproach
of my trusty old Almasi, who regards the owl as a bird
of evil omen, the killing of which will bring us misfortune.
And the prophecy — though I laughed at it at the time-
came very near fulfilment.

In the course of the next half-hour my chief guide
and I became aware of a strong scent of elephants,
and almost immediately afterwards we espied, about a
mile and a quarter ahead of us, on a hill, clearly de-
fined in the bright tropical light, two dark groups of
elephants quietly at rest. It was again a case for quick
action.

Most of my men. .would have to remain behind
while the three most trusty of them and two Masai and
myself went on near the elephants. Much to my anxiety,
the very slight breeze until then blowing behind us
became stronger, and I had almost given up hope as I
lay concealed in the grass, when, suddenly changing
round, it began to come towards us from the elephants.

The plains were here very bare, with little on them
except withered acacias. I succeeded, however, in getting
to within two hundred paces of the elephants, and in taking
several photographs of them at this distance. I had to
exercise all my will-power to hold the camera steady, but

174

-+ Elephant-Hunting

I did so, and although the light was not very favourable,
the results were a success.

My field-glass showed me that the elephants were
ranged in two great groups — males one side, females the
other ; pressing close up to their mothers were three young
elephants, keeping as quiet as the old ones. The only
movement they all made was a flapping to and fro of

THE ENTIRE HERD OF ELEPHANTS, OVER TWENTY IN ALL, HAD PACKED
THEMSELVES TOGETHER UNDER THE MIMOSA-TREES. ONE STRONG
BULL FACED ME, DISPLAYING HIS LONG WHITE TUSKS

their heavy ears. Most of them stood with their heads
turned towards me. — in the direction of the wind therefore,
and thus protecting themselves from the wind as much
as possible. The absolute stillness of the huge mass
of monsters had something about it at once impressive
and uncanny.

The nature of the ground seemed to forbid all hope

175

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

of photographing the elephants again in the act of taking
flight, so I packed away my camera carefully in its case
in expectation of exciting events to come. Then I
took up my rifle and, as a nearer approach could not
be made for lack of cover, shot the largest bull elephant
that was nearest to me high up on the trunk. I had fired
kneeling. The elephant showed that he was hit by taking
three or four steps forward, swinging up his trunk, and
moving his great ears about like a fan. Simultaneously the
whole mass of elephants began to show signs of animation.
I was reminded of the disturbing of a bee-hive or of an
ants' nest by the way in which, with surprising quickness,
they all, old and young, swarmed out of their resting-
place, spreading out their ears and swinging or rolling
up their trunks, as they searched all round them for their
enemy. From my kneeling position (my men were lying
flat on the ground beside me) I now sent two more bullets
at the elephant 1 had already shot ; then the whole herd,
led by an old cow with trunk rolled up, set off suddenly in
full flight, as though at a word of command, and not in
the direction of the velt, as I had expected, or for the
hills behind them, but sideways to the right.

It was a real delight — the grand spectacle of these five-
and-twenty elephants a hundred and fifty yards off charging
past me ! On they went with extraordinary speed — almost
without a sound, in spite of their tremendous weight.
The wounded bull elephant was a little to one side,
nearer me, and jumping up I was able to get another
bullet into his shoulder. My shot, however, had this
result, that the whole herd suddenly stopped, with the

176

-*> Elephant-Hunting

young ones in the middle, and stood still a moment
looking round for their hidden foe.

Here I should recall the fact that, as I have mentioned
before, most of the older elephants in East Africa have
in one way or another made acquaintance with powder
and shot. I had been thoughtless enough to jump up,
the wind veered round again that moment a little, and the

MIMOSA-TREES BROKEN DOWN BY ELEPHANTS

elephants had spotted me. In another second the whole
herd, led by two old cows, were coming full tilt in my
direction. I came to the conclusion at once that I was
done for ! However, with a rapidity I find it hard now
to realise, I fired off six shots with my second rifle at
the elephants leading, and then flew to one side ; my
men, who had already started off, and who had called
to me to do so, going in the same direction. I recall now
VOL. i. 177 12

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

quite clearly that I experienced at this moment no feeling
of anxiety, but merely one of intense suspense and curiosity
as to what my fate would be. A thousand thoughts
seemed to flash simultaneously through my mind and
then make way for a sort of apathetic sense of resignation,
coupled with the reflection that the elephants were well
within their rights in wreaking vengeance upon their
attackers !

In front of me ran my men, who had thrown everything
aside, and as I ran, clasping my rifle in my right hand,
I felt instinctively for cartridges in the left-hand pocket
of my breeches, saying to myself as I did so that a few
more bullets more or less counted for nothing against
so great a number of animals.

We had fled to one side, as I have mentioned, because
this is the way to escape a charging elephant, owing to
his defective eyesight. Just as I felt that they must be
upon us, I heard in the midst of the muffled thunder of
their stampede a terrible trumpeting, and in the same
moment one of my men, now far ahead, called out to me :
" They are running away, master ! "

Turning round I find that the bull I shot has fallen
to the ground, and that all the others have taken flight
to the side in the direction in which they had originally
started. Seeing this, my best men hurry up, and I
succeed in getting a bullet into the shoulder of a very
large but apparently ailing cow, which is bringing up the
rear — for, there being now no longer any danger of death,
my anxiety to get hold of a young elephant has come
back to me. Before I could reload, the entire herd

-•> Elephant-Hunting

was out of range, and I could but marvel at the rate
they went at. I turned now to the fallen bull, not yet
quite dead. In a few moments my camera was in position,
and I was able to take several photographs of the animal.
There was now no time to lose. While I saw that all
the others of my party came up, I gave orders for the head
of the elephant to be skinned and his teeth got out ; and
then chose six of the strongest of 'my men to continue the
hunt with me. The others I ordered to remain near
the dead elephant and next day to carry the skin of its
head and its teeth to camp, regretting much that, owing
to the distance and the scanty number of my men, it
was not practicable to prepare the entire skin.

The small amount of water now available I required
for my six followers, and I set out a few moments later —
somewhat too hurriedly, for all the ropes were left behind,
an oversight we had to pay dearly for the same day.

We followed now on the new elephant-tracks. Both
the cows that had been shot bled profusely, but
kept on their way with the others, and after pursuing
them for about an hour and a half I came upon them all
again shortly before sunset, grouped in an imposing
mass, the males and females apart as before, underneath
acacia-trees, on a part of the velt offering practically
no cover. Motionless, but for the swinging of their ears
to and fro, they stood there — a great solid, impressive mass,
coloured a reddish-brown by their mud-baths and sand-
baths. In the glow of the sunset they presented just
the same picture they had in the morning.

I was able to get to within i 50 paces of them ; on this

179.

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

occasion, however, I had to exert all my authority to
prevent my carriers from running away. I, too, lost
nerve for a single moment, but recovered myself, and,
after I had examined the animals individually with
my glass, I found that two of the largest cows, which
had each a calf and which stood out by themselves, had
been badly hit. I gave them another bullet each, but
this time from a lying position, taught wisdom by my
experience in the morning. By a violent flapping of their
ears they gave signs that the shots had grazed their
shoulders. To my great satisfaction in one respect,
but much to my disappointment in another, my shots
had the result that the bulk of the herd took flight to
the left, while the two wounded cows, without making
any other sign, made off to the right. At a very slow,
shambling sort of trot they disappeared in a depression
of the ground, followed by their young ones. After
the rest of the herd, including three other young ones,
had got out of sight I followed the wounded cows with
my six men, now very tired, and came upon them again
ten minutes later, taking note that one of them was in
a very bad way and that the young ones, both close on
four years old, were following the other cow ahead.

After firing nearly twenty shots without result from
behind I succeeded in bringing down first the hindmost
cow by a shot in the ear at six paces, and then the one
in front, which had the young ones with it, and which
stood still for a few moments undecided, bleeding
heavily.

As usual, the young animals — both of them bulls,

180

-•> Elephant-Hunting

between live and six feet in height, and with tusks already
of the length of a hand — remained close to their dead
mothers. We at once set about trying to catch them ;
but the bigger of the two went for us so fiercely and
alarmingly that I was obliged to shoot it, just as it had
thrown one of my men on the ground, and was about
to gore him to death with its tusks. I killed it with a
shot in the head at a distance of only a few feet. Then

\NCE OF A BROKEN MIMOSA-TREK

1 tackled the second one myself — a very rash proceeding—
and in a few seconds I managed, thanks to my size, in
securing a hold of it before it became dangerous like the
other, throwing one arm round its neck and grasping one
of its ears with the other hand, yelling out at the same
moment to my men to fasten its legs with ropes. Looking
back on it all to-day, I marvel that I escaped from the
encounter with my life.

181

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

The young animal, with its greater strength, was able
to drag me about all over the place ; but I clung tight to
him, and, with my considerable weight of 180 pounds, I
succeeded in holding on to him for over ten minutes.
My men seized hold of his tail ; but I could not get them
to hold on to his other ear, and it only now came home to
me that all the ropes had been left behind, and that there
was no possibility therefore of tying the animal's legs, as
I had done with another young elephant in the year 1900.
After about a quarter of an hour my strength gave way
and I let go, and I literally sank down on the ground
in a state of hopeless collapse, utterly blown and unable
to utter a sound, my tongue cleaving to the roof of my
mouth.

My men also lay all round me, panting. One is glad
to have such moments over and done with ! All our
trouble and exertions were in vain. We made efforts to
tie his legs with bits of our clothing, but this did not
succeed, as he got excited in the process, changing his
mood suddenly as elephants do, and assuming the offensive
vigorously. My men were not to be induced to go near
him now, so, as nothing would have induced me to shoot
him, I was relieved presently when he took flight in the
direction in which the herd had disappeared.

Not to weary the reader further, I will just add that,
tired to death and utterly discouraged, we now lit a fire
in the neighbourhood, and got together some dry wood in
the dust to keep it burning.

But our torturing thirst would not let us sleep. It
became so terrible that at last we had to make our way

182

-* Elephant-Hunting

in the darkness to the body ol the last-killed elephant, in
order to open its stomach and drink the indescribably
stinking liquid inside. Then we lay down again in our
camp, suddenly to be awakened at about nine o'clock by
my experienced old " Fundi " springing up and giving out
the cry, in low tones, " Tembo, Bwana ! Tembo ! "

And, sure enough, there were the twenty-one remaining

THE ELEPHANTS, OVER TWENTY IN" NUMBER, HAD MADE THEIR WAY
ACROSS THE BED OF A STREAM, NOW DRIED UP

elephants, looking like monstrous ghosts in the moonlight,
moving past us with their noiseless trot in the direction
of the hills they had left !

The elephants were clearly striving to make their way
as quickly as possible to their mountain thickets. My
men had sprung up at once, and exerted themselves as
quick as lightning to extinguish our small fire by tearing
out the burning pieces of wood, knowing by experience

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

that elephants, especially when they have been excited,
are incited to attack by the sight of a fire.

I myself had in mind a case of this kind. A number
of large elephants had made for a camp-fire, and for
nearly a quarter of an hour trampled over it, and over
everything they found near it belonging to the black
hunters. The six men who were encamped beside it
found safety in flight.

Naturally we spent some minutes of keen anxiety
as the elephants passed — anxiety due in large measure
to the strange circumstance that the elephants should
have chosen a route so near our camp. But the danger
passed, and the silent, illimitable velt lay steeped in
the moonlight. I took the first hours of the watch,
and then, after my men had rested, took my turn of
sleep. When I woke up suddenly at dawn, I found the
camp-fire almost extinguished and the watch snoring ;
it was their snoring that had awakened me. So com-
pletely do the results of extreme physical exertion prevail
over all thought or fear of wild animals !

Now came a very difficult and wearying seven-hours'
march over broken ground full of holes made by rodents,
to our distant camp, in scorching sunlight. I am doubtful
whether we should ever have reached it but for our
good fortune in coming upon some water after long digging
in a dried-up river-bed. It is not easy to give an idea
of the effect such experiences have upon the men who
live through them.

Arrived safely in camp, I despatched some men next
day to bring back the teeth of both the cow elephants last

184

-•> Elephant-Hunting

killed. The larger of the two had only one tusk, which
weighed 28 Ib. — a somewhat considerable weight for a
cow — and which was already far gone through decay.
The elephant would soon have lost this tusk also. My
men found in the animal two iron bullets such as natives
use, one of which was embedded in the outer coating
of its stomach — an indication of the great vitality of
elephants.

I long experienced very keen regret at the failure of this
hunt. I had come so near my desired object of bringing
to Europe the first East African elephant from German
or British East Africa — an undertaking no one has yet
achieved, despite the construction since then of the great
Uganda Railway in the heart of the higher regions of
the Nile.

This indicates the difficulty of all such enterprises in
a country in which the presence of the tsetse fly and
other such hindrances prevent the use of camels, horses,
or mounts of any kind.

Not a single young elephant has been brought
home to our Zoological Gardens from German East
Africa. The elephant brought home by Herr Dominik,
Ober-lieutenant in the colonial police, which had been
captured by a large number of natives, is from the
Cameroons.

With the help of Askaris who were at his disposal,
and of some elephant-hunters, he succeeded in killing a
herd of elephants which had been hemmed in and watched
day and night, and to capture all the young animals — very
small specimens. Most of them died, and only one young

185

With Flashlight and Rifle *

bull reached Berlin, where he has been in the Zoological

o

Gardens for some years. Herr Dominik has given a
lucid account of his hunt in his book entitled The
Cameroons, and it was not without a certain feeling of
envy that I read those interesting pages.

How well fitted out these colonial police officers
always are for the carrying through of such an expe-
dition, and how scanty by comparison the resources of a
private individual ! It is to be hoped that the next
attempt of this kind may be successful, but there seems
little prospect of this just at present.

But what I regretted, perhaps even more than my
failure to capture the young animal, was my having been
unable to take a photograph of those five-and-twenty
elephants rushing towards me. Willingly would I have
given a finger of my hand to have been able to take a
really good picture of those mighty, infuriated animals in
the middle of their onrush.

In December 1900 I had a somewhat similar ex-
perience. After about eight days of fruitless endeavour
upon a part of the velt which was already covered with
green, I came upon a small herd of elephants, out of which,
after killing his mother, I managed to capture a small
bull about a year and a half old. It was only with the
greatest trouble that I secured him — he had no tusks,
fortunately — by getting right in front of him and over-
throwing him, and thus giving my Wandorobo an oppor-
tunity of fastening his hind-legs with thongs of leather.
With immense difficulty we got the animal back to camp ;
but for lack of enough milk I did not succeed in keeping

186

-•> Elephant-Hunting

him alive, though he seemed to get on all right on my
treatment of him for the first few days.

He was on the friendliest terms with me within
forty-eight hours, and used to caress my beard and face
with his little trunk in the drollest way. It was a thousand
pities that the animal soon died. Thus ended both my
efforts.

Another very serious mishap fell to my lot quite

unexpectedly in November 1903. My caravan was making
a long and difficult march from hill to hill towards the

o

next drinking-place, and I, as usual, was at the head
of it. After we had been about four hours afoot, I brought
down two female antelopes. While some of my men were
busy cutting them up, having put down their burden (many
of them, however, were still straggling behind), I went

187

With Flashlight and Rifle *

back a hundred paces or so, and took up my position
upon a rock, with a black beside me carrying my rifle.

Lost in thought and humming a tune to myself,
I suddenly seemed to hear something approaching me
from behind — I couldn't hear well, however, as there
was a strong wind blowing from the opposite direction.
I turned round and saw, thirty paces off, a huge bull
elephant advancing towards me at full trot, in the
uncannily quick and noiseless fashion of his kind. I rolled
over quickly to one side, as did also my man, who now
observed the elephant for the first time. I gripped my rifle,
saying to myself, however, that it was too late to think of
shooting, and that next moment we should be crushed
to death.

I also realised suddenly that my rifle was loaded with
lead-headed steel-bullets, which are quite useless with a bull
elephant. In this terrifying moment, the elephant, taking
fright apparently at our sudden appearance almost from
under his feet, gave out a resounding snort, and shaking
his huge ears, swerved off to the left, almost touching us
as he passed.

Up we sprang now, and unloading my rifle with all
possible haste I reloaded, and succeeded in getting two
shots into the animal's shoulder from behind. After
following it for half an hour and noting from the way
in which his tracks were narrowing that he must have
been badly wounded, we found him standing under some
acacia-trees, and I was able to bring him down with two
effective shots in the head before he could make any
attempt to get at me.

188

-•» Elephant-Hunting

It turned out that a small herd to which this elephant
belonged had come down to the now sodden velt, and
having got wind of my people had come upon the
advanced guard of the long-drawn-out caravan. Thus
it happened that by a most curious chance I came upon
the bull in a spot where I should never have expected
to find an elephant at that time of year.

Less perilous perhaps, yet full of excitement in its
own way, was a hunt in the course of which I came upon
a herd in a thicket in a ravine on the side of the Ngaptu
Mountain. I had been going after elephants for weeks on
the north side of the mountain fruitlessly. One day I had
been unable to resist the temptation of shooting a rare
kind of thrush (Turdus decksui} on the top of the
mountain. The noise of my shot resounding through the
ravine was answered almost at once by the loud trumpeting
of an elephant.

On another day I was making a nine-hours' march
round one part of the mountain, and although I was
suffering at the time rather badly from dysentery, I pressed
forward to the place which, as I had found out accidentally,
the elephants frequented. I thought it very doubtful
whether they were still to be found there, but nowadays
one must lose no chance of any kind of getting at
elephants in those regions, even when journeys of days
are entailed. A more or less steady wind enabled me
to approach the herd, and at last I found myself only
a few paces away from two fairly large bulls. They
were standing, however, in such an unfavourable position
that I could not make up my mind to shoot. After

191

With Flashlight and Rifle *>

ci wait of about three-quarters of an hour, however, they
moved suddenly and gave me my opportunity, and I
brouofht down one of them with a shot between ear and

o

eye, and the other, just as he made for me, with two
shots through the shoulder into the heart.

I found afterwards that this herd, which consisted
of about a dozen elephants, 'had/ sought refuge in the
thicket on the mountain, having been startled by my shot
at the thrush, and that they had been keeping very quiet
up there, making no noise whatever beyond what was
caused by the munching of quite small twigs. Thus,
waiting one's chance in the neighbourhood of a herd of
elephants, the sportsman lives in a continual state of sus-
pense. One needs to remain absolutely quiet and to
exercise the utmost patience in such circumstances, ready
always to act promptly and with energy when the moment
comes.

Generally speaking I am in favour of small-calibre
rifles, on account of their precision and penetrating force ;
but Cor elephants and rhinceroses I would recommend the
English "577 express calibre with steel bullets, or else
an 8- or 4-calibre elephant-rifle when the shooting will be
at close range, as is likely in thickly wooded regions.
In this I agree with most experienced sportsmen, and I
would recommend the new-comer especially to use a heavy
and safe gun, although they have some great disadvan-
tages, such as their weight and unwieldiness and their
uncertainty of aim except at quite short range, especially
in the . case of the last-mentioned large-calibre rifles.
Moreover they kick so heavily that only a strong man

192

-•> Elephant-Hunting

can use them, and with the black powder which is used
they make tremendous clouds of smoke. The elephant
often takes these clouds of smoke for the enemy, but
this may be a source of safety to the sportsman, for he
can slip away to one side, leaving the infuriated animal
to make for the smoke.

In hunting African elephants there are in practice

AFTER MUCH SCRAPING AWAY IN THE BED OF A DRIED-UP STREAM,
WE CAME UPON SOME WATER

only two correct shots. First, the shot from the side
between ear and eye, so as to get into the brain ; secondly,
the shot lodged in the shoulder, also from the side. From
in front you can get at the brain only by a shot high up
on the trunk. I would hold out a warning, however,
against shots which go too high up on the great long
protuberances of the elephant's head, as these are likely to
prove very dangerous to the sportsman.

VOL. i. 193 13

With Flashlight and Rifle -+

A large elephant may sometimes be brought down
by another shot, as for instance a shot which breaks a
bone of the leg, but this is only possible at very close
range with a rifle of very heavy calibre. The most
experienced hunters are agreed that the smack of a
heavy-calibre bullet is more apt to make an elephant
take to flight when not mortally wounded than is the
stab of the small calibre, though this may be more deadly
in its after-effect.

But in the hunting of big game of this kind, above all
in the case of elephants, luck plays a very conspicuous
role. In several cases the deadly effect of shots I myself
have fired has only shown itself when the animals have
almost come near enough to kill me. Many have been
the elephant-hunters who have been killed by the Tembo
they themselves have been hunting !

The more one comes into touch with African elephants
the more one is on one's guard. The hunter can never
know what an elephant may not be up to the next moment
— a fact with which trainers and keepers of Zoological
Gardens also have to reckon.

I shall never forget how for days together I waited
on the top of a hill watching elephants, and waiting in
vain for the sunshine without which I could not get good
photographs of them. As soon as I had succeeded in
this the moment seemed at last to have come when I
might kill the two bull elephants in question. I had had
several tempting chances already that I had resisted.
Leaving the hills, accompanied by some of the most
resolute of my men, I crept down by some narrow

194

-•» Elephant-Hunting

rhinoceros-paths into the sodden jungle, which I reached
in about three-quarters of an hour.

After crossing a great number of deep ravines, which
we did with much difficulty, our clothes almost torn off us
and covered all over with mud, we succeeded in getting
near the bulls, which were slowly making for the thickets
up above. Coming upon the tracks of one of these, we
followed them breathlessly, expecting every moment to
come upon him. At last I saw him standing in the
shade of some tall trees. But so dense was the jungle
that I could not make out very distinctly the reddish
grey body of the animal at the distance of fifty paces or
so and could not count upon hitting him effectively. All
torn and scratched by the thorns, there I watted for
several anxious minutes in suspense. Presently the huge
animal disappears to the left, and, followed by my two
men with my reserve rifles, I make after him to the right,
hoping in this way to come upon him suddenly. In front
of him lies a deep ravine, through which we hasten. As
we emerge from it on the other side we hear a gentle
rustling.

" Tembo, bwana ! " (" The elephant, master ") whispers
one of my men.

"Hapana! Nyama ndogo ! " (''No, small animal!")
I answer.

That moment the big bushes growing amid the tall
grass (more than ten feet high) went asunder right and
left, the slender trunks splitting and cracking as they
came down upon us and forced us on to the ground, and
in another second the elephant rushed past us barely a

195

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

foot away, intent on flight, and most fortunately paying
us no attention.

Count Thiele-Winckler tells me of an exactly similar
incident which occurred in India.

Moments such as these are hard to realise in safety
and comfort here at home. Brief though they be, they
live ever afterwards in the memory, and have a charm
all their own. To appreciate their delight to the full a
man must be able to enter into the spirit of the sur-
roundings, and must be sensitive to the marvellous and
majestic scenery in which they are met with. But not
the most skilled of pens could succeed in bringing home
their magical fascination to the mind of the reader who
has not himself experienced anything of the kind. Even
the man who has gone through them can only recall them
in their details when his memory is at its best.

I am apt to look at the elephants in the Zoological
Gardens very differently now, almost with a feeling of
awe and reverence, and I feel ashamed of the foolish
gapers who seek to exercise their wit at the expense of
the caged giant. How they would take to their heels
if they met him in the wilderness and he bore down
upon them !

Two days later, to my great surprise, both the bull
elephants had sought their favourite haunt again, but at
sunset they vanished just as heavy masses of clouds
began to come down over the wood, with a wonderfully
impressive effect. They went in the direction of a thick
girdle of trees. The wind was favourable.

196

-* Elephant-Hunting

With my feet in indiarubber-soled shoes, and accom-
panied on this occasion (quite exceptionally) by my
European taxidermist, Orgeich, in addition to a few of
my men, I took up the animal's pursuit, hoping to get
possession of its skin, whole or entire, for preparation for
a specimen. Bathed in sweat, owing to the oppressive
heat of the thicket, after about three-quarters of an hour

THE TUSKS OF BOTH THE ELEPHANTS WEIGHED TOGETHER ONLY ABOUT
120 ENGLISH POUNDS

we lost the tracks for a few minutes, confused with those
of other animals that must have passed this way during
the night. However, we found them again, and five
minutes later we came to a deep ravine with a pool of
mud at the bottom of it. To my dismay I saw both
elephants emerge from this and disappear into the dense
thicket on the opposite slope, about thirty paces away,
and as they forced their way through it I could see the

197

With Flashlight and Rifle *

trees and bushes quivering this way and that. It was
heart-breaking ! One instant sooner and both elephants
would have been lying dead in the mud. Animals
with tusks weighing two hundred pounds ! Elephants
such as have hardly fallen to any European hunter in the
whole length and breadth of Africa !

The wind now going down, and the trees ceasing to
quiver, I slid down the ravine and made my way up the
opposite slope, all covered with mud and slime from the
branches through which the elephants had forced their
way, and got up on the top just as they entered the
thicket, through which they would probably continue their
flight for some hours.

This supposition was only too well founded, as I
discovered after an indescribably long pursuit without
results. Hardly ever in all my life had I been so covered
in slime and so unrecognisable as after this incident.
And the slime smelt of elephant to an unimaginable
degree !

Forcing my way along in the jnclergrowth, with my
arms in front of me to protect my face, I got into such
a condition of dirt and breathlessness and utter disgust
over my failure as I had only once in my life experienced
before. That was at Mlinster, in the "Old Westphalian "
steeplechase — that most delightful of all German steeple-
chases— as they used to be run over the old difficult course,
and when knee-deep in mud I had almost won, yet lost !

I leave it to the reader to imagine my feelings. For
weeks I had been after these elephants in the hope of
photographing them. Then came this long pursuit which

198

-•> Elephant-Hunting

had failed so wretchedly ! For now both the animals
had taken themselves off for ever so long.

On one other occasion I succeeded in getting near
some huge bull elephants in the bush. I had seen them
from a hill. I stationed some men there, whom I could
discern from time to time through my field-glasses, and
who guided my steps by waving a small white cloth in

THE YOUNG ELEPHANT DRAGGED US HITHER AND THITHER BETWEEN
THE BODIES OF THE OLD ANIMALS. THEN, AT LAST, IT MADE UP
ITS MIND TO FOLLOW US TO THE CAMP, WHICH WAS FIVE HOURS'
MARCH AWAY

the direction the elephants were taking in the thicket.
After endless difficulties at last I got near them. In
another moment I must see them. To my delight there
were here some small open spaces in the thicket. But
there was yet another gorge to get over.

Suddenly a number of large doves (Columba arquatrix],
very similar to our own ringdoves, clattered off from

199

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

the shady tops of some vangueria-bushes. As though
spell-bound, we remained where we stood, breathless.
We knew that the elephants would have been put on
their guard by the noise. Twenty more paces to the
left, and we must be able to see over the next bit of
open ground. In front of me, three or four yards ahead,
is the trunk of a dead tree. An active native glides
ahead to it with me behind him, and next moment makes
a sign to me that the elephants are in front. Quick as
lightning he slips aside and lets me take his place, as I
can only see them from this spot.

There they are, sure enough, a bull right in front of
me, with tusks, weighing 180 Ib. or 190 Ib. apiece, almost
crossing each other, and beside him another bull with
his back turned towards me. Unable to shoot them as
they stand, I slip down from the tree-trunk and try
cautiously to, make a way for myself through the adjacent
bushes ; but there is a sudden crashing, and the elephants
are gone. Breaking away in different directions, they
come together soon, and for five hours we follow in their
track without seeing them again. Our pursuit of them
has this result only, that our legs were badly stung by
nettles and other such growths, often met with in these
shady spots. Again all our trouble went for nothing.

On one occasion my companions came in for very
unfortunate experiences while we were in pursuit of a
big herd of elephants. Starting with only my most trust-
worthy followers, loaded only with ropes, axes, and other
light utensils, each man carrying burdens of only 6 Ib.

200

-•> Elephant-Hunting

or 8 Ib. weight, 1 had set out over a waterless region of
the velt. They had all drunk their fill before starting,
and taken water with them in big vessels. In order to
come up with the herd as soon as possible we had to go
at a quick pace. The ass I had at one time used for
riding had long ago succumbed to the stings of tsetse
flies, so I was afoot myself. The heat became so terrible,

A CURIOUS TRIO— TWO BULL ELEPHANTS AND A BULL GIRAFFE. THE
LATTER MAY BE SEEN HIGH UP ON THE LEFT OF THE PHOTO,
WHICH WAS TAKEN AT A DISTANCE OF ABOUT 450 YARDS

however (it was in the month of November), that at four
in the afternoon we had to give up the pursuit in order
to get back to the water, as several- of my men were quite
knocked up. Two of them refused to move, and wanted,
in the state of apathy into which they had got, to remain
lying down where they were. I had to drive them on
in front of me ; but even so I managed to get only one

201

With Flashlight -and Rifle -*

of them to our destination by the time darkness came on.
The other remained lying out on the velt.

With difficulty we got to the water late in the night,
chiefly by dint of setting fire to the dried-up velt
several times on the way, and thus managing to see
where we were going. Next morning, when succour was
sent to the man left behind, it arrived too late. The
unfortunate fellow had been killed by rhinoceroses during"
the night, and then been entirely torn to pieces by lions.
So we gathered from their tracks. His body lay on a
deeply trodden rhinoceros-path.

It should be borne in mind that at this time all my
carriers were good experienced men, carefully selected.
In spite of this, here was a mishap which it was quite
impossible for me to ward off. On other occasions it
has often happened that men from my caravan, having
lost their way, have had to sleep out in the open, either
up in trees or upon the ground, but without coming to
any harm.

No sportsman who has hunted the elephant much in
Africa has got through without some serious misadven-
tures ; many have been trampled upon and have paid
for their boldness with their lives.

The hunting of the African elephant, when undertaken
by oneself and under sportsman-like conditions, is an enter-
prise to which in the long run only a few men are equal.
Many elephants have been killed — not in this way, but
with the help of the Askaris. I have seen photographs
representing a number of young elephants — quite small,
some of them — slaughtered in this way, with a group

202

-* Elephant-Hunting"

of the sportsmen in the midst, thus perpetuating their
valour. Such sportsmen, however, can have no notion
of the wonderful experience of the man who hunts alone.
The natives who take part in the hunt are often of
the belief that after you have killed fifteen elephants
successfully, luck turns against you. From this on
they prefer to devote themselves to the making of
elephant-charms, and let others hunt in their place.
I believe they are not far wrong.

THE PREPARATION OF THIS ELEPHANT-SKULL, AND
THE HIDE OF THE BEAST, LASTED A WEEK

20.

\ A -j

i » i /TVnr"^/^ ^*»
VIEW ON THE NJIRI SWAMPS DURING THE INUNDATIONS

XI
Rhinoceroses

~\ ^1 7 HEN you have spent a year travelling over Masai-
V V Nyika, and have thus seen for yourself the
number of rhinoceroses still existing in that region, you
are able to form some notion of the extent to which
elephants must have flourished on its plains and in its
forests before the days when they began to be hunted
systematically by traders. Rhinoceroses did not offer the
traders an adequate equivalent in their horns for the
trouble and danger of hunting them, so they were not
much troubled about until recently,' when the supply of
elephants began to run short. It is only during the last
few years that their numbers have been decimated.

In the course of the year I spent there I saw about
six hundred rhinoceroses with my own eyes, and found
the tracks of thousands. It is astonishing how numerous
they are in this region. Travellers who merely pass
through the country by the caravan-routes would marvel
if in the dry weather they found themselves on the top
of a hill 7,000 feet high, and could see the huge crowds

204

C. G. Schillings, phot.

AS THE WIND WAS COMING .'FROM THE HILL, AND I 'KNEW I COULD COUNT UPON
ITS NOT CHANGING AT THAT HOUR OF THE DAY, I WAS AliLE TO GET WITHIN
FIFTEEN PACES OF THE RHINOCEROSES

-* Rhinoceroses

of these animals in their special haunts. An idea of
their numbers can best be got from the records of certain
well-known travellers.

In the course of the famous exploring expedition of
Count Teleki and Herr von Hohnel, which led to the
discovery of Lake Rudolph and Lake Stephanie, these
sportsmen killed 99 rhinoceroses, the flesh of which
had to serve exclusively as food for their men.

According to trustworthy accounts Dr. Kolb killed 150
rhinoceroses before a " faru " got at him and killed him.
Herr von Bastineller, who accompanied him for a
long time, killed 140. Herr von Eltz, the first com-
mandant of the Moshi fort, killed about 60 in the
region lying between Moshi and Kahe. In recent years
I have been told by colonial police officers of records
which have beaten these. A number of English sports-
men have also brought down great numbers. These
striking figures are more eloquent than long disquisitions.
They give some notion of the immense numbers of rhino-
ceroses there are in German East Africa, and forbid any
attempt at prophecy as to when the species will be exter-
minated.

It is a curious thing about rhinoceroses that they often
break into the midst of passing caravans, causing much
alarm and practically inciting the travellers to shoot them
down. What with the perfection of our modern rifles,
and the ample target provided by their own huge bodies,
they are apt in these cases to rush to their own destruction.
Without venturing upon a more precise forecast we may
perhaps conclude that, if the white rhinoceros was wiped
VOL. i. 209 14

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

out in South Africa in the course of a few decades by
comparatively primitive weapons, we ought certainly to
see the extinction of the black rhinoceros in a much
shorter time with the help of the small-calibre long-range
rifle of to-day.

Hunting the rhinoceros, as I understand it, when it is
carried out by the sportsman alone and in a sportsman-
like manner, must always be one of the most dangerous
sports possible. It is difficult to decide whether it is most
dangerous to hunt the lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, or
rhinoceros. Everything depends on the circumstances
and surroundings in which these animals are encountered.

o

Even when armed with the most trustworthy weapons,
stalking the African rhinoceros must always be an ex-
tremely dangerous undertaking, if it is done, as in my case,
alone and unaccompanied by other ''guns." The English
traveller Thomson very graphically describes the feelings of
a hunter when he comes upon rhinoceroses in the grass,
and knows that his life depends entirely on his skill.
It is a puzzle to me how any one can assert that he
has jumped calmly to one side when charged by a rhino-
ceros, and that he has then given it the well-known
death-shot through the shoulder. I can say with con-
fidence, from my own experience, that this is absolutely
impossible. A rhinoceros that was really charging down
on a man would get at his opponent under any circum-
stances and spit him on his horns.

If this does not happen, either the animal has been
killed just at the last moment, or the hunter has managed
to climb a tree, a white-ant hill, or a rock, or else the

210

-* Rhinoceroses

animal had not really intended to charge but only to
run away, and had unintentionally come in the direction
of the hunter !

In the great expedition which I joined in 1896, not
a single Askari or armed native ever accompanied the
hunt. In this particular the natives were under strict
supervision. I treated my own people in 1899-1900

REMAINS OF A RHINOCEROS

without exception in a similar manner ; only my European
taxidermist occasionally brought down a waterbuck or other
antelope. But I have never been protected by " guns "
on a dangerous hunting expedition. " Rely on yourself"
is, in my opinion, the right motto in this case.

I have heard many strange tales from Askaris who
have carried guns on other occasions, and, wonderful to
relate, it was always the white lord, the " bwana kubwa,"

211

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

who delivered the fatal shot and brought down the game.
It is a very different matter, and far more dignified, to go
on a hunting expedition unassisted.

It frequently happens that a rhinoceros scents the
position of several of the armed natives ; fire is opened
on him, and at the last moment the animal, already
mortally wounded, finds he is incapable of attacking any
of the marksmen, and so rushes snorting past them, to
be finished off sooner or later. Such situations give rise
to the fairy tales of those wonderful sidewise leaps — a
feat of which I could well imagine a toreador to be
capable on the flat sanded ground of the arena, even
when attacked by a rhinoceros, but which I shall never
see performed by a European unless he has been
practised in bullfights.

I have often heard of men being gored and tossed
into the air by these animals. The list of deaths under
such circumstances is a long one, and quite a number of
Europeans in the districts traversed by me lost their
lives in this manner.

A few years ago I met an English medical officer
who had been hastily called to a case of serious illness.
Shortly before our meeting one of his Askari, a Sudanese,
had been gored and tossed by a rhinoceros (which had
been shot at by the whole of the little caravan). The
animal's horn had penetrated deep into the unfortunate
man's abdomen. The wound was terrible, and the state
of the patient seemed as hopeless to the doctor as it did
to a mere layman like myself. As I intended to encamp
for some time near by, the doctor earnestly entreated me

21 2

-* Rhinoceroses

to take the wounded man into my camp for three days,
as he could not arrange for his transport farther.

So, whether I liked it or not, I had to undertake the
care of him, with the certainty that a speedy death would
release the man from his agony. To my surprise, he
was still alive the next day, but towards evening his
agony became so great that his sobs and groans were
almost unbearable. He begged, he entreated, for help ;
and so, although at that time I was only provided with
absolute necessaries, I gave him my whole store of opium,
assuming that he would by this means find relief and
never wake again.

But there is no reckoning on the constitution of a
black man. After another twenty-four hours he was still
alive ; and now the effects of my dose of opium began
to show themselves in an alarming manner. Again he
besought me to help him. But I was altogether at a
loss. My small stock of medicines, that I might have
employed to counteract the opium, had been used up long
ago. At last it occurred to me to administer a bottle of
salad oil that was still in my possession. I was successful.
The next day the man was taken away, and, as I heard
later, recovered from the terrible injury, contrary to all
expectations.

Similar cases do not always turn out so fortunately,
and frequently end in the death of the person in question.
Sometimes the rhinoceros only tosses his victim once in
the air, at the same time piercing him with his horns.
At other times he returns to his enemy and renews the
attack. I myself have been pressed to the last extremity

213

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

by rhinoceroses, and even when not at such close quarters
an encounter with them is often dangerous and exciting.

My first encounter with the "e'muny" of the Masai
happened towards evening, in the middle of a charred and
blackened plain, that had been on fire that very day.

Never shall I forget the impression made on me by
this uncouth animal mass, standing in its rugged clumsiness
in the midst of that gloomy landscape, illuminated by the
slanting and uncertain rays of the setting sun. With its
head high in the air (the monster had already become
aware of our approach), its mighty horns pointing upwards,
and its gigantic outline showing against the red of the
evening sky, it seemed to be merged in the black ground
on which it stood.

My heart beat frantically, and my hand was not steady
as, partially screened by a thorn-bush, half of which had
been spared by the fire, I let off my elephant-gun from
a distance of a hundred paces. At my shot the " Faru "
came snorting towards me, and it was only at my second
shot, when he was very close indeed, that he turned to
the left, and, snorting loudly, took to flight across the
plain. My servants seemed to have vanished from the
face of the earth.

The scene was enacted in such a short space of time,
and made such a powerful impression on me — the apparent
uselessness of my weapon against the great animal was
so crushing, the swiftness and agility that he had displayed
at the last so astonishing — that from that moment the
picture I had had in my mind of this animal for so
many years was totally changed.

214

-*> Rhinoceroses

While all this was happening, we had lying in the
camp a man who had twice been thrown into the air by
a rhinoceros the day before, and who was only by a
miracle recovering from his injuries.

Many notions acquired by us at school are soon
dissipated when we find ourselves in Africa. On this
occasion it was brought home to me very effectively that
I had to do with an extraordinarily active and agile
brute, very different from the unwieldy and slow-moving
degenerate rhinoceros one was accustomed to seeing in
the Zoological Gardens. This was to be borne in upon
me by other glimpses of the animals in the distance, and
to be driven in still more by my next encounter with one.

With my fowling-piece in my hand — dismounting
from my donkey, which had not yet fallen a victim to the
tsetse fly — I hasten into a gorge thick with tall grass, in
the midst of which I had seen guinea-fowl alight.

As usual, they have run away from the spot where
they went in. I follow them quickly, hoping to make
them break cover. Suddenly a brownish-black mass arises
right in my path and takes up a sitting position for a
second, and my still somewhat unaccustomed eyes recog-
nise the huge proportions of a rhinoceros.

The brain has to work quickly in such moments. I
lie down flat upon the ground. Grunting and snorting"
the rhinoceros rushes past me a foot away, raising clouds
of dust as he goes, towards the caravan, and right past
my friend, Alfred Kaiser.

Kaiser, who had twice been spitted by a rhinoceros,,
and had made miraculous recoveries on both occasions

217

With Flashlight and Rifle -+

after months upon his back, seems to have exercised a
wonderful fascination for the species. Wherever he went,
there rhinoceroses were sure to spring- up ! But in the
course of his long sojourn among the Bedouins of Sinai,
he had acquired a stoical habit of calm, and now he lets
the brute dash through the caravan and bluster away into
the distance. All he did was to send after it an inde-
scribably strong Arabic oath as it disappeared in a storm
of dust. I had to congratulate myself upon "a narrow
escape "-—illustrating that English expression once again.
On the same day I saw four other rhinoceroses, among
them a mother with her young. Soon afterwards a deeply
trodden track leading to a rocky pool in the driest part
of the velt tempted me to go in for a night's shooting.
In these regions the nights get very cold. Accompanied
by some of my men, and provided with a few woollen
coverings, lanterns, etc., I decided to take my stand by
the edge of the gorge. However, we had not taken into
account sufficiently the suddenness with which the sun
sets in these parts. We got belated en route, lost our
way, and soon found ourselves plunged in absolute dark-
ness, with some hours to wait before the appearance of
the moon. Scattered rocks and troublesome long grass
made it difficult for us to make any progress, so there
seemed to be nothing for it but to turn back to our camp.
That also proved impossible, so I decided to wait where
we were until the moon should appear, at nine o'clock,
and enable us to retrace our steps. There we stayed,
therefore, among the bits of rock which had cut our knees
and the sharp briars and dense tough grass, prisoners

218

Rhinoceroses

IT WAS QUITE A LONG TIME BEFORE THE RHINOCEROS SETTLED DOWN

AS SOON AS IT DID SO — ITS IMMENSE HORN, A YARD LONG, WAVING
ABOUT IN THE AIR LIKE A BRANCH OF A TREE — THE RHINOCEROS-
BIRDS ALIGHTED AGAIN ON ITS BACK

219

With Flashlight and Rifle *

for the night. Our eyes growing accustomed to the
darkness, we were able presently to discern the whitish
trunks and branches of acacia-bushes.

After a long wait, suddenly we heard a quick snort.
My men threw to the ground everything they had in
their hands and climbed up two rather tall trees hard
by with indescribable agility. Only my rifle-bearer, who
carried my heavy elephant-rifle, waited a moment to give
give me the warning, " Faru, bwana " — " A rhinoceros,
master ! " My hair stood up on my head, but I had my
heavy rifle ready in my hand. Now gradually my eyes made
out the shapeless mass of the rhinoceros in the uncertain
radiance cast down from the stars. A few yards behind
me gaped a deep gorge. Escape in any direction was
made impossible by the rocks and thorn-bushes and grass.
Up on the trees my men remained hidden, holding their
breath. A few yards off the rhinoceros moved about
snorting. I waited until I could see his horn silhouetted
against the starry sky, advanced towards the great black
bulk, and fired. The report rang out violently over the
rocky gorge and broke into reverberating echoes. The
kick of the great rifle had sent me back a pace, and I
had sunk upon one knee. Quickly I cocked the left
second trigger — with guns of such calibre you must not
have both cocked at once, for fear both barrels should
go off together — and awaited the animal's coming. But,
snorting and stamping, off he went down the hill in the
darkness. A deep silence fell over the scene again, and
we all waited, motionless, breathless. After a while
we started upon our march back to the camp, my men

220

-•> Rhinoceroses

shouting and singing so as to prevent any such encounter
happening to us again.

The following morning we found the rhinoceros — a
big, powerful bull — lying dead sixty paces or so from
the spot where I had shot him. The lead-tipped steel
bullet had penetrated his shoulder, and was to be found on
the other side under the skin.

Nocturnal meetings with rhinoceroses are not always

THE RHINOCEROSES GOT UP AND CAME FOR ME FULL TILT

so fortunate in their- results — sometimes they are most
dangerous in these circumstances. As a general rule,
however, when a rhinoceros gets to know of the vicinity
of a man at night time he gives him a wide berth. This
was to be my own experience on other occasions.

In the upper regions of the watershed between the
Masai country and Victoria Nyanza I had numerous

221

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

opportunities of observing the rhinoceroses, not only in
the wooded parts of this plateau, but also out on the
open plains, where they were to be seen both singly and
in herds. About this time my repeating rifle began to
get out of order. Nothing is more calculated to make
a man lose his nerve than his weapon's becoming useless
at a critical moment, when his very life depends upon
it. I was therefore much excited one day when I sighted
a pair of sleeping rhinoceroses out on the bare open
velt. In this instance I was lucky enough to kill one
of the animals at the distance of a hundred yards after
an hour's approach to it on all fours in the broiling sun.
The second took to flight. Becoming gradually used to
their ways, I was fortunate also in subsequent encounters
with them.

I may here relate a few episodes from my own ex-
perience illustrating the habits of the rhinoceros. They will
serve to give the reader a true picture of his character. I
shall never forget the day I brought down a very old bull
rhinoceros in British East Africa, not far from Kibwezi.
It was a very windy morning, and I had just killed a male
Grant's gazelle with only one large horn — I had missed it
with my first shot. Just as I had done for it I happened
to look over the plain to the left, and observed a great
black mass about two hundred yards away. I thought
at first it was the stump of a tree, but looking again a
few minutes later I found that it had vanished. My
field-glasses brought home to me the fact that it was a
rhinoceros, for there he was sitting in the animal's favourite
position, but now farther away. The very strong wind

222

<+> Rhinoceroses

that was blowing enabled me to approach within fifteen
yards of him, where a small thorn-bush served as cover
for me. I aimed carefully at his ear, but with a mighty
jerk he wheeled round on his hind-legs, thus affording me
a better aim. My second bullet, discharged at so short a
distance from behind, brought him down. He was killed
on the spot. The appearance of this earth-coloured
monster, so deceptively like a tree-stump sticking out of
the storm-swept velt, often comes back to my memory,
especially when I am seized with a fresh longing for
the Masai-Nyika life and the velt calls to me again.

Some years later, when I had made it a rule to shoot
only big specimens, I brought down an extraordinarily
large old bull rhinoceros, which had taken to flight on-
receiving an ineffective shot on the shoulder, but which made
for me on getting a second shot — as rhinoceroses often
do — and fell dead only some ten paces from where I
stood. There was a cow rhinoceros quite near the bull
when I first hit the latter, and both animals charged at
each other head-down, the bull imagining that it was the
cow that had damaged him. The agility and quickness
with which the huge beast moved I shall never forget.

In the hunting of big game, as in all other dangerous
occupations, confidence grows steadily in proportion to
the perils one has already coped with successfully. Sooner
or later, however, a mishap is certain to be encountered,,
and the more experience one has in pursuing lions, buffaloes,
elephants, and rhinoceroses the more careful one becomes.

While stalking kudus once on the shores of the Jipe
Lake I was startled by the sudden appearance of a

221

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

rhinoceros, which emerged from a mud-bath on its way
through a thicket and stood all covered by the reddish
mire in the slanting rays of the setting sun. I felt
instinctively that the animal would go for me, and go
for me he did almost at once, after swaying his great
head about two or three times, sniffing out my exact
position. At this critical moment my rifle went off before
I intended. The bullet went too high, but fortunately was
well enough placed to make the rhinoceros turn aside
just as he had got to me. Springing into a thick thorn-
bush I just managed to save myself. Quick as lightning
it chased one of my men twice round an acacia-bush
hard by, and then disappeared among the thorns.
As my men had taken refuge behind trees and bushes
to left and right — I was accompanied by about ten of
the men — I could not attempt another shot at him, so
he escaped.

Next morning I found myself down with a sharp touch
of fever, which kept me in bed for two days, so I was
not able to pursue the animal.

In rhinoceros-hunting it is all important to keep note
carefully of the wind. You can do this very well by
lighting a match. Failing that, the dropping of some
sand will answer the purpose, or holding up a moistened
finger. In addition to noting the direction of the
wind, you have to look carefully to see whether the
rhinoceros has his feathered satellites, the rhinoceros-
birds (Buphaga erythrorhyncha) on him or not. When
resting, he often resigns himself to the care of these
small feathered friends of his, which not merely free him

224

VOL. I.

-•> Rhinoceroses

from parasites, but which, by a sudden outburst of twitter-
ing and a clattering of their wings, warn him of impending
danger. Thus put on the alert, he rises up quickly
or assumes his well-known sitting position, ready to take
to flight if need be, but lying down again if there seems
to him to be no enemy near.

If the hunter is favoured by the wind and able to
conceal himself after this first alarm, and the rhinoceros
lies down again, the birds — varying in number from
a very few to a couple of dozen — settle down again upon
his hospitable body. But the moment they become aware
of your near approach, they leave it again, arousing the
animal once more. It is a case of a partnership between
an animal with a very keen sense of smell and birds with
very keen eyes.

To what extent these birds are responsible for a
small wound of about the size of a five-shilling piece, which
I have found on almost all the rhinoceroses I have shot, I
am uncertain. The natives declare that it is caused by
the birds. I have brought home specimens of skins with
these wounds on them, so that they may be investigated.
They are generally on the left side of the paunch. In
any case, I have found only one rhinoceros without
this " dundo," to use the native word. In this respect
rhinoceroses are different from elephants, of which the
skins are smooth and uninjured.

In spite of the activity of these rhinoceros-birds, which
are sometimes helped by ravens, we find the black
rhinoceros infested by great numbers of ticks (some of
them extraordinarily big), especially in the region of the

227

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

belly, which the birds cannot get at easily. I have found
various species of these parasites upon them, and, among
others, Amblyoma aureum, Ambl. hebrcemn, Ambl.
devi^l1n, and, in very considerable numbers, Dermacentor
rhinocerotis.

Very probably the rhinoceros is infested also by another
kind of tick, unknown until discovered by myself. Of
all these that I have named, however, the Dermacentor
rhinocerotis is the only one that is peculiar to the
rhinoceros.

I have never actually encountered more than four
rhinoceroses at a time, though I have often seen as many
as eight together. The manner in which they find their
way to their drinking-places, often involving a journey of
several hours, is wonderful. They select several spots
on which to drop their dung, which they then scatter
about with their hind-legs. In this fashion it is they
set about making their wide pathways over the velt.
Doubtless these heaps of dung serve as marks, which help
them to find their way back in the direction from which
they have come.

The shape of rhinoceros-horns varies greatly. The
horns of the cows are long, and always thinner than
those of the bulls. Sometimes the horns are flat, like
swords. You find this sometimes even in those regions
in which round-shaped horns are the general rule. Now
and again the horns of very old cow rhinoceroses grow
to the length of nearly five feet.

In a very few rare cases more than two, sometimes
as many as five, horns are to be found on the African

228

Rhinoceroses

rhinoceros. On the other hand, sometimes rhinoceroses lose
their horns, and are to be found without any. The very
old ones do not renew their horns, I believe, when lost.
I am led to this opinion by the case of a very old hornless
specimen which I shot, as well as by what I have heard
from native hunters, though their statements are always
to be taken with caution.

The size to which rhinoceros-horns sometimes develop

WHEN MY BULLET HIT IT, THE RHINOCEROS THREW UP ITS HEAD
SEVERAL TIMES

may be gauged by the following measurements of some
of the longest and most fully developed that are known :

Locality.

East Africa

BLACK RHINOCEROS (R. bicornis).

Owner.

Dr. C. H. Orman . . ' .
S. L. Hinde . .'.".'
Imperial Museum, Vienna

229

Length.
535 in.
47 „
445 t»

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

The white rhinoceros, practically exterminated from
South Africa in recent years, and now almost extinct — it
still exists near Lado — had still longer horns. Here
are two measurements taken, like the foregoing, from
Rowland Ward's Records of Big Game :

WHITE RHINOCEROS (R. simus).

Owner. Locality. Length.

Col. W. Gordon Gumming . South Africa 62^ in.

British Museum - . . . ,, „ 56^ ,,

The white rhinoceros is the largest mammal after
the elephant to be found on any part of the earth.
Scarce half a century ago the species was still so
numerous that Anderson, the English sportsman, was
able to kill about sixty of them in the course of a few
months in the neighbourhood of the Orange River and
the Zambesi.

I myself secured one rhinoceros-horn in Zanzibar
which is about fifty-four inches long, and the horns of
four rhinoceroses which I shot measure 86, 76, 72, 62-^-
centimetres ; the others are much shorter.

The rhinoceros is particularly dangerous in dense
brushwood, whether on the velt among the sueda-
bushes, which grow so thickly, or on the high plateaux
amidst the most impenetrable vegetation, which grows
up in the clearings and ridges, in between the long,
lichen -grown trunks of the trees in the woods.

The animal is in the habit of making any number of
homes for itself, used alternately, upon the smaller hills
of about 6,000 feet high, in the dense thickets. He
chooses generally those formed by the shrubs, into which

2^0

-* Rhinoceroses

it is most difficult for men to make their way, such as
jessamine, smilax, pterolobium, toddalia, and blackberry
bushes. In dry weather these regions provide for all
the wants of both the elephant and the rhinoceros,
and they keep to them for the most part. They render
all incursion into these strongholds of theirs a very
perilous undertaking.

However, if the wind tells them of our approach, or
if we make the slightest noise, they generally either clatter
away from us down-hill, or else they remain absolutely
still and motionless in their basin-like haunts, which we
come upon every hundred yards or so. If the wind be
favourable, we may reckon upon encountering them at
short range and under risky conditions, especially if we
meet several of them together. Even the Wandorobo
and Wakamba are not keen about venturing into these
rhinoceros-strongholds, and I must admit that, after several
exciting experiences in such regions, I have no great
desire to make my way into them again. This is not,
indeed, the place for the hunter who relies entirely upon
his own gun, as I always did, and who has not a body-
guard of natives around him ready to blaze away when
necessary. In these circumstances, too, you have to shoot
anything in the shape of a rhinoceros you see, old or
young, male or female, if you care about your own safety.
And this is not a .pleasant kind of sport. But even
when you allow your men to shoot in these pathless
thickets — in which you have to grope forward one by one,
unable to see where you are going — there is apt to be
great danger of their shooting each other.

With Flashlight and Rifle

THE T\VO RHINOCEROSES SETTLED DOWN UNDER A TREE

THE COW SUDDENLY GOT UP

Fortunately, these hillsides will remain available for
their inmates for many years to come. They will only

234

Rhinoceroses

THE BULL GOT UP IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARD

AND, THE WIND SHIFTING A LITTLE, THEY BOTH TURNED IN MY
DIRECTION

cease to be a refuge when European traders in their
greediness begin to make the natives invade them.

235

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

Governor Count Gotzen has provisionally interdicted any
such enterprise — a very praiseworthy action on his part.

Though put into so many tight corners in my rhinoceros-
hunts — tight corners out of which I often got by sheer
luck — I never deliberately took the worst risks except
when I set about taking photographs.

It was not the easiest of tasks. Like so many other
wild beasts, the rhinoceros is most active when the sky
is overclouded — just when the camera is no good. The
photographer has the animal in a certain position, well
lit by the sun, and not too far off — conditions that it is
extremely difficult to bring about. Then he must have
complete control over his nerves. His hands must not
shake, or the picture will be spoilt. Malaria and the
imbibing of quinine are not things to fit you for
such work !

When once you have experimented in this kind of
photography, without a bodyguard of armed Askaris to
protect you, you are not disposed to make light of its
dangers and difficulties.

T^r

However, in spite of all obstacles, I had some success;
and how delighted I used to be of a night, as I busied
myself with the development of my negatives and saw
gradually come into being the pictures made for me by
that magician, the sun ! For magical and nothing less, they
seemed to my men — these minute pictures of which their
master makes his records of the day's events. There is no
end to the head-shaking that goes on over them. " Daua ! "
— "Magic! "-—is their word for everything that passes their
comprehension.

236

-*> Rhinoceroses

In common with the best-known English authorities,
Mr. F. C. Selous, Mr. F. G. Jackson, and others, I have
found the rhinoceros always nervous, easily excited, and
very capricious in .his ways and hard to reckon on. He
is particularly nervous when alone. In a rhinoceros-hunt,
you never know what will happen next. As an illustration
of this, I may describe my experiences one day in

THE COW RHINOCEROS. ITS HORN WAS MORE THAN A YARD IN LENGTH

November 1903, on my fourth and last expedition, when
I succeeded in taking an excellent photograph of two
rhinoceroses.

I had been trying all the morning to get a photograph
of a herd of giraffes, but they were so shy I had had no
luck. Tired and parched, I was making my way back to
the camp, which was still about four hours' march away,
when the two rhinoceroses came in sight, to my surprise

237

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

rather, for it was a hot day for them to be out on the
velt. They were about 1,000 yards away. There was
unusually little wind, but that little was unfavourable,
so I made a wide ddtour and had the satisfaction, atter
about half an hour, of seeing the animals settle down
together under a tree. Accompanied now by only two
of my bearers and two Masai, I succeeded in approaching
warily within 120 yards of them — it happened, contrary
to the general rule, that they had no rhinoceros-birds on
them — taking up my position finally behind a fairly thick
brier-bush growing out of a low ant-hill.

I had taken several pictures successfully with my
telephoto-lens, when suddenly for some reason the
animals stood up quickly, both together as is their wont.
Almost simultaneously, the farther of the two, an old cow,
began moving the front part of her body to and fro, and
then, followed by the bull 'with head high in the air, came
straight for me full gallop. I had instinctively felt what
would happen, and in a moment my rifle was in my hands
and my camera passed to my bearers. I fired six shots
and succeeded in bringing down both animals twice as
they rushed towards me — great furrows in the sand of the
velt showed where they fell.

My final shot I fired in the absolute certainty that my
last hour had come. It hit the cow on the nape of the
neck and at the same moment I sprang to the right, to
the other side of the brier-bush. My two men had taken
to flight by this time, but one of the Masai ran across
my path at this critical moment and sprang right into
the bush. He had evidently waited in the expectation

238

-* Rhinoceroses

of seeing the rhinoceros fall dead at the last moment, as
he had so often seen happen before.

With astounding agility the rhinoceroses followed me,
and half way round the bush I found myself between
the two animals. It seems incredible now that I
tell the tale in cold blood, but in that same instant

THE BULL RHINOCEROS. ITS SKIN IS NOW IN THE IMPERIAL NATURAL
HISTORY MUSEUM AT BERLIN. (l AM SCARCELY RECOGNISABLE
WITH MY BEARD !)

my shots took effect mortally, and both rhinoceroses
collapsed.

I had made away from the bush about twenty paces
when a frantic cry coming simultaneously from my men
in the distance and the Masai in the bush made me turn
round. A very singular sight greeted my eyes. There
was the Masai, trembling all over, his face distorted with
terror, backing for all he was worth inside the bush, while

239

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

the covv rhinoceros, streaming with blood, stood literally
leaning up against it, and the bull, almost touching, lay
dying on the ground, its mighty head beating repeatedly
in its death-agony against the hard red soil of the
velt.

The cry the men gave out, as is the case always with
these natives, was pitched in a soprano key curiously
incongruous with the aspect of these warriors.

As quickly as possible I reloaded, and with three
final shots made an end of both animals. In spite of my
well-placed bullets and loss of blood they had all but
done for me.

It was indeed a very narrow escape. It left an
impression on my mind which will not be easily erased.
Even now in fancy I sometimes live those moments over
again.

It was interesting to note the complete calm and
placidity displayed by my men a few minutes after it
was all over, though at the time they had been absolutely
panic-stricken, above all the Masai imprisoned in the
bush. Their whole attention was now absorbed in the
cutting up of the bodies and in the picking out of the best
pieces of the flesh, quarrelling among themselves in their
usual way over the specially relished bonnes bouc/ies.

I had many other experiences similar to this one, if
not quite so exciting. I may tell, perhaps, of two
adventures which I had with rhinoceroses at night time
—adventures in the full sense of the word, and of a kind
met with by other well-known travellers. In remarkable

240

-* Rhinoceroses

contrast to their usual timidity and cautiousness is the
way in which at night they seem to put ofT all fear of
men. I had been obliged to encamp in a hollow thickly
grown with thorn-bushes, and my men, being tired out,
had sunk to sleep after their evening meal. Suddenly
during the night I was awakened by one of my boys
with the warning: " Bwana, tembo ! " whispered excitedly
in my ear, while at the same moment several of my
men rushed into my tent to tell me the same thing —
that an elephant was somewhere about. I sprang up,

ACACIA VELT

seized one of my rifles, -and made ready for the supposed
elephant, when in came a number of other carriers, wild
with excitement, and pointing frantically out of the tent
towards a great dark object about forty paces away. In
the motionless mass standing there like a great shapeless
rock I at once recognised a rhinoceros. There he stood
among the small tents of my men, clearly astounded at
finding his wonted feeding-place full of men. Within a few
seconds almost all my carriers had sought shelter behind
me, and 1 could not help feeling pleased at the wonderful
VOL. i. 241 16

With Flashlight and Rifle *

discipline evinced — my strict orders that not a shot should
be fired by any of them at night time under such critical
conditions being strictly obeyed. There was a brief pause,
the rhinoceros still keeping absolutely quiet. At the
moment I decided that I had better act first, and I aimed
a bullet at his shoulder. As the shot rang out the animal
whisked round with an angry snort and disappeared
among the thorn-bushes, stamping and spluttering as he
made his way into the open. Next morning we attempted
his pursuit, but this proved quite impossible in the dense
jungle.

I had a very similar experience on the banks of
the Rufu River. A rhinoceros made his appearance in
the middle of the camp, and the watch did not venture
to fire at him. And on my first African expedition,
before I knew much about the rhinoceros, there had
been an episode of the same kind. But in this case
the two animals I had to encounter did not come right
into the camp in the dark ; they appeared only in the
immediate neighbourhood, and the moon at the time was
shining brightly. It was a bitterly cold night ; there
was no getting warm, even with layers of woollen coverings
on one. I was awakened, and sprang from my camp-bed,
clad only in my shirt and a pair of spectacles, to get a
look at our visitors and see whether I could shoot them.
But in the meantime they had sauntered away, and in
my scanty garb I followed them, with the man on watch,
for about two hundred paces, to no purpose.

Many other encounters with rhinoceroses went off*

242

-•> Rhinoceroses

all right for me, but there were other occasions on which
I narrowly escaped with my life.

These great regions of the velt still support hundreds
of thousands of rhinoceroses. None can say how soon
it will be before the last " faru " shall be slain by
man ; but that that day is not far distant, that it will
come within a few decades, seems to me certain.

IN STORMY WEATHER THE NYIKA COUNTRY OFTEN REMINDED ME OF WILD
REGIONS IN NORTH GERMANY

XII

Catching a Young Rhinoceros

" r I ^HEN some one will succeed, it is to be hoped,
JL in bringing back alive a young rhinoceros from
German East Africa. That will be a red-letter day for
our Zoological Gardens " —thus wrote my friend Dr. L.
Heck in 1896, in his book The Animal Kingdom.

In the same year I trod African soil for the first time.
Many illusions, derived from the too optimistic tone of
our colonial literature, were soon to be dispelled there,
not the least of them being notions about the practicability
of getting hold of living specimens of the wild life of the
region.

Many efforts have been made, both in German and
British East Africa, to bring back alive to Europe either
a young rhinoceros or a young elephant. While no one
has yet succeeded in the latter enterprise, I succeeded
in the former, but only on my fourth expedition — the third

244

-•> Catching a Young Rhinoceros

on which I had gone into the interior with my own
caravan. I am reliably informed that the so-called Ostrich
Farming Company at Kilimanjaro has lost fourteen young
rhinos through not knowing how to bring them up. The
Uganda railway now affords facilities for the transport
of heavy animals to the coast, but so far has not been
the means of enriching our Zoological Gardens.

Clearly there must be some good reason for this state
of things. The explanation lies in the great difficulty,
first of all, in catching the young rhinoceros, and secondly,
in the difficulty of providing milk for him, owing to the
lack of horned cattle, when he has to be transported from
one spot to another. Partly from the same cause it has
not been possible to bring home alive to Europe a number
of other splendid animals met with in East Africa. No
elephant, no giraffe, no eland or oryx or roan antelope,
no specimen of the beautiful Grant's gazelle, or impalla,
or waterbuck, or hartebeest, or kudu — not to mention
many other of the smaller inhabitants of the country-
has yet been conveyed home to any of the German
Zoological Gardens.

This is due to the unfavourable conditions, climatic
and otherwise, under which one has to work.

No systematic importation of living animals to Europe
has yet been managed from either German East Africa
or German South or West Africa. This has been carried
out in the case of Somaliland — a country unmatched
for its salubrity, where camels and horses thrive — through
the initiative of the well-known dealer, Menges, but in
these colonies of ours it has never been set about properly.

247

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

Under competent and trustworthy management and with
adequate capital to draw upon, it could undoubtedly be
carried out most advantageously ; and if the interests of
science were kept in mind, such an enterprise would be in
the national interest and worthy of universal support.

In May 1903, while staying on the west side of
Kilimanjaro, I decided to make a fresh attempt to get
hold of a young rhinoceros. This involved acquiring a
herd of cows and keeping a look-out for a cow rhinoceros
with a young one of suitable age.

In the middle of a dense thicket, more impenetrable than
ever owing to the rank vegetation following the rainy
season, I at last saw what I wanted, after looking about
me for a long time in vain. The old cow rhinoceros had
already got wind of me, and any moment might see her
disappear into the jungle, so I was obliged to shoot at
her. She turned round as quick as lightning, and, followed
by her young one, went crashing and clattering into the
brushwood. My bullet had not been well placed ; the
slight extent to which she had bled showed that.

Now follows an exciting and indescribably wearying
pursuit, my men and I winding our way in among the
thorn-bushes as best we can. Soon my clothes are in
shreds and my face and hands all torn and bleeding.
Every moment I expect to run up against the wounded
and infuriated animal. My men have crept up an ant-hill
in order to see what lies ahead. Suddenly — what's that ?
One of them seems to have espied our quarry !

Quickly I clamber up the ant-hill myself, only to dis-
cover that it is a different rhinoceros — a bull, judging by

248

-•> Catching a Young Rhinoceros

its short, thick horn. He must not tempt us away.
Luckily he scents us and takes to flight. Breathless and
perspiring, we return to the tracks of the cow, which often
intermingle with those of other rhinoceroses that must
have passed this way in the night, and which are
therefore by no means easy to follow.

The suspense grows with every moment. The vege-
tation would afford us no protection against the onrush

ONE OF THE BULL RHINOCEROSES

of a rhinoceros-, nor would it impede him in anyway—
the branches would break before him like matchwood.

Now it is midday and the heat has reached its worst,
and still we keep up our chase, making all the pace we
can. Taught by experience, my hands grasp my rifle-
ready to shoot at any moment. Hour after hour goes by
without a break in our advance.

Little hope remains of catching up with our coveted
prey, when we come to a pool of rain-water, in which
clearly she must have just been wallowing and freshening

249

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

herself up with her young one. The water — dark, loamy,
evil-smelling though it be — revives us also. And now
we are able to take our bearings, and we realise that the
rhinoceros must have made a wide circuit and doubled
back towards the camp. The finding of this water enables
me to keep up the pursuit until nightfall. There is not
much joy in the prospect of a night out on the velt with
so many rhinoceroses roaming about.

At last, in a small clump of acacias I spot the
motionless form of the old cow straight in front of me,
and before she can stir from where she stands a bullet
in the ear brings her dying to the ground. The young
one gives out a piercing cry, comes some paces towards
me, then takes to flight. The old animal now rolls about
in her death-agony. I give her two more shots, calling
-out at the same time to my men to throw themselves upon
the young one.

The young one, however, takes the initiative and
makes straight for us with a snort. Next moment my
arms are round him and he and I are rolling together
on the ground, and my men, each of whom is provided
with a rope, have made fast his legs. At first he follows
me willingly as I hold out a piece of his mother's skin in
front of him, but by-and-by he begins to squeak and
refuses to move. I decide quickly to leave four men with
him and send post-haste to the camp for others. Late in
the evening he is brought in triumph to the camp.

Now begin the most serious difficulties of my under-
taking. For one thing I must get hold of a number of
•cows. However, he gets used to a goat, and I myself see

2 so

<••> Catching a Young Rhinoceros

so thoroughly to his nourishment and general well-being
that he thrives splendidly, and eventually reaches the
goal — the Zoological Gardens in Berlin. There he con-
tinues to flourish, still in company with his friend the goat.

When I had fed up my captive and got him into good
condition, Sergeant A. D. Merkel, now a colonist at
Kilimanjaro, rendered me the great service of allowing
my men into one of his cattle-kraals with the little animal,
while I myself proceeded to the velt.

His transport to the coast, too, which had to be effected
on foot, was attended with difficulties. At the period
of the greatest heat I was obliged often to march beside
him during the night, and I owe a bad attack of fever
to spending one night in this way upon a very unhealthy
section of the caravan route without any mosquito-net.

Naples we reached all right. Dr. Heck was there
to meet us, and had engaged a special waggon from
Chiasso. He was highly delighted to welcome the long-
desired stranger in so thriving a condition. The officials
at the Zoological Gardens at Naples, who were brought
to see him by Professor Dohrn, were also Very keenly
interested.

After careful consideration we decided to go on to
Germany by sea. The overland journey seemed to us
undesirable in January, on account of the climatic con-
ditions chiefly, although the Italian authorities, whose
good offices had been bespoken for us by Count Lanza,
the Italian Ambassador at Berlin, were most friendly and
obliging. The passage went off all right, in spite of our
going through a mistral, which provided us with the

253

With Flashlight and Rifle -+.

experience of a hurricane on the high seas which lasted
nearly two days. "Force of wind " and "Ship pitched
heavily " were recorded in the ship's log : the 6,ooo-ton
vessel leant over to the side at an angle of 45°.

However, the young animal stood the voyage well in
spite of everything, and at Hamburg Herr Hagenbeck
had, in the most friendly way, done everything to ensure
our speedy transit to Berlin — a service for which 1 am
most grateful.

So at last we are able to study this very interesting-
animal in captivity, and to note its growth and develop-
ment. It differs from its clumsy-looking Indian cousin in
its activity, in the length of its two horns, and also in its
relative good looks !

I got hold of two other young rhinoceroses later,
but I was not so successful in rearing them as I was
in this instance.

In one case I found the tracks of a cow rhinoceros
and her young at a drinking-place. Accompanied for
once by my taxidermist, Orgeich, I undertook their pur-
suit, which was to prove very long and very difficult, over
stony and hilly ground. As I got near her, she took to
flight, given the alarm by rhinoceros-birds. From the hill
on which I was I could see her and her young one making
off over the velt. On we went again, and presently
we espied her once more, in the middle of a large meadow
of grass with a few trees on it here and there. She was

o

standing still under an acacia, evidently disquieted by our
pursuit. I shot at her from a distance of about one
hundred paces. My bullet passed through a thick branch

254

-* Catching a Young Rhinoceros

of the tree, but nevertheless hit her, killing her on
the spot. I waited until my men (about fifty in all),
who were creeping up towards me cautiously, had come
near enough, and then sent them ahead to right and
left to secure the young animal. However, it was no
good. The calf broke through the ranks of the hunters
and disappeared over the velt. A five-hours' march took

AT FIRST THE YOUXG RHINO'S DIET CONSISTED ENTIRELY OF MILK

us back to camp. Next day we returned to where the
dead rhinoceros was lying.

The following morning the young animal had come
back to its mother ; but although I had a hundred men
with me the same thing happened as before. So this
attempted capture was a failure.

In another case, after a seven-hours' continuous pur-
suit of a cow rhinoceros with her young, we at last

255

With Flashlight and Rifle *

sighted her a considerable distance from us out on the

o

thorn-desert.

She was hit by my first shot, but made off I ran
after her; however, for some time, and at last brought
her down with a second. Immediately we all rushed
forward to capture the young one, which was of a fairly
large size. We had no luck, however. I myself waited
by the body of the old one, on the chance of the young
one returning to it. My men, stirred into eagerness by
the promise of reward, continued their chase. It was
already dusk when they came back to me. Dispirited
by our failure we made our way to the carnp. Nothing
could be -more depressing than the thought that we had
got so near our goal only to fail at last, and that we had
killed the mother uselessly. Once again a whole day's
wearing work had come to nothing.

Next morning, followed by all my men except the
few I left on guard, I returned a second time to the
same spot, in the same hope. But now hundreds of
vultures and some marabous had flocked thither, drawn
by the carcase. So I ordered my men to take out the
horns and bring to camp the parts of the flesh that
could be eaten.

With three carriers I made my way on to a deep
gorge, where I had noticed some rare birds on the
previous evening. Just as we got there out rushed the
young rhinoceros, almost from under my feet. Covered
as he was by the red mire of the velt, neither I nor
my men had distinguished him from his surroundings
until that moment.

256

-* Catching a Young Rhinoceros

Cut off from flight by the gorge, the young animal,
with a tremendous snort, made a rush at me, lowering
his head. I managed to grip hold of him, however, by
the neck, saving myself from his small horn, and clinging
on to it. He and I rolled over on the ground, I getting
some bad bruises in the process.

Now my three men threw themselves upon the animal,

WHILE THE YOUNG RHINO WAS WITH ME, I MADE A POINT OF MARCHING
BY MOONLIGHT DURING THE HOT WEATHER. BY DAY IT WAS ABLE
TO SLEEP QUIETLY IN THE CAMP IN COMPANY WITH MY GOATS AND
MY MBEGA MONKEY

and a great tussle took place. A few moments later all
the others rushed up from where I had left them just in
time to tie up his legs, and on an improvised stretcher he
was carried into camp.

He throve all right for several days. Then, however,
a tumour made its appearance on his lower jaw, and
VOL. i. 257 17

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

gradually got worse. He died a few days later. It was
bad luck to lose him, especially when all promised so well
at first.

On yet another occasion fortune seemed to smile on
me when I succeeded in shooting a cow rhinoceros with
her young one beside her ; but in this case we did not
even get hold of the young one. The spot where we
encountered them was a long way from the camp, and
we had to go back to it at nightfall, returning in the
morning.

On approaching the body of the old one I looked
round carefully with my field-glasses, but the young
animal was nowhere to be seen. Presently the sharp eye
of one of my natives detects a movement in the bushes
some distance away. With the help of my glasses I
discover that it is the young rhinoceros, who has got up
on his feet, and is standing there motionless on the alert.
After a time he lies down again, and is completely hidden
by the bush.

Favoured by the wind, we are able to approach within
a fewr steps of him, when suddenly, with a snort, out he
plunges. To my joy he comes straight in my direction,
and I quite count upon bringing off once again my now
practised neck-grip, when off he slips to my left. The
men nearest whom he passes dare not catch hold of
him, and a wild chase, in which my whole following takes
part, ensues over the velt. A swift-footed carrier, a
Uganda man, almost overtakes him, and makes a grasp at
his uplifted tail. Then hunted and hunters disappear from
my sight among the thorn-bushes of the Pori. Two

-* Catching a Young Rhinoceros

hours later my men come back empty-handed, parched,
and worn out.

This kind of thing is, of course, a frequent experience
in such regions, where the sportsman is handicapped by
having no horse to ride. Under such conditions a hunt
of this kind may very well have a tragic outcome.

When at a height of about 6,000 feet up a hill

WHEN I HAD SHOT THE MOTHER, THE YOUNG RHINO ASSUMED SO
THREATENING JA DEMEANOUR THAT MY MEN TOOK TO THEIR
HEELS INSTEAD OF ATTEMPTING TO CAPTURE HIM !

in the Masai-Nyika country, I saw in the rays of the
setting sun a cow rhinoceros half hidden by bushes,
with a young one, apparently of suitable size for
capture. I had to give the old one several shots, as
she caught sight of me and made for me fiercely.

The young one took to flight. Some of my men
followed him stupidly with loud cries, one man especially

259

With Flashlight and Rifle <+>

distinguishing himself in this way, his sudden display of
valour being in quaint contrast with his usual peaceful
avocation — that of looking after the donkeys ! 1 had
unfortunately not noticed in time that the young animal
was of considerable size, and provided with correspondingly
large horns. Suddenly it turned round. The pursuers
became the pursued ! With screams and yells they took
to flight.

It looks as though Hamis, the donkey-boy, must be
horned by " ol munj " in another second — he gives out
a piercing shriek for help. He is now nearing me. With
a shot on the nape of the neck I am just in time to kill
the infuriated young animal — not in time to prevent it
from crashing down upon the native. Fortunately,
however, he escapes without any serious injury.

From all the foregoing narratives it will have been
gathered that one must be favoured by circumstances
in many particulars if one is to catch and rear a young
rhinoceros. It is to be hoped that in the next few years
these favourable conditions will be met with and that
some other specimens may be brought home alive to
Europe.

On about forty other occasions I came upon rhino-
ceroses with young ; but either the young ones were too
strong to permit of capture or I was too far away from
camp, or there were other hindrances, so of course I did
not shoot.

Generally speaking, rhinoceroses keep under dense
cover when their young ones are quite small, so that the
capture of these is very difficult and dangerous.

260

SNOW-WHITE HERONS AND BLACK AND WHITE IBISES FLASHED OUT FROM THE
MONOTONOUS GREEN OF THE REEDS

XIII

The Hippopotamus

THE hippopotamus will survive both the elephant
and the rhinoceros in Africa, not only because
it is hunted less, but also because one of its chief
haunts, the immense swamps of West Africa, is very
inaccessible.

It is long now since hippopotamuses were plentiful in
the north of Africa. They used to be called the Nile-
horse, because of the numbers to be seen, not merely
in the river, but on its delta. Nowadays, not only the
hippopotamus, but also to a great extent the crocodile,
have disappeared from the Nile, or are to be found in it
only above Khartum.

Quite recently there has been discovered in the Nile
Valley, bones of swine-like, extinct animals in which
palaeontologists recognise forbears of the hippopotamus.
Professor Fraas of Stuttgart it was who found them, and
he is now engaged in examining them.

261

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

But even in the inland lake-districts such as that
of the Victoria Nyanza, the days of this great water-
hog seem to be numbered. It is true that on the English
side of the lake there is a decree in force to prevent
the complete extermination of the species, but in spite
of this the " kiboko " is bound to disappear from these
regions, just as it has from the Nile Valley.

Of very great interest was the discovery a good many
years ago of a species of dwarf hippopotamus on the
West Coast, in Liberia. These little animals, according
to the scanty knowledge we as yet have of them, would
seem to live in the streams of the primeval forests.

The ordinary hippopotamus would be found probably,
on closer investigation, to be divisible into various
races ; I myself have noticed differences in size, appear-
ance, and habits between the hippopotamuses I have met
with in the neighbourhood of different streams.

Herodotus tells us that in his time already the hippo-
potamus was found to have rents on his skin, and he
makes the suggestion that these were made by sharp
sedge-grass. These rents I too have noticed ; but as
I have found them also on rhinoceros-skins — never on
those of elephants — I am inclined to believe that they
must be caused by something else.

We have had many accounts of the hippopotamus
from travellers of all sorts, from the days of Herodotus
down to our own, and they all agree in describing the
animal as ill-tempered and dangerous, and a very ugly
customer to deal with. The last testimony to this was
given by Brehm, who, however, had to deal for the

262

-*> The Hippopotamus

most part with hippopotamuses which had already been
shot at more than once.

It is only natural that so big and easy a target
should be in general favour with travellers who are not
genuine sportsmen, especially in the dry weather, when
the animals are forced to resort to the small lakes or to

THE MAWENZI MOUNTAIN AND KILIMANJARO

the deep pools in rivers, thus offering a welcome oppor-
tunity to such gentry.

As hippopotamuses which have been mortally hit go
under at once, to rise again to the surface in an hour
and a half or two hours, according to the warmth of
the water, through the action of the decomposing gases
inside them, a far greater number of them are killed
than even the bond fide sportsman often supposes.

An officer in the East African colonial police, who

265

With Flashlight and Rifle *

had had considerable experience as a sportsman in
Europe, and who has contributed much to the study of
African wild life, told me that when he first came upon
a lake frequented by hippopotamuses he killed more
than thirty of them in a short time without realising
that he had done so. He would see several monsters
rise to the surface and shoot at them, apparently without
result— seemingly because he missed his aim or because
the bullets did not get at a vulnerable point. The
animals he had shot at always rose again to the
surface, until at last he had used up all his ammunition,
apparently in vain. Some hours later the carcasses of
thirty hippopotamuses were floating about on the surface
of the water !

This of course could only happen to the new-comer.
But it is bound to happen constantly with the kind of
inexperienced sportsmen continually arriving in our
colonies. This evidence from a trustworthy source
throws a flood of light upon the cause of the exter-
mination of many species of wild life.

In the small lakes between Kilimanjaro and Meru
Mountain, discovered by Captain Merker, I found a
great number of " viboko " (the plural of "kiboko") in
1899 — about 150 probably. In the autumn of 1903
their numbers had dwindled almost to nothing.

I had killed only four myself for preservation as
specimens — I could have killed almost the whole lot
with ease, had I chosen. In the driest season they were
confined to the deepest parts of the quite small lakes,
where they were always liable to be shot. It is true

266

-* The Hippopotamus

that for hours together they found safety by keeping
under the water, only stretching out their nostrils for
a second above the surface every now and again. Under
such conditions you must wait for a time until they are
rash enough to show their eyes and ears. Only then
can you get a shot at them that will kill.

It is most remarkable how long they can remain
without showing more than their nostrils above the
surface — all the rest of them invisible to the sportsman
waiting barely twenty paces away. A snort and squirting
up of water are the only signs of their existence. They
can hold out for a long time with a minimum of air.

On the occasion of my last visit to the Merker Lakes
I succeeded in taking several photographs of hippo-
potamuses in the water. I had a shot, too, at a very
old bull " by special permission," and killed him with
a single bullet in the ear.

I found, however, a man named De Wet (believed
to be a Boer) engaged on behalf of a Greek merchant
in slaughtering the rest of the animals in order to secure
their teeth and their skins, which are cut into strips, for
trading purposes.

Though quite without means, according to his own
account of himself, this man had nevertheless been
allowed to cross the frontier, equipped for shooting, and
to pass through the Moshi station to the lakes ; and,
extraordinary to relate, he seems to have been let off the
regular shooting-tax imposed in the case of marabous,
on the ground that he declared he was able to catch
these birds and set them free again after despoiling

267

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

them of their feathers ! As a matter of fact, what he
really did was to kill the marabous he found on the
corpses of the hippopotamuses he had himself shot.

On my reporting this at the station the man, who
had been going about all over Africa for seven years,
without having any kind of credentials on him, was
arrested and brought up for trial by order of Capt.
Merker, who had just come back from leave. His
employers paid the money due for the shooting-taxes.
This incident shows how undesirable it is to allow
foreigners, well equipped with ammunition but without
credentials, to journey in the interior, where there can
be no control over their actions.

In this connection I may remark that the capture of an
old marabou in an unimpaired condition is a feat I have
had before me for many years. It is an extraordinarily
difficult undertaking, very seldom carried out successfully.

The teeth of the hippopotamus are much harder
than ivory, and for a long time were used for the
manufacture of false teeth. Science has now found a
better means of producing the latter, though it has
yet to discover a substitute for ivory in the making
of billiard-balls. Old Le Vaillant remarks in his
book of travels, published a hundred years ago : "It
is not surprising that Europeans, especially Frenchmen,
should make an article of commerce out of the
teeth of the hippopotamus, for with the help of science
they are made to replace our own, and we may see
them flashing delightfully in the mouth of a pretty
woman."

268

-* The Hippopotamus

In 1896 I found the natives on the shores of the
Victoria Nyanza inlets in a state of great excitement
over the vast numbers of hippopotamuses, and not at all
afraid of them. It was very curious to see these natives
on their rafts busy fishing, while the hippopotamuses kept
coming up to the surface of the water all around them, and
great numbers of huge crocodiles lay basking on the
sand-banks in the sun. I was pleased to discover for
myself here what I have often observed elsewhere, and
which Dr. R. Kandt had assured me was the case in
certain parts of Central Africa, namely that these animals
are only ill-tempered and aggressive when they have
been pursued by men and several times wounded.

In one book of travel I find it stated that the Askaris
in Government service were obliged to keep firing off
their guns at night to protect a camp from hippopotamuses.
It is curious that I myself have never had any cause for
alarm in regard to these animals. Many of my encamp-
ments were situated in the midst of swamps and on river-
banks, and within a few paces of my tent hippopotamuses
would come sniffing all round inquisitively in the water,
yet none of my men bothered about them, seeing their
master did not.

In two cases, indeed, a hippopotamus walked right
into my camp at night time between my men's tents
without doing harm to any one. On one other
occasion my sentries did fire at a hippopotamus which
(as I satisfied myself afterwards) was actually rubbing
its nose inquisitively against the canvas of my tent. In
this instance I had had my own tent set up only a few

271

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

yards from where the monsters made their way up from
the water, while my men's tents were farther away.

I can understand of course that travellers who give
their men orders to fire at any animal showing itself at
night will report differently. As I punished my sentries
most severely if they fired a single shot without per-
mission, even at night, I am able to speak positively
upon this matter. I was travelling with the sole object
of studying the life of the animals, and could not allow
myself to become a prey to groundless and ignorant
fears about their attacking me. No doubt it sounds fine
to hear how the camp had to be defended at night
against the attacks of these monsters from the deep.
I myself, to my regret, have never experienced any-
thing of the kind, and I am inclined to believe, therefore,
that it must generally have been a case of precipitate
blazing away rather than of real danger.

I was much astonished to see my Wandorobo set
to work calmly dragging out of a quite small pool a
hippopotamus which I had shot, although there were two
other "makaita" in the pool at the time. They had to
go within about three yards of the spot, and almost
touched the two living hippopotamuses which had not been
shot by me, and which came up snorting about every
two minutes. This experience — and I had many such-
will perhaps help also to modify the impression derived
from fanciful accounts given by certain other travellers.

The attitude of the hippopotamus towards the croco-
dile is very interesting to note. The two animals live
side by side on the best of terms, the quite young

272

-•» The Hippopotamus

hippos being so well guarded from their dangerous
neighbour that they seem to be hidden away altogether.

It is a different matter when you have killed a
hippopotamus and the keen-scented crocodiles imme-
diately swim towards it upstream. I have seen this
happen on several occasions. One particularly interesting
case comes back to my memory.

I had shot an old hippopotamus, which was at once

DRAGGING THE BODY OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS OUT OF A POND IN WHICH
I HAD SHOT IT

carried down against a sand-bank by the force of the
stream, and forced up on it so that it was visible out
of the water. I sent the two men who were with me
back to the camp, which was half an hour's journey
away, to get help and ropes. I remained behind myself
on the bank hidden behind a tree, with only a few
yards of rushing water between me and my quarry.
VOL. i. 273 1 8

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

The great rounded mass of flesh lay motionless upon
the sand-bank. The dark stream must have carried down
some particles of the animal's blood, for soon I saw a
crocodile's snout pop up, then several others, above the
smooth surface lower down where the water was deeper,
and then disappear again.

In a surprisingly short time a large crocodile, more
than four yards in length, came into sight, gave a look
round, disappeared again in the water, and then scrambled
up alongside the body of the hippopotamus. The danger-
ous-looking beast coming right out of the rushing stream
presented a sinister sight. But now I involuntarily took
a step back as I saw his terrible jaws open wide and
begin to tear eagerly at the hippopotamus's flesh.

I kept myself hidden, however, and was thus enabled
to witness the wonderful spectacle of more than twenty
crocodiles, all nearly the same size, emerging from the
water a few yards away from me and begin tugging
the hippopotamus this way and that. They could not
bite through the hard impenetrable skin. They got away
an ear and part of the snout and the tail — that was
all. Not until putrefaction began to set in, as it does so
astonishingly quickly in the tropics, did their bites begin
to take effect.

These huge brutes, fighting and tumbling over each
other in their lust for the prey, were a sight not easily
to be forgotten. But they were gradually dragging the
hippopotamus down, and I began to fear it might be
swept away by the stream, and thus be lost to me.
There is no>[object in shooting hippopotamuses in a big

274

-*> The Hippopotamus

stream unless there be sand-banks, not too far below the
spot where you see them, or else shallow rapids, upon
which the bodies carried down sideways may be stranded ;
otherwise the animals would be carried right away and
lost to the hunter. Therefore I raised my rifle and began
to fire, remaining well hidden all the time. When my
men arrived about half an hour later I had killed about

HIPPOPOTAMUSES AT HOME

fifteen crocodiles, and could have killed at least ten more
had I been better provided with ammunition.

The speed to which " kiboko " is able to attain on
land is as surprising as that of the rhinoceros and the
elephant, and seems incongruous with its unwieldy shape.
Twice only have I seen hippopotamuses take to flight on
land. Each time I was astonished by their activity.
Once also I was very hard pressed by a hippopotamus
in these circumstances, and only just escaped with my
life. I had encountered the animal on land towards
evening. Contrary to my expectation, after receiving a

275

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

shot which was not immediately fatal, he made for a small
lake behind me instead of a far larger one in front of
me. On he came in my direction at an alarmingly quick
gallop. I owed my escape only to the second shot which
I fired, and which made him turn aside and then stumble
and fall dead, for with my third shot my rifle missed
fire!

In another case a hippopotamus I shot on land at a
few yards' distance stood up, opened wide his mouth,
literally bristling with teeth, and sank down with a flop,
dead — a sight I should have liked to photograph if only
I had had my camera available at the moment.

The curiosity displayed by hippopotamuses is remarkable.
The natives often attract the animals to the shore by
playing upon this weakness of theirs. Captain Merker
told me that the natives are in the habit of calling
out to them " Makau ! Makau ! " on hearing which whole
"schools" of hippopotamuses come swimming up. I myself
have witnessed scenes of this kind on the Merker Lakes.

"Makau" (plural "El Makaunin ") the Masai name
for the hippopotamus, is a clear indication, as Captain
Merker writes me, of the Masai having wandered over
the Nile valley. Merker says he could find no similar
word among the names given to animals in any of the
still living Semitic languages known to him. At last
he found a key to its origin in the Assyrian word
ma-ak-ka-nu-u, "beast of Southern Egypt."

I cannot deny that in my attempts at navigating
African lakes and rivers in fragile canvas-boats I
experienced a good deal of nervousness in regard to

276

-+> The Hippopotamus

the propensity shown both by hippopotamuses and croco-
diles to overturning them. Never shall I forget the

o o

feeling with which I once saw two great hippopotamus-
heads emerge from the water a few feet only from my
fragile little vessel in midstream. Only once have croco-
diles seized hold of my boat and overturned it, while
hippopotamuses have never even attempted to do so.

I have had many encounters with " viboko " on the
Rufu River, which for years I had known to be impractic-
able for boats, before the fact was authoritatively stated.
I was one of the first European hunters to go through
the woods along its banks.

The animals are fond of sleeping upon islands in
rivers and lakes. You often find sleeping-places on
these islands which seem to have been thus in use for
ages. Hippopotamuses manage to clamber up even quite
steep banks. Often you see, leading down to the river,
deep grooves worn by them out of the soft stony soil
in the course of countless years. At such spots on the
rivers flowing into the Victoria Nyanza I found heavy
snares set up by the natives, in passing which the animals
would be stabbed in the back by poisoned wooden stakes.
Quickly succumbing to the poison, their dead bodies
would soon rise to the surface of the river, in which
they had sought refuge.

Very curious is the habit the "el makaunin " have
of whisking their dung up on bushes with their bristly
tails. The bushes thus covered serve as landmarks (as
in the case of other mammals) and enable individual
animals, especially males and females, to find each other.

279

With Flashlight _and_Rifle -*

In 1896 hippopotamuses were still plentiful in the Nzoia
River and the Athi River in British East Africa ; they
were to be found, too, all along the coast between Dar-es-
Salaam and Pangani. I saw them on several occasions in
the surf, and shall never forget my astonishment once, on
getting out ot a clump of cocoa-palms, to see what I
had imagined to be an uprooted tree-trunk out on the
sands suddenly change into a hippopotamus and make its
way out into the sea.

Hippopotamuses travel by sea to get from one estuary
to another, no doubt ridding themselves at the same time
of certain parasites in the salt water.

On the river deltas along the coast efforts have been
made to capture young hippopotamuses — one of our best-
known dealers in wild animals lost his son through an
attack of fever brought on by one such attempt. Eight
years ago I saw in the harbour of Dar-es-Saalam some
hippopotamuses which were left unmolested there ; and one
nocturnal expedition on which I went out in the company
of the acting Governor, Herr von Benningsen — it was my
first experience of the tropics — I saw a hippopotamus
quite close at hand. As it was wild boar we were after,
I was naturally much surprised at coming upon one of the
giants of African life in this way.

The capture of young hippopotamuses is a considerably
easier undertaking than that of young rhinoceroses or
elephants. Nevertheless, very few specimens have as yet
been secured.

Some years ago a European resident in Portuguese
territory tried to catch a full-grown hippopotamus in a

280

-•> The Hippopotamus

trap-hole with a view to bringing it home alive — the
trap-hole was quite near the coast. The attempt mis-
carried owing to the animal upsetting the transport cage,
into which he had been driven successfully, and coming
to grief,

The ancients surpassed us all in such matters. They
knew how to capture, not hippopotamuses alone, but full-
grown specimens of all the other species of African
animals, with a view to making them take part in the
fights in the arena.

The intelligence of the hippopotamus is of an extra-
ordinarily high order, considering its kinship with the
pig. To what a remarkable degree its scent is developed
only became known to me fully when I sought to photo-
graph the animals at night time. Unless I took the
utmost precautions they always got wind of me and
moved out of range of my camera, choosing a different
egress from the water.

281

HERE AND THERE THE HEADS OF IMMENSE CROCODILES EMERGED FROM THE STREAM

XIV
Buffaloes and Crocodiles

IN the autumn of the year 1899 I encamped on the
banks of the Pangani River, about midway up its
course. My taxidermist and I were busy preserving and
packing the zoological specimens we had collected, and
for a period of about a fortnight there had been so
much work that I had hardly been able to leave the
camp.

For some time I had been sending out reliable scouts
to track buffaloes. Since the rinderpest broke out in the
Kilimanjaro district these animals had been very scarce,
and I was about the first European hunter to visit
the unhealthy swamps of the Pangani. For weeks my
people had been making fruitless journeys. Nowhere
could they find the buffalo-haunts. Suddenly they found,
some distance from my camp on the bank of the river,
two natives, Waseguhas, who had built themselves a little
hut there, and had planted a little field with maize, living

282

-*. Buffaloes and Crocodiles

besides on the fish they caught. They were evidently
there to hunt the buffaloes, and to watch their move-
ments by taking up their position in trees, whence
they could spy out their extraordinarily well-hidden
refuges, which during the drought were chiefly in the
marshes. The heads and horns of the buffalo are valuable

PHOTOGRAPHING THESE BUFFALOES WAS A TICKLISH BUSINESS

goods, as they are much coveted by Europeans as
" shooting trophies ! "

One of these natives was brought to my camp. At
first nothing could be got out of him, but after a great
deal of parley he decided to give me some information.
He told me that a short while before six blacks armed with
breech -load ing rifles had waylaid some buffaloes in the
vicinity of his little plantation. These men had informed
him that they had been sent from the next station, Rusotto,

283

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

to kill buffaloes. So far their efforts had been in vain.
As soon as they saw the buffaloes appear they sought
safety by climbing up trees. Still, they managed to kill
between them three rhinoceroses, and then disappeared,
taking the horns with them.

These statements turned out to be untrue, as I was
to learn from the district commissioner at Rusotto, Herr
Meyer, who made every endeavour to preserve the wild
game. Information came presently from the Mseguha that
a large herd of buffalo was just then to be found in the
almost inaccessible marshes of the Pangani River. I im-
mediately decided to move my camp to this neighbourhood,
in order to kill a buffalo at last, cost what it might.

On September 2nd I started off in the early morning
with a large number of my people, to camp again after
a six-hours' march in the direction of the Lafitti Mountains.

During the march I managed to obtain two beautiful
eagle-owls (Bubo lacteus}. Large herds of waterbuck,
comprising some 150 or 200 head, flitted in and out
through the beautiful river-forests, but I could not stop
to shoot any.

My camp was connected with a very large island in the
river by an indescribable break-neck bridge that could only
be crossed with bare feet. This island merged in the wide
and impenetrable marsh beyond. The next day was passed
in reconnoitring the island. Waterbuck in thousands sped
hither and thither over the surrounding " gambo " as well
as the island. I had wisely resolved not to fire a shot,
so as not to disturb more than was necessary the extra-
ordinarily shy buffaloes. So I had to give up all idea of

284

-*s Buffaloes and Crocodiles

venison. My caravan was amply provided with Indian
rice, which is so easy to carry, and I was just expecting
a subsidiary caravan with over 100 packets of the same
from the coast. There was a famine at the time, and
it was an exceedingly dear and almost unattainable article
of food. I was sorely tempted to fire at two rhinoceroses,
which nearly ran me down at a moment when I was
following a honey-pointer. The cheerful cry of the
honey-guides (Indicator sparrmani, I. major, and A
minor} one follows whenever possible, to be guided in
all probability to a hive. The fatigue of the pursuit is
often richly repaid by priceless stores of honey, a delicacy
much prized in the lonely wilderness.

I soon found that the buffaloes made this spot their
nightly haunt. A great number of the grass-patches on
the island were hot and scorched. Only at the fringe of
the marsh fresh green grass was sprouting just where the
water rippled and made the ground wet and damp and
black. The marshy bits between the grass-patches,
although still filled with turbid water, were in the act
of drying, and were, like the surrounding ground, well
trodden by buffaloes. It is difficult for any one to
form any conception of the unhealthy district these
animals had chosen as their place of refuge. The water
oozed out of the stagnant, swampy ground at every step.
A very varied marsh vegetation grew everywhere. Over
the desert wastes, or on the edge of the marsh, hundreds
of softly twittering pratincoles hopped about (Glareola
fusca), and at night the mosquitoes swarmed in myriads.
A rich variety of birds was to be found there, but

285

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

among mammals only a few baboons and long-tailed
monkeys, besides the big herds of waterbuck. The
apes had once found a bridge to the island in a gigantic
tree which had fallen across the stream, but soon the
rush of the flowing water at the Masika time had -broken
this temporary bridge, and thus they were cut off from
the mainland. The waterbuck had crossed at shallow
and narrow spots. Waterbuck and buffaloes have no fear
of the numerous crocodiles, always managing to give them
a wide berth. This fact was very interesting to me. No
other wild animal that I know of, with the exception of
the hippopotamus, eludes the crocodile in the same way.

I could find no trace of the reedbuck, which I had
expected to see on the island, although they were often
on the mainland close by. I presume from this that they
were not so clever as the above-mentioned animals in
escaping the jaws of the crocodiles.

During nearly the whole of the day, but more especially
at night time, the voices of the hippopotamuses resounded
from the-marshes, intermingling with the numberless cries
of the birds. Save for this, there was silence.

All along the bank of the river I found that the island
was very well guarded against intruders. Everywhere I
could see the pointed snouts of gigantic crocodiles
popping up out of the water and slowly moving with
the stream. Here in a deep part of the river a more
than usually large collection of them was assembled. As
they approached most cautiously that part of the river-
bed where long stretches of sand-bank glistened in the
sunshine, I found dozens of these immense creatures

286

-* Buffaloes and Crocodiles

sunning themselves. Near them numbers of Egyptian
geese and other marsh-birds had arranged themselves on
the sand-banks. They were wise enough to stay near
the shallow parts of the river, and did not go close, to
those deeper portions where the crocodiles are wont to make
their sudden attacks. Though, for that matter, I am
inclined to believe a certain degree of friendliness exists

THE RUFU RIVER

between the crocodiles and the birds. In the Sudan we
know that a small kind of plover lives in close harmony
with the great animal ; but the sagacious ducks and geese
one never sees swimming about in the deep waters fre-
quented by crocodiles.

Several days passed in a fruitless search after buffaloes.
In order to find out their haunts, I dived into the marshy
swamps by means of the almost impenetrable tunnel-like

287

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

paths trodden by the .hippopotamuses. However, I soon
returned with lacerated hands, and horribly bitten by
mosquitoes, with the conviction that the beasts had no
certain resting-place, and that they forsook the marsh
at night to return thither at dawn of day. Neither on
the marshes could I find trace of them. With much
trouble I climbed several very tall acacia-trees that grew
on sundry dry spots. Thence I could get a better point
of view, and was able to make out the places where the
buffaloes were lying. Hundreds of egrets swarmed above
them. They served to draw attention to the buffaloes,
to which they attach themselves always, and which they
free from vermin without disturbing them. The region
swarmed with vermin.

Knowing the extraordinary timidity of the buffalo,
I had given strict instructions to my people to remain
within the camp. Wood for burning had to be fetched
only from quite close at hand, and no one went farther
than the path which connected us with the mainland.

Our grain was sent by this path from my chief
camp. The place of encampment itself was carefully
cleared of grass and bushes, a needful precaution.
Countless millions ot tiny ticks {Rhipicephalus sanguineus
and R. appendiculatus, as well as R. pulchellus] covered
the grass and bushes of the island just where the water-
buck were usually to be seen, and especially at the
haunts and feeding-places of the buffaloes. It was im-
possible to pass through the island without immediately
being covered by hundreds of these ticks.

On returning to the camp my natives used to remove

288

-* Buffaloes and Crocodiles

these tiresome vermin with the greatest equanimity, or
else did not bother about them at all. But it was quite
another matter with Orgeich and myself. My own efforts
to rid myself of them only made things worse. Horrible
inflammation was the result. I immediately flew to
sublimate baths in my indiarubber tub ; but without
result. The only means of getting rid of these pests
was to undress completely and to allow the natives to
make a thorough search lasting half an hour.

Visitors to the Zoological Gardens will be familiar
with the sight of the monkeys rendering one another
mutual assistance in this respect, and they will form
some idea of the scene which was daily enacted with
regard to myself, when a haul of from 50 to 100 tiny
almost invisible insects was taken from me ! These little
bloodsuckers managed to produce rather serious swellings
in the region of my stomach. .So small were the tiny
fiends that I at first ascribed the evil to other causes.
For the following weeks and months I had troublesome
sores, which refused to yield to remedies, and did not heal
until I reached the highlands some time later. Painful
days and sleepless nights — my colleague Orgeich suffered
just as much as I — marked our stay upon this island,
which I had called Heck Island in honour of my friend
Dr. Ludwig Heck, whose life-work it has been to secure
the preservation of big game. The little island was
an ideal natural preserve for buffaloes and waterbuck,
and kept them out of the range of the rinderpest then
ravaging the Dark Continent.

There was no getting at the buffaloes. Whenever
VOL. i. 289 19

With Flashlight and Rifle -+

I attempted to penetrate into the marshes I was soon
hindered by channels traversing the morass. The only
possibility seemed to be to seek out "the herds in the
very early morning before they had returned to their
swampy haunts. Many times I seemed on the point of
succeeding ; it was but a question of minutes, and each
time I came a few minutes too late. The shyness of
these animals seemed to be unconquerable, and with the
breaking light of dawn they had already returned to their
hiding-places — a striking example of the sagacious habits
necessary to their conditions. One would think that such
a powerful beast as the African buffalo would have no
cause to fear molestation of any kind ! Yet, whether
alone or in herds, these animals had taken in the altered
conditions of things and feared the flash of the European
firearms as much as the noiseless and swift poisoned
arrows of the natives.

Thus passed day after day, but I was determined to
persevere. Only thus can the hunter — at least in the
tropics — hope to attain his end. One man after another
sickened with the malaria, and we Europeans strengthened
our doses of quinine to be more sure of ourselves.

During the evenings and nights we went in for
catching crocodiles for a change. After long days of work
my men had felled two huge trees, which, falling into
the river from each bank, just met in the middle, and
thus formed a primitive bridge over to the right bank.
About and under this river-bar large crocodiles assembled.
With the aid of some hooks for shark-fishing which
had come from London, I endeavoured to get hold of

290

-* Buffaloes and Crocodiles

some of these beasts, but I could not at first succeed. 1
hit at last, however, upon a plan which brought me to the
desired end. A piece of flesh with bones was attached
to the hook with some string, and the line was thrown
into the water at night and by moonlight. If it was seized
by a crocodile, I let out some fifty or more yards of a
tight, strong rope, such as is used in pike-fishing ; then the
crocodile began to take a hold, but was in every case far
too knowing actually to swallow the hook. Carefully
hidden in the bushes some ten to twenty men pulled in the
prey, often weighing more than a thousand pounds. As
it came near it beat and splashed the water violently
with its powerful tail. Now was the time to lodge a
quick bullet in its head by the light of the moon.

A shot from a small-calibre rifle cripples the monster
absolutely, if only it is hit somewhere near the head. It
han^s motionless on to the line without opening its terrible
jaws in death, but giving out an unbearable stench. With
the help of a very strong and thick rope fastened round
its body, one now succeeds in bringing it to land.
A kind of barbed harp ion, fastened on to a long pole,
is very effective at this stage.

Working by night on these lines we generally caught
six or more crocodiles, twelve or thirteen feet in length.
Of course there were many failures.

On these occasions I learnt to know and fear the
tremendous strength of the blows that can be given by
their tails. One of my men was very keen on this sport,
having once been seized hold of and nearly drawn under
the water by a crocodile ! For hours he watched the

293

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

line I had thrown, ready to prompt me at the critical
moment. He had sworn vengeance on " mamba," and
danced with glee every time I managed to catch or kill
one of the beasts.

The contents of the stomachs usually consisted of
bones from mammals and fishes. Besides, there was in
every stomach a large number of pieces of quartz, which
had either been ground quite round before swallowing
or had ' undergone this operation in the stomach. In
any case they were necessary for the complete process
of digestion. These pieces of quartz were sometimes
quite large — about the size of an apple. In one of the
animals I found a vulture, whole and entire, which had
been swallowed unmasticated. As the bird's skin was
spoilt I threw it into the river. Crocodiles are capable
of swallowing immense objects in this way. In 1900,
during the time of drought and famine, I' killed crocodiles
whose stomachs contained human bones swallowed almost
uncrushed.

It is most interesting but very difficult to watch the
real life of the crocodile, about which unfortunately so
little is yet known. Even the younger ones are extremely
shy and cautious. Should they happen to have scrambled
on to the branches overhanging the water they dive at
once and remain out of sight. The older they grow the
shyer they- become. They keep in such deep water that
they are able to seize their prey without exposing
themselves to view. I have often found crocodiles
lurking near the drinking-places of the wild herds, lying
in wait for them.

294

-•> Buffaloes and Crocodiles

1 remember very vividly one case in which I was
a witness of a crocodile's way with its victim. My
thirsty herd of cows had hastened down to the river
to drink after a long march without water. But no,
they would not drink ! They sniffed at the water here
and there doubtfully, plainly scenting danger. Not
until some of my men threw stones into the water so
as to scare away their unseen enemy would they quench
their thirst, proceeding then to graze by the river-bank.

Some of the stragglers from my camp now appeared
on the scene with more cattle. A beautiful large coal-
black ox that I had long spared death on account
of his size approached the water. His sense of smell
told him he could drink there without danger ; besides,,
had not the whole herd, knee-deep in the ooze,
refreshed themselves at the same spot ?

The huge body of the beast sank deep into the
mud. Hardly, however, had he dipped his nose when
I saw a tremendous crocodile slowly rise from the turbid
water, and in the self-same moment the bull, caught
by the snout, disappeared below the surface. The slippery
nature of the slanting bank made him an easy prey.
The whole proceeding took place so quickly before my
eyes that for an instant I stood there bewildered, not
knowing what to do. Quickly, however, recovering my
presence of mind I hurried to the edge of the bank,
but could see nothing but a few bubbles on the surface
of the muddy stream. There was nothing to be done.
Still, we hurriedly followed the stream for a little way,
and saw right in front of us, close to the opposite bank,.

297

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

the body of the bull floating on the water. It was
being torn to shreds by numbers of crocodiles, who kept
reaching their heads out of the water to bite at it. We
fired in their direction, but did not disturb the rapacious
animals in the least, and were obliged to leave them in
possession of their booty.

I lost several cows in the same way at other times.
Men were sometimes seized in a similar manner, and
I was once witness of this. On the return journey to
the coast after a successful termination to my 1899-1900
expedition, a native fell off the foot-plank which bridged
the Pangani River near Korogwe. He was immediately
seized by crocodiles, and disappeared before our eyes—
a victim to the sweet palm-wine of which he had drunk
too freely !

Often I have been seized with a lively feeling of
dread when we have had to wade through the water
shoulder-high in order to get across a river. On these
occasions the natives make themselves a strong crocodile
charm, a " Daua." My " Daua " was simply to fire a
number of shots into the water above and below the
fords ! I have seen a great number of natives seized by
crocodiles, many of them escaping in cases where the
crocodiles were small.

My method of fishing for crocodiles was only feasible
at night time, or on a very cloudy day, as is often the case
with line-fishing. One absolutely necessary precaution
was the careful hiding of the angler behind a covert on
the river-bank.

The new-comer may often be deceived as to the number

298

-* Buffaloes and Crocodiles

of crocodiles in the rivers, as the snouts and nostrils of the
animals, which just reach the surface of the water, are very
often nearly invisible. Crocodiles notice everything that
goes on in their vicinity ; their eyesight is extraordinary.
If the reptiles happen to be lying on sand-banks or low-
lying places by the bank, they suddenly disappear into
the water at the least sign of danger. I have often
surprised gigantic crocodiles by coming out from the
covert on the bank. Then it sometimes seemed as if
the ground under my feet suddenly became alive, or as if
some moss-covered tree-trunk in the water had come to lite.

Young ones just out of the broken eggs I used to find
in March. Even these showed themselves inclined to bite.
Some old animals that I have caught used to emit at times
a peculiar deep, indescribable half-growling sound, of a
savageness hard to describe ; a sound which I have now
and again heard them make when at liberty, especially
at rutting-time. The quite young crocodiles when caught
gave a loud and lively cry.

A bullet from a small-calibre rifle (even a common lead
bullet) will kill the reptile on the spot, if it strikes the
head in the region of the spine. It seems to set working
a kind of convulsive motion in the whole vascular system
of the animal. I have killed a great number of crocodiles
which coulcl not move an inch after having been hit by
a ball, and which lay as if struck by lightning.

My friend Captain Merker once had a very interesting
experience with young crocodiles. He found some
crocodile - eggs near the volcanic Lake Chala, in
December, and took them back with him to Port Moshi.

299

With Flashlight, and Rifle ^

About eight days after, something squeaked in the cigar-
box in his room where he had put the eggs. At first
he believed it to be some mice, but he soon discovered
that several crocodiles had broken out of their eggs,
having managed to do without sunlight during the last
days of the hatching period.

We have very little information about the breeding
of crocodiles, especially of the African species. This
is easily explained by the great shyness of the animals.
They are shyer in some regions than in others. They
are sometimes much less so, for instance, in a large lake
like Victoria Nyanza. In the large bays to the south
of this lake I found numbers of them on the sand-banks.
They and the hippopotamuses lived there seemingly on a
friendly footing with the native fishermen.

If by night the fishing for crocodiles afforded us so
much diversion, the days passed uneventfully in the Buffalo
Camp. I made several shooting excursions along the
right bank of the river, towards the hills on the Nyika
frontier. From the plentiful supply of waterbuck I secured
some unusually fine specimens.

It seemed as if 1 were never going to meet with the
buffaloes. At last my Wandorobo saw a herd of about
thirty head at daybreak, and were able to notice how
they had lain down in some small swamps very far from
my camp. In two hours' time I was on the spot.
The wind was very strong, in one direction, and altogether
favourable. Once again I attempted to approach the
buffalo herd. Still in vain ! I was up to my knees in
the soft black ooze of the swamp. Cautiously I strove

•;oo

-* Buffaloes and Crocodiles

to penetrate the sea of reeds. These reeds were so thick
and high and impenetrable that I found it impossible
to reach the animals. Only grass-green, luxuriant reeds
grew in the marsh. There was not a single tree-trunk
anywhere near the buffaloes. At last I managed to get
to a spot pointed out to me by a Wandorobo who had
nimbly climbed a high tree to my rear. Then I saw

WE CAME UPON HUNDREDS OF SKULLS OF BUFFALOES — PROOFS OF THE
IMMENSE NUMBERS THAT FELL VICTIMS TO THE RINDERPEST

that only a close shot would be of any avail, but such
an attempt would be sheer suicide. After much hesita-
tion I returned to my men, and myself climbed a high
acacia-tree. But even from here I could not clearly
make out the whereabouts of the buffaloes. I decided
then to startle them with a shot in the air. Then began
an indescribable tumult among the reeds, a great swaying

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

and waving of the green stems ; but even from my high
look-out I could only now and again get a momentary
glance at one or other of the immense horns of the black
beasts. Soon they had disappeared. I now saw that it
would be impossible to hunt them in such a place. With
difficulty I climbed down from the high tree. It is no
fun to climb a tropical thorn-tree. A very short stay
among its branches gives a very unpleasant close acquaint-
ance with all kinds of ants, whose bites do not have much
effect on the leathern skin of the black, but have a very
serious one on the tender skin of the European.

Two more days passed in patient waiting. At least the
buffaloes left fresh traces every morning, and did not
change their haunts as I had feared. The plague of ticks
was becoming daily more unbearable for us Europeans, and
at night there was no sleep because ot our wounded
skins. At last, one very cloudy day at noon, we found a
large herd grazing on a grass-patch just within the marsh,
and only a few yards from the thick reeds. It meant
wading through some of the swampy channels to reach
them. There was no cover for us — nothing but the reeds.
There were some moments of the greatest suspense as,
on nearing the herd, I had the opportunity of observing
the imposing picture made by some sixty head of these
wild cattle, now, unluckily, so rare. Tame cattle I was
inclined to characterise them, despite their ferocious
appearance. The thick mass of the black, closely packed
forms as they zealously cropped just in front of me had
something grand and impressive about it. But now I had
to decide on my shot, and, with a beating heart — I acknow-

J1-1-

"•> Buffaloes and Crocodiles

ledge it — I selected one bull that was grazing alone
somewhat away from the herd. The distance was about
1 20 paces. As I fired it shrank back, tossing up its head
and flapping its tail. A second bullet sent it falling
forwards, the whole herd taking flight instantly, disappear-
ing into the high sedges with lightning speed. The bull
rose again, but a third shot did for it. So at last I had
killed a buffalo !

The skinning of the animal and the carrying of the
heavy skin through the marsh into the camp, and then
the various processes of preparing it, entailed much labour ;
but the joy at the result of my perseverance was great
indeed.

Eight more days on "Heck Island" did not bring
me another chance of a shot. Buffalo-hunting in East
Africa, it will be seen, is no easy matter. It was otherwise
before the year 1890. From this time onward the
rinderpest began its ravages in German and British East
Africa. The epidemic was spread fast and wide by the
tame cattle, and the fine East African buffaloes were nearly
all laid low. An English official and friend of mine found
on one day in that year about a hundred sick buffaloes
in various stages of dissolution. I myself found their
bleached horns at that sad time in great numbers all
over the place.

In 1887 Count Teleki shot 55 buffaloes in three
months on the Nguaso-Niyuki ; and Richard Bohm
relates that in mountainous and clamp Kawenda he met
quantities of herds comprised of hundreds of buffaloes,,
and that their lowing could be heard by the passing

303

With Flashlight and Rifle -+

traveller. Those days are gone. The merciless rinder-
pest nearly struck the buffalo out of the list of the East
African animal world. It struck at them just as it struck
at the Masai race.

If the investigations of my friend Captain Merker
are well grounded, it is thousands of years since this race
of nomads, one of the oldest of all the Hebrew races,
made their way over the East African plains, there to
roam at large, with their countless herds of cattle.

With one blow their power was annihilated by the pest
that came from Europe, that scourge of the cattle-breeder.
I often' found circular collections of bones of cattle. One
could see them from ,the far distance on the velt shining
white in the sun. Intermingled with them were numerous
human skulls. These^were the camping-places of the Masai
in the year 1890.

Over and over again the self-same drama was enacted.
The cattle sic'kened and died. Remedies and charms
availed nought. In a few days the camp was pest-ridden,
and men, women, and children, helpless and without food,
died in agony. Only scanty remnants now survive of the
once great Masai people. In their days of need their
women and children were sent out or sold as agricultural
slaves to more prosperous races.

The buffalo-herds disappeared almost entirely at that
time, and in German and British East Africa only a few
survive. And as it happened here to the Masai people
and the buffalo-herds, so did it happen to the Indians
and bison in America. The progress of civilisation is
indeed cruel and merciless. Mankind must spread over

304

-* Buffaloes and Crocodiles

the face of the world in millions, everything else must
give way, fast or slowly, to the higher merciless law.

Few indeed are the buffaloes that remain in the parts
of the Masai-Nyika that are known to me. In the Pan-
gani marshes I know a herd of a few solitary old bulls.
In the neighbourhood of Lake Manjara there is another.
Near Nguruman a small number may be found. Qn the

TOWARDS EVENING GREAT FLOCKS OF MARABOUS ASSEMBLED ON THE
MERKER LAKES

high plateau of Mau, in British East Africa, I sighted
five heads, and a few others in the Njiri marshes. Here
and there a few other small herds may make their haunts.
In the whole of northern German East Africa these are
all that remain of the former abundance.

But wherever these scanty remnants are found they are
mercilessly hunted. A European known to me killed five
in one day, as he managed to find them close together.

VOL. i. 305 20

With' Flashlight and Rifle -*

Some armed natives killed as many in one single day
about two years ago on the lower Pangani River.

I have known some curious pretexts put forward for
he killing of buffaloes by Askaris, pretexts designed to
evade the already existing protection-laws. A non-
commissioned officer informed me, for instance, that a
buffalo of which the horns had been brought him by an
Askari had attacked a village, and had therefore had to
be killed. And in another case I was actually told that
a buffalo, whose horns I saw at a station, had been
found drowned by the Askari who had brought him.
Well, I suppose it is not to be expected that regulations
can be easily enforced in a far-off land. In any case,
the days of the beautiful wild buffalo are numbered in
East Africa, and soon he will be on the list of the
species that have died out.

306

SWINGING THEIR TAILS, THE GIRAFFES AMBLED AWAY

XV

Giraffes

AMONG the rarest and most singular of the large
mammals still existing to-day is undoubtedly the
giraffe, various forms of which are to be found in
different parts of Africa.

The extraordinary appearance of giraffes makes us
think of them as strange survivals from a prehistoric
past — as the last representatives of a fauna long dead
and gone. Next to the okapi (Ocapia johnstoni], which
was discovered in 1901 by Sir Harry Johnston and
Mr. L. Eriksson in the forests of Central Africa, and
whose nearest relatives became extinct thousands of
years ago, the giraffe is certainly the strangest-looking
animal to be seen in Africa.

"In the country of Ererait lived the nomad cattle-
breeders El Kamasia. . . . Their name for God was
Em Ba, and they made themselves images of Him in
the form of a giraffe with a hornless head." So Captain
Merker tells us in his account of the origin of the Masai.
Perhaps this hornless giraffe was the okapi, which may

307

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

have thriven at one time in more northern regions. The
animal-cult of the Egyptians may well have influenced
the Masai for a time.

There is nothing attractive about giraffes, so far as
we know them from pictures, or from having seen them
in captivity. But it is quite otherwise with them as met
with in the wilderness. Zebras, leopards, and giraffes
are so strikingly coloured that one would expect to find
them conspicuous figures in their own haunts. But, as I
have already remarked, these three kinds of animals
have really a special protection in their colouring. It
harmonises so perfectly with their surroundings that they
are blended in the background, so to speak, and can
easily be overlooked. It must be explained that one
does not often see the animals close at hand. In certain
lights, indeed, according to the position of the sun, zebras,
leopards, and giraffes are so merged in the. harmony of
their surroundings that even when they are quite near
the eye of man can easily be deceived. It is not only
in the very dry season, when the plant-world stretches
out before us in every hue from dirty brown to bright
gold, that the giraffe harmonises with its surroundings in
this way ; you sometimes cannot distinguish its outline
when backed by the green boughs of the trees in the
shade.

The colouring of giraffes varies very much, even in
the same herd. I have seen herds of forty-five or more
heads, and from close quarters I have ascertained that
some were striped quite darkly and some very lightly.
All bulls are coloured more or less darkly.

-•> Giraffes

Giraffes dwell chiefly on the plains. About seven-
tenths of German East Africa represent an El Dorado
for giraffes. Here they find all the conditions of life
necessary to them. They can travel a long way from water,
as they can do without it for several days at a time.
During the rains they get as much water as they want
from the moist leaves. Their food consists chiefly of
foliage and of the thin branches of the different acacia-
trees, as well as the leaves and twigs of many other
trees.

So far as I myself have been able to observe, the
giraffe never eats grass of any kind. Its anatomy and
build are not suggestive of a graminivorous animal. When
in captivity, of course, giraffes are fed on hay and fresh
grass and clover, as are also elephants, rhinoceroses, and
other animals, as it is hard, unfortunately, to find branches
of trees and foliage in sufficient quantity for them.. It is
astonishing that, in spite of all this, such animals are able
to live so many years in captivity ; but I have never found
them so well nourished in Europe as in their native
haunts. The particularly well-nourished " twigga " which
can be seen in my photographs became quite thin and
meagre in captivity, so that the neck vertebrae pro-
truded more and more. Their thriving to the extent
they do under such different conditions is a sign of great
adaptability. Very many of the large mammals are unable
to reconcile themselves to the altered food. It is with
the greatest difficulty that a large kudu is kept alive.
I have had much trouble in convincing even zoological
experts that giraffes in their free state were so shapely

311

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

and well nourished. My photographs have helped to
prove this fact.

Giraffes do not dwell exclusively on the plains. At
certain seasons of the year they find a refuge in the
mountain woods, up to a height of 7,000 feet. This
generally happens at the beginning of the drought. They
do not, however, frequent the primeval forests.

One of my most interesting photographs is undoubtedly
that of an old giraffe bull, in company with two aged male
elephants. For weeks I observed this trio in the forests
of the west Kilimanjaro district, anxious for the moment
when a ray of sunlight would enable me to take a snapshot.
But the usual rain-clouds of this period — I am speaking
of the month of June — prevents the sun's rays from
reaching the west side of the mountains. Only at night
time do they disappear ; early in the morning they are
always hanging over the mountainous district.

After a long wait in the cold mist-like rain, and
without a fire, I was at last rewarded by a few minutes
of sunshine. This enabled me to take several snapshots,
but only from a distance of at least 400 paces. Of course
it was necessary to seize the opportunity just at the
moment when both the elephants and the giraffe were
visible among the high vegetation. At any moment the
clouds might return and the sun disappear.

Other giraffes also had at this time found a halting-
ground in the thick and luxurious growth of the forest.
These herds would often remain for hours in close
proximity to the elephants. The three animals in question
chose out a place where the »rass had grown so tall

x o *— *

312

<+> Giraffes

that a man could not see over it. Later, under similar
circumstances, I met with several herds of giraffes,
especially of old bulls, in company sometimes with elands
which had made their way high up into the mountains,
so that I am in a position to state that the giraffe
frequents the forests as well as the plains. They are
intelligent enough, especially the experienced old bulls,

A BULL AND A COW GIRAFFE. THE BULL IS DISTINGUISHABLE BY ITS
THICKER NECK

to seek safety in these woods from hunters, thus ridding
themselves also of ticks and other parasites.

One of my most delightful experiences in Africa was
the observing of these unique animals living their own
natural lives in liberty. I had been informed that then
(in 1896), in consequence of the rinderpest, the giraffe
had almost disappeared, and was only to be found rarely
and in out-of-the-way places. I do. not deny that the

With Flashlight and Rifle *

giraffes may have been attacked by the rinderpest, but
I have seen no absolute proof of this. The giraffe has
suffered more in any case from other enemies. The
European and the Askari have been much more destruc-
tive. According as the hunting of elephants in East
Africa has become more difficult, and the pursuit of the
rhinoceros more dangerous, that of so easy a prey as
the giraffe has grown in popularity. Every European
hankers after the killing of at least one, if not several,
specimens. There have been districts, too, where the
Askari have literally used the giraffes for target-practice.

So long as it was an understood thing that the black
soldiers might practise their rifle-shooting on the big
game, so as to make themselves marksmen in the event
of war, and so long as the " preservation of wild life "
was a dead letter, so long did it seem that there was no
hope of the giraffes escaping speedy annihilation. Much,
however, has been done by the Protection of Game
Conference in London, and especially by the regulations
of Count Gotzen, for German East Africa.

Muhammadans do not eat giraffe-flesh, or else the
Sudanese Askari would probably have made still greater
ravages among the animals. Even the natives hunt
them. Poisoned arrows are made use of, and more
particularly pit-holes. They are well hidden, and the
giraffes cannot easily detect them, as they depend more
on their eyesight than their sense of smell. Thus these
" eye-animals," as Dr. Zells calls them, find great danger
in the pitfalls, unlike the rhinoceroses and elephants
which are "nose-animals."

314

-* Giraffes

In South Africa giraffes have been for long years a
thing of the past. They fell too easy a prey when
followed on horseback, and their skin was sought after
for the manufacture of the long whips used by the
Boers in driving their oxen. It is a regrettable fact
that of late years a large number of giraffe-skins cut up-
into thongs have been exported to South Africa from

GIRAFFES TAKING TO FLIGHT AMONG FLUTE-ACACIA TREES

German East Africa. The newspaper which comes out
in Tanga remarked some while ago on the market price
of this rare article per frasila (35 Ib.) ! It was possible
to bring the skins safely in this way to the coast for
exportation in bundles weighing about 60 Ib. Now that
the Protection of Game Conference has decided that
the giraffe is to be preserved, it is to be hoped that a
check will be put upon this kind of trade, in view of

315

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

the comparatively small number of giraffes still remaining.
Of course the Customs officials may be outwitted, if the
thongs are cut very thin, by false declarations as to their
nature.

As with all animals, we find the giraffe either shy or
trusting according to its experience of men. Far out on
the desert, where men are never seen, I found them so
free from timidity that I was able to approach to within
about two hundred paces of them. I succeeded, too, in
discovering them by day in their haunts in the woods,
and in getting quite close. But usually their timidity
and caution do not allow of such liberties. Their keen
eyes, as a rule, spot a man a great way off A char-
acteristic whisking of the long bushy tails, and a moving
forward of the leader, whether bull or cow, from out of
the shade of the tree under which the herd are takina

o

their siesta, are the heralds of immediate flight. In
spite of their awkward and clumsy-looking gait, they
soon distance the unmounted hunter, and are lost to
sight. After much trouble I once succeeded in photo-
graphing a herd of giraffes going full-trot. Generally
speaking, giraffes are more difficult to photograph than
any other animal.

Even when the giraffes are to be seen out in the
open and the light is good, the photographer must get
quite close to the herd to be able to take a picture.
In the midst of jungle it is in most cases only possible
to obtain photographs of a few single specimens that
have somewhat separated from the herd. I had made
many vain endeavours before I at last succeeded in

-* Giraffes

getting good pictures of several giraffes. The way in
which the colouring of the animals blends with the sur-
roundings offers one of the greatest difficulties to the
photographer.

This is especially the case with regard to the species
of giraffe which I was fortunate enough to discover.
This Giraffa schillingsi has a shirt of an extraordinary

A BULL GIRAFFE WATCHING ME ANXIOUSLY

undecided colour that photographs very indistinctly, unlike
that of the northern species, which is sharp and pro-
nounced. Skins of this kind of giraffe were brought
home from South Somaliland, after his last dangerous
journey, by my friend the late Baron Carlo Erlanger,
the great explorer and traveller.

The sight of a herd in flight is very interesting.
They clatter in straight lines over the hard rough ground

317

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

of the plains. The whole unwieldy bodies of the animals
swing backwards and forwards, their necks swaying like
masts on a moving sea. They whisk their tails backwards
and forwards when fleeing, or when their suspicion is
awakened. After one shot the whole herd falls into a
•quick, sharp trot for a few moments, always flapping their
tails most energetically. I am of opinion that by means
of this flapping and whisking of tails the giraffes are able
to communicate with and understand one another, and
this theory has much to be said for it in view of the
absolute dumbness of these animals. Even at a distance
one notices the extraordinarily expressive eyes of the
giraffe, and it is easy to believe that the animal is chiefly
dependent upon them for its safety.

Dr. Zell concludes that giraffes have no sense of
smell from the fact that when in captivity they try
to eat the artificial flowers on the hats of the lady
visitors ; but this does not tally with my experience
of the way in which they take to flight when one ap-
proaches them with an unfavourable wind. Deer, when
in captivity, also seize eagerly upon paper and other stuff,
and the desire for the artificial leaves in the ladies' hats
can easily be explained by hunger engendered by the
unnatural food with which giraffes are fed in captivity.

The poise of a giraffe's head is sometimes very
expressive of curiosity and enquiry. The extremely
grotesque appearance of the animal is never so noticeable
as when it is seen standing sharp against the horizon, not
unlike a high bare tree-trunk. Giraffes communicate
with one another by the carriage of the neck and the

-•> Giraffes

position of the body, as well as by their peculiar " tail
language."

In two cases I noticed the red-billed ox-pecker — that
true little friend of the rhinoceros — in the company of
giraffes, to which it offered the same friendly services
-as to all pachyderms. In a sense giraffes also are
pachydermatous. The skin of old bulls has in some

A PHOTOGRAPH OF GIRAFFES TAKEN \\

TELEPHOTO LEXS

parts such a thickness that it withstands every art of
the taxidermist, who finds it one of his most difficult tasks
in the tropics, without the employment of salt and alum
baths, to preserve the skin for safe transport to museums
at home.

Very few European museums have a stufted specimen
of the huge African male elephant or of the huge old
giraffe bull. I have made many efforts to save the skins

With Flashlight and Rifle *

of these beautiful animals. I succeeded with several young,
and especially with female, specimens, but never in pre-
serving the whole skin of a very old bull undamaged.
The reason lies in the fact that it is an impossibility to
obtain vessels large enough to contain the skin, or to
take the necessary quantities of salt and alum into the
wilderness.

I soon saw the uselessness of my efforts, and after
having spoilt three skins I left the old bulls undisturbed.
This was doubly hard, because I knew that soon it would
be too late ! No gold on earth would then be able to
re-create these rare creatures ! The female specimens to
be found in the museums of Stuttgart, Munich, Karlsruhe,
and other places, which live again under the hands of the
masterly taxidermist, show in a satisfactory manner that I
was successful at least in bringing them to Europe in
the best condition, thus retaining them for posterity.

It is much to be deplored that competent men are
not subsidised to enable them to secure specimens of
some of the largest mammals. Perhaps it will not be
very long before large sums will be offered for single
specimens. Already a single egg of the Great Auk costs
more than ^300, and it is not so very long since this
bird died out. The prices of many other zoological
rarities are equally high. In the near future the skins
of giraffes now exhibited in the museums as rare objects
will be valued at the highest figure. But no money can
bring back to life a species that has died out.

Mr. H. A. Bryden informs us that some ten years ago
certain native hunters in the service of European traders

320

-•> Giraffes

killed about three hundred giraffes near Lake Ngami in
South Africa. When one is told that even then the
skins were worth ^4 to £6 sterling, in order to be
made into whips for oxen, there is no room for surprise
at their wholesale slaughter.

This number was, however, as Mr. Bryden expressly
states, only a small one compared to that of those killed

A WOUNDED BULL GIRAFFE AT CLOSE QUARTERS

south of the Zambesi. There, as has already been re-
marked, as in German East Africa, the animal is already
hunted, and will be perhaps yet more hunted, for purposes
of trade with South Africa ; it is thus doubly to be desired
that a number should be saved for scientific ends in good
time. The invention of long-range, smokeless, small-
calibre rifles has of course facilitated the destruction of the
giraffe. Often those that are not killed upon the spot
VOL. i. 321 21

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

sink afterwards in the thorny . acacia-woods a few days
later, there to fall victims to the vultures and hysenas.

A. H. Neumann, the well-known English elephant-
hunter, remarks truly that he has never heard a sound
from a giraffe. I also have never heard them utter a
cry or even snort. The giraffe appears really to be dumb,
an attribute that is not shared by many, if any, other
animals so far as I know. Neumann says, as I do, that
these wonderful animal-giants exist only in large numbers
in the vast East African plains because they cannot
be hunted there by mounted hunters on account of the
climate.

Dr. Heinroth, one of our most distinguished zoologists,
tells me that he has sometimes heard a low bleating sound
made by the giraffe bulls in the Berlin Zoological Gardens.
I leave it to be decided whether this sound is made only
by the imprisoned giraffes or perhaps by the young ones.

It is with the greatest caution that the giraffes seek
out water, chiefly about evening time or during the night,
and they can, as already stated, remain several days without
a further supply.

I was surprised sometimes to find cases of giraffes
torn by lions; lions would only attack them, I think,
in herds or in pairs. The fearful blow they give with
their long legs (especially the bulls) might well hold
even a lion in check. Near the Gilei volcano I killed
a bull giraffe that had deep scratches on it, evidently made
by lions, and that had the end of its tail bitten quite off.
This indicates that lions sometimes attack them unsuccess-
fully. Giraffes generally keep to districts where all kinds

322

^ Giraffes

of game swarm, and are probably not often attacked by
lions.

The German poet Freiligrath has graphically described
a lion riding through his kingdom at night on the back
of a giraffe. Such an incident is not beyond the range of
possibility, but of course it would have a duration of only
a few moments. The lion would soon kill its steed with
a bite through the vertebrae of the neck. I myself can
vouch for this having happened sometimes. Hundreds
of vultures once guided me to a spot where two male
giraffes were lying dead, killed by lions. In such dramas
the genius of some great painter might well find
inspiration.

325

A HALT ON THE WATERLESS VELT

XVI

Zebras

AMONG the most familiar of African animals is the
zebra, which is found in two such absolutely different
types in the north of German East Africa as Equus boehmi
and Equus granti. Although of late years the numbers
of these animals have been much thinned by breech-
loading rifles, especially in the hands of the Askari,
there are still large herds of them to be met with on the
open plains.

The zebra is an animal of the plains and scrub ; it
is not to be found in the primeval forests and jungles,
but it scampers up mountains of some height with
wonderful agility. Zebras are often found in the company
of ostriches, hartebeests, and gazelles ; they show a
special fondness for the society of gnus. I often found
great herds of zebras and white-bearded gnus living
together amicably and frequenting the same drinking-
place.

326

-* Zebras

" The shyest animal in Africa," a writer has described
the zebra. Nothing could be more inaccurate. " It is the
tamest," Mr. F. G. Jackson (the best-known English
judge of the East African fauna) answered me laconically
when I told him of this opinion in the year 1896.

As I have constantly to insist, animals only become
shy when they are hunted. And where only natives have

THE WAY IN WHICH THE COLOURING OF THE ZEBRAS BLENDED WITH
THEIR SURROUNDINGS IN THE MIMOSA-WOOD WAS VERY RE-
MARKABLE

hunted and the \ animals have had no experience of long-
range rifles, European hunters have no difficulty in
getting easy shots at big game. Afterwards the animals
very soon learn to alter their conduct.

I found zebras to be quite among the most trusting
animals of West Africa ; the sight of large crowds of
these beautiful beasts on the wide plains may well be

329

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

termed one of the grandest spectacles in all the animal
world.

According to statistics published at Dar-es-Salaam
there are about fifty thousand zebras in German West
Africa. I cannot conceive how any one has the courage to
give such figures. A reckoning is so difficult ; personally
I should reckon it at a much higher figure — at quite several
hundred thousand head! However this may be, the
fifty thousand is much too low.

It is a curious fact that the striking black-and-white
striped colouring of the zebras does not in any way
render them noticeable in the surrounding landscape.
According to the light, zebras seem quite differently
coloured, even to looking grey all over ; but even when
their black-and-white colouring can be discerned close at
hand it seems to harmonise in a remarkable manner with
the colouring of the velt.

A curious example of protective resemblance is brought
before our eyes when zebras are taking their noonday
rest under the shady trees and bushes ; the fluttering
shadows made by the motion of the foliage mingle strangely
with the stripes of the zebras. The assertion that wild
asses are to be found in German West Africa is
entirely founded on this fact. Moreover zebras very
often roll in the dust, and then appear quite brown or
red coloured.

The traveller over the East African deserts has no
difficulty in understanding that the wild horses of Europe
in times long past belonged to the most coveted wild
game of the then primitive hunting-people. The East

330

-•> Zebras

African carrier prizes zebra-flesh very highly, and
places it above all other game to be found in the
same district, as the old beasts are beautifully plump,
especially at the rainy season. This preference of
caravan folk for zebra-flesh reminds us of the store
set on flesh of wild horses in the days of primitive
man.

It would be very interesting, and at the same time

A HERD OF ZEBRAS GLANCING AT ME ENQUIRINGLY

very sad, to know the number of zebras that were killed
in former years — not only by the hunters, but by the
Askaris of the patrols and caravans.

Zebras are polygamous, and the old males watch
jealously over their harems. Frequently bloody skirmishes
take place between the herds for the reason that the
females of other herds are taken to replace those that

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

have been stolen by beasts of prey from the male
zebras.

In an article on the domesticity of the zebra in
a Dar-es-Salaam publication I found the opinion given
that the wild zebra-herds were degenerating by inter-
breeding. This statement is the outcome of sheer
ignorance.

Under the guidance of a very cautious and watchful
male leader the herd feels quite safe ; if the sportsman
wishes to approach the herd he will have to divert its
attention. Enveloped in a cloud of dust, the herd gallops
off to the open plains should its suspicion be aroused ;
then one often hears the peculiar dog-like barking noise,
which zebras frequently make at night. Zebras are
extraordinarily malicious animals ; the inmates of our Zoo^
logical Gardens give us daily proof of this. Savagery
and maliciousness are peculiar characteristics of wild
equine species. l

It is known that when America was discovered
horses were not extant there, the native equine species
having long since died out. The great Spanish explorers
were the first to bring horses from Europe into the
New World. Some that escaped from captivity soon
formed wild herds, and in the course of time these
multiplied exceedingly.

In America there is question only of horses that

have become wild — the Texas pony, for instance, which

so distinguished a judge of horseflesh as Herr C. G.

Miiller-Doan-Gustavsruhe informed me is now quite

1 Domestic Animals, by Edward Hahn.

332

-*> Zebras

demoralised, its wildness and troublesomeness having
become so intensified in the course of a few centuries.

As Edward Hahn remarks in his work Domestic
Animals, half-savage horses were sometimes much
prized, until quite lately, because of their extraordinary
powers of endurance, but feared on account of their ill-
temper and awkwardness. On the high steppes of Asia
especially, the old wild horses which are captured
prove quite unmanageable in the hands of highly
skilled riders.

. Of recent years numerous attempts have been made
to tame zebras and to render them serviceable to man,
and the opinion has been widely promulgated that
the zebra is destined in a very short time to be a
beast of burden and a draft horse for East Africa.
These statements meet with the more credence in that
it is well known that ordinary horses cannot stand the
unhealthy climate of East Africa, and if they do manage
to exist for a time are not capable of any real work.
South Somaliland constitutes the boundary line of the
usefulness of horses and camels. Were it otherwise, the
mounted Galla tribes would unquestionably have dispersed
themselves southwards over the Tana River in the East
African plains.

Only in the highly improbable event of an absolute
preventive being discovered against the tsetse fly-
perhaps also against malaria and other illnesses — will
the employment of horses become possible in those
lands.

Hitherto, while zebras, like all other sagacious animals,

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

have been found capable of being tamed, the efforts to
make domestic animals of them have always failed. We
know very little as to how man tamed the camel, our
domestic cow, or horse, or in what way the breeds with
which we are nowadays familiar, came about. Whether
the horse, be the outcome of the interbreeding of two
or of many species,' in any case its present type is due
to thousands of years of training and breeding, by man.
Perhaps the • zebra is also, destined to undergo a similar
development ; but this will not be brought about in a
generation, or even in several generations.

In South Africa it was observed that zebras .allowed
themselves to be harnessed with ponies, and seemed
relatively docile in their company, but that the moment-
arid -this is the whole point of the thing — the moment hard
and- continuous work Was expected, as from a horse, they
simply- Became ill, and died of "broken hearts"!

The experiences of circus-managers are often interesting
to -hear of in connection with animals. I have: been told
by one of them that a male zebra, which had lived many
years >ari. the menagerie with other zebras, once made its
escape and disappeared somewhere in the menagerie, and
could not be caught for some'>hours. In spite of the united
efforts of the assembled circus employes, it. was only after
many houjs that the dangerous animal was brought back
t<r" his -stall, and' then only .by dint of surrounding it by
boards and beams.

The men -who break-in animals for circus performances
are prone to the use of coercion with them, instead of
trying-^to develop their sagacity. In the case of zebras,

336

VOL. I.

22

-* Zebras

no amount of breaking-in with the use of the whip would
serve to demonstrate that they are tameable, in the true
sense of the word. Never for one instant do they go
forward willingly ; instead, they offer resistance at every
stage, working against the bit with their extraordinarily
strong lower jaws. Ponies are used to coach them, their
natural sociability favouring this arrangement. In the
same way in southern countries, when three, four, or
more mules are harnessed in line, in ninety-nine cases
out of a hundred they will only work with a horse at
their head as leader.

In the case of zebras harnessed together with ponies
in four-in-hands (in England and elsewhere) the animals
are always half-fed specimens, and are not made to do
much work. They are really not beasts of burden. The
whole thing is merely a game, so to speak. The zebra,
indeed, is not built for work. The only genuine species
of w7ild horse living in Inner Asia, the Equus przevalskii,
has a very favourable build. My opinion on this point
accords entirely with that of the most distinguished living
expert in these matters, Count Lehndorfif, with whom I
discussed them once while we were visiting1 together

o o

the zebras and wild horses of the Berlin Zoological
Gardens.

Up till now it has been impossible to train zebras in
the way lions, tigers, and other such wild animals have
been trained, yet I do not hesitate to affirm that these
beasts of prey are less dangerous to handle than the
zebras with their fearful bite.

The character of our cold-blooded horse has been

339

With Flashlight and Rifle *

greatly improved in the last century, owing to the use
of only stallions of good quality and in good condition
for breeding purposes. Still, even now very troublesome
specimens are found sometimes among these domestic
animals.

In my younger days I often occupied myself with the
breaking-in of troublesome horses, and my experience with
them forbids me to entertain any hope of our being able to
use zebras for several generations yet, as a means of settling
the question of animal transport in West Africa. It should
be remembered that the natives of German East Africa do
not understand horses, and do not even know how to
manage their patient donkeys.

I am of opinion that we shall have very valuable
material in the Wanyamwezi and Masai donkeys, which
hitherto have not been thoroughly appreciated. These
native donkeys show themselves easily satisfied as regards
food, and are comparatively hardened to climatic influence.
They are phlegmatic beasts and adapt themselves to all
manner of treatment, and they afford material which in
the course of a few years, by means of careful breeding,
will be much improved. Their blood is crossed with that
of the Maskat donkey, animals which come from a dry
climate and are accustomed to a special food. I main-
tain that this is a mistaken policy, as it renders the native
donkeys liable to those cattle-diseases with which we are
still unable to cope.

If I maintain the employment of captive and " tamed "
zebras to be quite unfeasible, and state clearly that the
notion sometimes entertained with regard to mounting

340

-* Zebras

troops upon zebras is merely Utopian, still I should
like emphatically to uphold the opinion that experiments
ought to be undertaken in the direction of interbreeding
zebras with horses and donkeys in the hope of producing
useful domestic animals in the course of some generations.
But I believe that such an undertaking must be in the

O

hands of the State. I am a declared opponent to the
attempted development of the colonies by means of State
money, and much wish that private capital and private
enterprise would develop our colonies over the seas so
far as possible ; still, I believe that in zebra-breeding
lies a fruitful task for the State.

It is a pity that we should have lost the faculty of
making useful domestic companions for ourselves out of the
rich stores of the animal world (such exceptions as canaries
and turkeys are hardly worth mentioning). While the
primeval races of wrild horses on the high plains of Asia,
the Eqmis przevalskii, are rapidly approaching extinction,
we have in these zebras of East Africa an incalculable
supply of what might prove splendid substitutes ready to
our hand. The duty waxes imperious, I may well say,
for those in power to make the trial whether, after a certain
number of years, the zebra cannot be rendered suitable, in
the hands of man, to enter the ranks of domestic animals.
Only thus can it be preserved from entire destruction.

Whether it be a race susceptible of development, or
whether, like many human races, it be calculated to resist
all outside influences, preferring to go under rather than
change, is a matter which will take the breeder many
decades of repeated trials to decide. Quite recently I

With Flashlight and Rifle *

heard a so-called expert connected with a German zebra-
ranche holding forth upon the methods of a farmer in
South America, who for years had crossed cattle wit/i
horses, and I could not help wishing that serious people
would come to the fore and occupy themselves with this
highly important question !

I greet with joy the fact that Governor Count Gotzen
has placed the zebra on the list of the animals to be
absolutely preserved in German East Africa.

342

VIEW NEAR THE KITUMBIX VOLCANO

XVII
Lions

EQUATORIAL East Africa is without doubt as rich
in lions as any other part of the continent.
Nevertheless, the prospect of encountering them is, from
many causes, slighter than used to be the case in South
Africa, and still is in other regions in which horses can live.
In Somaliland, for instance, the lion is hunted on horse-
back, so that he can be followed until he is tired out, and
can then be shot. In South Africa they used to hunt lions
with dogs. Neither practice is possible in Equatorial
East Africa, as horses cannot live there, and the dogs

o

are useless for this purpose.

The hunter has therefore to depend upon being
favoured by circumstances — often to find himself unarmed
just when his chance has come ! Or else he must have
recourse to nocturnal expeditions — a method which, gene-
rally speaking, is not to my taste. On these night
"shoots" you either fire from some eminence or out of

343

With Flashlight and Rifle *

a thorn-bush, and there is no doubt that they are often
fruitful enough. In this way it was that Count Couden-
hove some years ago in Somaliland shot seven lions in
one night on the dead body of an elephant, lie describes
the incident lucidly in the account of his travels. I think
highly of his description. It seems to me absolutely con-
vincing, and without exaggeration of any kind.

Count Coudenhove tells us how he was gradually
bewildered by the way in which lion after lion kept
turning up continually quite near him during the night,
and thus went through a by no means enviable experience.
I have myself had similar experiences on such occasions.
They have given me many interesting opportunities of
studying the habits of animals at night time, but I must
say that I don't think much of the shooting of lions at
short range from the security of a thorn-bush as a sport.
The darkness necessitates your shooting more or less by
guesswork ; sleep, so essential to you in these unhealthy
climates, is interfered with, and your day's work is entirely
upset.

I consider every other kind of lion-hunting prefer-
able to these night-shoots, even the iron-plate trap method,
which often has very dangerous and exciting consequences
owing to the lion breaking away with the iron.

The lion leads a nocturnal existence generally speaking,
an3 rests under trees and in bushes during the day.
By day, therefore, he is very seldom to be seen. Even
when you do sight him, he has generally sighted you
first, and disappears into the thicket before you can get
a shot at him. So far back as 1896 I ventured to

344

-* Lions

state, on the strength of my own observations, that lions
live sometimes in herds. Most of our knowledge of
lions is derived from the north of Africa, from regions
in which, as far back as we can trace, their numbers
have always been decimated by the inhabitants. Un-
doubtedly lions used occasionally to live in herds at
one time everywhere. The greatest number I have ever
seen in a herd was seventeen. An eminent English
observer has seen as many as twenty-seven on one
occasion. Sometimes two or three lionesses with cubs join-
forces in search of prey. Similarly you will find several
male lions together, and male lions with two lionesses ;
old lionesses and very old lions — often with defective
teeth — going about alone. It all depends, seemingly, on
the time of the year and the mating-season.

It may be laid down as a general rule that lions that
have had their fill are not disposed to attack. In Africa,
where wild life is so plentiful, they are seldom at a loss
for food. In other countries, in which there is a scarcity
of wild life, they prey upon cattle and give much more trouble
to man. In Africa, by leaving unfinished the prey they
have killed, they often put the native in the way of a
meal, the vultures serving as unwitting sign-posts,,
pointing out to the native where the meal is to be found.
From all this it will be evident that it is no easy matter
to study the habits of the animal. Many travellers of
note, some of the most famous African explorers amongst
them, have never come in sight of a lion at all. Very
few have succeeded in bringing down a lion single-
handed.

345

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

Mr. Wallihan, my American fellow-sportsman, says
in his Camera Shots at Big Game that in thirty years
of hunting he has only come once face to face with a
puma, the lion of America. He has killed several, and
taken excellent photographs of still more, but all these
were started by dogs. This reminds me of the fact
that 1 only once saw the hyaena which I myself dis-
covered (Hycena schillings!} in a state of freedom by day,
though I have accounted for about ninety on various
occasions, and have photographed a great number of
them by night. One of my most trustworthy soldiers,
who had long been in the service of the Government
as .an Askari, never succeeded in getting a shot at a
lion, although, in accordance with the practice at that
time (since then very properly abandoned by order of the
Governor, Count Gotzen), he was given for many years
the exclusive right of shooting the wild animals in the

o o

neighbourhood, and had brought down thousands of all
kinds — a fine way of turning all the old cartridges in the
magazine to account !

Among travellers and sportsmen who have been
fortunate in British East Africa I may mention the
Duke A. F. von Mecklenburg and Prince Lichtenstein.

o

It was in South Africa that the unrivalled sportsman
F. C. Selous made his mark a good many years ago.

In some instances young lions of only about ten months
old are to be found in search of prey on their own
account, apart from their mothers. The young lions which
I have had opportunities of observing, or which I have
brought home to Europe, were all strongly marked with

346

-* Lions

spots ; and I remember an experienced African traveller,
who knew a good deal about lions, declaring in conse-
quence that they were leopards.

It is noteworthy that the East African lions, as a rule,
have not such strongly developed manes as those in
captivity, or as those from North and South Africa. The

A LIONESS FRIGHTENED FROM A CARCASE BY THE FLASHLIGHT

causes of the differences in the growth of the manes have
not yet been established. You see many full-grown male
lions in East Africa entirely without manes — I have shot
some myself — and a really strong mane seems to be nearly
always the outcome of captivity. It is said that lions
have small manes generally in very thorny regions. This,
however, does not accord with my observations.

347

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

In those parts of Africa in which I have travelled
the lion's favourite prey is the zebra, and in this liking for
zebra- flesh he is of one mind with the caravan-carriers, who-
also prefer it to any other. Full-grown rhinoceroses and
hippopotamuses, and of course elephants, are not molested
by him ; but their young ones are preyed upon, as well
as all other animals down to the small antelopes. Trust-
worthy observers tell also of his encounters with porcu-
pines, in which he often sustains damage.

Lions often hunt in combination, driving their prey
towards each other. This I have ascertained beyond dispute
by studying their tracks and by watching them at night.
They seem to communicate with each other by their roars.
In pouncing upon their prey, especially when drinking,
they make astounding springs ; I have measured some
which covered twenty-four feet. Their favourite plan
is to take up their position on some high spot, on the
steep bank of a river, say, and spring down sideways
from this spot upon their quarry. Unlike leopards, they
are unable to climb trees.

In the dry season great numbers of lions are to be
seen together at the clrinking-places. By the stream
alongside which I took my best lion-photos I have seen
a group of over thirty lions of all sizes and ages. In
the early morning I could ascertain by studying their
tracks that they were moving about in herds. When the
rainy season came along these herds broke up, and the
lions spread about over a wide area in pursuit of prey,,
each on his own account.

I cannot test the accuracy of the well-known narratives

348

-•» Lions

of the famous lion-hunter Jules Gerard, as they have to
do with the lions of North Africa, which are now so
reduced in number. His lions were certainly quite
different animals from those which have come under my
observation. He killed about forty, some of them from
secure hiding-places, it must be noted, and was considered
a hero in Algiers in his day. Gerard was undoubtedly
a man of extraordinary courage, but it must be admitted
that many of his stories are so fanciful that they lack the
impress of truth. His story, for instance, of how he saw
two lions fighting for a lioness who managed to set them
both at another very powerful male, and how the latter
killed the two original rivals, is very ridiculous ; but I
agree with every line of what he says elsewhere : " He
who has not seen a full-grown lion in his savage state,
dead or alive, may well believe in the possibility of single
combat, sword only in hand, with this beast. But he
who has knows that in an encounter with a lion a man
is like a mouse in the claws of a cat."

The lion has always had a kind of glamour over him,
and has come to be known as the King of Beasts. In
common with many experienced observers, I hold that
this title should be given rather to the African elephant.
Lions, as a matter of fact, display widely different qualities
in different regions and under different conditions, as
is the case with other animals. Some of the old and
experienced individuals develop into hunters of men, corre-
sponding with the man-eating tigers of India.

Then there is a great difference between the lion

o

sated and the lion hungry. The latter — lionesses with

349

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

cubs especially — are quick to attack, and consequently
dangerous. I always prefer to shoot the lioness first, the
lion afterwards — as the former is apt sometimes to spring
on you while you are aiming at her mate. In this she
compares very advantageously with him, for he shows no
such gallantry. Natives have often told me the same
thing.

Lions that are not hungry almost always avoid an
encounter with men. Of course there are exceptions, as
will be gathered from my own account of a lion-hunt
on the heights of Kikuyu. Keepers in zoological gardens
have observed the same thing. Lions, they say, show
every degree of good-humour or . ill-temper according to
their age and the way they have been reared and looked
after. What can be done by careful treatment is shown
by the almost proverbial methods of the trainer Have-
mann, who moves in and out among his animal pupils in
the Berlin Zoological Gardens in the friendliest manner,
without ever having to use force with them, simply as
the result of the excellent way in which he looks after
them.

Although it is often asserted that lions are given, like
leopards, to making their way into houses at night time
and carrying off human beings from inside, I have
come across few authentic cases of this kind. While the
Uganda railway was in course of construction, two officials
connected with it were spending the night in a railway
waggon, the door of which was left open on account of
the heat. Awakened by a noise, one of them, who was
sleeping upon a high bed-contrivance, looked down to

350

-* Lions

where his companion had been lying on the floor, and
saw him being dragged away by a lion. The lion would
seem to have killed the sleeper instantaneously with a
bite on the nape of the neck, according to its habit.
This event caused a great sensation throughout East
Africa a few years ago. Before this, it should be noted,
lions had killed about forty of the Indians who were

ON THE GILEI VOLCANIC MOUNTAIN

employed on the railway, and who frequently slept in the
open air, and the animals had developed in this way into
regular man-eaters.

At night the lion always displays great indifference
and freedom from fear with regard to men ; nor is he
much frightened by the lighting of fires, though these
do afford the hunter a certain amount of protection. I
have known several cases in which the natives near my

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

camp have been preyed upon by lions in spite of their
having their camp-fires lit — though possibly gone down
somewhat and only smouldering — while my own camp
was left unmolested.

Lions have, however, sometimes approached within
three or four paces of my camp, and even of my own
tent. One dark nig-ht a large male lion nearly brushed
against my tent on its way down to the stream by which
it stood. He could have got to the water, either to the
right or to the left, without finding any obstacle in his
path. After drinking he returned the same way to the
velt, and some twenty paces from my tent he stopped
to inspect carefully a large bone, whitened by the sun,
which had been lying there some time. This was
ascertained next morning from his tracks. I set out
after him next morning, but had to break off my pursuit
after about four hours of it, as he had turned aside on
to a stony part of the velt, where his tracks could not
be discerned.

The same indifference is shown by lions during the
night-shoots. They pay no attention to the hunter
waiting inside the thorn-bush when they are making for
the ass or steer tied up as a bait for them three or four
paces off, and they can be shot therefore quite easily.
From my own observations — made at night time, while
I was engaged in photographing the animals — the lion
does not make a great spring upon his prey, but creeps
up towards it, stretching out its mighty body, and then
is upon it like a lightning flash and kills it with a bite
on the back of the neck.

352

-* Lions

In 1900 I witnessed a very interesting spectacle. I
had been for several hours following up the tracks of
some lions when I came suddenly upon an ostrich's nest,
with some young ostriches in it only just out of their
shells, and with some eggs within a few hours of hatching.
To my astonishment the lions seemed to have disdained
the young birds. On examining the tracks more care-
fully, however, I learnt better. The old ostriches had
evidently espied the lions in good time in the clear
moonlight, and, as the tracks indicated unmistakably, had
enticed them away from the nest by effecting a speedy
retreat. The lions had followed the ostriches for about
a hundred yards with long springs, but had then, seeing
the pursuit was hopeless, fallen back into their ordinary
stride. In this way the ostriches succeeded in saving
their threatened brood. It was intensely interesting thus
to learn how clever these great birds are in evading
the attack of their dangerous enemies.

What the natives say about lionesses being more
aggressive and dangerous than male lions is quite borne
out by my photographs, the lioness in every case being
the first to pounce on the prey, and the lions always
coming second into action. Here I would repeat that
lions as a rule hunt only at night, never during the
daytime, except at the coolest time of the year. During
the hot season and in the middle of the day they rest
in the shade. In captivity also lions show their sensitive-
ness to heat, and lion- trainers always find that on hot
summer days their pupils are but little disposed to show
off their accomplishments.

VOL. i. 353 23

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

This reminds me that lions were probably to be
found in Greece not so very long ago, as they still are
in Asia, though in very small numbers. These lions
show themselves capable of bearing quite high degrees
of cold, if they do not go so far north as their near kin
the tiger. The Siberian tiger, a recognised species of
the genus, lives in the midst of snow and ice, protected
against the coldest season by a thick winter coat. The
pair of splendid Siberian tigers in the Berlin Zoological
Gardens show by the way they thrive and breed that,
living as they do the whole year in the open air, they are
excellently suited in our climate, as is the corresponding
species of lion from North-Eastern Asia. The tempera-
ture goes down almost to freezing-point also on the
uplands of East Africa, and on cold nights the roar of
the lion resounds far and wide over the velt.

354

A TRIO I SAW TOGETHER ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS : A GNU BULL,
A THOMSON'S GAZELLE, AND A GERENUK GAZELLE

XVIII
A Lion'Hunt

AT the end of January 1897 I arrived in Kikuyu with
a small caravan. I had come from Victoria Nyanza,
where I had been down with malaria for several months.
Alone and helpless, I had a hard tussle for my life, but
thanks entirely to the untiring care given me by two officers,
Mr. C. W. Hobley and Mr. Tompkins, stationed at Fort
Mumia, I succeeded, against all probability, in shaking
off the fever.

In May 1896 the exploring expedition, which I had
been able to join, had set out from the German Coast
with about 420 men, and, after traversing some entirely
unknown regions, had reached Victoria Nyanza.

I cannot here enter upon the story of the varied and
in some cases very interesting experiences met with on
this stage of the expedition. Here I propose to recount
only what happened to me on January 25th, when on
my way to the coast of Kikuyu. I was traversing for
the first time that recently explored country in order to

355

With Flashlight and Rifle ^

get back to the sea and to Europe, for, in view of my
weak condition after the fever, this was my intention at
the time.

Down to the time of my illness I had had all kinds
of hunting experiences, but on my journey to Kikuyu
I had few opportunities of sport, and I was in any case
too feeble to undertake much in the way of exertion.
After we had attained the higher uplands my strength
began to come back to me — astonishingly quickly,
indeed — and with this sudden improvement in my health
came back naturally all my zest and keenness for
sport.

Upon the desolate plateau of the Mau primeval forests,
with their endless bamboo-thickets, or in the woods
between the Naiwasha Lake and Fort Smith in Kikuyu,
I had not come across much in the way of wild life.
My rifle kept silence for days together.

On January 24th I enjoyed the hospitality of the
commander of the English station, who (as is always the
pleasant custom in English colonies) not only in his
private capacity, but also officially, showed every possible
consideration for me and my caravan, lending us milking
cows, providing us with donkeys and provisions, and
doing everything in his power to help us and further
our plans.

Mr. Hall, the commander of Fort Smith in Kikuyu,
a man of most attractive personality, is one of the most
experienced of African hunters, and is a sportsman of the
right sort. , We soon got talking of the one great theme
out there — big-game shooting.

356

-•t A Lion-Hunt

Shortly before our arrival Mr. Hall had been tossed
three times by a bull rhinoceros at which he had shot.
Three of his ribs had been broken, and for months he
had been obliged to keep to his bed. After his recovery
from this he had an encounter with a leopard, which he
had also shot and wounded. One of his Askaris saved
him by a timely bullet from this dangerous assailant,
which left him an undesirable memento, however, in the
shape of several wounds and a long-continued stiffness
of one leg.

These mishaps were not to keep him from hunting
again now as much as he could. Previously, indeed, he
had been shooting big game year after year without any
kind of ill-luck.

Our talk was most interesting. We " swapped "
experiences, and Mr. Hall said that lions were to be
met with in plenty a few miles from the fort on the Athi
plain, which is always rich in wild life. Corporal Ellis
(of D Company of the Royal Engineers) confirmed this,
and suggested that I should break my journey, and, after
a day's rest in the fort, spend a night in his camp, five
hours' journey away, and go out thence with him on a
lion-hunt. He himself had shot a lioness right in front
of his camp a fortnight before. I had already made a
number of fruitless efforts to get a shot at a lion, and
had not much confidence in succeeding now. I decided,
however, to accept this friendly invitation.

Taking farewell cordially of Mr. Hall, I set off with
Corporal Ellis, and after a march of several hours we
reached the camp. He was in charge of a cattle-station

359

With Flashlight and Rifle *

there, and had a large number of Askaris under his
command.

I was interested in examining the skin of the lioness,
and we agreed to set forth on our shoot early next
morning. This we did. On crossing a small stream,

o o

quite an insignificant one in the dry season, after we had
been several hours on our way towards Mount Nairobi,
I pitched camp and ordered some of the men to bring
firewood. The getting of this took about four hours, as
none is to be got on the grassy Athi plains. Corporal
Ellis was against our halting here, for, in his opinion, we
should be in danger from the lions during the night.
I held firmly to my decision, however, confessedly still
sceptical as to so many lions really being forthcoming.
Ellis, five men of our following, and I now made a little
detour to follow the course of the stream, the upper
part of which was covered for some miles by scanty
growth.

On the plain we saw a number of gnus {Connoch&tes
albojubatus). Grant's gazelle (Gazella granti), Coke's harte-
beest (Bubalis cokei), Thomson's gazelle (Gazella tkomsoni),
zebras, and ostriches ; but they were all very shy.

When we turned back towards camp, still following
the river — with an unfavourable wind blowing — I must
say I was not sanguine of our having any sport ; but we
had been only a quarter of an hour on the way, two of
our party on one side of the stream, we ourselves on the
other, when suddenly a cry, " Simba ! Simba ! — Simba
Bwana ! Kubwa Sana!" ("A lion, master! A big
lion ! ") rang in our ears. The men on the other bank,

^60

-* A Lion-Hunt

starting back in alarm, pointed with wild gestures towards
a small clump of reeds in the water.

To hear and to bolt was the work of an instant,
even for my reserve carrier Ramadan, a great strong
Swahili, who had stood the test on other occasions.
Obeying a first impulse I followed him ten paces, seized
him by the neck, and ordered him to remain. He turned
round, his whole body trembling, and went back with
me, and we now sought to make out the lion among the
reeds, from which a pool of about five yards' breadth
divided us. We could not do so, however, though the
men on the other side still motioned to us excitedly that
a big lion was there. In another moment something
moved among the reeds in Corporal Ellis's direction — his
Martini-Henry rang out, and a large lioness, showing
that she had been grazed, came for us with a sudden
spring. For a second her head offered me a fair mark,
and with a lucky shot at seven or eight paces I brought
her down dead.

The bullet, a 4/5 steel one as usual, settled side-
ways in the nape of the neck, killing immediately, as
always happens with such shots. I have preserved it
in my collection of 8-millimetre bullets as a souvenir of
the occasion.

My joy was intense ! The corporal congratulated me
heartily, and our return was heralded by all the men with
shouts of glee. Twelve men carried our booty back to
the camp. In the stomach we found the remains of a
zebra.

After a quick breakfast we set out again to shoot

361

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

something for our dinner. Ellis, who went ahead, tried on-
some long shots at hartebeests, but did not bring any
of them down. Meanwhile I became conscious of the
symptoms of an attack of dysentery, which I may men-
tion parenthetically I got rid of in a few days by dint
of drastic treatment.

When I had been following Ellis for about half an hour,
I saw to my right, at not too long range, a male Thomson's
gazelle which I resolved to get. Motioning to my men
to remain where they were, I advanced cautiously as best
I could. Soon I had got to a distance of 300 yards
from my three Askaris, and out of sight of them by
reason of several slight swellings of the ground in between.
Just as I was on the point of firing at the gazelle, from
a distance of about seventy-five paces, my eye was caught
by something yellow a hundred paces beyond it which
I at once saw to be a lion's head. At the same moment
I heard a well-known sound to my right, and turning
round quickly saw a large dark-maned, growling lion,
standing still in the grass a hundred to a hundred and
twenty paces away. To all appearance, he had espied
or scented the stalking hunter, and it was lucky he had
not come nearer, as he might so. easily have done, tor
all my attention had been centred on the gazelle.

I stood like a man benumbed ! Two lions before me !
It was a large order in the then state of my nerves
after my long illness. It was by no means an agreeable
situation for me, conscious as I was of my comparative
helplessness. I could reckon on only one shot. For
subsequent shots I should have to reload, and in spite

^62

A Lion-Hunt

MALE OSTRICH WAS TO BE SEEN NEAR THE NEST

AN OSTRICH'S NEST, i OFTEN CAME UPON THEM iN THE AUTUMN

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

of long practice, I should find it difficult to shoot again
if either of the lions came for me.1

There I stood, then, with my rifle raised, face to
face with the nearer of my two adversaries — shall I call
them ? — the old dark-maned lion. A moment passed
thus — a moment that seemed like eternity, and that yet,
looked back upon now, seems a moment of ecstasy. The
old lion eyed me, still growling away, but remaining
quite still, with his head up and his tail to the ground.
The other animal, a lioness apparently, remained lying
half-concealed in a clump of tall grass. The gazelle had
•got to within twenty paces of me and had then fled
away at full speed.

I experienced a not unnatural desire for the appearance
of my men upon the scene, and this now happened, as
I gathered from a shout they gave me — I did not dare
to look round. They were calling out to me what sounded
like " Simba ile kali sana ! " ("That lion is a very dan-
gerous one! "). I retired backwards step by step, keeping
ready to fire at any moment, until at last I found myself
again near my men. I beckoned to them, but they
were not to be induced to advance the seventy paces or
so that divided us until I ordered them in the most
peremptory way to do so.

As soon as I had by me my " Baruti Boy," who held

1 The mechanism of the millimetre magazine-rifle a few years ago
was unreliable according to my experience and that of many sportsmen.
Therefore I preferred the single-loader. A check through the jamming
•of the cartridge occasionally made the rifle useless, and it took some
time to get it right.

364

•*» A Lion-Hunt

in readiness a '450 double-barrelled rifle, and my two other
Askaris, " Baruti bin Ans " and " Ramadan," one of whom
carried a i2-bore fowling-piece loaded with slug, for
a final shot at close quarters, I could restrain myself no
longer, and, against the wishes of my followers, I sent
a bullet after the slowly receding lion, which only grazed
him.

It was with difficulty now that I controlled my excite-
ment. I loaded again, however, and got in another shot
at the lion, which was now moving to one side. This
shot also was not well aimed, hitting high up on one of
his hind-paws. At once the lion turned round as quick
as lightning, but did not yet attack me. Instead, roaring
terribly, he whirled himself round ten or a dozen times,
biting in mad fury at his damaged paw. He reminded
me exactly of a plucky fox or jackal, badly wounded.
This exhibition, however, afforded me the best of
opportunities for further shots. I fired three times, two
of my shots doing good execution. Soon he collapsed
completely. When we came up to him, approaching with
all the caution due in the case of such an animal, he was
already dead.

The lioness meanwhile had taken to flight.

Our joy was without bounds. Corporal Ellis, who
had come up to within about 200 paces of us while
I was firing my last three shots, and had been a witness
of the entire scene, congratulated me heartily, adding
that he had not expected to see such marksmanship.
I must admit he was right about the number of lions
which infested that neighbourhood, and also that it was

365

With Flashlight and Rifle

very incautious of me to tackle two lions without waiting
for him.

Next morning I sent two messengers with the news
to Mr. Hall at Fort Smith, and two others with a letter
for transmission to the leader of the expedition which
was presently to pass over the same route. I told him
of the chance he would have of getting some lion-shooting,
and afterwards I learnt that he saw eight lions together
on the same spot where I had shot mine, and that he
had fired at them at long range without result.

My second lion was also a large old black-maned
animal, whose scarred and seamed skin told of many
a struggle with his own kind. It is noteworthy that,
whereas the lions in certain other regions of Africa —

O

those for instance to be met with upstream in the Rufu
Valley — often have no manes, but are quite smooth like
lionesses, these lions which live in Kikuyu, which is
a relatively cold district and lies high, are provided with
abundant manes of a dark colour.

Now ensued a triumphal march to the camp, followed
by a careful skinning of this second lion and the pre-
paration of both skins. Corporal Ellis thought it was
time for him to return to his own camp, as he did not
wish to traverse the plain towards evening.

Merely for the purpose of bringing down some game
by way of provisions, I set out again about two hours
before sunset and succeeded in getting several Thomson's
gazelles. I stalked a hartebeest buck for a long dis-
tance, which I had wounded, but could get no chance
of killing him.

366

-* A Lion-Hunt

While thus engaged, I had again got out of sight
of my men, and now again I heard the same warning
growls just as I had at midday ! Looking to one side
I saw first one, then a second, then a third, then a fourth
lion — all with manes ! There was a distance of only
about one hundred and twenty-five paces between me and
the nearest of them.

This time I lost my nerve. I tried to retreat, with
the result that the nearest lion made two springs forward
and then began to creep slowly towards me. 1 remained
standing motionless. The lion remained stretched out
watching me. Minutes passed thus — ten long minutes at
least — and now my men were to be seen some distance
away. As soon as they came in sight of the lions and
took in my position, my trusty " Baruti Boy" —no Swahili,
but a member of a branch of the Manyema race suspected
of cannibalism — was the first to come up to me, with my
*45o-rifle in his hands. The others followed him slowly,
but they did not dare to come very far, and were not to
be induced to come right up to me.

The lions were now getting much disquieted, and began
to growl. They made a majestic and unique picture,
standing out in sharp outline against the velt in the
rays of the setting sun, the undulating ground behind
them blending with the far horizon in the quivering,
glistening twilight. As the warning growls and the whole
demeanour of the animals were very different from those
of the lion I had shot in the morning, I came to the
conclusion that they were hungry, and therefore would
prove dangerous to deal with ; and having no reserve
VOL. i. 369 24

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

rifle, as already mentioned, I backed cautiously to where
my men were. Now followed a " Schauri " — a conference
—with them, in which I endeavoured to make them come
on with me, but in vain.

At last I sent back two carriers, who had returned
from securing the two antelopes I had shot, to the camp
for reinforcements. Without waiting for their arrival,
however, I determined, being now myself again, and
having at last induced my men to approach within two
hundred paces of the lions, to manage the thing single-
handed. I fired at the nearest of them, but missed. At
once he came springing towards us, but at about the
twentieth spring he stopped, roared, and then wheeled
round slowly. Upon this all the lions made off walking
at first, then at a trot, and finally at an awkward kind of
a gallop — going two by two. Later they parted company,
still in pairs. Thus began one of the most interesting
and exciting adventures of my whole journey.

We followed the hindmost of the two pairs for about
half an hour over the plain, always in the direction of
the setting sun. We ran uninterruptedly, except when
the lions stood still and eyed us ; then we walked. We
gasped for breath presently, only two of my men keeping
up with me. But I had become so set on bagging these
two lions that I achieved what was probably the quickest
and longest run of my life — and I have memories of many
wagers won over long runs ! I was determined to get a
shot at him, coiite que coute \

Soon their distance from us was narrowed to about
400 paces — then it went up to 500 again, and 600.

370

•+> A Lion-Hunt

But on we went, still gasping, over the plain. Pre-
sently it looked as though all our efforts were to go for
nothing — the distance between us was growing greater.
Suddenly I came to a quick decision. Perhaps by a
miracle I might bring off a hit, even at such long range !
I fired, and could distinctly see where the bullet struck,
about ten paces behind one of the lions. He took it

ORGEICH SUPERINTENDING THE TRANSPORT OF A YOUNG LION
INTO CAMP

in very bad part! He turned round, remained standing
where he was and roared, beating violently with his tail.
The further lion also stopped in his flight. I fired a
second shot — then a third, this one at the further lion.
He showed his anger in the same way — standing still,
roaring and beating with his tail.

There ! The fourth or fifth bullet has found its

at

*~j

371

billet ! The lion hit comes rushing

us with long

With Flashlight and Rifle -*

springs. Suddenly he breaks down — then three or four
more staggering crooked springs, and suddenly he col-
lapses— growling rather than roaring in his fury. I
cannot explain how it came about, but I now put
aside all caution and common sense. I ran on to within
1 20 paces of the wounded animal, fired — and missed!
Now came the critical moment. On he came again with
a succession of frenzied springs. I knelt to my next
shot so as to manage it quietly and make dead certain
of it. Again he collapsed. Now for it ! One more
shot at a hundred paces, and my third lion springs into
the air, tumbles over backwards, and falls dead.

In the madness of our delight we rushed up to where
he lay, spoilt by this success and forgetting all caution.
However, it was all right. He was quite dead — an
even finer specimen than the one killed at midday, and
with a still darker mane. We skinned him quickly, as
soon as our rear-guard came up to us, about ten minutes
later. Head and paws were left unsevered from the rest
of the skin. In the stomach we found nothing — in con-
trast with the lion shot in the early morning, whose
stomach we had found full of zebra-flesh and great pieces
of skin. This explained how this third lion came to be
so much more full of fight.

Now something occurred which is rare indeed in
Africa with the native. My men lost the way, and
as we started on our return journey just as the sun
was setting we soon strayed. Six men were told
off to carry the heavy skin — in relays of three — and our
progress was made under very unsatisfactory conditions

372

-•> A Lion-Hunt

•owing to the anxiety of my men to get out of the " Plain
of Lions," and to the way in which they hung together
like sheep. Within fifteen minutes, as is the way in
the tropics, it was quite dark, and two hours went by
before we reached camp, half owing to a lucky chance. I
had to march at the head of my little caravan all the
time.

When at last, however, we reached our goal all our
troubles were forgotten, and we gave way to our feelings
of joy. By the light of the camp-fire the skin was spread
out, to be cleaned next morning. Four sentries kept
watch all that night, but although lions were to be heard
roaring in the distance, nothing happened of any im-
portance.

Next morning a deputation of my men came to salute
me and christen me with pomp and ceremony. I was
dubbed " Bwana Sinba " ("The Lion-Lord "), instead of
" Bwana ndege " ("The Bird-Lord"), which appellation
I had acquired on the coast, because I shot birds (often
on the wing, to the astonishment of the natives) and
collected their skins.

On the stock of my trusty rifle, supplied, like all my
weapons, by Altmeister Reeb of Bonn, I inscribed the
words, " Three lions, 25 Jan. 97."

Fresh messages went now to Fort Smith. To Mr.
Hall I wrote again, now recommending him in my turn
to come and hunt lions in this neighbourhood ; and as
I intended to remain for a few days, some additional
provisions were forwarded from Port Smith for my carriers.
Mr. Hall himself was unable to avail himself of my

375

With Flashlight and Rifle <*

invitation, as he was expecting Mr. Barclay from Uganda
that day. I got to know Mr. Barclay later at Kibwezi,
and was able to show him my trophies, of which he had
heard a good deal.

Eight more days I spent upon the plain without
getting another shot at a lion. We had to content our-
selves with hearing the roaring of lions at night, by way of
lullaby. The tremendous effect of this roaring as heard
in the stillness of the African night is indescribable.

The flesh of all my three lions was devoured the
same night by hyaenas, and the bones as well. There was
nothing left .of them. Hysenas are in great force in
Kikuyu, because the " Wakikuyu " — the natives — give
their dead to them to devour instead of burying them.

The 25th of January, 1897, will always remain a
red-letter day in my memory, and would do so even
if I had not my three fine lion-skins, prepared by the
cunning hand of Robert Banzer, to serve as decorations,
to my room of African trophies.

END OF VOL. I.

Printed by Hasell, If'atson <S* Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
376

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