Full text of "In wildest Africa, by C.G. Schillings, Tr. by Frederic Whyte. With over 300 photographic studies direct from the author's negatives, taken by day and night; and other illustrations"

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IN WILDEST AFRICA

C. G. SCHILLINGS

^ii(- ;-3-;i

AUTHOR OF

'With flashlight and rifle'

UNIVERSITY OF B.C. LIBRARY

3 9424 00444 8301

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THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY OF
BRITISH COLUMBIA

Gift of
H. R. MacMiUon

IN WILDEST AFRICA

LONDON. August 1st. 1907

We hereby certify that Messrs. HARPER
& Brothers of New York liave
acquired from us the rio;lit to issue
the authorised edition in the United
States of America of Herr C. G.
Schillings' work 'Mn Wildest Africa"

(Signed) HUTCHINSON & CO.

IN WILDEST AFRICA

C. G. SCHILLINGS

AUTHOR OF "with flashlight and BIFLE in equatorial east AFRICA

TRANSLATED BY

FREDERIC WHYTE

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

New York and London
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

1907

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

University of British Columbia Library

http://www.archive.org/details/inwildestafricabOOschi

LION STUDY.

Preface

1 NEVER dreamed that my book With Flashlight
and Rifle — alike in its German and its English and
American editions — would receive everywhere so kind a
welcome, or that it would make for me so many new
friends, both at home and abroad.

I have been encouraged by this success to give a fresh
series of my studies of African wild life and of my " Nature
Documents," as Dr. Ludwig Heck has designated my
photographs, in the present work.

I should like to express my gratitude once again to
all those who, in one way or another, have furthered my
labours in connection with these two books, especially to
Dr. Heck himself and the other men of eminence and
learning whose names I mentioned in my preface to With
Flashlight and Rifle. A complete list of all my kind
helpers and well-wishers would be too long to print here.
I am deeply indebted, too, to the many correspondents —

Preface ^

men of note and young schoolboys alike— who have
written to me to express their appreciation of my achieve-
ments. Their praises have gone to my heart. I owe
a special word of thanks to President Roosevelt, who
smoothed the way for my book in the United States by
his reference to me in his own volume Outdoor Pastimes
of an American Hunter. I take the more pleasure in
discharging this debt in that I had long derived intense
enjoyment from President Roosevelt's masterly descriptions
of wild life and sport in America. President Roosevelt
has always been one of the foremost pioneers in the
movement for the preservation of nature in all its forms,
and has made every possible use of the resources placed
at his disposal by his high position to further this end.

This new book of mine is in form a series of impres-
sions and sketches, loosely strung together ; but it will
serve, I hope, indirectly to win over my readers to the
one underlying idea— the idea upon which I harp so often
— of the importance of taking active steps to prevent the
complete extermination of wild life.

Like With Flashlight and Rifle, this supplementary
work can claim to stand out from the ranks of all other
volumes of the kind as regards the character of its illustra-
tions. All those photographs which I have taken myself
are reproduced from the original negatives without re-
touching of any kind. Every single one, therefore, is an
absolutely trustworthy record of a scene visible at a o-iven
hour upon the African velt by day or by night. I insist
upon this point because herein lie both the value and the
fascination of my pictures.

-»5

Preface

In his introduction to the English edition of With
Flashlight and Rifle Sir Harry Johnston declares that
that work was " bound to produce nostalgia in the lines
of returned veterans"; I trust that In Wildest Africa
will bring also to such readers a breath from the wilderness
awaking in them memories of exciting experiences on the
velt. Above all, I trust that its appeal will be not to
grown readers alone, but that it will have still stronger
attractions for the coming generation.

A preface should not be too long. I shall conclude
with the expression of the hope that I may be able pre-
sently to secure a new collection of " Nature Documents."

C. G. SCHILLINGS.

Vll

C G. Schillings, phot.

BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES.

Contents

PAGE
I

I. THE SPELL OF THE ELELESCHO

n. FROM THE cave-dweller's SKETCH TO THE

FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH .... 88

in. NEW LIGHT ON THE TRAGEDY OF CIVILISATION . 10/

IV. THE SURVIVORS .....

V. SPORT AND NATURE IN GERMANY

VI. THE LONELY WONDER-WORLD OF THE NYIKA

VII. THE VOICES OF THE WILDERNESS

VIII. IN A PRIMEVAL FOREST ....
IX- AFTER ELEPHANTS WITH WANDOROBO

• 139

• 179
204

. 283

• 319

• 370

Contents

CHAP

X. RHINOCEROS-HUNTING

XL THE CAPTURING OF A LION

XII. A DYING RACE OF GIANTS

470
SI I

XIII. A VANISHING FEATURE OF THE VELT

XIY. CAMPING OUT ON THE VELT

XV. NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY UNDER DIFFICULTIES

XVI. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAY AND BY NIGHT

657

YOUNG DWARF ANTELOPE.

List of Illustrations

Fnmtispieie —Vov\.ra.\\. of the Author

Lion Study ....

Young Dwarf Antelope

Armed Natives . . . •

Black-hoofed Antelopes

Young Dwarf Antelope

Gulls

A Giraffe Photograph

My " Boys " organising a " Goma"

Bearers indulging in a Bath

A Masai ol' nioruan (old man) .

Group of Masai ....

A memento inori of the Velt

Dwarf Gazelles on the Velt

Masai Herdsmen

Young Masai Dancing and Singing

Bearers on the March

Transport Bearers in Difficulties

The Author being Carried across ;

Swamp .....
How Mules and Asses are got across

a River .....

xiii

3
4
5
9
II

Two of my Wandorobo Guides facing
A Halt of my Caravan on the Velt
Masai Warriors . . . . .

(jroup of Masai .....
A Party of my trusty Companions
Bearers making their way through

high grass . . . . .

The Caravan on the March
A Herd of Zebras taking Refuge from

the Heat of the Midday Sun facing
Flamingoes on the margin of a Lake .
Flamingoes flying down to the Lake

margin .....
Alfred Kaiser in Arab costume .
Group of Gnus ....
Nile Geese on the Natron Lake .
A Herd of Grant's Gazelles
Crested Cranes and Zebras .
A Camp on the Velt .
Native Settlement on the Pangani

River ......

Group of Eland Antelopes .

25
29

yj
37

41
45

48
49

53
55
58
58
59
59
63

67
72

XIU

List of Illustrations -»>

PAGE

A Herd of White-beavded Gnus . -73
A Masai Dance . . . • -77
A Herd of White-bearded Gnus (i)

at close quarters ; (ii) a more

distant view ; (iii) they show their

disquiet ; (iv) they decide to retreat

facing So
Effects of Heat and Mirage . . 8i

A Hot Day in the Great Rift Valley . 85
Group of Masai ..... 87
Prehistoric Sketch on a Fragment of

Ivory ...... 88

Old Picture of a female Hippopotamus 91
An old German Picture of the Giraffe . 93
Hottentot Hunters : a sketch of two

hundred years ago . • • -95
Ancient Egyptian representations of

Giraffes and other animals . . 97

Sketches of Animals made by the

Bushmen . . • • -99

Black-tailed Antelopes running through

high grass ..... loi
Bearers on the March . . . 103

A Rhinoceros moving through velt

grass ...... 107

Three large Gorillas shot by Captain

Dominick . • • • • nS
Troop of Lions in broad daylight . 121
Herd of Elephants in South Africa, by

Harris 127

Group of Wild Animals at Hagen-

beck's zoological gardens . -133

Young Grant's Gazelles . . -139
'Mbega Monkeys . • • .140
A 'Mbega .... facing 142
East African Wild Buffaloes . . 143
Modern Methods of Taxidermy : Set-
ting up a Giraffe . . . 146-149

Male Giraffe Gazelle ....

Dwarf Antelope

Giraffe Gazelles

Snow-white Black-hoofed Antelope .
New Species of Hyena

[Hyena schillingsi)
Dwarf Musk Deer . . ■ ,
A Pair of Guerezas ....
Black-hoofed Antelope
Giraffe Gazelle and Dwarf Antelope .

150
152
152
153

153
15S

159
164

165

Head of an African Wart-hog
Nest of Ostrich's Eggs
Drying Ornithological specimens
Group of Author's Trophies ,
Women of the Rahe Oasis .
Egyptian Geese in a Swamp
The Nyfka : a Bird's-eye View

facing 200
Oryx Antelopes . . . . • 204

A Velt Hillock 205

The Summit of Mount 'Ngaptuk . 207

PAGE
168
169
174
175
177
179

. 211
216, 217
222, 223
230
231
234
237

faciih

A Look-out Place

Black-hoofed Antelopes

Black-tailed Antelopes

Masai Hartebeests

Girafte Gazelle .

Grant's Gazelles

Grant's Gazelles ....

White-bearded Gnus and Zebras taking

Refuge from the Midday Sun yizc?;/^- 240
An old Acacia ..... 244
A typical Landscape .... 245
Hungry Vultures .... 249

Flamingoes in Flight . . . 252, 253
Storks on the Wing .... 258
Storks gathering for Migration . . 259
Remains of Rhinoceroses . . . 261

Crested Cranes in Flight . • . 264
Vultures and Marabous . . . 265

Herd of Waterbuck .... 270

Oryx Antelopes 271

Grant's Gazelles 276

Hartebeests near the Western 'Ndjiri
Swamps ...... 277

Map of a Day's Movements and Ob-
servations ..... 279

Flamingoes on the Margin of the

Natron Lake 281

A Francolin perched on a Thorn-
bush ...... 283

Flight of Sandfowl . . . .287

Zebras and Gnus . . facing 292
An Alarum -turaco . • ■ -295
Nest of Weaver-birds . . . 301

A Shrike on the Look-out . . .309
Brook with an Underground Channel 315
Spurred Geese ..... 3^9

Views of Kilimanjaro . 322, 323, 327

XIV

List of Illustrations

River-bed Vegetation on the Velt
A Fisherman's Bag

PAGE

331
335
341
346
347
349
349
352
353
357
359
364
365
Z^l
369
370

Clatter-bills .... 340

A Marsh-land View .

Snow-white Herons .

A Pair of Crested Cranes

A Snake-vulture

Preparing to Skin a Hippopotamus

Hippopotami Swimming

Head of a Hippopotamus

A Wandorobo Chief .

Egyptian Geese .

A Wounded Buffalo .

Hunting Record- card

A Sea-gull

A Masai throwing his Spear

A Hippopotamus on his way to the

Swamp .... facing 370
O17X Antelopes .... 374

Waterbuck 375

Wandorobo Guides on the March . 380
A Party of Wandorobo Hunters . 381

A Feast of Honey .... 386
Acacia-tree denuded by Elephants . 387
An Oryx Antelope's Methods of

Defence ...... 389

A Dwarf Kudu 390

Zebras 392

Giraffe Studies 392

Zebras on the open Velt . . . 393
Laden Masai Donkeys . . . 397
Pearl-hens on an Acacia-tree . . 393

A pair of Grant's Gazelles taking to

Flight .... facing 39S
Grant's Gazelles .... 402

A Good Instance of Protective

Colouring ..... 402
Grant's Gazelles . . 403, 408, 409

Young Masai Hartebeest . . .411

A Herd of Hartebeests . . . 414
Hartebeests with Young . . -415

Waterbuck 415

The Skinning of an Elephant . 420, 421
A Missionary's Dwelling . . . 424
Elephants killed by the Author . 426, 427
Some African Trophies . . . 429
Black-headed Herons . . -431

Rhinoceros Heads . . . 434, 435

PAGE

An Eland Bull . . . facing 438

An Eland , j ust before the Finishing Shot 441

An Eland Bull 445

Rhinoceroses, with and without Horns

450- 451
Snapshot of a Rhinoceros at twenty
paces ...... 455

Shelter from a Rhinoceros . . 459

An Emaciated Rhinoceros . .461

Specimen of Stone against which

Rhinoceroses whet their Horns . 463
A " Rhino" in sitting posture facing 464
A Rock-pool on Kilimanjaro . . 467

Masai Killing a Hyena with Chilis . 470
The Moods of a Lion Cub . . 472, 473
Record of a Lion-hunt . . • 479

A Lion at Bay ..... 483

Studies of a Trapped Lion . . . 485

The Lion . . . had dragged the Trap

some distance . . . facing 488
Carrying a Live Lion to Camp . . 489

A Captured Lioness .... 492

A Trapped Lion roaring . . . 493

Flashlight Photograph of a Lion . 495

Photograph of a Lion at five paces . 499
Hauling a Live Hyena into Camp . 501
Hyena Chained up in Camp . . 505
Masai makinggame of a Trapped Hyena 507
Specimens of Elephant-tusks . • 5'^

Record Elephant-tusks . . • 5'3

A Store of Elephant-tusks . . -517
Auk .and Auk's Egg . . . .521

Thicket frequented by Elephants . 525

Velt Fires 532, 533

An old Acacia-tree .... 537
Studies of Elephants in Dense Forest

Growth .... facing 540
Elephants and Giraffe — a Quaint Com-
panionship .... 544, 545
A Young Lion ..... 549
Study in Protective " Mimicry " . 550

Griaffe Studies 552, 553 ; 558, 559 ; 564, 565
Giraffes in Characteristic Surroundings

facing 568
Head of a Giraffe . . . .569

Giraffe Studies .... 574, 575
Giraffa schillingsi, Mtsch. . facing 576
Crested Cranes on the Wing . . 577

List of Illustrations

PAGE

579
581
583
587
589

Hungry Vultures

Pitching Camp .

My Taxidermist at Work .

Termite Ant-hills

An unusually large Ant-hill

Prince Lovvenstein

Destroying an Ant-hill with Pick and

Shovel 590

Serving out Provisions . . . 592

Bearer's Wife preparing a Meal . . 592

Young Baboons in front of my Tent . 593
Young Ostriches .... 593

Marabou Nests .... 595, 598
Feathered members of my Camp . 599

A rather Mixed-up Photograph . . 601

My Rhinoceros : in the Berlin " Zoo '

and on the Velt . . . 606, 607

How my captive " Rhino " was

Carried to Camp . . . .612

Carrying a Dead Leopard . . .612

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

On the VVing
Hoyering over a Carcase
Moving away froni a Carcase
My Pelicans
A Siesta in Camp
A Strange Friendship
" Fatima" Prowling Round
Carrying a fine Leopard
Killing Game in accordance with

Mohammedan rites .
Cutting up the Carcase
A Trapped Leopard .
The Baboon and the Little Black Lady 636
Moonlight on the Velt . facing 636

618
619
621
623
625
628
629
6^,1

635

A Fowl of the Velt .

A River-horse Resort .

One of the Peaks of Donje-Erok

Drawing Water for the March .

Vultures .....

637
639
641

643
645

PAGE

Flashlight Photographs . . 648, 649

My Night-apparatus in position . . 653
A Pet of the Caravan .... 654
A Baobab-tree ..... 655
Flashlight Photograph of a Mongoose 657
Apparatus for Night Photography 660,661
Vultures contesting the Possession of

Carrion ...... 665

First Dry-plate Photograph, probably,

ever taken in the African Desert . 667
Photographic Mishaps :

Cracked Glass Plate . . . 669
Plate Exposed Twice . . . 673

Telephotograph of Ostriches . . 677
Photographs of Birds taken at dis-
tances varying from 20 to 200 paces 681
Telephotographs of Birds on the Wing 683
Dwai'f Gazelle, photographed at sixty

paces ...... 684

Jackal taking to Flight, startled by the

Flashlight 685

Lioness frightened away from Carcase

Ijy the Flashlight . . facing 688
Aiming at a Pigeon and Hitting a

Crow ! . . . . facing 688

Hand-camera Photograph of a Jackal 689
Photograph of a Jackal taken with my

first Night-apparatus . . . 689
Flashlight Photography : my Native

Models 691

Flashlight Failures . 694, 695 ; 697, 698
Photographic Studies of Antelopes

shot by the Author . . . 699

Jackals .... fai-'ing 702

East-African Antelopes shot liy the

Author 703

More Antelopes 707

Spotted and Striped Hyenas and

Jackal 711

A Jackal in full Flight . . .713

Guinea-fowl . . . . -715
Farewell to Africa .... 716

XVI

A GIRAFFE PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN IN THE SHIMMERING LIGHT OF THE VELT.

■•'•-I

The Spell of the Elelescho

ON the afternoon of January 14, 1897, a small
caravan of native bearers, some fifty strong,
was wearily making its way across the wide plain towards
its long-wished-for goal, Lake Nakuro, which was at
last coming into sight in the far distance. The appear-
ance of the bearers and their worn-out clothing showed
plainly that the caravan had made a long journey. And
so it was. Weakened by fever, I was coming from
the Victoria Nyanza in the hope of making a quicker
recovery in this more elevated district. As is the way
when one is convalescent, life seemed to me something
doubly beautiful and desirable now that, after lying
seriously ill for weeks, I was recovering from the fever.
I had been all but despaired of by the English officers
who had kindly taken care of me, IMr. C. W. Hobley

In Wildest Africa ^

and Mr. Tompkins, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.
I had caught the disease in the marshes of the Nyanza
and in my tramp through the wild Sotik and Nandi
country, then unexplored or very litde known. During
the last few da\s our march had once more been im-
perilled by hostile tribes, the rebel Wakamassia, but

MY " BOYS " BODY-SERVANTS AS DISTINGUISHED FROM BEARERS AMUSED

THEMSELVES AT MOSCHI BY ORGANISING \VH.^ T.Fn \ " GOMA."

this danger was all but iDast now that we were entering
the uninhabited region of the Nakuro, Elmenteita and
Naiwasha Lakes, in the district known to the Masai as
En'aiposha.

Endless undulating expanses of grassy country, un-
adorned by a single tree, had made our last days of
marching not too pleasant. Now there was a marked

--9^

The Spell of the Elelescho

downward incline of the grass-covered plateau ; it gradually
changed to a barren plain of volcanic origin, and the view
extended over the wide glittering lake.

Fillino- a far- stretch in a- hollow, and lost to view on
the horizon, it lay at our feet, a welcome sight.

The camp was pitched beside a parched-looking

MY BEARERS LOST NO OPPORTUNITY OF INDULGING IN THE ENJOYMENT OF A BATH.

'msuaki tree on the banks of a brook which at this time
of the year was a turbid torrent pouring itself down
towards the lake. Some time before, bush and grass fires
had raged in the neighbourhood and destroyed the old
grass, and here, it would seem, a heavy rainfall had
conjured forth for us a new carpet of grass that was fresh
and luxuriant. The remarkable luxuriance of the grass

In Wildest Africa

lands in the district had already been specially noticed,
and compared to the richest pastures of the Swiss Alps,
by the discoverer of, and first traveller in, this region,
Dr. G. A. Fischer, an explorer who, alas ! so soon fell a
victim to the climate.

Fischer — in 1883 — was the first to visit the neighbour-
ing Lake Naiwasha. How the situation has changed

A MASAI oV moruan (i.e. old man) answering my questions about the

ELELESCHO PLANT.

since then ! At that time, and thus only twelve years
before I first camped there, the warlike Masai still held
these wide uplands as absolute masters.

Oscar Baumann, an explorer who did good service,
was one of the first to traverse their inhospitable doniinions.
It was some years after Fischer's journey that Baumann

-»)

The Spell of the Elelescho

made his way into the region of the Nile sources,
during- his famous expedition to legend-haunted Ruanda
(now better known to us through Dr. Richard Kandt's
researches). I made his acquaintance at the Austrian
Consulate at Zanzibar. He, also, was snatched away in
his early years by the Sphinx of Africa, the treacherous

climate.

His journey, only a few years before my stay here,
cost his numerous and strongly armed caravan hard
fighting with the natives. And now I am camping here
with a few men in an unfortified camp !

Fischer was quite convinced that he could not venture
upon his exploring journey without the support of the
Mohammedan trading caravans, but he had finally to
start alone with 230 bearers. Yet, notwithstanding all
difficulties, he successfully accomplished his task. But
how different from those of to-day were the circumstances
under which a journey was made into unknown Masailand
at that time ! The Masai warrior was then still sovereign
master in his own land ; he was still " Ol open 1 en gob "
(" Lord of the land ") in the full sense of the word. And all
the chivalrous poetry that has been so pathetically brought
home to us by the fate of the North American Indians, was
also not alien to his warlike character. Then came the
moment when he had to face the firearms of the Europeans.
His fate was sealed, like that of the lion and the leopard.

Then, too, tribute had to be arranged for on all sides.
Not only some of the petty chiefs in the neighbourhood of
the coast, but the Masai too, must receive cosdy payments.
Thus, for example, Dr. Fischer had to hand over to the

In Wildest Africa ^

chief Sedenga at 'Mkaramo on the Pag-ani River, to obtain
permission for the passage of his caravan, lOo pieces
of cloth, each six yards long, an axe, loo leaden bullets,
one ten-pound keg of gunpowder, two large coils of brass
wire, and eight pounds' weight of artificial pearls !

Only two kinds of caravans were known to the Masai,
slave caravans and trading caravans, which busied them-
selves with collecting the coveted ivory tusks. The Arab
traders knew how to combine the two objects : the slaves,
the "black ivory" of the trade, were forced to carry the
white ivory down to the coast.

The strength of these trading caravans, well equipped
with firearms, always amounted to several hundred men ;
but under certain circumstances these numbers were
considerably increased, so that caravans of a thousand men
or even more were not rare. It took Fischer long months
to recruit his caravan. The bearers did not like to under-
take the dangerous journey with the first white man who
started for that region. The jealousy of the Arab traders
was also at work. They feared that the channels of the
ivory traffic, which they carefully kept secret, might be
revealed.

The German explorer carried through his expedition
under the greatest difficulties. He returned home only
to succumb soon after to the extraordinary hardships
he had endured.

Fischer's researches were of special importance in
connection with the ornithology of Masailand.^ His
journey gave to science some thirty-six hitherto unknown
' Cf. Reich enow, Die Vogel Afrikas.

^ The Spell of the Elelescho

species of birds. Such a result must indeed command our
respect, when we consider the difficulties with which
the traveller had to contend, and especially when we
remember that his available resources were comparatively
trifling, beside, for instance, the abundant help that was at
the disposal of the English explorers of the same period.

DWARF GAZELLES ON THE VI.,. I. ixm, M U . M N > . U . N i , -1 I - AZZLING LIGHT
ONE COULD NOT KEEP ONE'S EYES OPEN FOR MORE THAN A SECOND AT A TIME.

The Geographical Society of Hamburg rendered him the
service of making the execution of his plans possible, and
for the same object Fischer expended all the money he had
earned in the active practice of his profession as a doctor
on the island of Zanzibar. He saw the activity he had
devoted to the service of scientific ideals richly rewarded
by the results he obtained. And then he had soon to

1 1

In Wildest Africa -*

succumb to the treacherous climate. But it his life was cut
short, how quickly the power of the Masai warriors was
broken, the very power that had so harassed him, and
made his journey so difficult and dangerous. That terrible
scourge, the cattle plague, probably introduced from
India, suddenly destroyed the greater part of the herds
of the Masai, and at the same time blotted out vast
numbers of the Masai themselves from the list of the
living.

The fates of these pastoral people and of their
property (the countless herds of cattle) were so closely
bound together, and these warlike herdsmen had become
so dependant on their droves of cattle, that once these
were ruined they could not survive, but died in a few
days of famine.

In the lapse of little more than a year the cattle plague
and the Black Death had swept over the Masai uplands.
Hungry vultures hovered over scenes of horror. The
herds of cattle fell under the strange pestilence. Agonised
by slow starvation, the herdsmen followed them to death.
I have often found lying together, in one narrow space,
the countless white bleached bones of the cattle and the
skull of their former owner. It would be an old camping-
ground, with its fence of thorns (zereba) long rotted
away, and it was now a strangely impressive Golgotha.
These heaps of bones, still to be seen in 1897, were soon
after dissolved in dust and scattered by the winds.

Where are the Masai of those days ?

Suddenly they stand boldly before me, as if they
had sprung up out of the ground! It is no illusion.

-^ The Spell of the Elelescho

But why do my bearers show no fear? Why does no
uproar break out in the camp ?

It is plain enough that no one troubles himself
about the appearance of these figures, for they come, not
threatening and demanding tribute, but conscious of the
overpowering might of the European. True, a few
months ago, not so far from my camp, their warriors
surprised and destroyed a caravan of nearly a thousand
coast folk. But, generally speaking, they do not care to
have to reckon with the superior weapons of Europe.
They even accept some food from me. And in this
matter they are not so dainty as they used to be in former
times, when the warriors — obedient to strict dietary laws —
lived only on the meat and milk of their herds. Of
course, here we have to deal with only a small number
of them. Yonder, on the wild uplands, there still live a
not inconsiderable number of Masai, who having saved
their herds, or got them together again, keep as far away as
may be from the Europeans and their uncanny weapons.

The Masai warriors, with their wives, children, and
herds, seem to me to be fit accessories for this desert
landscape. In the evening, dances amuse us till late in
the night, and many a wordy skirmish breaks out as some
of my bearers who, thanks to former journeys, have some
knowledge of the Masai tongue, gossip with these nomads
of the wilderness. The coast folk think themselves hig^h
as the heavens above the "savage" Masai. The Masai
warriors, in return, despise the burden-bearing coast folk,
count them as " barbarians," and scornfully call them
" il'meek."

In Wildest Africa -^^

But the times have changed, and so it comes to pass
that my people too join in the dance, which lasts late into
the night ; that songs of the warriors and the women —
" 'Singolioitin loo-'l-muran " and " Loo-'ngoroyok " — ring
out throuo-h the darkness, the chorus findinof a manifold echo
with its oft-repeated "Ho! He! Ho! Na! He! Hoo!"
It is a "Leather Stocking" kind of poetry, and indeed
the redskins of the New World and the Masai here in
Dark Africa seem to me alike. The former had to yield
to civilisation, the same fate awaits the latter.

No one had the least anxiety about the night. We
quietly allowed the Moran^ to bivouac near the camp.
Our march through the wild highlands of the Wasotiko
and the Wanandi had deadened our sense of such dangers.
We could have no forebodings of the fierce struggle
lasting for years that was yet to come between the
English troops and those peoples, or imagine how war-
like and skilled in self-defence they were. The presence
of hundreds of spear- and club-armed warriors in the
camp had become an almost daily experience, and great
was the surprise of the English officers, later on, when
they heard that the great caravan, which I had joined,
had had the good fortune to pass through these districts
without any fighting.

Eor me my serious illness had all at once interrupted
the austere and wild delights of this life of the march and
the caravan. But I had now become doubly responsive
to the joys of travel amid light and air, freedom and
endless space ; doubly responsive also to the changing
^ £/ jjiorau = the " young men," i.e. Masai warriors.
i6

^ The Spell of the Elelescho

Impressions derived from my week of marching- through
lonely primeval forests, bamboo thickets, and grassy
plains — scenes in which, as my friend Richard Kandt,
the discoverer of the source of the Nile, so strikingly
remarks,^ every plant, every stone, seems to cry out again
to one in the vast solitude but one word : " The desert !
the desert ! "

In the early morning- hours of January 15 there was
a lio-ht continuous rainfall. A short march of only two

hours brought us to our camping place on the shore ot
Lake Nakuro.

Far away extended the panorama of the lake, which
lay before us filling its hollow bed, with its banks at this
season of the year yielding fresh pastures to numberless
herds of wild animals, and its waters affording rest and
food to countless members of the feathered tribe. I had
hardly ever seen greater numbers of the pretty little
dwarf gazelles {Gazella thonisoni, Gthr.). Thousands and
thousands more of these graceful creatures showed them-
selves on the fresh, green, grassy meadows of the lake
margin, or scattered over its pebble beds of obsidian,
augite, and pumice-stone. Wherever one turned one's
gaze it fell again and again upon these beautiful gazelles,
which in many ways reminded one of wild goats at
pasture, and were so strangely trustful that they often
allowed the spectator to come quite close to them.
Marked as are the colours of its hairy covering, the
dwarf gazelle does not stand out boldly from the back-
ground, whether this be a plain blackened by bush-fires,
1 Dr. Richard Kandt, Caput NilL (Berlin : Dietrich Reimer.)

In Wildest Africa -^

or the mere bare ground, dun-coloured and brown, or
land covered with soft green grass. But how clearly
defined are its brown, black, and white, when we look
closely at the hide of a specimen we have secured, or
see it in a museum.

Darker spots in the distance far away from us we
take to be larger wild animals. The field-glass shows
that they are hartebeests, and a great number of water-
l3uck ; and still farther off there is a moving mass that
shimmers and is half lost in the glare of the morning sun.
There are zebras, and yet more zebras, moving like
living walls ! Strange efiects of light actually give us the
impression of something like a wall or rampart, made up
of the living forms of the zebras — the deep shadows they
throw come out black, their flanks are lighted up in the
dazzling sunshine, and they shimmer with all colours and
with ever-changing effect.

Here by the lake we have the characteristic mark of
the wilderness : dwarf gazelles and zebras, zebras and
dwarf o-azelles in o^reater and greater multitudes! Wherever

i!:? o o

the eye glances it falls upon these two species, and the
numerous waterbuck and Grant's gazelles, and the
hundreds of hartebeests, are in a sense mere points of
relief for the sight amidst these vast crowds. Bathed
in the shimmering light this multitude of animals mingles
together. Wherever I make my appearance there is for
awhile movement in the mass of wild creatures, which
otherwise are grazing quiedy. I have long since left the
camp a considerable distance behind me. I am following
one of the rhinoceros — or hippopotamus — tracks leading to

-♦ The Spell of the Elelescho

the lake margin, lost, so to speak, in this multitudinous
animal life, and once more I have the feeling ,of finding
myself, as it were, in the midst of a vast flock of sheep,
and the impression that all the creatures about me are not
" wild beasts," but rather tame domestic animals that have

THE AUTHOR BEING CARRIED ACROSS A SWAMP.

been driven out here to graze on the pastures under the
supervision of a herdsman.

The mass of animals surges and undulates to and fro.
Some old bulls of the heavily horned hartebeest species
seem to have undertaken the duty of sentinels. They
stand apart fixed and motionless, watching attentively the
strange appearance of the approaching man, and then
make away in a long striding gallop, with heads bent well
down, to increase the distance between themselves and

In Wildest Africa -^

the suspicious object, ready all the while to give the alarm
signal for a general stampede by loud snorting. In this
district we do not find the flat-horned hartebeest of the
Kilimandjaro {^Biibahs cokei, Gthr,), but the species
named after its discoverer, Jackson [Buba/is jacksoni).
Long and stately horns distinguish this variety of a
remarkably formed species of antelope, which is widely

HOW MULES AND ASSES ARE GOT ACROSS A RIVER.

distributed throughout Darkest Africa. To my great
delight I succeeded in bringing down a specimen of a
much more interesting species, Neumann's hartebeest'
i^Bubalis neuinanni., Rothsch.), then only known by one
or two examples.

^ I gave the skull of this specimen to the Berlin Natural History
Museum.

-il

(fl

ffi

o
2

S
>

1/2

Si
H

ffi

-»s

The Spell of the Elelescho

Overwhelming- in its vastness, its rich variety of
colour, form, and movement is the picture of animal life
thus displayed.

Moving along the hollows of the plateau hour after
hour, looking out from its ridges, now with the field-glass,
now with unaided sight, I find the whole grassy ex-
panse covered with these wild creatures. Hundreds and
hundreds more of zebras alternate with larger or smaller
herds of Grant's gazelles. Near them, but keeping apart,
and all around them the dwarf gazelles are swarming.
Here and there one sees the proudly uplifted head of a
stately waterbuck, adorned with splendid branching horns,
and not far off his hornless doe, both of them in form and
action greatly reminding one of the stag of our northern
lands. Occasionally the eye catches sight of splendid
black-plumed cock ostriches here and there on the plateau.
They watch the traveller carefully, and are accompanied
by their mates, which are very much more difficult for the
eye to make out owing to their plain grey plumage. On
all sides there are whole herds of brown hartebeests grazing,
resting, or making for some more distant spot with their
characteristic long striding gallop. And now one suddenly
comes upon a herd of giant eland antelopes, brownish
yellow, and adorned with white cross-stripes. Conscious
of their mighty strength, there is not much shyness about
them ; but they know not the danger they run from the
long-range weapon of the European.

Think of all this animal life bathed in the fulness of
the tropical sunlight ! All depths and shades of colour
play before our eyes. Strongly cast shadows, ever changing

In Wildest Africa ^

with the position of the sun, alter again and again the
whole appearance of this world of life, and from minute
to minute it presents new riddles to any one who has not
had years of experience in the wilderness. When the
glittering light of the midday hours is tiring and confusing
the sight, one often can hardly tell for certain whether
it be a living multitude stretching out in the distance
before one, or whether the play of the sunlight is
imparting a semblance of life to scattered clumps of
thorn bushes.

Four rhinoceroses which I now descry moving across
the plain in the distance, and a flock of ostriches which
I can plainly make out with the field-glass, change shape
and colour so often that it is astonishing to see them.
According to their movements and position with respect to
the sun they appear to be of a blending blue and grey, or
intensely black, and then again almost invisible and the
colour of the earth, but always changing, always different
from what they were the moment before.

To realise all this one must in fancy place oneself in
the condition of exaggerated susceptibility to nervous
excitement that results from the intensity of the light,
to'j-ether with the climate, and the unusual degree of
hardship. All this produces the greater effect because
one has to do one's work in solitude and loneliness, and
is cut off from all interchange of ideas with one's fellows.

Here, where the flora makes so poor a display, the
fauna is abundant. What a sight it affords for the
ornithologists !

Amongst the herds of zebras our European stork

The Spell of the Elelescho

together with its smaller African cousin, the Abdim stork,
is stalking in hundreds over the plain hunting for locusts.
In company with the storks I saw also great flocks of the
handsome crested crane engaged in the same occupation.
Or they rose in heavy flocks over the valleys with loud
and strangely discordant cries. Under the scanty shadows
of the mimosas the splendid giant bustards take their stand
at midday, erect, solemn, stiff-necked. At this time they
are not very wary, but in the coolness of the morning
and in the evening hours they soon get away to a safe
distance, either running with their quick mincing step, or
spreading their strong pinions for a short flight along
the ground. Their smaller relative, Otis gindiana. Oust.,
rose before me in the air, often throwing somersaults on
the wing like a tumbler pigeon. There is hardly any
other bird of its size that has such a mastery of flight.
Sea-eagles circled by the margin of the lake uttering their
beautiful clear-sounding cries. Heedless of their presence
thousands of splendid rose-red flamingoes soared up into
the deep blue dome of the sky, or lined the margin of
Nakuro, like a garland of living lake-roses, in company
with o-reat flocks of ducks, a^eese, and waterside birds of
many kinds. Out of the clumps of acacias, and from
between the thickets of 'msuaki bush by the lake, guinea
fowl and francolins rise, strung out in clattering flying
lines, and in the morning hours handsome sandfowl that
have come from far-off regions of the plateau sail by the
margin of the lake. Altogether an overwhelmingly rich
picture of warmly pulsating life and activity ! The sight
of it all is indeed quite capable of impressing one with

In Wildest Africa ♦^

the idea of flocks of wild creatures that have been
completely tamed ; and once this idea has suggested itself,
the impression is so strong that for many minutes one
can believe in it !

Amidst all this wealth of" wild " life, which here seems
hardly to deserve the name of "wild," it is much easier
to understand how primitive man in other continents
gradually secured domestic animals for his use, from the
vast range of choice thus presented to him.

But a strange feeling comes over the observer when
he remembers that out of all this wealth of animal life
the African has never been able to link one single creature
permanently to himself. He obtained his cattle and also
his goats and sheep from Asia. The camel may be left
out of account, for its connection with the human race is
lost in the mystery of primitive times. We may say that
the fauna of Africa has not gi\-en a single species to the
group of our domestic animals. It is sad and humiliating
to retlect that the men of to-day cannot accomplish what
was done in the dim past — granted that it took endless
ages in the doing.

There were times, as I have said, when I could not
get rid of this impression of taiue herds of animals.
And this was all in a land, and a district, that left one
nothing to desire in the wav of ijrimitive wildness.
What, then, must it have been in early days when man
was not yet waylaying the beasts of the wilderness, or at
least had not yet employed the poisoned dart and spear,
the pitfall and the snare? It must have been a veritable
Garden of Eden. But here, far and wide, there is

-»)

The Spell of the Elelescho

nothing to be seen of man, only something that evokes
conjectures as to his former presence.

For suddenly from a height I notice a number of large
mounds, formed of stones, such as only the hand of man
could have buik up. Under tiie secure protection of
these masses of rock — rough hillocks of heaped up stones —
men, who were once chiefs and eklers of the Masai, sleep
their everlasting sleep. Their resting-places have been
so placed that diey are not visible from any considerable
distance, but are hidden away in the hollows of the
ground. Out there in the wilderness, beneath the bright
blue sky, these simple old monuments speak to me most
impressively of the mighty harmony of everlasting change.
As chance will have it. I find not far from the graves a
human skull shining brightly in the sunlight and resting
on a projecting rock. It must have kiin here very long,
as if keeping a look out on the old tomb of ol doiboni,
the departed "wizards" of the Masai. The empty eye-
holes stare at the ancient grave.

But this symbol of the past is not obedient to the
spell of death that whispers here all night long, for it
has had to give shelter and protection to the rearing up
of new life. As my hand grasps the skull, now brittle
with decay, a family of mice takes to flight from inside
of it. They had set up their home in this bony palace,
and built their nest there.

And as if the Masai, resting probably for centuries
under these heaps of stone, had left their herds to me,
once more there surges around me this sea of animals.
Near at hand they are sharply defined against the ground,

In Wildest Africa ^

but farther off in the glittering light they grow indefinite.
How the whole flood of life contrasts with the grim
volcanic barrenness of the landscape !

At this moment my impression of vast shepherd-
guarded herds is deepened by the sudden appearance of
some spotted hyenas, scattering among the volcanic pebble
beds, and then running away over the plain, and seeming
to play the part of the shepherds' dogs.

But where are the herdsmen of all these herds ?
Immediately there comes an answer to my question.
Yonder, by the margin of the lake, in the distance, I see
little wreaths of smoke rising. The idea they give me
of herdsmen on the watch is to be quickly dissipated by
a report, not a loud one, followed by puffs of powder-
smoke that vanish quickly in the air. The shooting does
not disturb the animals that surround me. But then the
report is hardly audible, the little pufts of smoke barely
perceptible to the eye. I must find out who is disturbing
the peace. It is perhaps a caravan making for the
Victoria Nyanza. For we are upon the new "road"
to the lake— a road which is indeed still in the region of
projects, but which soon will be plainly marked with
railway metal.

The smoke puffs appear at markedly regular intervals
and as quickly disappear. I cannot understand it. For
a long time I keep my attention anxiously fixed on these
proceedings, all the while hurrying towards this remarkable
apparition. At last my field-glasses enable me to descry
a man, who from time to time drops on one knee to
take aim.

*<«>*3B

-T)

The Spell of the Rleleschcj

What in the world is he after ?

As we draw closer, I am extremely surprised at sec-ing
that the man does not allow himself to he in the least
disturbed in his proceedings. Now his bullets begin to
whistle unpleasantly near me. I fire in the air, once,
twice. . . . Now his attention is attracted, and simul-
taneously I perceive a number of dark objects near the
marksman. They seem to be his companions, black men,
and squatting on the ground.

From the background there emerge now great numbers
of such objects — it must be a large caravan.

The distance between us is diminished so that one can
see plainly. . . . Now we can shout to each other. . . .
At last I learn that the hunter is marching with his long
caravan of bearers to the great lake. He has been putting-
out all his exertions to shoot some wild animals. liut
although he has many surprisingly interesting hunting
adventures to tell of as the result of his three months'
march from the coast to this point, that task seems to have
been beyond his powers ! With a well-aimed shot he has
stretched on the ground just one single dwarf gazelle ! !

After shaking hands, he bewails the fact that he has
a rifle that shoots so badly. He says its system is
absolutely worthless, especially against wild animals.

Our fleeting acquaintance is broken off in a few
minutes. He is the first newly arrived European that I
have met for a long time, but I have not too much
sympathy for this class of sportsmen. So my new
acquaintance goes off, still blazing away freely. He has
been uro-ed on by my information that his camping and

In Wildest Africa ^

watering place for the day is a long way off, and that
the borders of the lake seem to me to be fever-haunted.

A queer kind of shepherd, in truth, for these wild
herds ! I fear he would be very like a wolf, or rather—
to be zoologically and geographically precise — a leopard,
in sheep's clothing !

Again I was alone ; the disturber of my peace had not
frightened away the animals. So, as I was regaining
strength rapidly, I decided to halt here for a few days.
This meant having to provide for oneself in the most
primitive way, for I was short of some of the most neces-
sary provisions and supplies. But in such conditions the
decision was not difficult to take. I shall not easily forget
the days I spent there.

The plateau of the volcanic lakes Naiwasha, Elmenteita
and Nakuro, standing nearly 6,000 feet above the sea,
presents to the spectator all the austere, stern, and strange
charm peculiar to the ^Masai uplands.

Some ten years have gone by since that expedition
of mine, and all is now changed. Up to that time only
the natives had lived in these districts. Few Europeans
had penetrated into these solitudes ; but now a track of
iron rails links the Indian Ocean with the Central African
lake basin, and the shrill whistle of the locomotive sounds
in the equatorial wilderness. Wherever the influence of
the railway extends, the Masai, whom I then learned to
know, have disappeared. Reservations have been assigned
to them, like the Indians of North America.

iMy former companion on my travels, Alfred Kaiser,
describes, not without a certain feeling of sadness, how he

^ The Spell of the Elelescho

S'lw them once more, not long ago, under these new
conditions, already to a great extent changed by European
influence— and changed in a way that was not at all to
their advantage. Using, instead of the beautiful Masai
dialects, some mangled fragments of English, they scorn-
fully refused objects of barter that were eagerly coveted
ten years ago, and insisted on coined money. They no
longer wore their native ornaments, but were dressed m
European second-hand clothes. In a word they were
stripped of all the wild and primitive beauty that had once
distinguished them.

It is a hard fate, when a rude aboriginal people is all
of a sudden brought into touch with those of a high
degree of civilisation.

As the former lord of the land ' was deprived of his
rights, so the same fate, more or less, befalls the splendid
animal world that lends its charm to these solitudes.

But then — ten years ago ! I had been given back to
life after sharp suffering, and all that I was now allowed
to see in such rich abundance spoke to me in a more than
ordinarily impressive language, a language that seemed
to me to have an enduring charm.

And how clearly must this language have sounded m
the times of the primitive past !

1 As late as the year 1859 the Masai warriors menaced the places on
the coast between Tanga and Mombassa ! Even in the eighties the
explorers Thomson and Fischer had to submit to their demands. To
that flourishing period of the Masai belongs the origin of their view that
even if the Bantu Negro races have cattle, they must have been stolen from
the Masai, for, as they say, " God gave us in earlier days all the cattle on
the face of the earth.'

In Wildest Africa ^

So we may here attempt a picture of the wild life of
the lake margin in former days, on the lines of the sketches
I have already traced out of the life and activity of the
wild herds of the plateau, as I still could see them. . . .

Out of the many memories of those days, that still work
on me like magic, there is one above all that has a special
meanino: for me : " Elelescho ! "

But what is " Elelescho"? the reader will ask. "Elel-
escho " ^ is the name of a peculiar plant, perhaps it would
be more correct to say a bush, that has in many ways set
its mark on the fiora in the very heart of the Masai region.
Ranges of hills covered with silvery-leafed Elelescho,
the spicy smell of Elelescho, the water at the camping
place redolent of Elelescho — and also, in consequence, tea,
coffee, cocoa tasting of Elelescho — that is a memory that
remains fixed firmly in one's thoughts of this home of the
wild herds and of the Masai. It was these disappearing
nomads who gave the bush its beautiful name.

Possibly the musical sound of the name has not a
Httle to do with reconciling us in memory to the plant.
For the bush itself has in process of time a monotonous
effect not very pleasing to the senses, but for this very
reason all the stronger and more enduring. Its character
is connected by strong links of memory with our ex-
periences of those days, and the sound of its name awakes
rose-coloured recollections. For just as it is not given
to man to remember exacdy the nature of intense bodily
pains, so fancy, looking backwards, kindly blots out much
that was hard and little that was pleasant in the life we

1 According to HoUis, the singular of the word is " O-'l-leleshwa."

"»> The Spell of the Elelescho

have led. Thus it is that this strange Inish, with its
silver-grey leaves and aromatic odour, is capable, as hardly
anything else is, of awakening in the mind of the traveller
a kind of nostalgia — nostalgia for the wilderness, to which
he is drawn by so much of beauty and of hardship. We
have gained vt:ry little by learning that botanists recognise
OLU- plant as one of the CompositcC, and name it
Tare Jioiiaut lis caiuphoratus, L. It is to be found also
in other parts of Africa; and Professor Fritsch reported,
as early as 1863, that he found it growing in Griqualand,
then still an unsettled country, where it was called the
" Mohalla." It would be a pity it^ its beautilully sounding
Masai name were not preserved for future times, and I
must do my best to save " Elelescho " from such oblivion.

One must have learned the word with its sweet-
sounding pronunciation from the lips of a proud, handsome,
slender Masai warrior in order to understand how so
seemingly slight a thing can imbue one's impression of a
whole land.

The Elelescho is as prominent in those regions as
the oak and beech or fir in Germany, or as the juniper,
the heaih, and the broom, and has the same influence
on the landscape. But it has a greater and deeper
influence upon the imagination, because it so dominates
those solitudes, that to him who has long travelled in
them the mere memory of it evokes a vivid picture of
their once lamiliar aspect. The strong scent of the
Elelescho plant leads the Masai to wear the leaves of
the bush as a decoration round their ears for the sake
of its perfume. It belongs thus to the plants that because

In Wildest Africa -^

of their scent are used as ornaments by warriors and

maidens : " Il-kak ooitaa '1 muran oo 'n doiye '1

oropili." ^ So there pass before us Masai maidens and
Masai warriors decked with Elelescho leaves and Elelescho
branches, and received with sympathetic smiles by the
caravan leaders — who, however, unlike the Masai, think
very little of it. Very simple and naive are the relations
of these natives with nature around them. Only the
obvious, the actually useful, comes into their thoughts,
and for my black companions the Elelescho always recalls
only memories of poor desert regions of the waste — regions
in which they must often endure hunger and suffer many
hardships. Far different is the influence of the Elelescho
region on my feelings. For me this bush is symbolically
linked with the plunge into uninhabited solitudes, with
self-liberation from the pressure of the civilisation of
modern men and all its haste and hurry.

We wish to feel once more, and to give ourselves up
fully to, the spell of the Elelescho— -the charm of the
Elelescho thickets, that are also in South Africa in the
lands about the Cape the characteristic mark of the velt,
now so lonely, but once alive with hundreds of thousands
of wild herds.

A wonderful night has come on.

The moon— in a few days it will be at the full — sheds
its beams in glittering splendour over Lake Nakuro.

The litde camp is soon wrapped in silence. The
weary bearers sink into deep and well-earned slumber.
Only the sentries, pushed far out, are on the alert. It

1 As Hollis tells us.
48

^ The Spell of the Elelescho

was but a few days since the rebel Wakamassia hillmen
were a source of danger to us, and nightly precautions
are not yet forgotten. The moonbeams flicker ghost-like
over the lake. Night-jars give forth their songs close to
the camp all round us. Strange sounds and cries ring
out from the throats of the waterfowl on the lake margins,
and not far away one hears the snorting of the hippopotami.
Jackals and spotted hyenas prowl round the camp,
betraying themselves by their voices. The hyena's howl
and jackal's wailing bark mingle strangely with the deep
bass note of a bull-hippopotamus. Here in the wilderness
there is hardly any sound that is louder than the mighty
voice of these giants of the water.^

A strange feeling came over me. Amid all the ever-
varying sensations of the last year my capacity tor
enjoyment, my sensitiveness to outside impressions, had
been developed and enhanced. A short time since I was
between life and death, struggling with the treacherous
infection of fever. Now I was well. I was breathing
the air some three thousand feet higher than the place
where I lay ill near Victoria Nyanza. I was again in a
region whose vast volcanic solitudes contrasted strongly
with its abundance of highly developed organic life, and
exercised a strange influence upon me.

Is there such a place as Europe ? Is it possible that
thousands of miles away there is a centre of civilisation

^ The pachyderms seem to feel no ill effects from the natron-bearing
water ; but for men the water of the lake — at least, near my camp— proved
very unpleasant. Our drinking water was obtained from a small marsh
near the shore of the lake.

In Wildest Africa

-»)

whose teeming millions would fain imprint their image
on the whole earth, and even lay covetous hands on this
far-off wilderness, and that in time this must happen ?

A world of which I myself am a unit ! How strange
that I can delight so deeply in all this wild charm ! And
how quickly the wishes of men change ! A while ago,
in the lono- nights of fever, I had but one desire — that
my heart, my heart alone, should not be buried in a
foreign soil, but be taken back to the Fatherland.

And now, only a few weeks after my recovery, how
different seems to me all I may hope for from Fate, and
how much more complex, how much more difficult to
accomplish !

I yield myself up entirely to the spell of the wilderness,
to the mood of the night.

That was ten years ago, before the Europeans had
banished it — when it ached on the senses like the nocturne
of some great tone-poet. But I know well that to-day
it is no longer in existence ; Lake Nakuro is now only
a lake like any other, and the railway whistle wakes its
echoes.

That night the spell must have been exceptionally strong.
It seemed to me as though I were under some charm,
as if 1 were carried back into the far-off times. There
came before my mind much of what the lake had seen
in the long vanished past. The lands around me heaved
and quaked. Mighty earth-shaping forces were doing
their work. I seemed to see before my eyes what
happened here in primeval times — how volcanic forces,
strange, boundless, and terrible, had built up and given

-♦b

The Spell of the Elelescho

form to the country around me here, destroying all living

f.^

^/^^*

ALFRED KAISER (iN ARAB COSTUME).

things, and yet at the same time preparing the conditions
for the hotly pulsating waves of life of later days. In

In A\'ildest Africa -*

my mind I saw pass before me wondrous mighty forms
of the animal world of the past, long since extinct.
Then — suddenly I started up. What was that ?

A loud trumpeting rang in my ears ! Elephants !
Were there still extant such herds of elephants as those
that I saw cominQ- down there to the lake to drink, rollino-
themselves in the mud of its banks, and openly making-
friends with the hippojiotami ? Just as in the daytime I had
noticed the different kinds of antelopes and the zebras, so
here I saw again the elephants and hippopotami living their
life close together, moving round or beside each other
without fear or hesitation. The herd, numbering many
hundred heads, was guided to its drinking-place silently
and slowly by its aged leader, a iemale elephant of most
exceptional size. Many young elephants were there in
company with their mothers. Some very little ones, only
a few weeks old, played with their comrades, or knowingly
imitated the movements of the older animals in the water,
while the old ones took care to prevent the tender young
creatures from taking any harm.

But it all seemed somehow impossible ! Veterans
among the most experienced black elephant-hunters had
assured me that such huge herds were not to be met
with. And if I saw aright in the shimmering moonlight,
what a great mass of hippopotami were moving about
there before me ! And now, paying no attention to the
elephants that were peacefully bathing farther out in the
muddy water, they clambered on to the land, and began
to graze like cows on the bank among some more of
the elephants. It was exactly the same friendly relation

)

The Spell of the Elelescho

that I had seen between the dwarf gazelles and the zebras
during the day. Could I be only dreaming ? Such a
multitude of huge creatures here close to my camp — it
could hardly be a reality !

And now I perceived that a second herd of elephants,
some hLindreds strong, was approaching the water. In a
straight line these still more giantdike colossi came down
to the lake margin — all ot them, as I now clearly per-
ceived, bulls with mi(yhtv tusks, and amongst them some
quite enormous tuskers, obviously patriarchs of the herd,
and carrying some hundreds ot pounds' weight of ivory
that glittered afar in the moonlight.

The two herds greeted each other with their curious
cries, difficult to describe, and then the newcomers began
to bathe and drink.

My attention was especially arrested by some of the
elephants, clearly visible in the moonlight, keeping apart
from the re?t. Standing together in pairs they caressed
each other with their trunks, while the enormous ears
which are such an imposing decoration of the African
elephant stood out from their heads, so as to make theni
look larger than ever.

My wonder increases ! Numerous herds of giraftes,
hundreds strong, come down to the lake, and this, too, not
far from the elephants, and without any fear.

And now there is again a new picture ! A herd of
innumerable buffaloes. With their great formidable heads
turned watchfully towards the rest of the crowd, they too
are coming for a refreshing bath. Their numbers still
increase. It is a sight recalling, surpassing even, the

In Wildest Africa -^

descriptions given by the first travellers over the velt
regions of Cape Colony.

How did all this accord with the reports I had received
of the scarcity of elephants ? with the destruction of the
buffalo by the catde plague? with my own previous
experiences? The most authoritative of my informants
had assured me that in this district the elephant was to
be found very rarely, the buffalo hardly ever !

Suddenly with mysterious swiftness the night is gone,
and the day breaks. I search for and find the tracks of
my giant guests of the night. I had made no mistake.
Monstrous footprints are sharply impressed in the mud,
the ground looks as if it had been ploughed up, and in
the midst of the plain, not very far from the lake,' there are
actually hundreds of mighty elephants standing near some
ol-girigiri acacias. As I begin to watch them, they
suddenly become resdess. In their noiseless way they
make off at an extremely quick rate, and soon disappear
behind the nearest ridge.

Round about me I see herds of zebras, hartebeests, and
wild animals of all kinds in vaster numbers even than those
of yesterday. The deep bellow of the wild buftalo breaks
upon my ear. I can see long-necked towering giraffes in
the acacia thickets. The snorting of numerous hippo-
potami sounds from the lake. Some of these burly fellows
are sunning themselves on its margin ; and quite close to
them several rhinoceroses are grazing peacefully in the
midst of their uncouth cousins.

I am surprised, too, at seeing a troop of lions disappear-
ing into the bush, after having made a visit to the water.

-♦)

The Spell of the Elelescho

They are so close to me that I can plainly see by the shape
of their bodies that they are going home after having had
an abundant repast.

The behaviour of my people puzzles me. I had no
opportunity for questioning them as to why they were not
more impressed by this unexpected spectacle, for my
attention was suddenly arrested by the appearance ot a
lengthy caravan of bearers, that seemed as it it had
emerged before my eyes from the trampled ground.
There is new life and movement among the herds of
wild animals. Slowly, defiantly, or in swift-footed fear,
each according to its kind, all these wonderful creatures
seek safety from the approaching crowd.

A robust negro marches at the head of the caravan.
He carries a white (lag inscribed all over with texts irom
the Koran. Hundreds of bearers come steadily in. Each
carries a load of nearly ninety pounds' weight, besides his
cooking gear, sleeping-mat, gun and powder-horn. At
regular intervals grave-looking, bearded Arabs march
among the bearers. Two stately figures, riding upon asses
and surrounded by an armed escort, are evidently the
chiefs, and a great drove of asses with pack-saddles laden
with elephant tusks brings up the rear. Very quickly the
numerous party establish their camp, and I now remark
that hundreds of the bearers are also laden with ivory. It
is clearly a caravan of Arab ivory-traders.

After the usual greetings — " Sabal kher " (" God bless
thee"), and " Salaam aleikum," questions are asked in the
Swahili language : " Habari ghani ? " {" What news ? ") I
now learn that the party of travellers set out some two years

6.S 5

In Wildest Africa -^

ago from PanganI on the coast to trade for ivory in the
Masai country. I am surprised to hear the Arabs tell how,
although theirs is one of the first caravans that have made
the attempt, they have penetrated far into the inhospitable
and perilous lands of the Masai. Their journey has been
greatly delayed, for they have had to fight many battles
with the Wachenzi, the aborigines of the districts through
which they marched. " But Allah was with us, and the
Unbelievers had the worst of it ! Allah is great, and
Mohammed is his prophet ! "

Every one set busily to work. In the turn of a hand
the camp was surrounded with a thorny zereba hedge, and
made secure.

And now I had personal experience of what has passed,
times without number, in the broad lands ot the Masai ; —
armed detachments from the caravan started on raids for
far-off districts. The timid Wandorobo, that strange sub-
ject tribe of the Masai, brought more and more ivory to
the camp to sell it to the traders, after long and obstinate
bargaining. It was remarkable how clever were the people
of the caravan in dealino- with these timid wild folk, and
how well they knew how to gain their confidence.^ This
confidence, however, was not made use of in trade and
barter for the advantage of the natives. But thanks to the
methods and ways of managing the natives, as the traders

1 John Harming Speke, one of the discoverers of the Victoria Nyanza,
has already remarked that the Arabs know well how to manage their
slaves, and to tame them like domestic animals ; that they are able to
entrust them with business matters, and send them out of their own
dominions into foreign countries, without the slaves ever attempting to
escape from their masters.

^ The Spell of the Elelescho

understood them, we saw that the wild folk were quite
satisfied, and this was the main point.

But what patience is required in trade of this kind ! A
white man could never develop such Oriental patience.
Again and again a tusk would be endlessly bargained over,
till at last, often after days of chaffering, it passed into the
possession of the caravan. The natives were of course
bent on getting the tusks, sooner or later, into the camp.
At the very outset they had sent in a most exact description
of them, and then envoys from the caravan had to go and
inspect them, often at a distance of several days' march
from the camp.

Every day a great number of Masai warriors appeared
in the camp. Men belonging to many kraals, owners of
great herds of cattle, camped near the lake. There were
not infrequent skirmishes, especially at night time. The
young warriors, the Moran, made attempts at plunder, and
were beaten off with broken heads. But, on the whole,
this hardly disturbed the good understanding. " It is their
testuri (custom)," thought the experienced and fatalistic
coast folk, and they accepted it as an unavoidable incident
of the trade. But festivals were also arranged, with dance
and song. In the still moonlit nights the strange chant
rancr out in a hioh treble far over the plain, and sounded
in the rocky hills, and festivity and rejoicing reigned among
the warriors, the girls, and the women.

But by day one saw their busy life displayed, all the
bucolic poetry of grazing herds of cattle with their spear-
armed herdsmen. There was a great deal to be done, and
in each and every task the Masai girls and women showed

In Wildest Africa ^

themselves, like the men, excellent guardians and attendants
of their herds.

In the neighbourhood of the Masai kraals the wild
animals of the plain mingled freely with the tame cattle
of the Masai, knowing well that the Masai folk would
not shoot them. The wild animals were exposed only
to the attacks of the Wandorobo. But these latter bore
themselves very shyly in the presence of their over-lords,
the Masai, and went oft^ to far distant hunting grounds,
so that the wild animals were hardly ever disturbed by
a hunter.

The young Masai warriors also began to devote
themselves to hunting for ivory. With great courage,
and often with no small display of dexterity, they killed
a large number of elephants, allured by the high prices
offered by the caravans. But they kept the beautiful
tusks carefully hidden, buried in the earth till the moment
when they had successfully arranged a sale. The buried
treasure was easy to conceal. At the place where the
tusks were put away the grass was set on fire and burned
up over a considerable area, and then no eye could
distineuish the slightest indication of the buried treasure.

The Elmoran also made use of a method of hunting
which is employed in other parts of Africa, namely, to slip
quiedy up to an elephant, and with a single powerfully
delivered sword-cut sever the tendon Achilles. But few
indeed were daring enough to attempt this, and these were
strong, brave, and well-trained warriors. Such an exploit
won for them high respect among their comrades of

the clan.

-9\

The Spell of the Elelescho

While the Masai warriors thus took their share in
elephant-kilHng, and the Wandorobo stuck to their long,
trusted poisoned darts and poisoned spears, the caravan
folk attacked the elephants with powder and iron bullets,^
and slew whole hecatombs of them.

" Nowadays," the leader of the caravan told me, " the
chase is easier and less dangerous, and your firearms also
give the man from the coast the power of hunting and
killing the Fihl (elephant). For example, you know, sir,
that my half-brother, Seliman bin Omari, is not a practised
hunter. And yet, believe me, he and his people have
brought down many, many elephants."

But his banker on the coast, the Hindoo Radda Damja,
certainly never hears one word of any elephant being killed
by Seliman's people :

" No one is so clever as he is at knowing nothing
about elephants when questions are asked- The ivory is
always something traded for with the natives, far, far away
in the interior," he adds, with a cunning wink. " The
main point is that we all get pembe (ivory), and he gets
plenty of it ! I would like to work the business as he
does, but, sir, I am not so clever in preparing amulets, and
moreover, I don't know as much as he does of the ways
of the elephant.

" But it's a pity that in all parts of the country the ivory
is becoming very scarce, so one has to be going always
farther into the interior, and one must try to find new ivory
districts."

^ The native elephant-hunters — the " Wakua " — use as a rule several
small iron bullets with a heavy charge of gunpowder.

In Wildest Africa -^

Thus my Arab informant talked a long time with me.
He told me much that was interesting and much that was
new to me. He told me of caravans that had been
massacred, cut off to the last man by the natives in remote
districts: and again of caravans that had been not one or
t^vo, — no, as long as six years on the march, that had
buried a lot of ivory and gradually got it down to the coast.
Time counts for nothing here, for the people— that is to say,
those who are not slaves— receive only the one lump sum
agreed upon for the journey, no matter how long it lasts.
His friends, with caravans mustering many hundreds, had
carried hundreds and hundreds of barrels of gunpowder
into the interior, they had sought everywhere for new
districts abounding in ivory, and the result had been the
slaughter of the elephants on all sides. Nevertheless he
had not much to tell me of men having enriched themselves
by this trade. However, this did not apply to the traders
on the coast, who advanced the money. These lent money
to the caravan leaders, who went into the interior, at the
high rate of interest usual in the East, and thus became
rich men. They had, of course, also many losses. It
happened not seldom that one of their debtors was " lost"
in the interior, which means that he simply did not come
back, but chose to pass the rest of his life in exile. And
in that case it would be a difficult matter for the creditor
to take proceedings against him.

Then my informant told me how many of the elephant
hunters still living had been carrying on their business
already for a long time before any Europeans whatever
thought of making a prolonged stay in the country. He

-^ The Spell of the lilelescho

told me also much that was interesting- about the old trad
routes extending far through Africa, and-^ven to" the
Congo. He had friends and relatives who had already
traversed these routes many times, and journeyed from
the east coast even to the Congo, long before any
European traveller. Many of the people of his caravan
were able to tell from memory each day's journey as
far as the Congo, and give exact information about the
chiefs who held sway in each district, and the possibility
of getting supplies of various kinds of provisions,
such as maize, millet, bananas, or other products of the
country.

I cannot exactly say how long he had talked with
me about elephants and elephant-hunting, about the ivory
trade, and many other things. I only know one thing—
that after some time his talk became more and n^ore
difficult for me to understand, that I strove in vain against
an ever-increasing- weariness, and that at last I saw neither
the Arab nor the caravan— in a word, saw nothing more,
felt nothing more.

I fell into a deep sleep in which, in my dreams, I had
a lively argument with some Europeans, who would not
believe so many elephants, buffaloes, and other wild
animals had formerly been here, and who kept on objecting
strongly that it was impossible that all this could have
been the case so short a time aero.

When I woke up again I found myself in my lounging-
chair, a primitive piece of furniture of my own construction.
My black servant stood before me, and asked me if I
would not rather go to bed.

In Wildest Africa ^

1 rubbed my eyes— it hiad all been a dream, then ; the
spell of Elelescho must have inspired me with it. How
foolish to yield to this spell ! But men will perhaps so
yield to it when all this has become "historical" and
ihe Masai and their lives and deeds have, like the Red-
skins of America, found their Fenimore Cooper.

Then may the spell of the Elelescho exert its rightful
power ; then may it make famous the slender, sinewy, noble
Masai ol-morani as, amidst his fair ones, his " doiye," ' he
leads the song-accompanied dance as he goes out to war,
and reigns the free lord of the wilderness! But to-day he
bears on his brow the significant mark of an inexorable
fate— that of the last of the Mohicans.

The spell of the Elelescho has departed from Lake
Nakuro, once so remote from the world.
The lake is no longer remote.

Iron railway lines link it with the Indian Ocean.
Vanished from it is the spell that I once felt both waking
and sleeping ; gone is the poetry of the elephant herds,
the Masai the Wandorobo, and the caravan life in all
its aspects; gone all that I saw there. The traveller,
if he would learn to know the primitive life and ways,
whether of men or of the animal world, if he would know
the primeval harmony that speaks to him in an over-
powering language peculiar to itself, must press on
into the wilderness farther away from these tracks.
This harmony, whose special character is day by day
disappearing, day by day is in an ever increasing measure
destroyed, cannot be recalled under the new, the commg
1 Singular : en-dito = the young maiden.
80

The Spell of the Elelescho

system, the system that abandons itself to restlessness —
that, in a word, which we call modern industry, modern
civilisation.

To-day one may perhaps read in the Bast African
Gazette that Mr. Smith, the railway engineer, favoured
by extraordinary luck on a hunting- expedition, has seen
one solitary bull elephant not far from Lake Nakuro !
This is something quite out of the ordinary, and Mr. Smith
is to be congratulated. Unfortunately his efforts during
many years to have even one young East African elephant
sent to London have been without any result. A young-
animal is no longer to be found. In the same number
of this newspaper, under another heading, we read the
report that the export of ivory this year by the Uganda
Railway has been utterly disappointing; the quantity carried
has been terribly small, hardly worth mentioning !

I had a talk lately with a travelling companion who
had spent some time with me in the wilderness ten years
ago, and who had just revisited those distant lands, availing
himself of the railway. Alfred Kaiser, a widely travelled
man, recalled to me the life we had lived together, when
there was yet hardly a trace of European influence among
the people of the interior by Lake Victoria. \n memory
we saw again the inhabitants of then hardly known
Sotikoland receiving us mistrustfully on their frontier,
thousands strong. Their glittering spears sparkle in the
morning sun ; chiefs, ministers, and court ladies of the
Wakawirondo appear in camp in most primitive costume ;
club-armed warriors regard us with the most open distrust ;
cowry shells and artificial pearls form their costume and

In Wildest Africa -^

are used as their money ; sudden attacks and fighting are
quite in the order of the day.

And now, only ten years later, Kaiser has seen the
Masai at Lake Nakuro, English-speaking caricatures of

civilisation.

A feelino; of somethinor Hke resentment comes upon
the traveller who has had to pay toll for his journey
with the ceaseless sweat of his brow, when he thinks
that now any one can reach Lake Nakuro in a few
days from the coast. It is true that the over-anxious
globe-trotter is kept in check by only too well justified
fears of the treacherous malaria and the sleeping-sickness
that has made such terrible progress of late. Otherwise
the railway journey from Mombassa to the Victoria
Nyanza, and then down the Nile to Cairo, would be a
much-travelled route.

I have tried to describe, in brief outline, the rapid,
unwelcome change of our time, the result of European
civilisation forcing its way in. As I describe things, so
they were half a century ago, and even yet ten years ago,
when I stayed by the shores of Nakuro, and no railway
had yet been made there.

To-day one can no longer find the old spell of the
Elelescho there, or anywhere else where the white man
has penetrated.

The traveller probably sees only a shrubby plant.

It covers many a ridge, and the lonely plains of the
uplands, and sends afar its spicy perfume. The botanists
call it rarchonautus camphoratiis, L. They class it among
the Composita;.

^ The Spell of the Elelescho

But here it can no longer exercise any spell.

That has Hown far, far away, into the interior. There,
where the white man has not yet come, it still prolongs
its existence.

How long yet will it be before it has entirely departed ?

GROUP OF MASAI THE WARRIOR ON THE LEFT DRESSED IN A CUbXUME

IMPROVISED OUT OF A COLOURED BED QUILT.

ONE OF THE OLDEST " NATURE DOCUMENTS " FROM THE HAND OF MAN.
PREHISTORIC SKETCH OF A MAMMOTH ON A FRAGMENT OF IVORY.

(From L. Reinhardt's work Der Mensch zitr Eiszeit in Eitropa.

From the Cave-dweller's Sketch to the
Flashlight Photograph

THE mysterious charm of wild nature, undisturbed,
almost untouched, by the hand of man, — the charm
inherent in all that I have in mind when I talk of "the
spell of the Elelescho " — explains the keen and profound
interest with which my pictures of animal life were
received at home.

In these days, when even electricity has been harnessed
by men, there is a feeling that the knell has been sounded
of all that is wild, be it man or beast. And however
unpretending- and inadequate the little pictures might be
that I had won from the wilderness, yet all nature-lovers
felt that they had here before them authentic, first-hand
records revealing secrets which the eye of man had never
before looked upon, or had had but scant opportunity for
studying.

-♦)

From Cave-dweller's Sketch to Photograph

These pictures were the first to show really wild
animals in full freedom, just as they actually live their
life on velt and marsh-land, in bush, forest, air, and
water. They showed nature in its unalloyed reality, and
therefore a peculiar stamp of truth and beauty must have
imprinted itself upon them. They came, too, as a surprise,
for in many points the hitherto accepted representations
of the animal world and those given by my photographs
did not agree.

Mere subject counts for so much in a picture with
most people that it takes them a long time to appreciate
a work of art the subject of which does not at the first
glance appeal to them. This applies peculiarly to my
Afi-ican photographs. It is not a very easy matter for
the eye to grasp the movements of the varying forms of
animal life in their natural freedom. Often their appear-
ance is so blended with their surroundings that it requires
long practice to distinguish the individual characteristics
of each, the fleeting graces of their momentary aspects.

I could not, therefore, help feeling a certain apprehen-
sion that every one would not at once be able to understand
and decipher my pictures in my book, Uli/i Flashlight
and Rifle. It is necessary when one looks at them to
understand, in some degree, how to read between the
lines ; one must make an effort to grasp their more
elusive features ; in short, one must devote oneself to the
study of them with a certain gusto, a certain intelligence.
There was a further difficulty arising from the fact that
the illustrations could be reproduced only by a process in
which unfortunately much of the finer detail of the originals

In Wildest Africa ^

is lost. The use of the process, however, was necessary
for various reasons.

There can be only two ways of securing the best
possible result in the execution of pictures of such subjects.
The ideal method would be for heaven-sent artists, after
years of study, to give us works of this class, and combine
in these masterpieces the strictest truth with the finest
craftsmanship. But this requires a thorough study of
each separate species of animal seen from afar and at
close quarters— and how is this possible, seeing that one
gets only momentary glimpses ? The other method is
that of photography, the picture on the negative, which
can claim the advantage of documentary accuracy, and at
the same time leaves a certain scope for the artistic sense
of the operator. So the gready improved photographic
methods of to-day can step in, at least as a substitute and
makeshift, in the absence of works of art such as the
genius of one man may yet give us. Considering the
extreme difficulty of taking portraits of living animals in
their wild, timid state, such pictures can only in a few
instances lay claim to technical photographic perfection.
But at least so far as my own taste goes, a certain lack of
sharp definition in the picture (often deliberately sought
for in taking other objects) is not only no disadvantage,
but is even desirable. As a confirmation of this idea of
mine, I may mention the opinion of an American journalist,
who declares that my picture of a herd of wild animals
given on page 327 of Ulth F/as/iIio/it and Rifle to be the
most perfect thing of the kind he has seen, and the most
pleasing to him, and compares it to the work of a Corot.

From Cave-dweller's Sketch to Photograph

It must be noted that // the aiiiiuals are drawn so as
to stand out separated from the landscape which is a needful
accessory of the picture, and brought forward into the
foreground in an obviously selected pose, they must appear
7innatural to the eye of the expert. Such pictures cannot
fail to give an unnatural impression, for in the freedom

r,-,:S.:g^^^

PICTURE OF A FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUS FROM LE VAILLANT S BOOK OF TRAVELS,
PUBLISHED MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

of the wilderness the animal world never presents itself
in this way to the eyes of man. In their full significance
as masterpieces of nature, all the various aspects of the
animal world are first manifested to us in close connection
with their environment. It has been a keen satisfaction
to me to find that many world-renowned artists have
appreciated warmly the beauty of these photographs, and

In Wildest Africa ^

have given expression to this feeling. I have been told,
for instance — what I myself had already noticed — that
numbers of the pictures, especially those showing birds
on the wing, bear a great resemblance to certain famous
works of Japanese painters ^ of animal life, works that
seem to dive into the secrets of nature. It has been
brouo-ht home to me, indeed, both by hundreds of letters
and thousands of opinions expressed in conversation,
that the pictures have excited almost universal interest,
and that my labours have not been in vain.

Fully to enjoy the peculiar beauty of such photographs
of living wild animals, the best way is undoubtedly to see
the pictures considerably magnified by means of the magic
lantern. On account of the special character and strange-
ness of most of the objects shown, I have the lantern slides
liahtlv tinted. This colourino; can be done without in
the least altering the picture in its details, and its object
is merely to secure greater effectiveness. Approval from
all sides, both from artistic circles and from the public,
satisfies me as to the correctness of this proceeding. Only
in this way do photographic pictures shown by transmitted
lio-ht produce the full impression of beauty and naturalness ;
they seem to transport the spectator directly to the far-off
wilderness.

There must be some good reason for the widespread
interest manifested in these pictures of the life and ways
of animals, some of them still so little known, and all ol
them living in remote solitudes. It seems to me that the

1 Cf. also Ostasieiifahrt, Erkbnissc und Beobachtungcn ei/ies Xafiir-
forschers, etc., von Dr. Franz Doflein, Leipzig, 1906.

From Cave-dweller's Sketch to Photograph

cause is deep-seated — that deep down in the heart of the
highly-cultured civilised man there are involuntary yearn-
ings after the sensations of wild, healthy, primeval nature.
The progress of mankind from the so-called barbaric stage
to the highest civilisation has been accomplished in so
short a time, in comparison with the whole period of man's

Camclc-jfarAu/J'fu Giraffe.

fe^

%'" \v

\ 1 "'^'^K'^^^^'"''*^^! 1 iiBi Mil^^Mil

^d^ttcal

\^L

■ =-^3

^^^^P^^4..^^P%^si^^J

A GERMAN PICTURE OF THE GIRAFFE DATING FROM ABOUT TWO HUNDRED

YEARS AGO.

existence, that it is easy to understand how such a longing
may survive. In every man there must be something
of this craving for light and air and primeval conditions.

" The conflict of man with the animal world," says
Wilhelm Bolsche, " has passed away unsung and un-
celebrated. The civilised man of to-day has hardly a

In Wildest Africa -»>

recollection of the endless lapse of time during which
mankind had to struggle with the beasts of the earth
for mastery." Let us for a few moments turn our gaze
backwards to that far past. In epochs that the learned
date back by hundreds of thousands of years, we find
attempts made by the cave-dwellers to execute artistic
representations of nature as they saw it. The artist of
prehistoric times set to work with his rude instruments
to draw in merest outline on a smooth rock-face, on a
tusk taken in the chase, or on some such material, the
things that had particularly attracted his thoughts or
stimulated his efforts. Specimens of these primitive works
of art have been handed down to us. In the first place
there are pictures of animals, scratched upon ivory, and
notwithstanding all their crudeness, sketched with sufficient
ability to enable us to-day to recognise with certainty the
objects which the artist tried to depict. Such sketches
scratched on ivory, showing various kinds of animals
(some of them now extinct) and forming the oldest docu-
ments of the animal-sketcher's art, have been found in
the caves of the south-west of France, in the old dwelling-
places of the so-called "Madeleine" hunters of La
Madeleine and Laugerie Basse. The museum at Zurich
also possesses similar primitive documents from the
Kesslerloch cave, near Thaingen, in the canton of
Schaffhausen.

It is indeed not surprising that the cave-dweller of
those days took his models from the ranks of the animal
creation. All his thoughts and efforts were directed to
the chase ; he had no resources but in this pursuit, and

-^ From Cave-dweller's Sketch to Photograph

he had to carry on, day and nii^ht perhaps, a fierce struggle
for existence with wild beasts. One can thus follow the
development of the human race through the course of
time from the primitive sketches of beasts down to our
own days, in which it has been reserved for the hand

O^rr Oiitttntttteil. <^Hamei- J/v/j-e unj ?yt/Je 77'icr- X^u j.ij^n. -A.

HOTTENTOT HUNTERS A SKETCH DATING FROM 200 YEARS AGO.

(Some South African tribes actually hunt the lion on foot with javelins,
and I have myself more than once observed the courage of the East
African natives in similar circumstances.)

of man to execute masterpieces inspired by genius, and
in which man makes the sun to serve him in depicting
and preserving representations of all that lives and moves,
creeps and flies. By means of the sketches of animals
laboriously scratched on pieces of ivory by the Cave men

In Wildest Africa -^

of Southern Europe, we make the acquaintance of the
long-haired prototypes of the living elephants of to-day.
These animals were the most coveted big game in Europe.
Clearly recognisable sketches of reindeer tell us that a
climate like that of the northern steppes prevailed at the
time ; others of horses show that the wild horse was then
to be found in Europe ; those of the aurochs prove the
existence of that animal. There is a remarkably close
resemblance between the style of all these drawings and
that of the rude sketches made by the Esquimaux of our
own day. Some such Esquimaux sketches of animals on
walrus tusks, at the most a hundred years old, are to be
found in the Berlin Ethnographical Museum. Interesting,
too, are the sketches of giraffes from the hands of ancient
Egyptian artists. They show us that the artist of those
days in drawing animals allowed a loose rein to his fancy
and imagination. Thousands of years must separate these
representations of animals from the sketches of Asiatic
wild life which Sven Hedin discovered at Togri-sai-Tale
near L6b-nor. They are scratched on bright green slate,
and depict yaks, wild asses and tigers, and the hunting
of them with bow and arrow. They appear to be of the
same kind as the animal-sketches made by the South
African Bushmen, discovered by Fritsch in the year 1863.
These cave pictures show us various members of the fauna
of Cape Colony, which has already been to so great an
extent exterminated. During the period of the Middle
Ages a more perfect style of representing animals was
gradually evolved, but even about the year 1720 we find
representations that are inaccurate to an incredible extent,

^ From Cave-dweller's Sketch to Photograph

and, indeed, so recently as the early part of last century,
one sees in the trayelgpf'.tbje'^F.-encl' naicrajist Le Vaillant,
in the picture of 'a female hippopotamus, a proof that the
development of animal-drawing ^x^ad as yet made little
progress.

But what a difference in drawing and technique has
come about in less than a hundred years ! One need only

SKETCHES OF ANIMALS MADE BY THE BUSHMEN. (DISCOVERED IN SOUTH
AFRICA BY PROFESSOR G. FRITSCH IN THE 'SIXTIES, AND REPRODUCED
BY HIS KIND PERMISSION.)

compare the pictures of those times with the works of our
own days, to be convinced that, besides artistic execution,
there is now an increasingly exacting demand for the
precise truth. Indeed, one of the first points to be insisted
on is that photographic pictures shall not be altered,
worked np — /// a zvord, in any zvay " retouched!' Only
on this condition can they really claim to be — that which

In Wildest Africa ^

in a special sense they ought to be — true to nature,
absolutely trustwcrtJiy '' nature-dccMinents!' This distin-
o-uishes the photograph from works of art executed by
the hand of man, -.vhich m.ust conform to each individual
conception of the artist.

It is a hard sayhig that the modern cultured man is
becoming continually more and more estranged from
nature. But in this matter let us take the standpoint
of the optimist, who says to himself that there must be
a reaction — a conscious, deliberate return, which indeed
will represent the result of the highest stage of culture.
There is an increasing perception of the existence in our
home landscape of an ideal worth, that we have not
yet been able sufficiently to estimate. To-day already
there is a movement on all sides, and the demand is heard,
ever stronger and clearer, for the protection of the beauties
of nature. We must protect Nature in the widest sense
of the word. And even if, in the stern progress of
evolving civilisation, much that remains in the treasury
of primitive nature must be destroyed, we shall be able
long to preserve and rejoice in much else.

And here come into play the healthy desire of man
in his primitive state, the cry for light and air, and all
the beauty of nature. It is hardly a hundred years since
we in Europe learned to value the landscape beauties of
unspoilt nature. English writers of travels a century ago
still spoke of Switzerland with aversion ; it was for them
a horrible, dismal mountain country. And it is easy to
understand how man in his hard struggle for the
necessaries of life regarded, and was forced to regard,

lOO

From Cave-dweller's Sketch to Photograph

nature around him as on the whole unfriendly and
menacing. But since those times there has been a
change for the better, even though it cannot be denied
that many men require very specially adjusted spectacles
to enable them to enjoy this or that beauty of the nature
around them ! Thus the landowner feels a pleasing

A SMALL HERD OF FEMALE BLACK-TAILED ANTELOPES RUNNING AWAY THROUGH

HIGH GRASS.

satisfaction at the sight of his cornfields. And yet these
cornfields are hardly anything else but an artificially formed
bit of bare velt, on which at certain times a shortdived
veo-etation erows up, whilst at other times the naked soil
presents itself to the eye — uninviting, stripped of all
adornment, arid and empty. Thus, too, the man who
loves wine feels that well-cultivated vineyards are a
beautiful sight ; but it may be doubted whether he would

lOI

In Wildest Africa -^

do so if, say, only cotton-pods grew on the vines ! In
ancient times, as Humboldt shows, with the (Greeks and
Romans, as a rule, only country that was " comfortable
to live in "' was called beautiful, not what was wild and
romantic. Yet Propertius ^ and many others praise the
beauty of nature left to itself in contrast with that which
is embellished by art. Then we have a long way to
travel through the Middle Ages, when the Alps are
described to us as " dismal " and " horrible," till we come
to the nature-studies of Rousseau, Kant, and Goethe.
At first there were very few to sympathise with them.
Their view gradually prevailed, in spite of many backward
eddies. Thus Hegel had only one impression of the
Swiss Alps, that of a performance tiresome on account
of its length — a judgment not far removed from that
of the Savoyard peasant who declared that people who
took any interest in snow-covered mountains must be
insane.

On the other hand, we find in Eastern Asia, and
especially among the Japanese, from the earliest times,
the most ardent love for nature, and there even the poorest
knows how to adorn his home with tiovvers, and to turn
the beauty of the landscape to similar account.

A great part of the interest felt in natural beauty is
perhaps to be traced to extraneous considerations. On
the other hand, here in Germany we see most of our
people full of feeling for our glorious forests and for
our German scenery in general. We have to face the
prospect, however, of a silenced countryside — a countryside
^ Cf. Friedlander, Darstelluugen aus der Sittengcschichte Roiiis.

I02

C. G. S< /linings, phot.

BEARERS ON THE MARCH.

-<h

From Cave-dweller's Sketch to Photograph

without song or music. ^ That is a matter for anxiety.
Insects, birds, quadrupeds, life and movement should be
a part of the landscape. This idea should continue to
attract more and more adherents. German thought and
feeling are altogether in unison on this subject, and it is
to be hoped that the cry for the protection of the beauties
of nature, for the preservation of the plant and animal
worlds, and all that is picturesque in our native landscape,
may continue to find expression. The League for the
Preservation of the Homeland in Germany gains daily
new supporters.

Men like Professor Conwentz and many others have
been working for years in this direction, and carrying
on a most successful propaganda. This action for the
preservation of the Homeland, taken in the highest and
broadest sense of the word, must tend to evoke and foster
the love of nature and its beauties in ever wider circles.

In other countries, too, steady progress is being made
towards the same goal, and the importance of these
considerations has lono- been recoonised. In Entjland and
in America a way has recently been found to give practical
effect to the idea of the protection of the beauties of
nature by measures well calculati^d for this end. In this
connection, too, a refined aesthetic culture is gaining
ground. I do not at all close my eyes to the difficulty
of reQ-ulatino' the conditions bearino- on this matter. But
in this connection we must not shrink from decisive

^ In the market of Nice alone, according to official statistics, from
November i, 1881, to the beginning of February 1882, 1,318,356 little
song-birds were put up for sale.

In Wildest Africa ^

measures. Those who come after us will be the first to
prize and esteem these measures at their full value.

What I have here described as something to be desired
and worth striving for at home must also hold good for
the whole world — the preservation of all that is charac-
teristic, all that belongs to primitive nature, wherever it
is to be found.

The beauties of nature are most abundant, and in our
time they are all — all — threatened with destruction and in
need of protection. Where we can save and preserve
any of them, our hands should not remain idle.

But where this is not possible, let us secure " nature-
documents." paintings, representations of all kinds as true
to life as may be.

In this way we shall, at least, save for future ages
memorials of enduring worth, for which our children's
children will give us thanks.

1 06

A RHINOCEROS MOVING SLOWLY THROUGH THE GRASS OF THE VELT TAKEN WITH

THE TELEPHOTO-LENS AT A DISTANCE OF 1 20 METRES, AND WHERE THERE
WAS NO COVER. THE ANIMAL LOOKED REMARKABLY LIKE AN ANT-HILL. ON

ITS BACK ONE SEES A BIRD {KUI'HAGUS HRYTHRORHY.XCL-^, Staill.) HUNTING

FOR TICKS.

Ill

New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

rHEODORE ROOSEVELT, President of the
United States of America, says in his lately pub-
lished work, Oiif-door Paslimes of an Aiucrican Hunter :
" The most striking and melancholy feature in connection
with American big game is the rapidity with which it
has vanished."

He makes a critical investigation of this disturbing
fact, and he most strongly advocates restrictive laws and
the establishment of reservations for wild animals. He puts
himself at the head of every effort directed towards the
protection, as far as may be, of the animal world and ot
wild nature, and shows by word and deed how even in
a brief period remarkable results can be obtained in this

107

In Wildest Africa ^

direction. At the same time, on every page of his
striking work, the President shows that he is in favour
of the practice of the chase within proper Hmits, and thus
he by no means takes the side of extreme partisans in
this matter. His efforts are of the greatest service to the
cause, and will no doubt have extremely valuable results
in the United States, where, owing to its peculiar circum-
stances, the natural treasures of the country were, till very
lately, recklessly wasted.

The establishment of the Yellowstone National Park
was largely the President's work. In this vast territory
no shot may be fired. It forms an inviolable national
sanctuary, within whose boundaries life of all kinds is safe.
Several similar reservations are already established, or their
establishment is projected. Strict protective laws have
been some of them brought into operation throughout the
States, and some of them gradually extended to various
districts according to their circumstances. Whole tracts
(as, for instance, Alaska) have been closed for years by
law ao-ainst the hunter. In short, a period of thoughtless
ravage has been followed by an era of self-control with a
swiftness that no one would ever have expected under
the conditions prevailing in America.

The facts I have noted give one something to thmk
about. When in such vast regions of the world measures
of this kind are found to be necessary, there must have
been strong grounds for them. And, in fact, primitive
nature and all its glories were in as serious peril in the
United States as in many other parts of the world.
The cutting down of enormous stretches ol forest, and

io8

^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

the destruction of the stately representatives of the animal
world, went on at giant speed in the United States. The
almost complete extinction of the splendid American bison,
that once roamed in millions over the prairies of the
United States, is one of the most startling- facts illustrating
the destruction of wild animals through the introduction
of civilisation. I'his fact had no slight influence in pro-
curing the enactment of severe measures.

In a land like the United States such measures are
possible, advantageous, and practicable. In other coun-
tries, too, which are in a settled condition, similar
regulations have everywhere come into force of late years.
Thus, for instance, the remnants of the fauna of Australia
are now protected by stringent laws. But quite different,
and much more difficult, are the conditions of the problem
with regard to Africa. There, more than anywhere else,
the time has come for protective regulations. But how
can these measures be enforced, however well they may be
thought out ? We must keep before our eyes the terrible
example of the disappearance of the animal world of
South Africa, as the result of the extremely rapid spread
of civilised life. We can now, with the help of statements
made by trustworthy writers, survey the various phases of
this utter destruction of animal life during the last century,
and so form an idea of what awaits other parts of the
Dark Continent.

Powerful voices have been raised of late in favour ot
the preservation of African wild life, and this especially
in England. In this respect, Mr. Edward North Buxton
is most prominent in pressing for thorough measures

109

In Wildest Africa -•^

of protection for the African fauna throughout the wide
possessions or spheres of interest of the British Empire.
In England, too, many strong pleas have been made in
support of the view that even relatively speaking- noxious
animals should not be deprived by man of the right to a
certain amount of protection. Thus Sir H. H. Johnston,
the former Governor of the Uganda Province in Central
Africa, says in his preface to the English edition of my
book IJ^it/i Flashlight and Rifle, that in his opinion the
weasel, the owl, and the primitive British badger of the
existing fauna ought not to be entirely sacrificed to
the pheasant — a beautiful enough bird, but, after all, one
that must always remain an "interloper"; that the egret,
the bird of paradise, the chinchilla, the sea-otter,^ and
such-like creatures are " aesthetically as important," and
have the same right to existence, as a woman beautifully
dressed in the spoils of these animals. Good pioneer
work in this direction must result from the noble-hearted
resolve of the Queen of England to put herself at the
head of the " Anti-Osprey Movement," organised to save
the royal heron from threatened extinction.

There can be no doubt that the complete extermination
of any species of animal must excite in the mind of a
reflecting man a sense of injustice and wrong ; and that
this complete destruction of certain species can only be to
the interest of all men in general when such animals, of
whatever kind they may be, are entirely noxious and

^ Strict regulations have lately been put into force for the preservation
of the last-named species. But, as the result of the merciless persecution
to which it has been subjected, the sea-otter is all but extinct.

I lO

-^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

quite useless. No epoch in the world's history can be
set in comparison with ours in so far as it has been the
witness, in the course of a few decades, of almost daily
progress and improvement in connection with industry,
culture, and the whole field of human knowledge. And,
moreover, no epoch has been so penetrated with the
great thoughts of progressive humanity. The continual
employment — in ways that are ever more adroit, ever
more complex — of all the resources offered by nature to
man, seems at the same time to blind him to certain
grave misdeeds that he is actually perpetrating every day.
These great crimes against the harmony and order with
which nature surrounds us — crimes that it is not easy to
make any amends for — are the disfigurement and poisoning
of watercourses, the pollution of the air, the laying waste
of a portion of the plant world (namely, the forests), and
the extinction of some of the animals that live with us.

We do not shrink from the most reckless exploitation
of those forests that have come down to us from the
primeval past— the vast stores of coal buried deep in the
bosom of the earth. The expert can now calculate with
certainty that in a few hundred, at the very farthest in a
thousand, years these stores will be exhausted. When it
comes to this, the triumphant progress of industrial science
will no doubt give us some substitute, perhaps even some-
thing better ; but no technical knowledge, no science, can
ever give us back anew those highly developed organisms
ot the plant and animal world which man to-day is reck^
lessly sweeping out of the list of living things. They
cannot restore to us the green woods and their animal life.

Ill

In Wildest Africa

--9^

We preserve with punctilious precision every vestige of
the art of the past. The older the documents of earlier
historic times are, the more eagerly they are coveted, the
more highly they are valued. Our collectors gladly pay
the largest sums for an old papyrus, an old picture, an
object of decorative art, or a marble statue. And, as has
been rightly remarked, what warrant have we that some
new Phidias, some new Michael Angelo, some new Praxi-
teles will not arise, and give us something of as high value
as these, or even much more perfect? Unreservedly to
deny this would be the same thing as to give the lie to
the progress of the human race.

But the same man who, in this respect, acts so rever-
ently, so conservatively, looks on with folded arms while
treasures are destroyed that ought to be guarded with
special affection and care, in these times when the great
value of all natural science is so fully recognised.^

^ While this book is passing through the press several correspondents
have sent me an article published by Freiherr von Schrotter-Wohnsdorf in
the Mo7iatsheften des Allgemeinoi Deutschenjagdschntzvereins of August 24th,
1906. According to this article, during the year 1906, by ministerial orders,
in four of the chief forest districts of East Prussia, sixty-seven head of wild
elk were killed off, though hitherto the few remaining living specimens
of the elk have been so carefully preserved both on public and private
estates. This thorough-going course was adopted for the sake of the
preservation of the woods from damage by the animals. That this should
have been done in the case of a disappearing species of wild animal,
hitherto so carefully preserved, and of which private individuals were
allowed to shoot only male specimens, is in open contradiction with those
views as to the necessity of protecting the rarer beauties of nature, which
are making such progress every day. It seems therefore fitting that I
should note the fact here as showing how well grounded is my opinion that
the progress of civilised culture is destructive to those treasures of nature
that have come down to us from primeval times.

112

^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

We organise, at an extremely high cost, expeditions
to survey and explore far-off regions. We sink into the
greatest depths of the sea our cunningly devised trawl-
nets, and study with ceaseless diligence the smallest
organisms that they bring up into the light ot day. We
consider the course of the stars, and calculate with precision
their remote orbits. We daily discover new secrets, and
have almost ceased to feel surprised at each day bringing
us something new, something yet unheard of. Much that
is thus done to secure the treasures of the past might
equally ivell be done in coniino- years. But iniieh that zve
neglect to do can never again he made good, for we are
permitting the slaughter, up to the point of extinction, of
the most remarkable, the most interesting, and the least
known forms among the most highly organised of the
creatures that dwell with us on our earth !

An example that appeals to us with terrible force is
that of South Africa (taking the country in its widest
limits), a region now so largely peopled by Europeans.
There has been an almost complete disappearance of the
larger animals that once lived in their millions on its wide
plains. If one studies the trustworthy narratives of the
earlier explorers, one reads that, hardly a century Eigo, it
was not a rare sight to see in one day a hundred, or even
a hundred and fifty rhinoceroses, hundreds of elephants
that showed little fear of man, and countless antelopes ;
and one asks oneself, How can it be possible that all this
abundance of life has vanished in so short a time ? A
specimen of the "white" rhinoceros, which in those times
was still living in large numbers, is in our day worth a

II-. 8

In Wildest Africa

-*!

small fortune ; it is to be found /;/ no museum in Germany,
and is simply almost impossible to obtain. This former
abundance is now known only to few, and these only
specialists engaged in studies of this kind. But to
them it is also plain and terribly certain that, where the
like conditions come into being, the same process that
was at work in South Africa will produce the same
results.

There can be no doubt about it. In a hundred years
from now wide regions of what once was Darkest Africa
will have been more or less civilised, and all that deliafhtful
animal world, which to-day still lives its life there, will
have succumbed to the might of civilised man. That will
be the time when the fortunate possessors of horns and
hides of extinct African antelopes, and the owners of
elephant tusks, skulls, and specimens of all kinds will be
selling all this for its weight in gold. And no one will
be able to understand how it was that in our day so little
thought was given to preserving as far as possible all
this valuable material in abundant quantities at least for
the sake of science, instead of sacrificing it wholesale to the
interests ot trade, and to the recklessness of the new
settlers in those lands. For these men, who have to
struggle hard with the new conditions of life and its
necessities, can scarcely act otherwise than heedlessly and
short-sightedly. They will always take possession of a
district before settled conditions are introduced, and before
the Government is in a position to enforce the observance
of its regulations, however well-intentioned these may be.
So it will come to pass that it will suddenly be found no

114

-^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

longer possible to provide European collections with even
a pair of specimens of the mighty elephant, or to procure
other large animals for exhibition in these establishments.
And this will be the case not only with regard to the
larger species, but the same thing will happen to all others.
The Queen of England has lately expressed the wish
that no lady shall come into her presence wearing osprey
plumes in her hat. This act of hers should be most
heartily welcomed, for the bird world is being destroyed
in a way of which only a few experts have any idea. If
our ladies only knew that whole species of birds have
become extinct, thanks to the fashion of wearing hats
trimmed with birds' feathers, doubtless they would no
longer pay allegiance to this destructive fashion. The
massacre of birds is carried on in some such way as this.
The leading firms ao-ree to make this or that bird
fashionable. It is thus that the death-sentence ot many
rare species of birds is pronounced. The traders scattered
all over the world give the hunters who engage in this
kind of business directions, for instance, to bring in osprey
feathers. And how are they obtained ? The royal heron,
a timid and beautiful bird, is not easy to stalk. But the
businesslike hunter knows what to do. He simply kills
the herons in thousands and thousands at iheij" nesting-
places. Love for its offspring brings the beautiful creature
within range of the gun-barrel of the lurking hunter, who
kills thousands of the birds in cold blood when they are
gathered together in the breeding season. Countless
thousands must be killed, countless thousands more of
young helpless nestlings, bereft of the parent birds, must

117

In Wildest Africa

starve to death before enough of these Httle plumes has
been collected to make a load heavy enough to be put on
the bearers' shoulders. And now the dealers of the whole
civilised world lay in a stock, so that full provision may
be made for a form of fashion-mania that may probably
last only a few months. Even in the farthest swamps of
America, in the lands beyond the Caspian, and wherever
the royal heron breeds, one can follow the bird hunter, and
see him at his horrible and murderous work. The end
is everlasting silence. A rare species is soon utterly
destroyed. In the last century alone about two dozen
species of birds became extinct. And in these days nearly
a dozen more species of birds are threatened with extinc-
tion ! According to the Reports of the Smithsonian
Institute this is notablv the case in America with reo^ard
to quite as many species. The wonderful birds of paradise
are croincj ; the latest " trimmino- " for the hats of American
ladies, these dwellers in remote islands of the Southern
Seas are to be threatened in a more serious degree, and
probably to a great extent exterminated. Everywhere
we have the same lamentable facts! It is certainly high
time to interfere effectively. I myself think that the best
results would follow from an appeal to all noble-minded
women.

In Africa I have already observed an example of the
disappearance of one species of bird ^ — every European
takes a lot of trouble to get possession of some of the

^ The author beheves that he cannot better give expression to his
views as to the preservation of the beauties of nature, than by reproducing
an article on the appearance of the stork in the Soldin district, by Herr

ii8

^ New Lig-ht on the Tragedy of Civilisation

much-prized marabou feathers. Now, as long ago as the
year 1900, at London, as a member of the International

M. Kurth. He writes in Die Jagd, Illustrierte Wochenschrift fiir deutsche
Jciger, May 13, 1906 :

"As for tlie storls;-shooting appointed by the District Committee of tlie
districts of Soldin, Landsberg and Ost-Sternberg for the period from
March i to June 15, it is to be remarked that the opinions held by
sportsmen as to the damage done by storks, especially in reference to
small game, are very much divided, and that not much can be put to the
reckoning of ' Brother Longlegs ' of those misdeeds that figure heavily in
the accounts of other robbers, such as the crane, the magpie, and all kinds
of native birds of prey, and the hedgehog, marten, and polecat. These
one and all carry off nestlings, and most of them attack young leverets also.
Now if we are to go for the stork, it should of course be done when
he is to be found together in too great numbers ; and this is entirely the
idea of the District Committee. The neighbourhood of Balz bei Vietz
on the Eastern Railway has always been remarkable for the number of its
storks' nests. One finds two of them on nearly every one of the old barns,
a nest at each end of the roof. It was so even thirty years ago, and so it
is to this day. But the proprietors of the barns never agree to the nests
of the storks being destroyed, or any opposition made to the settling there
of these trustful and friendly birds. And for what reasons precisely has
'Friend Adebar' settled in such numbers in this district? Well, here the
far-spreading meadows of the Warthe, with their full scope for extended
flight, offer him all the food he wants and to spare, and here the frogs'
legs must be particularly good. It may be that now and again a young
partridge or a leveret strays into Mother Stork's kitchen, but that is
the exception. Now if people keep strictly to the object indicated by the
District Committee, namely to bring down the numbers of the storks where
there are too many of them, one may let it pass. But how many will out
of a mere shooting-mania take aim continually at the harmless birds ! —
though such are never genuine sportsmen. How can this be checked?
And it should not be forgotten that in the first week of April our African
guests are to be found in hundreds along the Warthe brook, whence they
then disperse to various parts of the neighbouring districts. Now it is to
be hoped that no one will assume that the stork is to be found here
'in too great numbers,' and that therefore 'one may blaze away at him.'
In some years this may possibly be the case, but if he were scared
out of the district our landscape would be the poorer by the loss of the

119

In Wildest Africa -^

Conference for the Protection of Wild Animals, I did my
best to obtain, at least on paper, some measure of protection
for the marabou. This bird had not only quite won my
heart by its extraordinary sagacity, but for the same reason
it was a general favourite even in the times of classical
antiquity. My efforts were in vain. And this will mean
nothing more or less than the extermination of a large and
handsome bird, which is comparatively easy to hunt down,
and the rate of increase of which is exceptionally small.

From all these points of view the support of the
" League for the Protection of Bird Life in Germany " is to
be warmly recommended. In England these reasons have

bird's welcome cry, as has happened in the case of the heron and
the cormorant in our district. This last-named bird comes now only
seldom, and then only one at a time, to the Netze, near Driesen. There
was a heronry formerly near Waldowstrenk in the Neumark district,
but it disappeared ten years ago. We must hope that this will not be
the fate of the stork, whose appearance has so many links with the poetry
of our childhood, and that we shall not be deprived of his presence.
What a pleasing sight it is when 'Brother Longlegs ' with dignified walk
stalks beside the mower at haymaking time, looking so confiding and
fearless ! And what a joy it is to old and young when the first stork of
the season wheels in circles over the homestead, when for the first time he
comes down to his old nest, and announces his arrival with a joyful outcry !
Must not every sympathetic and thoughtful lover of nature be filled with
sorrow and indignation when, on the pretext of petty thefts, but probably
out of mere wanton love of destruction, attempts are made to drive out of
our country this friendly bird, which is so pleasing an ornament of the
landscape? It would really be a crime against the out-door beauty of our
native land, and against nature all around us, if out of narrow-minded
selfishness we were to extirpate the stork, as happened in recent times
to that most splendidly coloured of our birds, the kingfisher, on mere
suspicion of its being a 'great destroyer' of fish. Love of nature, joy in
nature, is a valuable element in German feeling, and therefore, dear fellow
sportsman, let us maintain our good character ! "

120

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-^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

brought about the formation of the " Society for the
Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire," which
devotes itself to the protection of animal life in general
throughout the world-wide British dominions.

Let us now follow a little more closely, under the
guidance of English writers, the process of the extermina-
tion of the South African animal world. This lamentable
w^ork was completed very rapidly in the course of only
something like a hundred years. From numerous English
authorities, as well as from the publications of the Society
already named, I have been able to ascertain that the last
"blaauwbok" was killed by the Boers in Cape Colony
about the year 1800. From extant sketches of this wild
animal, it appears that it was a smaller species of the
splendid horse-antelopes still to be found in other parts of
Africa. During the following seventy-five years the ex-
termination of several other kinds of animals was systemati-
cally carried out ; and exactly eighty years later the last
quagga, a kind of zebra {Equus quagga) was killed by the
Boers. In England there is only one single specimen
preserved, and that in a very poor condition. It is to be
found in the British Museum. A further sacrifice to the
advancing Europeans was the giant, wide-mouthed, " wdiite "
rhinoceros [^Rhinoceros siiuns, Burch.), a mighty creature,
that formerly ranged in thousands over the grassy plains
of South Africa. The length of a horn taken from one of
them is given as 6 ft. 9 in., English measurement! Even
as late as the year 1884, a single trader was able to
pile up huge masses, small hills, of these rhinoceros horns
by equipping some four hundred tribesmen of the Matabele

12X

In Wildest Africa ^.

race with o-uns and ammunition and sending them out
rhinoceros-hunting. Now it is difficuh to get even a few
specimens of this animal for the museums, and they are
almost worth their weight in gold. Information lately
obtained seems to indicate that a very small number
of these mighty beasts, probably not more than thirty-five
in all, are still living their life in the midst of inaccessible
swamps in Zululand and Mashonaland, in a district that, on
account of its deadly climate, is almost closed to Europeans.
However, the Government of Natal has, I am pleased
to say, made the killing any animal of this species, without
legal permission, a crime to be punished by a fine of ^"300.
An English officer, Captain (afterwards Sir) William
Cornwallis Harris, is an authoritative witness as to the
extermination of wild animals in South Africa in 1836,
though it must have been going on for a long time before
that without any written record. The Boers must have
slaughtered hecatombs of wild animals, though up to that
date we have no first-hand written evidence on the subject.^
Their proceedings were precisely of the same character
as the events that have occurred in our own day in

1 We are indebted to the English hunters of those days for all the
information we possess as to the wild life of South Africa at that time. If
there had not been amongst them men who knew also how to handle the
pen, we should have been almost entirely without trustworthy information
as to that period. I may take this opportunity of saying a word for the
English "record-making sportsman," who is not unfrequently the subject of
false and unfounded invectives, which I can only describe as mostly full
of fanciful fables. Other lands, other ways, and there are black sheep in
every nation. In any case we may take English ideals of sport as our
example, and also the regulations drawn up by English authorities for the
protection of the animal world.

124

-»i New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

connection with the destruction of the elephant, the
rhinoceros, and other animals throughout Africa. This
destruction goes on silently, and only a few men who have
a special knowledge of the circumstances bring some
information about it to the world at large. The rest keep
silence, and mostly have good grounds for so doing.

The descriptions given by Harris, Oswell, V^ardon,
C. J. Anderson and their contemporaries give some idea
of what enormous multitudes of wild creatures then wan-
dered over the plains of South Africa. We are inclined
to underestimate the abundance of the fauna of earlier
epochs. The process of animal-destruction by the hand
of man has been going on from immemorial times. For
thousands of years man has been continually pressing the
animal world back more and more, and it has had to give
way in the unequal struggle. This process has been going
on so slowly and so imperceptibly that it is only by the
scanty remnants left from earlier times that we can form
some estimate of the wealth that has disappeared, lliese
are no empty fancies. All the lonely far-off islands of
the world's seas, the little visited Polar lands, and all the
uninhabited steppes and wildernesses give us evidence of
this. Not only from the lips of Cornvvallis Harris, but
also from some of his contemporaries, we have descriptions
of the former abundance of wild life in the Cape districts of
South Africa. At that time the country was, in the literal
sense of the word, covered with countless herds of Cape
buffaloes, white-tailed gnus, blessbock, bontebock, zebras,
quaggas, hill-zebras, hartebeests, eland-antelopes, horse-
antelopes, oryx-antelopes, waterbuck, impallah-antelopes,

125

In Wildest Africa ^

springbocks, and ostriches. Herds of hundreds of
elephants were to be seen. Every marsh, every river-bed,
was literally overcrowded with hippopotami. All other
kinds of animals that are now so scarce, such as the large
and handsome kudu, and all the different kinds of small
wild animals, were to be met with in vast numbers.
Although since the year 1652 South Africa had been
to a continually increasing- extent occupied by the Boers,
all these wonderful things had managed to survive in rich
profusion up to the moment when, about a hundred years
ago, the great war of extermination began. Various
causes contributed to bring this about : the increasing
numbers of the settlers, their continual penetration farther
and farther into the interior, and, above all things, the
improvement of firearms.

The natives, although very numerous in South Africa,
had, as happens everywhere, left the animal life of the
country in its abundance to the Europeans, who were
overrunning the land in increasing numbers. It was
reserved for these to brings the war of extermination to
an end in a short time. Truly a melancholy spectacle !

Wilhelm Bolsche describes all this in fitting words : ^
"In Africa," he says, "a wonderful drama is to-day un-
folding itself before our eyes. It is the downfall of the
whole of a mighty animal world. What is being destroyed
is the main remnant of the great mammalian development
of the Tertiary period. Once it spread in the same fulness
over Europe, Asia, and North America. Now in its

^ In a review of my book IViy/i Flashlight and Rifle (German
edition).

126

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-* New Light on the Tragedy of Civihsation

last refuge this most wonderful wave of life is rapidly
ebbing away. Everything contributes to this result —
human progress, human folly, and even disease among the
animals themselves."

To give an example : Through the trifling fact that
we have ivory balls for billiards, the African elephant
goes to destruction. The individual cannot stop this ;
but what he can do is to secure more material for each
special branch of science before the door is closed, and
to once more observe in their primeval surroundings the
last elephants, wild buffaloes, giraffes — those last living
vestiges of the Tertiary period.

But above all, the sketches of Le Vaillant, a French
■explorer, who, about 1780, set out from Cape Town on
his travels into the interior, are of great importance for
our study of the former abundance of animal lite in South
Africa, They are all the more interesting for German
readers because he traversed part of what is now
German South-VVest Africa, and gives in his book an
account of its condition at that time. He, too, tells ot
absolutely incredibly great multitudes of wild animals ; on
the banks of the Orange River he comes upon great herds
of elephants and giraffes, and he cannot find enough to
say of the astonishing wealth of animal life. For those
who know German South-West Africa, his narrative is
of special interest. He formed large collections which
he brought back with him to his native country, and to
all appearance is a fairly trustworthy authority, though
at the same time, like many contemporary and later
travellers, here and there he makes assertions that are

129 9

In Wildest Africa ^

clearly unwarrantable. For instance, in one place he
tells how he once rode a zebra, that he had wounded,
for a considerable distance, back to his camp.

Some fifty years later, at the period of the journeys
of Captain William Cornwallis Harris,^ as I have already
remarked, the same conditions prevailed, with regard to
the abundance of wild animals, as in the days of Le
Vaillant. It was almost a daily experience for the traveller
to be molested by lions. The Vaal River then teemed
with hippopotami. What is now the site of Pretoria
was inhabited by a number of rhinoceroses, that were
absolutely an annoyance to the explorer : " Out of every
bush peeped the horrible head of one of these creatures."
Of the neighbourhood of Mafeking he tells us that the
gatherings of zebras and white-tailed gnus literally covered
the whole plain ; that with his own eyes he had at one
time seen at least fifteen thousand head of wild animals \
In another place he tells us of an absolutely overwhelming
spectacle. He saw at the same time more than three
hundred elephants ; to use his own expression, the plain
looked like one undulating mass.

William Cotton Oswell, whom I have mentioned in
my earlier work, and who died as lately as 1893, knew
the countries of South Africa in the days of Livingstone,
and gives the same account of them as his predecessor
Harris. He once came upon more than four hundred,

^ Sir William Cornwallis Harris must be considered as a quite trust-
worthy authority. His works are indeed the most complete first-hand
evidence we have as to the state of the fauna of South Africa at the
time.

130

^- New Lig-ht on the Tragedy of Civilisation

elephants gathered together in one herd on the open
velt. Unfortunately, like so many others, he published
very few sketches.

Gordon Gumming, a traveller well known to the
German public through Brehms' Tierleben. has also left
us sketches of those days that corroborate the descrip-
tions given by his contemporaries. He tells how, in the
year i860, a great drive was organised in the Orange
Free State in honour of the Duke of Edinburgh, after-
wards Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The number
of wild animals driven together by the natives, w^hich
included zebras, quaggas, gnus, cow-antelopes, blessbock,
springbocks, and ostriches, was estimated at five-and-twenty
thousand. The number killed on this one day was
reckoned at about six thousand animals, and a number
of natives were trampled to death by the herds of wild
beasts.

At this time there were still Europeans in South Africa
who made elephant-hunting their ordinary business. Now
there are neither elephants nor indeed any other kind of
wild animal in numbers worth mentioning in these once
rich hunting grounds. They have all been killed off in
the course of a hundred years. Where once hundreds
of thousands of gnus lived their life, there are now only
a few hundred specimens carefully preserved and guarded.
And the same is the case with all other wild animals.
Many species are gone completely and for ever. A similaj'-
process zuill go on sloivly but surely throughout the zuho/e
of Africa, zvherever civilisation penetrates. There ts only
one chance of the beautiful i<.uld life of Africa being

1^1

In Wildest Africa ^

permanently preserved, and that lies in the hunters them-
selves consenting to protect and spare it.

It has been rightly remarked by such a competent
authority as A. H. Neumann (who is, moreover, one of
the most experienced of English elephant hunters) that
the continued existence of many wild African species is
not incompatible with the progress of civilisation. He
points out that we can only reckon with some degree of
certainty on the effective preservation of wild animals,
where not only reservations have been established for
them, but where also a considerable amount of control
can be exercised over both Europeans and natives. In
his opinion, for instance, a mere regulation forbidding the
shooting of female elephants is impracticable : " I should
like," he says, " to see one of those who have drawn up
such a regulation come into the African bush, and there
show us how we are to distinguish between female and
bull elephants in these impenetrable thickets."

In the British colonies in Africa reservations for wild
animals have been established with most successful
results. Those of British East Africa, the Sudan and
Somaliland, and finally of British Central Africa, taken
too-ether, have about five times the area of the Victoria
Nyanza.

By means of reports made as carefully as possible
by the district authorities, estimates have been obtained
of the numbers of existing wild animals. In the laying
out of the reservations the very migratory habits of the
African fauna have been taken into consideration as tar
as is practicable, and by strict protective regulations of

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^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

various kinds most satisfactory results have been secured.
In the Transvaal Colony, too, a reservation has been
marked out in the Barberton district between the Olifant
River and the Portuguese frontier. Any one shooting
in this reservation without a permit is liable to a fine of
^loo, or six months' imprisonment. There is a very
interesting official report as to the wild inhabitants of this
reservation. "It contains one old rhinoceros (with shot-
marks on its hide), a small herd of elephants, a considerable
supply of ostriches, from five to nine giraffes, a satisfactory
quantity of gnus, and also of ' black-heeled ' or impallah-
antelopes, two or three small herds of buffaloes, several
herds of zebras, numerous waterbuck and kudus, and a
small number of horse-antelopes. On the other hand,
whether oryx-antelopes and eland are still to be found
there appears to the author of the report in the highest
degree doubtful."

However, in the extensive reservations that have been
established in other British possessions in Africa, and
especially in those of the Sudan, a large number of the
beautifully formed dwellers of the wilderness still live
their life, and this must be a delight to the heart of
every sportsman.

It is to be hoped that through thus establishing
" sanctuaries " (as the English call them), with the con-
sequent supervision, a means has been found of protecting
the indigenous wild life of Africa, as well of America,
for a long time to come.

In German colonies, too, efforts are being made to
preserve, as far as possible, the native fauna. The more

135

In Wildest Africa -^

our views can be made clear, the more complete the
survey of this difficult subject can be made by the combined
experience of many experts being gradually brouq;ht to
bear together upon it, the sooner may we anticipate
satisfactory results from this co-operative action. For
years I have been following with close interest everything
connected with this question, and my wide correspondence
with officers, officials, and private individuals warrants me
in concluding that on all sides there is an enero-etic
movement in progress. Of course, we have to face
serious difficulties in such a campaign. Thus it seems,
according to numerous and trustworthy reports, that the
attempt to establish Boer settlements in the Kilimanjaro
district in East Africa has had, and still is having, very
fatal results for the once splendid wild life of that region.
And, indeed, it is no easy matter to reconcile a colony
of Boers — the people who have already made such a
clean sweep of the wild life of South Africa — to the
preservation of the fauna of the country. One can see
how difficult the regulation of these matters is for the
authorities.^

We must not forget also that, as a result of the
wonderful improvements in firearms, the problem of the
protection of wild animals presents itself to-day in quite
a different fashion from that of the days of the hunters
of fifty, or even of twenty-five years ago.

But it is not the individual hunter whose interest lies

^ On the part of the Government and the local authorities everything
that is possible is being done to settle this difficulty. But unfortunately
their efforts seem to have little success.

T36

^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

in sport or science ^ ; it is not the man who brings us
the first knowledge of many of the inhabitants of the
wilderness, and first arouses our interest in them ; it is
not such as these who should be regarded as the destroyers
of the fauna of a foreign land. Rather this is the work
of all those powerful influences that everywhere combine
to this end during the introduction of civilised life. It
has indeed been already proposed, in all seriousness, by
some men of science to completely extirpate the wild
animals of East Africa, in order thus to circumvent the
tsetse fly and other minor pests that may perhaps com-
municate disease from the wild to the tame cattle. And
this, too, before it can be said with any certainty whether
these cases of infection do not arise only from a nuniber
of very small animals which it would be impossible to
exterminate !

Our most important task is now to obtain an accurate
knowledge of the fauna of foreign lands. For this purpose
we must collect materials which will render the study of
this wild life of other lands possible to our scientific
institutions ; which will place them in a position to give
to a wide public an idea of all these rich treasures, and
thus awaken an intelligent love for them in the hearts
of the pioneers ot civilisation.

And then we must devise practicable measures of
protection. This is a wide field of labour. The hunter

1 Cf. my book With Flashlight and Rifle, p. 736, where a
statement by Professor P. Matschie, the Custodian of the Royal Zoological
Museum at Berlin, will be found, bearing out the truth of what is here
remarked.

In Wildest Africa -»>

himself must take in hand the intelligent preservation of
the wild animals. The measures of protection must be
suited to the varying conditions of the wide hunting
grounds of foreign lands, and must not be considered
only from the stay-at-home point of view.

This is not to be done by mere laments over the
extermination of wild life, or even by merely putting-
limitations on the enjoyment of the chase by the individual
hunter. On the contrary, a beneficial result can be
obtained only by all European travellers in those countries
interchanging their experiences, collecting material, and
exertinof themselves to the utmost and in concert to devise
measures that will, as far as may be, put a stop to the
threatened extermination.

This is a great and noble task.

13S

YOUNG grant's GAZELLES ON A BLA( L

I OF VELT.

IV
The Survivors

TO learn to know anything with precision, to devote
oneself to it and master it in its smallest details, one
must generally make its study a labour of love. So the spread
of more exact knowledge of the manifestations of nature
around us must go hand in hand with the awakening of
love for them and for the splendours they present to our
view. And with this increasing impulse towards research
and knowledge must come the desire to prevent as far as
possible the rapid destruction of fauna and flora. Public
opinion, in truth, has begun to range itself on the side
of these much menaced glories of nature.

We have to observe and investigate. We have to get
together some small portion of the vast material that is
often so uselessly squandered, in order to employ it in the
service of special branches of science, and to make some
closer knowledge of these things accessible to every one.

139

In A\'i Iciest Africa

We have to establish great collections formed on a definite

GROUP OF 'MBEGA MONKEYS, WITH THEIR WHITE-COATED YOUNG
(first discovered by THE AUTHOR).

plan, and ev^erywhere to save as much material as possible
for scientific and educational purposes, so long as it can still

140

The Survivors

be done. "If these ideas could be brouorht home to the

,.•„ ' .,.,■■;< .''-''.VV' ■■' *■

^- 1

L^-- "'1

i,- -n' "^' "^T

LETTER FROM PROFESSOR P. MATSCHIE, THE LEADING AUTHORITY ON THE
DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAMMALIA OF GERMAN EAST AFRICA.

right quarters, millions would be made available for this
object," writes one of the most learned specialists in these

141

In A\'i Iciest Africa -^

matters. Our zoological gardens and museums are already-
doing their best, but they are hampered by the want of
pecuniary resources. Whilst the largest sums are freely
provided for ihe purchase of antiquities, there is a dearth
of means for doing what is necessary to save the treasures
of our vanishing fauna while there is still time !

Other countries, America for instance, set us a glorious
example. There you see public collections formed, afford-
ing panoramas of animal life so splendid, so beautiful, and
planned on such grand lines, that the love of nature must
be lighted up in the hearts of all who visit them.

What can be saved of these disappearing treasures must
suffice for all time, and must in part at least be preserved
in fire and thief-proof " zoological treasuries," for it will be
impossible to obtain such things again in the future, no
matter what efforts may be made. Thus a great and
difficult task presents itself to our museums. We can
rightly require of them that they shall not merely exhibit
the principal species of the animal world, but that they
shall also preserve specimens of the most striking repre-
sentatives of our still surviving fauna that are likely soon
to become extinct. And these specimens must be guarded
by all the resources of art and science against light and
any other influence that might injure them. For such a
far-seeing policy posterity will be grateful to us.

It seems, however, as though some unlucky star presided
over the collecting of the larger species of the animal world.
Let any one devote himself to these special pursuits and
objects, and even if he win thereby the approval of experts
and of wide circles of the public, still a certain odium will

142

C G. Schillings, pliot.

A 'mbega (colobus caudatus, Thos.)

[p. 142

THREE NEW VARIETIES OF EAST AFRICAN WILD BUFFALOES : BUBALUS SCHILLINGS!
Mtsch. spec. nOV., FROM THE MIDDLE PANGANI, LAKE DJIPE, MOMBASSA ; 56'A'-/At/5

AUHAHF.ysis, Mtsch. spec, nov., from upogoro, 'ndema, 'mbaragandu and

THE upper RUAHAIS ; BUBALUS IVEMBARF.NSIS. MtSch. SpCC. nOV. , FROM THE
TSHAIA MARSHES IN THE SOUTHERN WEMBERE STEPPE. THE ILLUSTRATIONS
SHOW HOW GREATLY THE FORM OF THE BUFFALO'S HORNS VARIES IN DIFFER-
ENT DISTRICTS, AND GIVE A PROOF OF THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENTIFIC COL-
LECTIONS FOR EACH SEPARATE REGION.

I have to thank Professor Matschie for the two lower illustrations.

-* The Survivors

seem to attach to him. Obviously he must kill a certain
number of animals, that are often quite imkuoivn till then,
and in almost every case have been Jiardly studied at all,
in order that he may add them to the collections belonging
to his native country. He gains the gratitude of science
and of the learned, but he has to encounter the prejudices
of others. People think that they are justified in throwing
upon him, the scientific collector, the reproach of being an
exterminator.

Those who speak thus completely forget that it was
through the material thus placed before their eyes that
they themselves obtained their very first knowledge of
these beautiful creatures ; that till then they hardly
took any interest in such things ; and that it is only by
means of knowledge secured in this way that regulations
for the preservation of these beauties of nature can be
devised.

Let us suppose that every museum and scientific
collection in the world were provided with a series of
specimens of all the varieties of the animal world that are
now most seriously threatened with extinction ; let us
further suppose that each of these institutions secured,
besides, duplicate series of the hides and skeletons of each
species. To make a striking comparison, all this, beside
the wholesale destruction of the animal world of which we
have to complain, would be like a week-end sportsman
perhaps killing one hare during his whole life compared to
the millions of hares killed every year in Germany.

If a species is already reduced to such a state that the
taking of a few hundred, or even a few thousand, specimens

145 10

In Wildest Africa -^

for scientific purposes will exterminate it, we may say

MODERN METHODS OF TAXIDERMY : SETTING UP

generally that, even without this proceeding, it is inevitably
doomed to extinction. But the wretched egg-collecting

146

^^ The Survivors

by youths, for instance, is quite a different matter.

ONE OF MY SPECIMENS IN THE MUNICH MUSEUM.

Certainly there must be a great deficiency, when con-
tinually, year after year, wood and meadow are searched

^47

In Wildest Africa -»>

for birds' nests by thousands of boys. This is obvious,

THE COMPLETED SPECIMEN IN THE Ml w>ll MUSEUM {CIR.IFFA SCHILIJ.XGSI. INItSCll.)-

and thus the rarer species are threatened in their very
existence.

148

-»s The Survivors

Great stress ought always to be laid upon the point to

ANOIHER OF MY SPECIMENS IN THE STUTTGART MUSEUM.

which I have here called attention, and I can appeal to
every expert on the subject for confirmation of my opinion.

149

In Wildest Africa -^

I think that I have earned a special right to speak on
this matter. For the last fifteen years I have hardly ever
carried a gun when at home in Europe ; I have refused
the most pressing invitations to shooting parties ; and I
have sought pleasure only in the sight of our native wild
animals, which I know so well, and in secretly watching

PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDY OF A MALE GIRAFFE GAZELLE {LirilOCR-lXlUS ir.l LLHRI.

Brocke) shot by the author, an extremely beautiful and rare

SPECIES, FIRST SEEN BY THE AUTHOR IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA IN 1 896.

and observing them. But in the midst of a yet unstudied
foreign fauna, of which we still know little or nothing,
where there is question of first obtaining some scanty
knowledge oneself, and forming collections for definite
scientific research — in the midst of an animal world of this
kind I would not hesitate to shoot even large numbers of each
species. For there would be good reason for not merely

150

DWARF ANTELOPE IN THE CARLSRUHE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.

GROUP OF GIRAFFE GAZELLES (iN THE AUTHOR'S POSSESSION) PREPARED BY
ROBERT BANZER OF OEHRINGEN. THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS SHOWN IN
ITS CHARACTERISTIC ATTITUDE WHEN BROWSING ON TREES OR BUSHES.

GROUP, ALSO PREPARED BY BANZER, SHOWING A SNOW-WHITE " BLACK-
HOOFED " ANTELOPE, ATTACKED BY A BLACK SERVAL AND TWO OTHERS.

A SPECIMEN OF THE NEW SPECIES OF HYENA DISCOVERED BY THE AUTHOR
IN GERMAN EAST AVRICA [nrhiXA SCHILUXGS/. Mtsch., NATURAL HISTORY
MUSEUM, LONDON).

-»i The Survivors

securing well-developed male specimens, as the hunter does,
but also females and young- animals in all the various stages
of growth and colouring. This must be obvious even to
a child, and no one will deny to science the right so to act,
at least in those regions of Africa which— in comparison
with India and other countries— are still untouched by civili-
sation, and which therefore, in their primitive unchanged
condition, afford us doubly interesting results. Now sup-
posing one has got together large collections, and has been
so fortunate as to succeed in bringing them down to the
coast and home to Europe. A collection of insects or of
the lower animals may pass without remark ; but woe to
the slayer of the larger species of wild animals ! These
come under the description of " beasts of the chase, ' and
now a peculiar kind of bacillus quickly develops— the
bacillus of "hostility to the hunter," which, introduced into
Europe from the tropics, finds here, too, a fostering soil.
Let me be allowed to endeavour to find a prophylactic
against this bacillus in these essays. I have already often
laid stress upon the facts that such great quantities ot the
skins and feathers of birds are exported for the purposes
of fashion, that by this trade whole species are threatened
with extinction ; that every individual European is allowed,
without any hindrance, to send home his trophies of the
chase— trophies which, with only a few exceptions, can
have hardly any value for science ; above all, that the
extermination of the elephant in Africa is being carried out
before our very eyes for the sake of his ivory ; and that all
this is held permissible. But let one make collections for
scientific purposes, and scrupulously hand over every skm,

155

In Wildest Africa ^

every hide, with the horns and skull belonging to it, all
carefully labelled, to some museum at home, and, accordino-
to widely expressed opinion, he is greatly to blame for the
destruction of animal life.

Happily in recent years our colonial collections have
been considerably augmented. An extraordinarily large
quantity of material has been forwarded to the Berlin
Natural History Museum, amongst others, by officials,
private individuals, and members of the garrisons abroad.
Hence valuable results have been obtained for the zoology
of these regions. Amongst the satisfactory results of the
ever increasing activity in the zoological exploration of the
Dark Continent are surprising and repeated discoveries of
unknown .species of animals, such as the Okapi [Ocapia
johustoni) and a black wild hog, till now completely
unknown {Hyloc/iceriis nieineidzhageni, Oldf Thomas).
With the help of these collections. Professor Matschie,
dealing with the mammalia, and Professor Reichenow with
the birds, have succeeded in establishing the fact that
each separate region of the Dark Continent po.s.sesses its
own characteristic fauna. And most important conclusions
with regard to the distribution of animals have thus been
derived from these great systematic collections. My friend
Baron Carlo Erlanger, the well-known African traveller,
and the only one who has ever traversed Somaliland from
end to end, though unhappily cut off by an early death,
was able to confirm these theories, with reference to the
countries he explored, by the ample collections he systema-
tically formed. The whole science of zoology in relation
to geography has been turned on to new lines of research,

156

-») The Survivors

and has given the most important and most valuable results.
Everything should be done to support efforts of this kind.

But in this department it is to an increasing extent the
duty of our German museums to promote a knowledge of
and an interest in the animal world of far-off lands by the
display of ample collections, so arranged as to convey
instruction. There has already been gratifying progress
in this respect, but it is clear that for the development of
these ideas we need more extensive, up-to-date buildings
for our collections and museums. Other countries, especially
Enofland, and above all America, are far in advance of us
in this matter. Our zoological gardens have the task of
putting the living animal world before us. Happily we are
doing this by far-sighted methods. To the Zoological
Gardens of Berlin belongs the credit of having, to a con-
tinually increasing extent, arranged a display ot the animal
world in appropriate surroundings, and with reference to
systematic classification and to its relations with geographical
distribution and ethnolooical science, so far as one can
assume the connection or companionship of certain species
with man. There we see the disappearing species of wild
cattle housed, each according to its peculiar character, in
enclosures that are strictly true to nature, and artistically
designed. Thus, for instance, the American bison — now
hardly to be obtained for its weight in gold^ — is shown in
surroundings that remind us of the North American
Indians, these also a disappearing race. The ostrich-house
takes us back to the land of the Pharaohs, of which the
ostrich was once a characteristic inhabitant, as well as the
ichneumon, the crocodile, and the hippopotamus. Then

i6i 1 1

In Wildest Africa -^

the class of rodents is brought before us in almost poetical
surroundings, that seem quite to justify the German animal
stories of the Middle Ages, and that are calculated to pro-
duce quite a different effect on the mind from that of a
stiffly arranged exhibition of the regulation type, especially
in the case of the rising generation. But on account of the
difficulty of securing and maintaining certain species, and
their shortness of life in close captivity, our zoological
gardens can only properly carry out their programme so
long as it is possible for them to continually renew their
stock of animals.

On the other hand, the museums are all the more
responsible for setting before our eyes the various species
of animals even long after these have become extinct, and
they must do this by means of works of art executed by the
hand of man, masterpieces of taxidermy.

And by masterpieces of taxidermy I mean artistic
groups of " stuffed " animals that will, as far as may
be, show us their life and action, their ways and habits.
In former times this work was left to the so-called "animal-
stuffer." He took a hide, filled it out with some material
or other, and then, so far as he could, gave it the appear-
ance of a quadruped or a bird. Thus one sees a stuffed
hippopotamus of this good old time which looks, not like
such an animal, but like a gigantic sausage. One sees
stags or antelopes that somewhat resemble the wooden toys
associated with the Christmas boxes of my childhood, and
not the particular species of animals which they are intended
to represent — in short, wretched caricatures with neither
beauty nor fidelity to nature.

162

'•1k

.^, ...

-♦5

The Survivors

Nowadays, however, more than this must be done — the
best must be insisted on. Instead of the " stuffer," the
artist must come upon the scene. Using the methods of
the sculptor, he can artistically fashion a form that will be
true to life, and clothe this form with the hide or skin.
Happily by these means we now fmd such works of art
exhibited in ever increasing numbers, not only in museums
abroad, but also in the public collections of our own country.
But as yet this new department of artistic activity is not
generally as well understood as it should be. It is still far
too little valued.

What labour has to be devoted to the artistically correct
setting up of even one single large mammal in a museum —
for instance, a giraffe ! First the animal must be hunted
down in the wilderness, and its hide carefully prepared.
Then, if it has been brought home in good condition, there
follows a second laborious preparation, and finally the setting
up. The difficult building up of the framework, and the
work upon the giant beast till all is complete, require the
labour of nearly a year. The very first conditions for the
success of the whole are great patience, knowledge, and an
ideal that is both artistic and true to nature.

Our illustrations show, in its various stages, the progress
of the setting up of one of the giraftes I collected in Africa.
It is easy to understand that besides artistic and scientific
ability for the correct moulding of the form, various complex
manipulations are required before the giant beast again
stands before us as if " reawakened to life."

I have further tried to show by illustrations of another
giraffe, and of a series of antelopes, down to the tiny dwarf

171

In Wildest Africa -^

antelope, how under the hand of the artist the animal world
can be made to rise up again, as if waked anew to life.

All our larger museums ought to exhibit the most im-
portant and most prominent representatives of the animal
kingdom modelled in attractive groups in their natural
surroundings.

In America it has become the custom for private indi-
viduals to place at the disposal of the zoological institutions
extensive collections and large sums of money. With
this help they are able to produce artistic work, true to
nature, works of art, the consideration of which gives the
spectator an insight into the life and habits of the animal
world of his native land as well as of foreign countries.
Unfortunately this custom has hardly yet been introduced
amongst us.

My native city of Frankfurt ^ can claim the honour of
possessing, in the time-honoured Senckenberg Institute
(now transferred to a new home), a museum founded by
private eftbrt and private interests, where one may see
collections formed for exhibition, that may be pointed out
as models of their kind.

The collector of such things can partake of no greater
pleasure than he experiences when, making a tour of the
museums of various places at home, he sees awakened to
new life the wild creatures he formerly observed and laid
low in far-off lands. So I could not deny myself the
pleasure of adding to this book a number of pictures of
animals and groups of animals which I secured in the

1 During the last few years handsome groups have also been set up in
the museums of other places, such as Munich, Stuttgart, and Carlsruhe.

172

-♦b

The Survivors

wastes of Africa, and which are now set up in various

C. G. Schillings, phot.

WOMEN OF THE RAHE OASIS IN A BANANA GROVE.

museums. These are trophies that must alkire every
sportsman. It is of course not so easy a matter to secure

177 12

In Wildest Africa -^

them as it is to hack off without any trouble the antlers
or horns of some wild animal that one has shot.

Paintings, true to life, from the hands of artists, photo-
graphs taken directly from life, and finally these groups
awakened, as it ivere, to a nezv life, are the means that can,
and should, exert an educating and informing influence, so
that all the beauty of this department of created nature may
not be accessible only to a few learned men, but be open to
all in general. If to an ever increasing degree this object
finds support in influential circles, we shall thus obtain
what must be somehow obtained. In the presence of the
progress of industry and civiHsation no one can indeed
permanently prevent by protective measures the disappear-
ance of certain species, even though we may hope to still
delay the process of extinction by suitable regulations. But
on this ground the duty that I have already indicated
becomes more clearly imperative upon us. Its fulfilment
cannot fail to be rewarded, in the case of all who take part
in it, by the only true satisfaction that is given to mortals,
the feeling of having done all that was in any way in our
power to do.

17S

EGYPTIAN GEESE IN A SWAMP.

Sport and Nature in Germany

NOT by far-away Lake Nakuro alone has "the Spell
of the Elelescho" lived. It has lived, and still lives,
all over the world ; only that it goes by other names, and
is linked with other symbols.

In the brief summer of the Polar reo'ions, battlinof
with the snow and ice and the long Arctic night, it lives
in the few stunted willows and the scanty reindeer-moss.
It can only be fully understood where the ungainly walrus,
the mighty Polar bear, coloured like his own snowfields,
and the herds of fur-adorned musk oxen and reindeer p-ive
life to the wilderness, and millions of sea-birds cover the
cliffs, or wheel shrieking through the air. To all these
creatures the appearance of man in these wide regions is so
strange and unaccustomed that they show no fear of him,
and even come hurrying up from all sides to look curiously
at this stranofe new beine.

179

In Wildest Africa -^

In the high mountain regions of Central Asia, too, this
spell survives, associated with the flocks of those timid
creatures the primitive wild sheep, with the graceful wild
goats, with the stately ibex,^ and with the life and move-
ment of the countless huge bears of the mountains, and
with a strange flora that I myself have never looked upon,
but of whose existence I am as persuaded as of that of the
spell itself.

It is to be found in the jungles of India, whence the
tolerant natives have never driven it out. They have not
expelled the animal world from its paradise. There in
the region of the lotus-flower the spell may perhaps be
recognised on still, moonlit nights.

It survives everywhere : in the Australian bush, in
the New and the Old World, on all islands, in all rivers
and waters, in the life and movement of the waves and
depths of the ocean, so full of secrets everywhere ; in
a word, where man has not yet driven it away.

Once it lived everywhere in Germany, and even to-day
it is still to be found in many places. It has its being
where the mighty elk made its home on moor and marsh-
land, and our forefathers hunted the aurochs and the bison
in the primitive forest. To-day it is associated with the
edelweiss and the chamois in the Alps ; it has its being
in the oak and beech woods, and where the green current
of the Rhine flows down, or where the stag sends afar his

^ The ibex, which was once also common in Germany, has been found
by Dr. G. Merzbacher in the central Tian-Shan region in the form of
Ibex sibirica merzhacheri \ and two years ago by G. Leisewitz in such great
numbers tliat the appearance of flocks of hundreds of them was a daily
experience.

1 80

-^ Sport and Nature in Germany

cry of challenge to his rival, and the huntsman makes
his way over the moor.

There one still experiences the spell of the Elelescho.
But everywhere, all over the world, everywhere in our
Fatherland, it once lived and held sway.

We may hope that the intimate and beautiful relations
that the German sportsman establishes between himself
and nature in his Fatherland will for a long, long time
be handed down from generation to generation, and thus
result in the maintenance and preservation of the noble old
spell of the woodland and the wilderness. The ideal of
true German sportsmanship has been developed in as high
and full a sense as that of fair play in sport in England.

Both of these ideals will be judged in unfriendly fashion
only by those who regard them from a distorted point
of view. The English ideal of sport is winning the world
to itself; the German ideal must do the same.

Coming from a good German school of sport, I consider
myself fortunate in having learned to know the wonderful
animal world of Africa. There is no doubt whatever that
I must ascribe to the influence of this school the fact that
my accounts of what I had experienced and seen met with
such an appreciative reception both at home and abroad.

How wonderful is the chase in Germany ! The
primitive attraction for the chase must be a part of every
man. One need only once have seen the excitement that
seizes upon a gathering of thousands if on a sudden a hare
or some other wild creature comes into sio-ht. At such
a moment, almost without exception, every one of them
is on the move, without the least reflection, and even

i8i

In Wildest Africa

notwithstanding the consciousness that in no case can he
himself secure the prize. It is the call of a strong impulse
deep rooted in men. But in our Fatherland how grandly
and nobly what we mean by "true sportsmanship" has
developed out of this primitive instinct !

A certain kind of organisation of the business of the
chase must have been in existence even in primeval times.
Those who have made a study of this department of the
life of nomadic hunters in many lands tell us that tribes
and groups of famiHes hunt only in well-defined areas,
and as they value their lives do not venture to pass these
boundaries. I have learned the same thing by my own
personal experience of the Wandorobo and other nomad
huntsmen of the African plateau. It must therefore have
been the case everywhere, from the times when primitive
men, the cave-dwellers, began their struggle with the mighty
beasts of primeval days, down to our own times, when the
chase is more and more regulated till at last it becomes the
exclusive property of the owner of the land.

As a consequence of this right came measures for game

preservation both against the interference of the stranger

sportsman, and as regards the wild creatures themselves.

Increasing knowledge taught the hunter that he could not

kill more than a certain number of wild animals without

extirpating them entirely in his district.^ Hence grew up

our complex game-laws of to-day, and the general feeling

■^ The Hudson Bay Company put on the market in the year 1891
1,358 skins of the musk ox {Ovibos inoschatus)^ but only 271 in the year
1901. In the year 1878 the same company sold 102,7] 5 skins of the
Canadian beaver, but only 44,200 in the year 1892. A striking example
of the results of excessive exploitation of hunting grounds !

182

^ Sport and Nature in Germany

that our hunting grounds should be used in as intelUgent
a way as possible. In Germany this problem has been
solved to a remarkable extent. German sport has an
important influence on the welfere of the people. Great
numbers of our people are strengthened in body and mind
by the chase, and, thanks to it, considerable sums of money
are added to the resources of the country folk.

According to a moderate estimate there are now in
Germany upwards of half a million sportsmen. Each year
they kill about 40,000 head of red and fallow deer, about
200,000 roebuck, 4,000,000 hares, 4,000,000 partridges,
and 400,000 wild ducks, in all some 25,000,000 kilograms
(over 50,000,000 lb.) of wild game, of a value of
25,000,000 marks (^1,250,000). and forming nearly one
per cent, of the total meat supply of Germany. The
game leases bring in about 40,000,000 marks annually
(^2,000,000).' But these very sportsmen, who every year
kill such a large quantity of wild animals, must at the
same time be protectors and guardians of this same animal
life! Strange as it may seem, many species of wild
animals would have been long ago extinct if there were
no sportsmen. For imperative reasons, the hunter must
at the same time undertake the part of protector.

1 Besides other sources, I take these data from an interesting article
by C. Brock, in the periodical Die Jagd. This writer estimates the area
devoted to the chase in the German Empire at 54,000,000 liectares ; the
number of shots fired in a year at game at 16,000,000, besides some
6 000 000 shots fired at animals that are not game. He nghtly notes that
for the individual the whole business of sport is a losing or non-productive
occupation, but one of productive value for the households of the country
folk, as about 130,000,000 marks are annually spent upon it.

In Wildest Africa -*>

But this idea ought to include a great deal more than
is now the case. As I have already said, no nation has
known so well how to form a beautiful and poetical ideal
of the chase and the spirit of sport as the Germans have
done. But it is not to be denied that this perfect develop-
ment, even in its very completeness, has in a certain sense
become one-sided, in so far as sportsmen restrict their
protection and guardianship to certain species of animals ;
one-sided, too, inasmuch as to a certain extent they regard
their mission from the point of view of a close corporation.
In this there is a certain advantage, but also a certain
amount of danger now that, as a result of the rapid progress
of civilisation, changes are introduced in every department
of life so much more quickly than in earlier times.

Huntsmen and fishermen desire the complete extermina-
tion of all kinds of animals that they consider to be a
cause of injury to their sport. The result is the destruction
of many kinds of animals that are beautiful in form and
constitute an ornament of the landscape. By the same
kind of reasoning sportsmen, in their capacity of landlords
and forest owners, ought to demand the extermination of
the wild animals that obtain their food from field and
forest. Naturally sportsmen do not want this, but they
should, as far as may be, let themselves be guided by
higher points of view. This is the case already in many
instances. For example, as an instance of zealous game
supervision inspired by scientific principles, we have lately
had to welcome a valuable idea of Forest Commissioner
Count Bernstorff According to his plan, small labels that
will not annoy the animals (the so-called " Game marks ")

184

-♦i

Sport and Nature in Germany

are attached near the ears of young roebucks and red
deer. Thus their resting-places, their movements, their
growth, can be carefully observed. . . . We are, therefore,
actually living in a time when to a certain extent each
individual head of game is numbered !

Interesting and valuable as such measures may be,
should we not extend our loving care also to the animals
that, though they are not . reckoned as game, yet adorn
and give animation to the land we live in ? Some great
landlords have given a bright example of progress in this
direction. Thus in Hungary there are sporting estates
on which wolf and bear are not completely exterminated,
and in Germany estates on which the fox is spared to a
certain extent. The result has been to the advantage of
stags' antlers and bucks' horns on the estates in question.
English landlords allow a free home to a pair of peregrine
falcons or eagles, so as not to allow these beautiful birds
to be completely extirpated.

From these examples it is clear that there can be
various opinions as to the view generally taken with regard
to " predatory animals." If there is not merely a selfish
protection for game animals, but also protection for the
other mammals and birds, we shall thus preserve from
extinction some of the glorious forms of the realm of
nature, and prevent their being sacrificed to narrow
interests. There is food for thought in the fact that (as I
have often had occasion to observe in Africa) in primitive
countries there is to be found an astounding abundance
of animal life. Since prehistoric times man has been
engaged in hunting zvith his simple weapons zvithout, on

185

In Wildest Africa -*

the whole, very much diminishing the number of animals.
A striking proof that the destruction of wild life is the
work of the Europeans themselves, and of the native
hunters carrying firearms under their authority, is aftbrded
by the fate of the North American buffalo, the whales,
walruses, and seals of the frozen seas, and finally by that
of the elephant in certain districts and of the South African
fauna taken as a whole.

We should not therefore act so rigorously in the
proscription of our so-called " predatory " animals. Yet,
for instance, my near neighbour, Freiherr H. Geyer von
Schweppenberg, has lately shown that our pretty water-hen
(Gallinula chloropus, L.) can do a great deal of damage
to grass and corn.

In South Africa what are called "poisoning clubs"
have been organised, which aim at the extermination of
"noxious animals" by poison. The use of poison ought
to be entirely forbidden by legal enactments, with the
exception, perhaps, of its administration for scientific
purposes. The strychnine canister — the use of which
ought only to be allowed, and that in exceptional cases,
to those who are making scientific collections— is now
making its appearance everywhere all over the world.
I have had news from the most distant countries of its
employment, unhappily with far too great success.^ It is
already some time since the last Lammergeier of the
German hill districts fell a victim to it. It is thinning to
a frightful extent the numbers of the bears in Eastern

1 Professor Haberer lately found strychnine in use in various ways in
many places in Eastern Asia.

186

Sport and Nature in Germany

Asia and other countries, though these are quite harmless
to man. But in our Fatherland a completely organised
" poison business " has grown up, which is a very serious
matter.

I should like also to advocate strongly the legal pro-
hibition of the use of pole-traps, to which all our owls
and birds of prey fall victims.

If we go on as we are going, the time cannot be far
distant when we shall have to strike out of the list of
the living several interesting members of our native
fauna. In North America, in recent times, the following
species, amongst others, have some of them become
extinct, others extremely scarce : the Californian grizzly
bear [Urs?is horribilis californiciis), the San Joaquin
Valley elk, or wapiti {Cervus nannodes), Stone's reindeer
{Rangifer stoiiei), the prongbuck or pronghorn [Antilocapra
amei'icaiia), the Pallas cormorant {Phalacrocorax pcrspil-
licatits), the Labrador duck {Caniptolaiiinis labradorius).
the ivory woodpecker {Cainpcphilus prmcipalis), the scotar
i^Aix spoiisa), several other species of birds, and finally
the American woodcock. This last falls a victim chiefly
to professional hunters, who are accustomed to kill it by
hundreds in its winter quarters.

" This list could perhaps be extended," Mr. R.
Rathbun, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute
(whose kindness I have to thank for this information),
adds at the end of his letter.

His communications have also been of special interest
to me because they awoke in me old recollections. In
the Torties of the past century my father received a letter

187

In Wildest Africa

from North America in which he was informed that on
ground over which the New York of to-day extends, one
could shoot in a single day hundreds of woodcock. I
myself, in my young days, used to take care of a beautifully
coloured parrot, of a kind that since then has been almost
extirpated, and is hardly to be obtained any longer.
Conmiriis carolinensis is the name of this beautiful species
of parrot, which also appears on the list of extinct animals
of North America. There, too, men have begun to give
strong practical expression to the movement for animal
protection. In sanctuaries like Yellowstone Park there
is complete protection for all animal life, including beasts
of prey, and the bears have become so tame that they
allow visitors to come within a few paces of them.
Count E. Bernstorff, who received permission to shoot
one of the few bisons still preserved in the State of
Wyoming, says : " One might take the way in which the
animal life of America is protected as an example in
securing still better preservation for the survivors of the
primeval wild life of Africa. One must acknowledge that
the Americans and their noble President, a brave sports-
man, are now doing all that is possible in this matter."

President Roosevelt, in fact, has come forward manfully
in the lists as a champion of widely extended protection
for all the beauties of nature, and especially of the animal
world. He endeavours by his words and writings to
work effectually for these great and noble ideas, which
bring to all men delight, profit, and contentment.^

^ See, amongst other writings of his, Outdoor Pastimes, by Theodore
Roosevelt.

1 88

-»5

Sport and Nature in Germany

Brought up in the school of German sportsmanship,
I had later on to change completely my view as to our
distinction between " noxious animals " and " beasts of
prey." The African wilderness swarms with beasts of prey,
and yet also swarms with useful ivild animals. The waters
of Africa teem with the fish destroyers, and also teeni
with fish. We should not therefore act so short-sightedly
and pedantically. We should not be so eager to hunt
down the last fox, the last pine-marten. The nesting-
places of herons and cormorants are becoming ever fewer ;
the places where the handsome black tree storks build
in our German Fatherland can almost be counted on
the fingers of one hand ; and the same is nearly true of
the nesting-places of our rarer birds of prey.

The killing of a wild cat has already become an event ;
it is the same with the eaofle-owl.

Out of the mass of literature of recent date bearing
on the subject, I take a single book. In a very readable
essay, Der Uhu in Bohinen, Kurt Loos shows that only
a few years ago this interesting and beautiful large owl
{^Btibo maxiiHus) was to be found making its home to
the extent of some fifty pairs in thirty-five districts of
Bohemia ; now only eighteen pairs are living there, in
ten districts. The author demands protection for the
surviving pairs of owls, as natural objects that should be
preserved, and he makes out a strong case for his proposal.
Rontgen-ray photographs are among the illustrations of
this interesting work, and they suggest that in times when
one can do one's work with such excellent appliances,
there is all the more reason for avoiding the thoughtless

189

In Wildest Africa -^

neglect of legacies left to us by Nature from the days of
its primeval beauty.

Numerous other examples of the rapid disappearance
of certain species in our Fatherland might be quoted here.
Unfortunately we have, on the whole, very little right to
reproach the people of Southern Europe on the subject
of their custom of carrying on a systematic massacre
of birds ; for we ourselves are always trapping thrushes
and larks, and there is the shooting of the woodcock in
spring. There can be no doubt that, if we would give
up this spring shooting of the woodcock, this bird, which
has so won the heart of the German sportsman, would
breed abundantly in our forests. On sporting estates in
the wooded hills in Baden I have had occasion to observe
this bird nesting ; and it is to be regretted that German
sportsmen, who in other matters obey the customs of the
chase with such scrupulous conscientiousness, do not spare
this bird in the spring-time, although they are thus
extirpating from their hunting grounds a bird that breeds
in the woodlands of our country. The North American
woodcock is in process of extinction, for it also is not
spared by sportsmen in its breeding grounds, and it is
just as little in safety from them in its winter quarters.
It is thus one of the disappearing birds of North America,
whilst our European woodcock is not so much exposed
to harm from systematic pursuit either in its partly in-
accessible northern breeding grounds or in its winter
abode. But it is indeed difficult to abolish old, deep-
rooted practices that are no longer abreast of the times.
"Che vuole, signore ? — il piacere della caccia ! " was the

190

-»b

Sport and Nature in Germany

reply of an Italian to a tourist who remonstrated with
him on the subject of the extraordinarily widespread
destruction of doves by means of nets in Northern Italy.
The same answer would probably be given by the monks ^
of certain islands of the Mediterranean, who, keeping up
an old custom, kill countless multitudes of turtle-doves
during their migration. These are their favourite dainties,
and they also export them largely in a preserved state.
So, too, it will be a difficult matter to obtain from German
sportsmen the complete abandonment of their pleasant
spring campaign against the woodcock. Through the
very interesting experiments of the Duke of Northumber-
land, who had marks put upon numbers of young
woodcock, it has been ascertained that large numbers of
them undoubtedly spend the whole winter in England.
Now, if Professor Boettger and Wilhelm Schuster are
right in their conclusions, drawn from similar observations,
as to the return of the conditions of the Tertiary period,
and if the species of birds they observed used at an
earlier date not infrequently to winter with us, a more
extended protection for the woodcock ought, at any rate,
to be introduced.

The continual levying of contributions on our colonies

1 On the destruction of the turtle-dove {Turtnr fioiiir, L.) during its
migration to Greece, see Otmar Reiser, Curator of the National Museum
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Materialen zu einer Ornis Balcanica. At
Syra one sportsman shoots as many as a hundred in a day ; at Paxos,
according to the Grand Duke Ludwig Salvator, they are killed in heaps.
The lands of the Strophades Islands are completely equipped with huge
falling snares and shooting-stands for the systematic massacre of the
'' Trigones." Everywhere in Greece when the cry of " Trigones ! " is
heard, fire is opened upon the newcomers,

191

Ill Wildest Africa ^

of sea-gulls, to the injury of a great number of the
other species of birds that inhabit our sea-coasts, should
also be greatly restricted. If this is not done we shall
witness, within a period already in sight, a lamentable
extermination of our shore- and sea-birds. And how
o-rateful for protection many species show themselves !
Wherever it is extended to them they enliven the land-
scape in the most pleasing way. So, too, it has been
found that certain species of gulls have adapted themselves
to a kind of nocturnal life in the neighbourhood of our
great commercial ports.

I may here mention as standing in special need of
protection, and as wonderful adornments of our German
landscape, whose preservation should find an advocate in
every thoughtful man — the buzzard, the kestrel, the hobby-
hawk, both our varieties of kite, the crane, the heron,
the white and the black stork, the crested grebe, the
water-hen, and the coot. All these enliven and embellish
the landscape to a conspicuous extent, and should not be
sacrificed to selfish interests.

I knew an old gamekeeper, a native of the March
of Brandenburg, who throughout the course of a long
life had been taking care of a shooting estate, which
had grown up with him, so to speak. He protected kis
wild creatures, and was delighted at having a colony of
storks' nests and a group of badger burrows in his woods.
For long years he was able to preserve a primeval oak,
the largest in the whole district, which in the year 1870
he named the " King's Oak."

To-day no birds of prey breed any longer on this

192

-* Sport and Nature in Germany

estate ; the primeval village of badgers is in ruins, and
irreverent hands have cut down the " King's Oak." But
the old man, now that his time of service has expired,
never sets foot on the estate, though he is passing the
evening of his lite in the neighbourhood.

That was a man who had innate in him a just and
reverent feeling for the preservation of the beauties and
glories handed down to us from the far past, and who
loved, and, so far as it was possible, guarded these
wonders of nature.

Let us once for all throw overboard the sharp
distinction between ''noxious" and "useful" animals,
and within certain limits let us protect the whole world
of animal and plant life. This would be the noblest
form of game preservation, in the widest sense of the
word.

I venture to dwell upon these ideas here, knowing
that they are shared by a large number of men and
women. Amongst our German game-preserving associa-
tions we have societies that have rendered great services
to the protection of our native wild animals. An extension
of these useful efforts to the protection of all our native
fauna and flora in general is most certainly called for by
the greatly altered conditions of our time. We are
gradually coming to a period when every individual wild
animal will be registered by specialists and indicated
in a list ! And we are also gradually approaching in
our sporting estates the ideal of extensive, well-kept
gardens, in which no touch of wild nature will any longer
be left.

193 13

In Wildest Africa -^

I appeal once more to the authority of President
Roosevelt. He expresses the opinion that it is now not
so much the question of preserving great supplies of
any one species as of maintaining the primitive beauty
of the forest in its wild life.

I think with pleasure of my youth, when, at a time
when my father, in union with other game-preservers,
founded the Jagdschutzverein (" Association for the Pro-
tection of Game") of the Rhine Province, I had the
opportunity of making myself acquainted with the old
state of things in this department. My native district,
the Eifel, still sheltered boars, eagle-owls, wild cats, and
many other rare animals living in wild freedom. The
ear of the boy learned to know and to love every cry
of our native fauna. Roosevelt rightly remarks that
many of the cries of American animals, such as the hoot
of the owl, are falsely described as unpleasant. He who
knows them well comes to love them, and would not
like to miss them from the general concert of animal
sounds. Here in Germany, too, we have evidence of this
to a gradually increasing extent.

The German sportsman ought to give a shining
exam.ple to those of other lands in this matter of the
protection of all the dwellers in his hunting grounds.
To his care is entrusted the lukole German fauna in its
widest extent. To secure the preservation of this splendid
work of nature here in Germany is an enterprise that
will earn the gratitude of every lover of nature, the
thanks of millions of men. The German sportsman, as
the chosen guardian and keeper of the wild life of his

194

-^ Sport and Nature in Germany

native land, must also become the protecting lord of all
its animal and plant lite ; he should maintain his own
estate in its primitive condition to the fullest possible
extent. But to his estate, in a wider sense, also
belongs the velt of German Africa, still so rich in wild
life. Here, too, the German sportsman should take up
the position of guardian and protector.

The well-known English writer Clive Philips-Wolley
says that happily the old English sporting spirit is not
dead ; that the farthest and wildest huntinof grounds of
the world, a visit to which demands the greatest energy
and courage, are still sought out by men of the English
race, as in earlier days. England owes a great part of
her colonies to men, eager for enterprise, who as hunters
penetrated into unknown wildernesses ; and the English
hunter has, thanks to his courage and determination,
always played a great part among strange peoples. The
reckless conduct of travellers in far-off countries and
among strange tribes is often sufficient to give a ivhole
nation a bad character in the eyes of these people, while
a right bearing may make it appear worthy of their
admiration. Philips-Wolley further points out that the
taking of " big bags " of game in far-off hunting grounds ^
should not be considered merely from the point of view
of stay-at-home people, but from the point of view of
those who have special knowledge of the districts in
question.

The time has passed when far-off lands were secured

^ Expeditions in uninhabited districts have sometimes been entirely
supphed by shooting wild animals.

In Wildest Africa -*

in this way. But I would wish for the German sportsman
that he may, so far as is possible, visit the splendid
hunting grounds that he can now find in the German
colonies, and there become familiar with the chase in
forms that our homeland can no longer offer to him.
The more brethren of the green-coated guild go abroad
nowadays, and bring us tidings of the fauna and of the
huntino- grounds of the German colonies, the more will
our knowledge of this difficult subject be enlarged, and
we shall be in a better position for working out practical
protective regulations for the preservation of these splendid
hunting grounds.

And what a deep charm for the hunter there is in
pursuing the chase in such regions ! It is true that
circumstances have so greatly changed in a few decades
of years that the old hunters— say those of fifty years
ago — would probably not be able to take the same deep
delight in the sport of to-day that they felt in their own
time. It was quite a different matter to go out to meet
the dangerous wild beasts of Africa with the simple
weapons, the muzzle-loaders, of that time. True, the
African hunters, whom Professor Fritsch made acquaint-
ance with in Cape Colony about the time of the 'sixties,
already possessed long-range weapons. They used
*' small-bore rifles " firing an elongated bullet that carried
up to 1,500 yards. These rifles were fitted with ivory
sights and silver sighting-lines, for shooting at night. A
hunter named Layard was at that time famous in Cape
Colony for having brought down an ostrich at 1,750
yards !

196

-»)

sport and Nature in Germany

Let us follow for once the wanderings of a hunter
In East Africa, and give ourselves up completely to the
charm of such a sporting expedition. No one is better
fitted for making himself acquainted with lands that are
remote, difficult of access and unhealthy, than the sports-
man, who, even in such tracts of country, can find
enjoyment. Besides the greater or less delight that the
chase itself affords, much besides that is beautiful and
desirable will present itself to him.

When he has got his caravan together he enjoys in
the first place the feeling of primitive untrammelled life
in the wilderness. We see, indeed, how amongst those
who belong to the most highly developed of civilised
nations, even in our own days, the need of some dim
reflection of this life makes itself plainly felt. Thus,
especially in America, we see how many dwellers in cities
spend some days out in the woods and prairies, in order
to enjoy there for some time under the tent the pleasures
of camp-lite.

In a land which, like Africa, harbours all kinds of
dangers, we must leave all hesitation behind us. In fact,
the charm of danger must be an attraction to the huntsman.
He has to justify the confidence of his followers and of
his comrades. The natives who come in contact with
him will by his bearing and conduct form their judgment
ot all his compatriots, and of his native land as a whole.
So there imposes itself on him the duty of regarding
himself as a representative of his nation. Though
he Is justified, if it comes to that, in defending his life
even by bloodshed, he will nevertheless seek, as far as

197

In Wildest Africa ^

is possible, to enter into friendly relations with the native
tribes. In many districts of Africa the European will
traverse, with altogether superior weapons in his hands,
countries whose inhabitants still fight with nearly the
same weapons that were borne by prehistoric tribes. But
notwithstanding this, he must remember that his superiority
rests chiefly on the prestige that the European possesses
in presence of the black man. But this prestige will not
suffice, especially at night, to keep oft' all attacks. It is
therefore necessary that proper precaution should be the
rule. This Is in the long run not such an easy matter,
for generally In the midst of apparent peace no one will
think of the possibility of an attack. But It often takes
place without warning ; and thefts at night will also some-
times happen. In short, the middle course between
necessary precaution and needless nervousness Is not
always easy for the traveller to hit upon.

But all this, to a great extent, adds to the charm of
that wild caravan life. There is something endlessly
alluring In thus going out Into the open country with all
one's belongings, pitching one's camp by some pleasant
place where there Is water, and under shady trees, and
wandering, free as the birds, wheresoever the desire or
wish of the moment leads one. Of course, If no shady
trees are to be found. If the water tastes strongly of natron,
or looks more like pea-soup than clear spring-water. If
swarms of mosquitoes annoy one In the night, and flies
and other insects In the daytime, all this must be put
up with as a part of this wild life. Free as the birds,
we can indeed choose our way, but with the everlasting

T98

-»5

Sport and Nature in Germany

restriction that it lies where water is to be found, and that
we can secure suppHes.

But with a httle good-humour one can get over all
this, especially if one keeps before one's eyes the fact
that there are many worse things here, such as malaria,
dysentery, and all the other numerous tropical diseases
with which these lands are so lavishly supplied. But we
could not find greater enjoyment in the primitive beauty
and charm of this wilderness, even if all this were
not so.

It is true that the hunter in Equatorial Africa cannot
obtain such splendid trophies as the stag's antlers, that
marvellous structure built up by an animal organism, and,
according to Rohrig's striking researches, renewed again
year after year in about eighteen weeks. But instead
there beckon to him other prizes — the mighty horns of
the buffalo, the heavily knotted horns of the eland, the
strong spiral horns of the two species of kudus, the
variously shaped horns of the cow-antelopes, the sword-
like horns of the oryx-antelope, all the beautiful variously
shaped antelope and gazelle horns, and many others
that make most delightful trophies, and will be still more
highly valued the more sportsmen go to these distant
countries, and the more these treasures, often so diffi-
cult to obtain, are understood. The mighty weapons
of the elephant, that glitter white in the sun, the
uncouth horns from the head of the rhinoceros or the
tusks of the hippopotamus, the head of a giant croco-
dile bristling with teeth, the plain and yet so eagerly
coveted hide of the King of the Desert, and the glaringly

199

In Wildest Africa

variegated skin of the leopard — all these are souvenirs
and trophies that have the greatest charm for the hunter ;
of the greatest charm and value if he himself has taken
them, and not merely (to use the sharp words with which
Roosevelt scourges such practices) contracted for their
capture. The German sportsman must contend for all
these trophies against certain unsportsmanlike elements,
such as the Boers, who unfortunately seem to be now
exterminating the wild animals on Kilimanjaro ; but they
belong to the sportsman much more than to such as these.
German hunters should not hesitate to take by sportsman-
like methods their fair share of the stock of big game,
and in this way, as has long been the case in India and
Ceylon, a code of customs of the chase will grow up in
the German colonies, suited to the special circumstances
of the country. In a publication by Captain Schlobach,
that is well worth reading, it was recently stated that the
military posts at Olgoss and Sonjo on the Masai uplands
were continually at starvation point, and, in default of
other supplies, had often recently been provisioned entirely
with the spoils of the chase. ^ What would not German
sportsmen (who contribute such large sums to the colonies)
have given to be able to shoot these wild animals, and
at the same time to help to spread in our colonies the
ideals of the chase as understood in Germany, and to
assist in the o-eneral recoQ:nition and success of German
sportsmanship !

Our knowledoe of the animal world of foreio-n lands

O O

-" Cf. Schlobach, Deutsch-Ostafrikaii. Zeitg. i Beiblatt, lo Febiuar,
1906

200

-»i sport and Nature in Germany

is gradually increasing to such a satisfactory extent that not
only do we find a general interest taken in the wild life and
the hunting grounds of our colonies, but we shall also be
in a position to introduce adequate measures of protection
for this beautiful fauna.

In our colonies much has been lately done towards
clearing up the hitherto hidden secrets of animal life. But
if one remembers how many different opinions there are,
even amongst authorities at home in Germany, with regard
to many of the questions relating to our home fauna, one
will pass a more lenient judgment on the many sharp
controversies about matters of this kind in the tropics.

But nothing of value is to be hoped for from con-
troversial strife over divergent theories. All men who
have acquired expert knowledge on these difficult matters
should rather unite in a common task, and strive by co-
operation to obtain some adequate result.

In the wide British colonial possessions in Africa very
extensive reservations have been established, in which no
one is allowed to harm the animals. The practice of
making exceptions in favour of certain officials has not
been found to answer, and has been given up. So now
wide districts of British Africa rank as animal sanctuaries.
In German Africa, too, the authorities have tried, as far
as they can, to obtain useful results by similar methods.
Unfortunately serious events of many kinds are daily
contributing to the diminution in numbers of the fauna
of German Africa. Thus the war in South-West Africa
is sweeping away the still surviving stock of wild animals
as with an iron broom.

20I

In Wildest Africa -^

In the face of all this, all parties concerned should take
their share in common action. Our museums should be
provided with the necessary material. Even if our know-
ledge of the African fauna has made sufficient progress, it
further concerns us to exert an educating and informing
influence on every pioneer of our colonies, so that he may
not come in contact with that beautiful animal world m
utter ignorance of it. Unfortunately we are still greatly
wanting in this respect. However, in recent years a great
amount of material has been placed at the disposal of
the museums by our colonial officers, officials, and private
individuals. Many of them have even made Important
contributions to our special knowledge of the anmial

world.

But now, whether It is a question of tracing out the
hidden and unknown life and ways of that equatorial
animal world that has come into our possession, or of
investlo-ating the customs and languages of races that are
barely discovered, or of tracking the horrors of tropical
diseases and the germs that excite them and becoming
master of that miniature world of life with the lens and the
microscope, or of going Into the wilderness as a sportsman

the men who devote themselves to all these pursuits

will be led onwards by that spell, whose name the reader
ouesses, the spell of unchanged primeval conditions and
untouched nature !

May as many as possible of our German sportsmen go
forth Into our tropical possessions and yield themselves up
to this spell ! That which in our hunting grounds at home
speaks to their hearts In the rustling of the oak and beech

202

-»)

Sport and Nature in Cieniiany

woods and on familiar moors and fields, they will find
in a far higher degree in that far-oft' wilderness under the
German fiag. Returning home, may they, working in
unison, and by mutually supplying what each may lack,
bring into existence some splendid memorial ot the joys of
German sport.

20.;

ORYX ANTIil,'UM> lAKINi, TO FLIGHT.

VI
The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

THE endless wilderness of the Nyika presents to the
traveller so much that is strange, beautiful, and
wonderful that at times his senses become wearied ot
these changing impressions of travel, and a longing comes
over him for the familiar scenes he has learned to love

at home.

As though in giant characters written on its rocks, the
Nyika tells us of the conditions and the life of the past
and at the same time of everyday actualities, giving us
its message as well by its snow-covered volcanic peaks
as in the footprints and tracks of the mighty creatures
that wander through it. It is a difficult undertaking to
reconstruct in fancy all the splendours that must once
have presented themselves to the eye in this region. But
nevertheless I will tell of what I have looked upon in
the past,— of the many beautiful sights that linger in my

204

-^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika
memory and rise up like the shadows of a mirage, — of

A VELT HILI-OCK. THE SOLITARY TREE WAS FULL OF NESTS OF
WEAVER-BIRDS.

the delightful manifestations of its moving life, coming
and going on hill and in valley, as strange, wondrous, and

205

In Wildest Africa ^-

unfamiliar forms reveal themselves to the astonished

spectator.

The mystery of a deep harmonious Influence belongs
to the mighty wilderness. It reveals itself in Its full
beauty to him who has strenuously acquired a love for
It by making a long sojourn in it and paying to It the
tribute It demands.

A stony wilderness extends endlessly on all sides, and
the sight ranges without limit over the expanse that loses
Itself In mist and cloud. A barren stony sea, as far as
the eye can reach !

But it Is not the velt or the African desert that lies
below us as we rise one moment a hundred yards above
the surface of the earth and the next three hundred
vards and more. It is the sea of houses that form the
capital of the German Empire. ... In a few seconds
the view takes In all the full extent of the mighty city,
and then, as If In a dream, w^hat we have just seen
disappears from our sight. Borne by a breeze, of which
we are hardly aware, our balloon sweeps towards the
Baltic Sea. ... It Is a strange feeling thus to enjoy,
thanks to our lofty point of oudook, an extended view
far over the level March of Brandenburg with Its teeming
population all below us, a view which, old as the world
is, has been vouchsafed to few mortal men. The city,
with all Its human life and activity, lies tar below us. Its
roar and tumult, that strange voice of the stony sea, has
died away. We begin to make a long journey only a
few hundred feet above the surface of the earth. Later

206

H W "^

H W H

tfl z a

W H H

^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

on we rise, sailing through banks and clouds to a height
of nine thousand feet above the earth, but before this
higher ascent we have time and leisure to take a bird's-
eye view of " all that creeps and flies." What an outlook
over forest and plain ! As we fly over them, horses
grazing in paddocks, cattle on the pastures, for a moment
suggest to me an illusion of the African velt peopled
with its wild life. The eye, again and again fascinated
by this prospect as a whole, can hardly grasp the details.
Now our course is over endless open heaths, over moors
and woodlands. The fleet-footed red deer, frightened by
the drag-rope, look up in astonishment and stare at the
strange monster, not knowing whither to turn in flight
from such a menacing apparition. How the strange
monster was a few hours later within a hair's breadth of
burying us in the waves of the Baltic Sea is another
story. . . .

How many hundred times, after I had gone back to
the Dark Continent, have I wished for such a lofty
observatory, an airship that would bear me over velt
and desert, and from which I could fathom all the secrets
of the animal world of the tropics, instead of having to
travel toilsomely, fettered to the earth, often merely
making step after step automatically in the blazing heat
of the sun. When one day such a wish as this is fulfilled,
that animal world in its beauty and splendour will have
to a great extent passed away. . . .

I must, therefore, content myself with lofty ob-
servatories of another kind, that are not unfrequently

209 14

In Wildest Africa

-♦)

to be found in the Masai uplands, in the form of
numerous hills and rock masses. These aftbrd splendid
views and pictures of the animal creation to the spectator
who waits patiently on their summits for hours and
days, and has the help of good optical Instruments. What
life and activity displays itself there before our eyes
under favourable circumstances ! Though the wilderness
may appear a desert solitude, bare and empty of all
life, let only a few hours go by and the sun change
its position a little, and already one sees movement under
the trees and bushes that have been till now casting
deep shadows. Then with measured steps, prudently
regardful of their safety, all kinds of animals come forth
to graze. We see the different wild species appearing,
at first a few individuals, and soon in greater or smaller

herds.

How far the eye carries In this clear transparent
atmosphere, and what a wide tract of country we are
able to overlook ! In this tropical brightness, after weeks
and months, and even years, I could not get rid of the
perplexing illusion as to distances. The tract of country
that my sight could command seemed always much
less extensive than It really was. And again, we were
continually being misled by shimmering reflections of the
.nir, so that we took gnus for elephants, ostriches for
rhinoceroses, zebras for wild asses, and we might even
hold to our mistaken view for a considerable time. He
who wants to watch the living animals in this way from
a lofty point of observation, must be able to keep on
persistenUy for hours. Thus only will the scene piece

2IO

^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

by piece become familiar to him. Thus only will all
the moving life below hini very gradually combine into
one splendid and intelligible picture.

On the way to my look-out hill I pass thousands of
the tracks made by wild animals.

At the very outset, the traveller from northern lands
sees a most surprising sight in those hundreds of thousands
of tracks made by wild animals, and faithfully preserved for
weeks and even for longer periods in the dry season on the
plains of Africa. The giants of the animal world leave
behind them their mighty footprints, often for nearly
a year, holes in which a man will sometimes break his
leg. But the footprints of the smaller animals also last
a long time on velt and plain. And the language of
the wilderness rises to a most effectual appeal to our
senses when these tracks are associated with the marked
tarry scent of the waterbuck in the bush, the breath of
the great wild herds on the plain, the strong scent left
by elephant or rhinoceros in the primeval forest and in
the sultry thickets, and the scent of the buftalo among
the reed-beds.

There is often a chaos of tracks, a wild maze of
paths trodden flat as a barn-floor, crossing each other,
and then again uniting, so that the idea of tame herds,
mentioned before as at times suggested, can no longer
hold good.

To-day we have again waited patiently to see the
wilderness gradually come to life in the hours of the
afternoon. And we have not been disappointed.

Out from the shadows of scattered groups of trees

21 'I

In Wildest Africa ^

there march great herds of the white-bearded gnus, that
remind one so of small buffaloes. Slowly they make
their way to the more open grazing ground and disperse
themselves over it. But careful watch is kept by a few
of them— the bulls that lead the herds, experienced old
fellows ! Under their guardianship the herd feels itself
perfectly safe. There is also an unusually large drove
of the wonderfully graceful impallah or black-tailed ante-
lope. What a remarkable contrast is presented as the
herds mingle together ! The gnus, strongly built, haughty
in their bearing, conscious of their strength against
all animal foes, stand out wonderfully amongst their
almost too graceful comrades, the impallah-antelopes.
We can plainly distinguish that the females and those
that are accompanied by young ones keep more together,
while the bucks of the impallah-antelopes keep apart
and look after their safety.

Now a dark black mass slowly separates itself from
a large group of trees. It is followed by several forms
that do not so easily catch the eye. Our field-glasses tell
us that a small flock of ostriches has come to mix with
the wild species already noted. Now there are perhaps
well over three hundred head of these three kinds ot
wild animals united together in one gathering. They
are used to come together in the most friendly way,
without apparently taking much notice of each other.
For a long time the sight of these creatures, all so
different, holds us fascinated. But our optical instruments
must restlessly explore the distance for new sights of
the animal kingdom ; and at the same time there are even

214

^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

better instruments of investigation at work — the eyes of
my black companions.

" Pharu, bwana ! " now whispers one of my men,
and points cautiously with his arm down to a certain
point on the plain. His caution, however, is not necessary,
for it is at a distance of at least a thousand yards that
his sharp eyes have distinguished the outlines of two
almost invisible rhinoceroses that are moving slowly
through a group of acacias. What an effect that word
"pharu" has upon me! For once more there has come
close to me one of those strange, mighty beings that
really belong to a time long passed, and which, like the
elephant, the giraffe, the zebra, the gnu, and a few other
forms, lend to the wilderness the charm of primeval
days. Naturally still stronger is the effect of the cry
of " Tembo ! " on the hunter and the watcher amid such
scenes. " Elephant ! " This name electrifies even the
weariest traveller. But when the word is " Twigga ! "
("Giraffe!") — even here in Europe the strange, slender-
necked creature, moving in some acacia wood all flooded
with the sunlight, comes up bodily before me — bodily and
plainly to be seen, but alas, only in imagination !

After trying for a minute, I succeed in getting the
massive creatures sharply defined in the middle of the
field of my glass. But the clear view of them is
somethino- that comes and o-oes. Several times it looks
as if the velt had swallowed them up ; then they suddenly
come into sight again, being specially visible to the eye
when they show themselves sideways. Seen from front
or rear, particularly when at rest, they are all but invisible.

219

In Wildest Africa ^

We are in luck ; the rhinoceroses are ambling towards
us, and come nearer and nearer, slowly following the
line of some hollows in the ground.

Now, borne on strong pinions, and brightly illuminated
by the sunbeams, one of the great bustards cuts through
the sea of air, and sinks down into some low ground
far away below us. This is not an unusual sight in the
late hours of the afternoon, and soon after we see not
only some more of the same species, but also three
other bustards of a smaller and commoner species that is
more active in flight. It is the Oiis giudiajia, which I
have o-ot to like so much on account of its charming
o-ambols on the wing, that must be a pleasure to every
lover of birds. At this time of day it carries on this
strange tumbling in the air, and if the day is hot and
dry it makes for the neighbourhood of the water, or in
any case for certain hollow places of the velt that
provide it with at least a certain amount of soft vegetable
food. Another picture ! A great flock of spendidly
coloured crested cranes wings its strong undulating flight
and goes away over the hill. I notice in the air the
striking appearance of the snake-vulture and a pair of
the nimble-winged Bateleur eagles, the "sky apes" of
the Abyssinians. My gaze follows them eagerly into the
distance. . . In what various ways the bird world displays
its mastery of the realms of air ! Our attention is riveted
now on the quiet gliding flight of the vulture in the
hio-hest levels of the air, now on the spectacle of a
strufTgle in the air between some birds of prey and
some ravens or bee-eaters that are annoying them.

220

-^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

Searching the ground as it goes, the augur buzzard i^Buteo
augur) wings its flight over the stone-strewn slopes
of the adjacent hill. Bateleur eagles wheel in graceful
circles high in air, let themselves fall down for several
yards, and then shoot up again heavenward. For hours
at a time they will carry on their strong-winged circling
and plunging through the realm of air, apparently without
effort or fatigue. Various kinds of kites show them-
selves in their oscillating flight, that makes them always
so clever at escaping the gun ; amongst them large
numbers of Montagu's harrier {Circus pygargus, L.), which
at certain times of the year range restlessly over the
velt. Hawks and sparrow-hawks wing their rapid flight
in search of prey. In short, every kind and form of
bird flight that one can imagine ! For instance, the
proud majestic flight of the larger species of vultures is
essentially distinct from the heavy flight of the small
Egyptian vultures {^Neophron pcrcuopterus, L.), whose
flight the Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria most aptly
described, when he remarked that at a distance the bird
might easily be mistaken for a stork.

It is indeed a great pleasure to follow with the eye
all the wondrously beautiful types of flight that the
African birds of prey present to us. The euonnous
mwibers of birds of prey, in a land that is nevertheless
so rich in wild life, ought to suggest some salutary
reflections to those who, here at home, with such dogged
persistence wage war with guns and pole-traps against
those creatures, which are so great an ornament to the
landscape. For my part, I would on every point support

225 15

In Wildest Africa ^

the proposals of experienced men, like Freiherr von
Besserer of Munich and Dr. von Bocksberger of INIarburg,
who advocate protection even for our birds of prey, at
least within the Government domains. " Let us try,"
says Yon Besserer, " still to preserve them at least
within certain limits. Let us grant them some few places
of refuo-e. Let us not arrai'^n them too strictly for
every theft, so that future generations may also enjoy
the spectacle of their beautiful flight."

And now it seems, as if on some gigantic chess board,
move after move is being made on the plain below us.
We have hardly remarked the wild species already noted,
when we suddenly find ourselves perplexed as to which
point we shall first direct our gaze to, which is to attract
the special attention of our eyes. To our right, two great
herds of zebras come rolling along, and ever as they
move are now plainly visible, now almost disappear, as
if in regular alternation. To our left, on the crest of a
ridge that rises there, suddenly- sharply defined silhouettes
appear — again it is a herd of gnus, and this time clearly
one that numbers at least a hundred and fifty head. While
our attention is still attracted by this beautiful spectacle,
my trusty comrade Abdallah suddenly lays his hand upon
my arm and, only with a glance of his eyes, indicates the
litde valley that lies stretched out below our feet. This
time there is good excuse for his caution. For there,
looking as if they were cast in bronze, two of the- wonder-
fully beautiful giraffe-gazelles stand staring up in astonish-
ment at the place where we are posted. It may well be
that these timid children of the wilderness here had never

226

-^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

yet been disturbed by the strange sight of a human figure.
" Nyogga-nyogga! " whispered the h"ps of my comrade.

It is not often that one has the chance of seeing the
nyogga-nyogga at such close quarters, and besides,
it is extremely difficult to watch it without being noticed
by it. It is so completely lost to sight in its surroundings,
and is so extremely timid and watchful, that I have very
seldom indeed succeeded in observing this splendid animal
before it has itself remarked my presence. When I suc-
ceeded it was almost invariably towards evening when
it had come out to ihcd. It is w^orth while to take full
advantage of such m.oments, for the slightest disturbance
instantly drives it away. And so it was now. It was
not long before the two nyogga-nyogga, with their long
necks stretched out, disappeared in the hollows of the
broken ground that extended below the place where we
stood After this I caught sight of them a few times
standing amongst the clumps of acacias, timid, surprised,
and watchful ; then the gazelles betook themselves to the
protection of the wide velt, looking like mere points in
the distance.

To me it seems as if the sonorous name that the Swahili
language gives them, and also the softer name that sounds
so sweetly in the mouth of a Masai, — " Nanyad,"— best
and most fitly express their beauty, strangeness, and grace.
Again we turn our attention to all that is o-oino- on
below us. This time it is the rhinoceroses, which have
approached to within a few hundred yards of my post, that
most engage our attention. We observe how they nibble
here and thereat the boughs of the Salvadora persica and

227

In Wildest Africa ^

other shrubs, and then again rub their rough hide or their
horns against the strong trunk of a tree or on a block of
stone. They have all this time been coming gradually
nearer to the herd of gnus that we first noticed, and now
at last they stand quietly on the level ground, only a
hundred paces away from the old gnu-bulls which are
acting as sentinels.

And now it is I myself who am the first to make out
with the glass a third 'rhinoceros. " Wapi, bwana ? " my
companion eagerly asks me, and as I point out to him the
place on the velt where I have picked the animal out,
he approvingly confirms my observation with the remark :
" Ndio, bwana, pharu mkubwa sana " ("Yes, master, a
very big rhinoceros !")

After some time we see that it is an old and unusually
large bull; he, too, has gradually taken the same
line as his two colleagues. Our observation proves to
be correct, and we also remark before long that the
first pair of rhinoceroses we had noticed is made up of
an old cow and her nearly grown up young one.

More herds of zebras and gnus, and small troops of
Grant's oazelles and of impallah-antelopes have come
into sigh't, and now they are joined by a whole crowd
of hartebeests, which so far have kept themselves hidden
in a side valley of the velt full of thick tall grass.

And now the moving mass of animal life is ever more
abundant, more varied. I notice in the valley at the foot
of my hill a string of guinea-fowl ; how they hurry and
scurry about, flutter up with sounding strokes of their
wings, and then soon drop down again! And now my

228

^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

attention is attracted by a pair of Bateleur eagles, that
wheel in the air, and enjoy themselves for an hour at a
time playing on the wing. I'hey probably have made their
eyrie not far from this spot.

For minutes at a time the cry of the francolin rings
out clearly round about my post ; then again it is silent.
My eyes can indeed see animals of many kinds, and my
sight ranges with restless efforts over the far distance ; but
so far I have looked in vain for a form that is frequent and
familiar enough in this wilderness — the towering figure of
the " Twigga."

Where can the giraffes be hiding to-day ? Why have
they not come out to the still freshly green acacias in the
far-stretching hollow to my left, where I have already
marked their presence for whole days at a time .'''

And yet they are there, only I had failed to distinguish
them. At last I can make out their strange forms, as they
graze there among the acacias, and they stand out sharply
under the oblique rays of the sun.

What poetry there is in the movements of all the
various organisms that our eyes behold ! Every variety of
gait, from the heavy, swinging, and nevertheless rapid
march of the pachyderms to the graceful speed of a pretty
gazelle, speaks in a language of its own to him who has
become familiar with the peculiar movements of this
animal world. Just as at the outset the strange appear-
ance of an animal one sees for the first time makes a
surprisingly strong impression on one, so too does the
great difference in the gait of the various species. But
they were all soon familiar to me. So now at the sight of

In Wildest Africa ^

the giraffes I feel a pleasure and delight in their quaint
coming and going, their heads appearing and disappearing,
there below me in the midst of the green bowers of
mimosa leaves, high over which my view ranges. What
laws must be at work here too, by whose operation I am
compelled to feel all this to be so beautiful, so harmonious,
so splendid ! I grasp the meaning of the words :
" Therefore I believe that life will first open its eyes in
that world of which Goethe said : ' There is still the life
of life, and this is only form.' " ^

What a splendid sight there is from my lofty look-out !
the whole of this mighty spectacle displays itself almost
without a sound that I can hear. Only a few voices of
birds, but no cry of any other animal reaches my ears.
But as the breeze rises more and more towards evening,
there begins in my immediate neighbourhood a strange
and beautiful concert, that is already familiar to me. And
now, as the wind blows more and more strongly through
the perforated gall-nuts that hang on every tree above
us, there resounds through the desert silence a strange
melody, a strange language of musical notes that only
the sound of the /Eolian harp can to some degree
represent.

These nut-galls on the acacias are bored quite through,
and in many cases become the dwelling-places of small
ants. If one disturbs them by tapping on the outside of
their strange habitation," they come swarming out to fight

1 Houston Stuart Chamberlain, Immanuel Kant.
- According to the latest observations of Professor Yngwe Sjostedt
these nut-galls are inhabited by three different species of ants.

-^ The Lonely Wonder-\\oiid of the Nyika

with the disturber of their peace ! It is not so often that
their strange ways and doings concern a human being,
but it comes to pass to-day. The watchful observer
takes delight not only in the sound of these strange
musical instruments, but also in the thought that they
give shelter to a little world of their own, a peculiarly
organised little state made up of living beings, just as the
wide endless wilderness below them is a state with the
various larger wild animals for its inhabitants.

My diary records yet another kind of natural observa-
tory, a giant tree uprooted on a wooded river-bank. Here,
as it were, in the gallery of the wood, the huge trunk
felled by the storm-wind offered me an inviting- seat amono-
its branches, and thence I enjoyed many a sight of the
animal world around.

There 1 had a view of the river close at hand, and
farther away many clearings of the wood, which at this
time of the year showed a rich display of animal life. The
ripening forest fruits had attracted into this neighbourhood
large packs of baboons. It was good to watch their busy
activity as I looked down from my observatory, where I
sat hidden by a thick growth of creeper. Great herds
of antelopes, and especially waterbuck and Grant's
gazelles, are regularly to be found in these wide clearings
of the woods. I remember some hours of the afternoon
when the life of the forest displayed itself here in a way
that suggested Paradise. I saw at the same time a large
drove of the graceful, wonderful pallahs, and, grazing
in their immediate neighbourhood, some twenty Grant's
gazelle bucks which had joined together to form a great

235

In Wildest Africa -»»

herd. The antelopes had scattered themselves over part
of the clearing, feeding on the fresh growing grass there,
but all the while keeping themselves somewhat apart
from the herd of gazelles. But they had gradually drawn
near to a party of waterbuck which were standing under
an old shady tree, and now I had an opportunity of
watching for a long time these three varieties of antelope,
all so beautiful yet so different. To my surprise, after
some time they were joined by nine stately eland-antelopes,
whose white side-stripes made them wonderfully prominent
among the uniformly coloured coats of the waterbuck.
Amongst these animals some three hundred baboons were
moving about with a certain careless self-possession.
They were all big ones, keenly devoted to the hunt for
insects, pulling up grass and turning over stones. Some
of the older individuals meanwhile scrambled up tree
trunks for a few feet, and thence kept a careful look-out
for the approach of any possible enemy.

I kept as still as a mouse, knowing well that the
slio-htest movement would betray my presence to the
timid, keen-sighted monkeys.

Now a numerous herd of zebras moved through the
wood and across the clearing at a slow, careless pace.
As they moved there was a bright shimmermg of the
variegated stripes of the beautiful "tiger-horses," and
again they would often be blurred into one uniform grey.
They mingled with the waterbuck, which took very little
notice of \hem, and evidently had known the zebras for
a long time. It was wonderful to see the proud water-
buck,'' with their horns, which are at once weapon and

236

-* The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

ornament, and the stallion leaders of the zebra herd all
continually on the alert watching against their enemies.

There is a scuttling over the ground, for the little
mungoose family, that live over there among the ant-
hills, are making a sally from their fortress. Snakedike
in their swift movements, the graceful little animals seem
to glide along. Yonder two snake-vultures are looking
for reptiles. Numbers of other vultures and marabous
have flown down to the margin of the shallow water to
bathe and drink.

Into the midst of all this gathering of animals there
now come three ostriches, making for the fresh green
growth along the marshy edge of the river-bank^ and
a number of francolins and guinea-fowl that gradually
come crowding out of the undergrowth into the clearing
to feed there. On the sandbank on which I look down
as It extends far along the course of the river, there are
some thirty huge crocodiles sunning themselves. I can
see several smaller specimens of these mail-clad lizards
on a flat part of the river margin not far from the
sandbank.

Yesterday, too, six giant hippopotami paid a visit to
this sandbank on the primeval river, and left tracks that
my eye can plainly see in the glowing sunshine ; to-day,
however, I have waited in vain for them to show them-
selves. But suddenly from the reed-beds on the opposite
bank of the stream the mighty voice of an old bull comes
booming across to me.

Over this most peaceful picture of animal life the
tropical sun blazes, casting deep shadows. At this hour

239

In Wildest Africa ^

of the day even the voices of the birds are generally
silent. Only the melodious piping of the organ-shrike
sounds somewhere near me, and often, too, the cries of
one or other of the baboons which is being corrected with
bangs and cuffs by an older member of the pack.

All the various kinds of animals assembled here get
on quite peacefully together. They often ahnost touch
each other, without taking the slightest notice of one
another. Even the antelope bucks, adorned with danger-
ously pointed horns, make not the slightest use of their
sharp weapons against the other species. All the tmie
that I was looking down from my lofty seat I saw nothing
but peace and good-fellowship. And yet how quickly a
tragedy might interrupt this stillness and peace! The
tracks of lions and leopards down there, the crocodiles
on the sandbank, and the vultures hovering in the air

told me that.

Often in this, and in other places, I have gained an
insight into the life and ways of the animal world, and
1 have thus passed many enjoyable hours. Now one,
now another species presented itself to my observation,
but it was seldom that I saw such a large number of
different species at the sanic tune. But in all cases I
have found that man is a disturbing element in the
lidst of such pictures of the animal Paradise. Even
^here I could feel sure that the appearance oi a white
man, a European, was quite unknown to the animals of
the district, even then the very moment I showed myself
the immediate result was a panic-stricken flight.

1 have still clearly before my eyes the picture that

240

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-9^ The Lonely Wonder-\\ (jrkl of the Nyika

presented itself to me as I emerged from the over-
growth of creepers on the boughs of that uprooted tree.
First a shrill cry from the monkeys. In a trice the
little young ones were clinging to their mothers, and
with long bounds the whole crowd of them galloped
away over the level ground, hidden in a cloud ot dust,
and disappeared on the far side of the clearing. There
a good many of them halted to look back. Of all the
animals known to me only the baboons and the spotted
hyenas take to flight in this way. The spectacle has
such a surprisingly strange and unaccustomed, almost
uncanny effect, that it always recurs to me when I think
of these animals.

The antelopes follow the example of the fugitive
baboons, after first rushing hither and thither, right and
left, leaping wiklly into the air. At this moment the
impallah-antelopes, especially, make a splendid picture.
Bounding along as if on springs of steel, they shoot
up several yards high into the air. Wherever the eye
turns it sees the graceful forms of these beautiful
animals in all possible positions, making long bounds,
some four feet high oft^ the ground, and in every other
attitude that one can imagine. But the end of all these
splendid pictures, each seen for a moment, is a general
stampede. Whirling clouds of dust in the far distance
tell for some time longer which way the fugitives have
taken.

But it is not every day that such varied pictures,
so richly stored with the life of the primitive animal world
of the tropics, present themselves to the traveller. And

241 16

In Wildest Africa ^

it needs, too, a trained eye to enjoy all the separate
impressions in their combined effect, as making up one
masterpiece of Nature. But often, too, an almost too great
wealth of beauty gathered together in a small space
presents itself to our eyes. Thus, more especially, I
keep a memory of these small idyllic lakes of the wilder-
ness, that are hidden away here and there in the Nyika
district, and give a home to a wealth of animal life that
often seems almost too abundant. We sometimes find
one of the most interesting species of the larger mammalia,
the hippopotamus, living here in somewhat narrow quarters,
but thus more easily accessible to observation than n^
the great lake basins, where it lives in hundreds or
thousands, but where also it can much more easily get
away from the sight of the observer. It is true that
one can see numerous heads emerging from the water
in the distance, one can mark the thin spray of water
blown from their nostrils, forming numbers of little fountam
jets that glitter in the sun. But the peculiar life and
activity of these giants of the animal world goes on chiefly
at nio-ht, invisible to our eves. In the smaller lakes it is

all different.

I remember with pleasure a certain gathering of
hippopotami in one of the lakes that lie hidden away
between KiHmanjaro and Mount Meru. and which were
discovered some years ago by Captain Merker. When
1 saw them there were still living in them some hundreds
of hippopotami, and it was easy to watch their doings
in the water. Gathered in herds they played about in
the water under the bright sunlight, showing little sign

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^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

of timidity. Especially the young ones, that were still
going about with their mothers, had so little fear that
I sometimes saw them rising almost completely out of
the water. They were also sometimes to be seen resting
in the sunshine on the sandbanks by the lake margin.
Some of these lakes were of such small extent that the
animals had to come up to breathe at a distance of at
most only some twenty yards from the observer. But all
the same they were generally inhabited by quite a number
of hippopotami. It was then a great pleasure to watch these
beasts for hours at a time, from the lofty look-out place
provided by the surrounding heights that rose steeply
from the edge of the lake. They kept up good fellowship
with the crowds of water and marsh fowl that give life
to these lakes. All these animals displayed themselves
to the spectator at as close quarters and as plainly as in
a zoological garden. The rosy red pelicans fishing in
flocks of hundreds at a time presented the most charming
contrast to the uncouth quadrupeds. Even now in fancy
these lakes come before my sight, lakes that lie far from
all human ways and doings in a silent solitude. Dark
clouds float over it. The proximity of the massive and
dark Mount Meru often causes a cloudy veil to hang over
that volcanic plateau with its crater lakes. Again I climb
the steep cliffs that ring them round, and again my gaze
sweeps over the level surface of the water. But though
there has been no decrease in the numbers of the water-
fowl that enliven the lakes, the hippopotami have, alas !
disappeared. I found on the occasion of my last journey
a small number still there, but I hear from Professor

247

In Wildest Africa -^

Sjostedt/ the Swedish naturalist, who lately visited these
lakes, that the hippopotami, who had made the lakes
their home since dim far-off times, have almost dis-
appeared. The Boers - have killed everything. I came
upon one here some years ago who was killing a lot of
the hippopotami ; others have followed up the work of
this forerunner with more serious results. Attempts to
make settlers at home in primitive regions are almost
always inconsistent with a protection of the primitive
animal world, even though these animals inhabit lonely
upland lakes, hidden away in the wilderness, far from

human settlements.

# * * * *

Thus in memory picture follows picture.

Besides the harmonies of the wilderness, the impres-
sions of the eye are always those that come back
alluringly in my recollections. However truly the artist
may be able to reproduce all these various impressions,
there is one kind that will always be missing from his
pictures, namely, all the fleeting vwvement. To take

1 Cf. also Prof. Yngwe Sjostedt on the destruction of wild animals
by the Boers in the Kilimanjaro district, in the TdgUchen Rundschau,
Berlin, 1906. Professor Sjostedt travelled through these districts for
the purpose of making a collection of their fauna for the Copenhagen
Museum, and visited the Merker Lakes with a view to securing a
hippopotamus.

2 The destruction of wild animals by the Boers in the Kilimanjaro
district was in every way opposed by the central and local authorities,
but failing the possibility of strict control it does not seem to have
been possible to make the regulations effective. Prof. Sjostedt found the
Boers in no way settled down, but roving about the country in pursuit
of the wild animals.

248

The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

as an instance only one out of an abundance of forms,
who can reproduce in pictures the endless variety of birds,
the world of winged life ! Every day added to my know-
ledge of these multitudinous flocks, throuo-h the increase
day by day of my bird collection, which I obtained at
the cost of much labour, and which has been the means
of giving to science many hitherto unknown species.
As I added each new bird to it, I added also to my
knowledge of these beautiful creatures, as yet so little
known, and slowly, very slowly I became familiar with
them. What splendour of forms and colours! In what
enormous flocks does the feathered race inhabit the
wilderness and the primeval forest ! The Biblical account
of the flocks ot quails in the desert sounds to us Hke a
legend, and yet it is no legend. At times when we too
were marchino- across the same kind of Qrround, there flew
past us with a whirr of many wings huge flocks of quails,
that sought and found their safety in flight. At times
I have also seen similar flocks of snipe. How long has
it been since both these kinds of birds appeared in such
flocks in our country at home ?

The endless variety of form and colour, the movements
of the animals which the eye perceives under the ever-
changing tropical light, that shows everything brilliantly
and sharply defined, all this taken together makes up
memory-pictures of a charm that nothing can surpass.
But he only can picture them to himself who has gone
forth and made them his own.

The huge sea-turtle comes creeping along, emerges
from the waters of the Indian Ocean, and makes for the

251

In Wildest Africa -•^

sandhills to lay its eggs there.. Its giant track on the
sand leads me to its nest. To my astonished eyes this
peculiar track looks as if a ploughshare had torn through
the ground.

The Indian Ocean, which is the home of this huge
sea-turtle, shelters also in quiet bays the strange Dugong
or sea-cow, and great is the surprise of even the natives

FORMATION OF A FLOCK OF FLAMINGOES IN FLIGHT.

themselves when from time to time they capture in their
nets this remarkable creature, which is becoming rarer
every year.

In the lagoons one sees emerge from the surface the
head of a great giant snake, a good five yards long, the
African python ; others I have come upon suddenly
on the open velt. There are continually thrilling

252

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The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

moments! It may be that memory conjures up for us the
delightful flilry-like image of a rare dwarf antelope seen
perhaps once only in the shades of the forest, a dwarf
antelope that, with strange large eyes and ears alert,
watches one's approach, and then like a flash of lightning-
disappears in the thickets ; it may be that in memory
one sees the reddish brown, mud-smeared body of a giant
elephant emerge from the midst of some densely tangled
primeval forest ; it may be that a tree suddenly bursting
into bloom yields me a wonderfully beautiful new kind ot
bird, which I grasp in my hand, deHghted with its robe
of feathers ; it may be that suddenly the massive giant
form of a rhinoceros appears before me in the tall grass,
unexpected, menacing, standing as if chiselled out of stone;
it may be that my free gaze ranges without limit over the
wide prospect, and sees in primitive abundance the strange
life of the tropics; in every case the impressions received
seem to the beholder fascinating beyond description.

Monotonous as the surroundings of the landscape may
appear to the newcomer, poor and barren though the
velt may seem to be for weeks at a time, yet, enlivened
and permeated by the mighty flood of all this strange
animal life, it has a beauty and a charm whose influence
no one can escape who makes his way into the midst
of it with open heart and eyes.

He who looks around him with clear-sighted vision,
and tries to see more than others, has revealed to him
the beauties of Nature in the greatest and most wonderful
way, and is drawn in the highest sense of the word to
admiration of them. Here is verified, as Sir Harry

255

In Wildest Africa ^

Johnston says in his preface to my first book, " the old
nursery story of eyes and no eyes."

It is thus that I lie for long- hours in the wilderness,
and observe, admire and enjoy. What a wealth of
impressions is brought before the eyes among these
ever-changing, at first strange but gradually familiar sights,
in the midst of the foreign-looking landscape, bathed in
a lio-ht that has a marvellous influence, and in its lull
power is almost blinding.

Now the dwarfs, and again the giants of the animal
world rivet our attention. But it is especially the primeval
abundance, the great profusion of large and small wild
life, that gives an impression that is now delightful, now
overwhelming. One must have seen, with the eye of
the hunter, gigantic old bull-elephants in the primeval
forest, great herds of rhinoceroses and giraffes in one
single day, thousands of zebras and antelopes gathered
together— one must have felt all this profuse wealth of
life, to be able to understand its full beauty and grandeur.

Yet there are days when one looks around in vain for
all this life and activity, when, on account of the weather,
or some other reason, the animals do not show themselves
so freely. One must also take due account of the
extensive periodical migrations of the African fauna.
Many an erroneous judgment as to the alleged scarcity
of wild life, in districts in which other hunters pursued
the chase at an earlier date luith success, is to be thus

explained.

But, on the other hand, there are also days when
such an abundance of animal forms presents itself to

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^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

our eyes, that the most lively imagination can form no
idea of all this profusion. On such days, I have often
wished that one could have a gigantic photographic
apparatus, an instrument that would be capable of making
a record of all I saw. Ikit on such days, also, I have
more than once made a mental apology to explorers
whose lives have long closed in death. When, for instance,

' :gk. M>-

REMAINS OF RHINOCEROSES KIIJ,i:i) i;V llli; liOERS ON THE SHORE OF ONE OF
THE MERKER LAKES.

in former years I had looked over the sketches of the
late Cornwallis Harris, sketches showing the life of the
South African fauna as he saw it about the year 1837,
I more than once had my doubts about the correctness
of his representations of it. As the result of what I
myself have seen, I have quite given up such doubts.
The original sketches left to us by Cornwallis Harris

261

In Wildest Africa -^

(which I must say do not always rise to a high level
from the artistic point of view') are coloured sketches
accompanied by descriptions, and show us such multitudes
of wild animals that they seem to border on the fabulous.
For we see in them elephants, rhinoceroses, giraftes,
buffaloes, zebras and antelopes, all gathered together in
crowds, and thus one inclines involuntarily to the opinion
that all these have been brought together in one picture
merely to give illustrations of the various species. But
my own observations have shown me that our artist is
perfecdy correct. One sees how necessary it is to make
documentary records of such observations. The men of
a later time, as I plainly realise, may be able to place
before themselves a picture of all this primitive abundance
of animal life only with the greatest trouble and by
means of earnest study of every authority bearing on

the matter.

Enormous periods of time must have gone by to
develop all the beauty and splendour of this so varied
and so highly organised life. My thoughts range over
far distant times. I see, looking so near that it seems
as if one could touch it with one's hands, one of the
mightiest volcanoes of our earth gradually unveiling
itself and stripping off its robe of clouds. The volcanic
reoions below it remind me of the story of how all my
surroundings were developed.

Born in fire, and evolved, differentiated, and formed to

1 It appears that the explorer completed some of these sketches
after his return with the help of stuffed specimens, but he drew others
entirely from nature on the African velt.

262

"9^

The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

so much beauty, which no hostile hand has yet come to
destroy, the scene around me is so splendid that my eyes
keep ranging over it, more and more eager to contem]jlate
all its splendours.

A strange feeling comes over me. I think of all the
beautiful spots of our old world. They have all been
taken possession of under carefully devised arrangements
and methods, well protected by the eye of the law, and
often only occasionally open to access, and then on con-
dition of payment. But the beauty I am contemplating
has now been hopelessly abandoned to intruders, who
have neither knowledge nor taste nor sense, and who are
at this moment so barbarously destroying it.

But these thoughts must give way to others that are
more pleasant and consoling. How wonderful to be able
to revel in this wilderness, to feel in oneself the inlluence
of all these splendours, notwithstanding all dangers and
all difficulties, however great ! Everything around us
undulates and shimmers, bathed in a dazzling sea of light.
Gradually the colouring of plain and hills, the dome of the
sky and the whole surrounding landscape, changes to duller
and less definite tints. The sun-illumined air rises in
waves from the earth, and the various strata of it form an
ever-changing chaos of reflected light. Over all there is
deep peace. A spell that accords with the mood of the
moment seems to stream down from the dome of the sky
over this solitude, lying so far from the noisy activity of
the world.

' All that I here behold has been going on since those
far times, directed by natural law, in ever- recurring

267

In Wildest Africa ^

succession. But to-day for the first time a member of
the complex society of civilisation takes delight in this
mountain rising amidst all this primeval beauty.

Who could possibly set down this poetry upon paper —
the poetry of the velt and its wild inhabitants, the moods
of East African Nyika ? The master of colouring has not
yet arisen who could give us a picture of these mighty
o-atherino-s of wild herds, and of these deserts that seem
overcrowded with animal forms, that yet live so peacefully
together, nor can the master of the pen, though he may
have been able by his words to conjure up some idea of
them in the mind.

One who has perhaps felt and enjoyed their spell more
than any one else is Alfred Brehm. But he has travelled
only in regions that had long been under the influence of
man and his activity. He has only once seen the king of
beasts, and has never looked upon the giraffe— whose
beautiful eyes the Arab compares with the eyes of his
beloved— and many other forms of the African fauna.'
Nevertheless he has done wonders, thanks to his deep
feeling for his subject, his intimate understanding of it,
and his incomparably poetical power of description. He
has given us imperishable pictures in words that are among

1 So too, for example, Wissmanii never killed a lion. Tliis is sufficient
proof of the difficulty of observing animal life. The author may take this
opportunity of calling attention to the remarkable work of this departed
explorer, In dai Wildnissen Afrikas, and thinks himself fortunate in the
possession of a letter from his hand approving of his method of ob-
serving animals. This letter expresses in words that go to the heart
the love for and understanding of the beauty of the African fauna that
characterised this successful and distinguished explorer.

268

^^B

'4:

^K ^^

•*

'<',. -

-^ The Lonely Wonder- wo rid of the Nyika

the most beautiful that have ever been written about Nature.

Our old famous teacher, Dr. Schweinfurth, has seen and

described similar scenes. With these two we may rank in

equal honour the name of the German explorer Richard

Bohm/ who unhappily lost his life so tragically and at such

an early age on the shores of Lake Upamba in Southern

Uriia, of which he was the discoverer. Many others

might also be named who were deeply influenced by these

primeval splendours. But the fauna of South Africa

has vanished unsung and unfamed, before any artist or

master of words arose to place in a fitting way its beauties

on record for all time !

Masters of words like Ludwig Heck, by whose
skilful pen the life of the mammalia has been lately
described anew for us in Brehm's Tierlebeii, and like
Wilhelm Bolsche, would perhaps have been capable of
grasping and reproducing the impressions that the
traveller feels in those far lands. But they have never
trodden these distant countries, and they must therefore
confine themselves to describing artistically and yet truly
what they have never actually seen, from ideas based
on their own clear understanding of the observations
of others.

The sun is setting. It is time for me to come down
from my hill and return to mv camp. 7^he sun croes to
his rest in flaming splendour, there is a dowine radiance
of violet and purple light ; soon dark night will surround

1 Take, for instance, his description of the Ugalla River in a letter to
his grandfather, General von Meyerinck, in his work Von Sansibar zum
Tanjatijika (published by Hermann Schalow, Leipzig, 1888).

273 18

In Wildest Africa ^

me. Thoughtfully I tread my homeward way, with my
mind richly stored with impressions, but anxious as to my
efforts to describe all that I have seen, and doubtful as

to my success.

"To have passed a thousand and more days, a
thousand and more nights in the wilderness with a great
longing in my heart in some way to grasp and make my
own all the splendour I have seen and all its charm ;
to have again and again delighted in the beauty of the
Nyika : this does not make me capable of reproducmg
it And even if after many decades of years I could
fully comprehend it, I should never succeed in reproducmg
it in its full significance and bringing it home to the
minds of those who have never looked upon it with their

own eyes."

So runs a passage in my diary.

Descriptions of things similar to those that 1 have
told of in inadequate words in these slight sketches of the
Nyika district of East Africa may be read of other regions
of our earth. The life and activity of the Arctic fauna,
of those gigantic creatures of to-day, the whales, and ot
the Polar bears, the musk oxen, the wild reindeer, the
walruses, the seals-those most sagacious creatures-and
the life of manv other animal forms-all these together
are waiting for the hand that will describe them in word
and picture and put on enduring record for all time this
changing life. Thus only will a new existence be given
to those forms of life for which the sentence " Vae Vict.s !

has gone forth.

May the master soon appear who will be able to

274

The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika

^-c-*

.ur*,£ -...T^'^^f-

■cR.

1C "" "

ijii^ «»*0 »>wi4 ♦Atfi.* »/ ^-^fc tW <4l-

f ^V* Mi : ) Ym^ eJl^ «Uju* • ; - - f /

' 1 1 « ' 0 «. 4 »# V

A PAGE OF MY DIARY SHOWING HOW I NOTED MY MOVEMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
BY MEANS OF A ROUGH MAP.

give us a noble and true picture of the East African
Nyika in all its vast proportions. For, as the night

279

In Wildest Africa -^

is now descending on the wilderness, so will an everlasting-
night soon come down upon all the life and movement
that I have tried so inadequately to describe in merest-
outline.

About a century ago the "Twilight of the Gods"
{Gdtterd'dmmerung) began for all the wild life of the Cape
rec^ion of South Africa. Even before these hundred years
had run out it was ended ; this abundant flood of life:
had disappeared. . . .

BATELEUR EAGLE IX FLIGHT.

280

> '^

N -

A FRANCOLIN PERCHED ON A THORN-BUSH.

VII

The Voices of the Wilderness

I^HE German sportsman knows well the mysterious
charm that speaks to the listener, when in the
woods in spring he hears the note of the woodcock and
the cry of the ptarmigan, and when in autumn he hears
the call of the stag to its mate. It must be that the
listener is subject to some atavistic influence, some
impulse rooted in the dim past now quickening into life.

Let him who understands this charm follow me through
the equatorial wilderness, and listen with me to the music
of songs and notes that we may call the language of
the Nyika. We shall hear it there on every side, by
day and by night. True, fully to understand this language
one should have King Solomon's magic power, which
made its possessor understand the speech of animals, or
like Siegfried have dipped one's hand in the blood of

28-.

In Wildest Africa ^

tb.e drag-on, and thus have acquired the gift of holding-
converse with the birds.

This much is certain, in the wildernesses of Africa
this primeval language is still to be heard. In our hunting
grounds at home the voices of the aurochs, the bison,
the ibex, the bear, the lynx, and the wolf have been
silenced, and many other voices that have belonged to
the wild open country since primeval days have all but
died away. I have indeed learned to understand only
a few words of this language of the wilderness, though
I have heard thousands of its sounds. But I may be
able to tell something about it.

What a strong and deep impression this world of
sound makes upon the traveller at so many hours of the
day and night! Every region, every different kind of
country has its own characteristic harmony. One does
not always hear it — it depends upon the season of the
year and the time of the day, on the changes of weather,
and much else. But when one has become even to some
small extent familiar and conversant with these various
voices, one enjoys this music-language of the Nyi'ka with
a sense of deep delight and ever growing understanding.
Sometimes it is most difficult to find out the names of
the individual speakers. Often they keep very quiet ;
they seem to be like great vocalists on tour : they appear
suddenly, and then disappear again for a long time,
without letting one see any more of them. Then the
traveller may often listen long, in vain, for the singer —
crone without leavinaf a trace behind. But it is not only the
soloists that charm us. There is also the combined effect

-* The Voices of the Wilderness

of all the voices of nature uniting in one vast impressive
chorus. This has made such an impression upon me
that I shall try, so far as my limited powers permit, to
describe it to the reader. This musical language of the
wilderness is in itself powerful, rich and impressive, but
all this in a still greater degree for him who, observing
things with the eyes of a seer, knows many of the voices
that resound in it will not be heard much longer.
Although for long, long ages, through hundreds of
thousands of years, this tumult of sound has been heard,
these voices, or many of them, will soon be silent victims
of civilisation ! They are going, and with them many of
the euphonious names of places with which the natives
have distinguished every spot, but which the Europeans,
as they penetrate into the country, feel themselves obliged
to change.

It may seem that I myself am not quite guiltless
of such misdeeds. It is true that I named an
island, that resort of the wild buffaloes in the Pangani
River, " Heck Island," in honour of Professor Ludwig
Heck. But the island had till then no name whatever.
One feels sad, on glancing over the map of Africa,
to note the degradation of so many old traditional
names, which is in no way justified, and is a sign of
the hasty and violent introduction of civilised life. " The
Boers are not people who think much about natural
history," says a writer somewhere. And in fact, through
their agency, the euphonious names of the various wild
species of South Africa are now to a great extent already
obsolete. They hastily gave vulgar-sounding names of

285

In Wildest Africa ^

their own to the wild animals.^ Thus the oryx antelope
became the " gemsbock," and the cow-antelope, because
it was tenacious of life and difficult to kill, the " harte-
beest." The gnu, on account of its wildness, was called
the " wildebeest," the bustard the " pauw," ' the hyena the
" wolf," and the giraffe— incredible though it may seem—
the " kameel " ! Hand in hand with this went the changing
of place-names : so we read of " Hartebeests Fontein,"
" Olifants River," " Kameeldoorn," " Zwartkop," and we
have a whole series of unpleasant, and sometimes utterly
ugly names by the introduction of which the beautiful
aboriginal names of various places have become obsolete.
Thus not only do the primitive inhabitants of the land
disappear, but their names, too, are blown away upon
the wind.

Countless are the voices that resound by day in the
Nyika. But by night these voices speak still more
mysteriously and wonderfully to him who listens to them,
bringing him into still closer union with nature. From
the multitude of these voices 1 choose a few only.

Old memories come back to me! It is in the year
1896. 1 have just landed, and am sitting in my night
shooting-encampment by an inlet of the sea near Dar-
es-Salaam. A concert of the voices of nocturnal birds
mingles with the sharp buzz of the mosquitoes. Agam
and again one hears a strange cry. Unspeakably sad
and monotonous, this peculiar sound rings out over the

1 Unfortunately such ridiculous and ugly names as gemsbock, harte-
beest, wildebeest, etc., have gradually come into general use.

2 Fainv is Dutch {ox peacock.

286

< i

-^^

-^ The Voices of the Wilderness

waters of the inlet ; in the distance a changing answer
comes back in response to it.

I cHcl not then suspect tJiat it i^'onld take nie nearly
a year to be absolutely certain that this sound was
uttered by an extremely shy and restless kind of
cuckoo !

This sound of the xA.frican night always made the
strongest impression upon me, and remains indelibly in
my memory. AH that one heard from near at hand,
or from the distance miles awav, had its origin not in
man's voice or in human activity of any kind, but must
come from birds and beasts to a great extent unknown
to us. One had to interpret, to conjecture, to build
up theories. Often one struck upon the correct solution.
But often enough, too, the interpretation one accepted
proved to be false, and then one's anxiety to find out
the true solution, aroused anew, was doubly keen. The
first time I heard it, I had no difficulty in interpreting
for myself the cry of the monkeys harassed in the
night by leopards, a screaming of a kind one cannot
easily forget, plainly expressing the greatest terror. The
first time one heard the neighing of the herds of zebras
it was much more difficult to recognise the sound, and
the gobbling cry of the ostrich had at first a still
stranger effect. But as soon as I had heard the voice
of the zebras a tew times, it was clear to me that the
extinct quagga of South Africa must have derived its
name from Its cry. If one puts the accent on the
second syllable, and pronounces the g softly and deep
In the throat, one has, as one repeats It, a wonderful

289 19

In Wildest Africa ^

reproduction of the cry of the zebra as I heard it

mysehV

What a pity that all this cannot be put on permanent
record by some such apparatus as a gigantic phonograph !
But unfortunately we are stiU a long way from such a

possibility.

No one will be surprised at my keeping specially in
mind that endlessly melancholy cry of the cuckoo in the
darkness. How lonely and empty our German woodlands
would seem without the cuckoo and the cuckoo cry !
As a matter of fact the African primeval forest never
hears the same cry that has become so dear to ourselves.
Our cuckoo, migrating in a few days all the way from
the north to the equator, flies in resdess haste through
wood and plain, but he is silent. His cry is heard only
in our country at home. But in the East Africa district
of Fori, amongst many other cries those of two species
f cuckoo are heard in rivalry. These are the sickle
cuckoo— the "Tipi-tipi" of the Swahili— a reddish-brown
fellow that flutters in heavy flight everywhere about the
bush, the reedy bogs and hill-slopes ; and the solitary
cuckoo {Cnculus solitarius. Step.), about whose cry I
was for a long time mistaken. The unceasing, low cry
of the former, the sickle cuckoo, if it is heard even a
few times, can never again be forgotten. It sounds like
— " Dut-diit— dududu— dut-diit." One hears it by day and
also in the darkest night, contrasting strongly with the

1 Cf. Prof. P. Matschie, Die Sixiigeticrc Deutsch-Ostafrikas (" Tlie
Mammalici of German East Africa "), P- 96, and my work With FIcshlight
and Rifle.

290

-^ The Voices of the Wilderness

sharply defined, clear note of our European cuckoo, though
the latter listens in silence to the cry of his cousins all
through the winter under the equator. This cry seems
to me, with its low, dull, softly prolonged tones— so
different from the louder cry of its northern relative—
to be quite in keeping with its mysterious tropical home.
For the sickle cuckoo knows all its deepest mysteries,
and no bird ranges so unweariedly through the densest
thickets and over the most inaccessible regions. In the
most hidden, solitary, and unknown spots ^ it would come
Muttering up from the ground at my feet, often startling
me. It seemed to me as if the bird wanted to call my
attention to newly discovered mysteries, as its " Dut-diit—
dududu — dut-dut " came sounding to me, now here, now
there, low, soft and melodious, by day under the broodino-
noonday heat, and just the same in the midnight hours.

At night, too, he is seconded, as I have already
mentioned, by his more timid cousin, with an ever
repeated " Ki-kiid^ii — ki-kii-kii," that resounds monotonously
in the distance.

There is a strange charm in continually hearing these
voices again and again, without knowino- the little sinoers •
and a triumph at last in making out which they are.

" During a sleepless night," said Richard Wagner,
" I once went out upon the balcony of my window on
the Grand Canal at Venice. As if in a deep dream the
legend-haunted city of the lagoons lay spread out before

^ From the Cameroon district in West Africa Professor Yngwe
Sjostedt writes to me also of a nearly related species of cuckoo that
has much the same cry.

291

In Wildest Africa ^

me under the darkness. Out of the soundless silence
there came the loud call of a gondolier waking up just
then on his boat .... then from the farthest distance
the same call answered back along the dark canal; I
recognised the old, melancholy, melodious sounds, doubtless
as old as the canals of Venice and their people. After
a solemn pause the far-sounding dialogue at last began,
and it seemed to me to melt into harmony, till the notes
heard close at hand and coming more softly from afar
died away as sleep came back to me again."

Who could describe in such noble words the impression
made upon our minds by the spell of the sounds and
son^s of the nocturnal wildness, and all its strange and
beautiful music? All that at first is strange there, and
even alarming, comes gradually to be something one
loves intimately. Shall I ever be able to listen to it all
again ? Who knows ? Let me try then to make some
record of what I have so often heard, and in these few
sentences attempt to give some faint echo of these once

familiar voices.

We are in the midst of the great forest. Giant
podocarpus and juniper trunks rise up towards the sky.
It is cool and shady all around us here; we breathe a
moist, and not unfrequently a musty air. The sunlight
plays only upon the tops of these giants of the primeval
woods, and can but scantily illumine the almost bare
ground below them, sending here and there shimmering,
dancing rays of light amongst the tree-trunks. High
overhetid the giants arch their branches, interlacing them
in a vast living roof of green. Only where clearings

292

-^ The Voices of the Wilderness

make a break in the mass of trees, a sea of light floods
all the ground — a flood of light so strong that our eyes,
accustomed to the obscurity, the mysterious semi-darkness
of the forest, are dazzled, and there comes to our minds
involuntarily recollections of old Bible pictures, in which
such floods of light are shown streaming down from
heaven to earth. A confusion of trees, creepers and
undergrowth, with amidst it uprooted tree-trunks lying
mouldering away ; the earth black, and often marshy ;
no road or way far and wide, but only here and there
the tracks and beaten paths made by the elephants and
rhinoceroses that have roamed the old forest since primeval
times.

Deep silence all around. If the traveller stands still
and holds his breath, this silence seems to weieh down
upon the soul with a weird force. At such moments
it is as though some vague disaster threatened, or some-
thing wicked and dangerous were creeping around unseen.

Suddenly, a squealing and chattering. There is a

scurry up and down the tree-trunks, and again there

is a strange sound of spitting and growling. Just now

there had come over us a feeling such as is expressed

in Bocklin's ^ masterly picture, directly inspired by nature,

Schzveigen des Waldcs (the "Silence of the Forest").

We had almost expected each moment that legends set

before us by the power of his genius would here become

1 Franz Hermann Meissner in his work, Arnold BocJdin, says : " I
have often found that I had to consider these pictures with the blue
eyes of an old Ostrogoth seer of primitive days." And I am of opinion
that in order to take full delight in the charm of the tropics one must
look on them with northern eyes.

293

Ill Wildest Africa -»>

realities ; we felt that here one might surprise nymphs
and dryads. The spell is soon broken. The gnomes
of the primeval forest, the tree-climbing hyraxes, have
scared away the silence. Wonderful to say, these dwarfish
hoofed animals, the nearest still surviving relatives of the
rhinoceros, are here scrambling up and down on the
trunks of the venerable trees.

From all sides, from every spot, every direction,
there resound the same cries, and again there is silence
all around us. Here, far in the depths of the primeval
forest, the bird world seems to have no home. But
hark ! I hear a curious chirping, and I notice on a bare
boucrh above me one of the most gloriously coloured of
African birds, the banded trogon {Hete7^otrogon vittatum,
Shell.), which, uttering a most peculiar sound, is carrying
on its characteristic sport—flapping its beautiful wings.

Then loud-sounding trumpet-like notes break on
the ear. We hear a rushing in the air, and big horn-
bills with their huge beaks come sailing, as I judge
by their cries, through the air, and alight on the top
of a giant juniper {Juuipcrus proccra). They, too, fly
away after awhile ; their trumpeting dies away in the
distance, and again there is silence all around. Their
voices and that of the brightly coloured helmet-bird give
to the primeval forest of Africa a strange charm that
is all its own.

But now there suddenly breaks forth a remarkable
sound, rising and again falling as I listen, a strange music
of a most peculiar kind. It is the chatter of the colobus
monkeys, a sound that cannot be described in words.

294

-»i The Voices of the Wilderness

A party of these wonderful creatures seems to be in good
humour, for their song comes to me in chorus unceasingly,
and in rising- strength. " Muruh-muruh-muruh-rrrrrrmiih
rrrrrrmiih-muriih quoi-quo-quo-quo-rrrr," it sounds, now
swelling strongly out, now gently dying away. These,
too, are doomed to death, who now are letting us hear
their primitive song, that in our days may so easily be

AN ALARUM-TURACO CHIZAERHIS /. AYl .'.,.; s 77, ./ 1 IX ITS PLACE OF SAFETY
AMONG THE ACACIA THORNS.

their death-song ; for these monkeys are keenly hunted
for the sake of their beautiful fur, and their song often
betrays them to the hunter, eager for their spoils. Some
poisoned darts, which I find here with points as sharp
as needles, and which were once shot with a bad
aim at the little monkevs, are evidence enough of this.
And ao-<un I hear the o-reat wood rino-ino; and echoino-

In Wildest Africa -^

with the countless cries of birds. There was a time,
too. when the call of millions of the now all but extinct
passenger pigeon resounded in North America ; so, too —
and of this I have no doubt— the cooing of the ringdoves
was heard repeated by thousands of birds in our beech
and oak woods at home when the acorns and beech-nuts
were in season.

On the lonely uninhabited western slopes of the
highest giant mountain of the German possessions, Blount
Kilimanjaro, certain forest fruits flourish in profusion.
There is heard on every side a strong, sweet-sounding
dove-note, like that of our ringdove. A handsome large
species of wood-pigeon {Cohtiuba aquatri.w Tem.) has
gathered in hundreds of thousands. The rustle of their
wings, as they rise or come down in great flocks, mingles
with their beautiful calls and cries ; the ear can hear
nothino- else. Voice, form, and movement so strongly
remind one of our own ringdoves that one feels carried
away to far-oft', familiar scenes, and the illusion is helped
by the character of the Kilimanjaro landscape, which in
certain of the higher regions has less of a tropical than
of a northern aspect. How strange it is ; the cry ot
this bird all at once transports the traveller to his own
land ! Truly there is a magic in sound. With the poorest
appliances, the slightest equipment, the creative fancy
can in a moment build a bridge to the Fatherland. The
call of this beautiful dove sounding here on every side,
its love-inspired circling high in air above the tops of
the giants of the primeval forest, surrounds it with a
dream-picture, and makes me suddenly breathe the air

296

■^ The Voices of the Wilderness

of the beech woods, I am in the northern woods in
springtime ; cool and fragrant the northern air blows
round me. But ah ! thousands of miles of land and sea
divide me from all that, and cool reflective reason counts
only on the possibility, not the certainty, of my ever
seeing my native land again.

And yet this beautiful picture has a strengthening
and consoling influence. It drives away the trouble of
home-sickness — a dismal thing !

I can hear many other voices besides these in the
primeval forest. But those that impress themselves in
the most completely enduring way on the memory are
the strange cry of the tree-hyrax, the peculiar note
of the hornbills, that calling of the doves, the remarkable
chorus song of the 'Mhega monkeys, strange beyond
all description, and the trumpeting of the lord of the
primeval forest, the elephant.

Another tone-picture — an early morning at a drink ing-
place in the desert. One could feel the cold in the
night, but the quick coming warmth of the equatorial
sun's rays has soon roused the animal world to active
life. There is the cry and call of the francolins on all
sides. But the chief part in this early concert is taken
by the thousands of turtle-doves, flying from all directions
to the water. Everywhere a murmuring and cooing, that
the Masai are able to re-echo so incomparably in the
name of the turtle-dove in their language — " 'Ndurgulyu."
As an accompaniment to this, there is the rustling
and wing-clapping of all the feathered visitors at the
water. Towarcis evening the air In the neighbourhood

297

In Wildest Africa -9,

of a much-visited drinking-place is literally filled with
these beautiful and swift-winged birds. The rusding and
beating of their wings in rapid flight makes in itself a
concert. I not unfrequendy came upon places that bore
the name of the " Doves' water," or the " Doves' resting-
place." All the various voices of the many species of
doves that find a home in the Nyika resound again in
the traveller's ears for years after. Whether it be the
strange voice of the parrot-pigeon, that ushers in the
concert with a hollow " Kruh-kruh " and follows it up
with some remarkable notes, or the melancholy cry of
the little steel-spotted pigeon that comes to us from the
thickets, or the strong, loud-sounding love-notes of
the already-mentioned Colmnba aguatrix, Tem., so like
our ringdove, or, above all, the familiar sweet voices of
the many small kinds of turde-doves— all these sounds, the
rustling and fluttering and beating of wings, the living,
moving picture presented by all these beautiful birds,
belong inseparably to the essence and being of the
Nyika. When the turtle-doves greet the morning with
their soft cooing, their call is answered from afar by
strange guttural tones borne swiftly through the air,
sounding like " Gle-gle-lagak-gle-aga-aga," from the velt-
fowl hurrying like themselves to the water. Brehm, in
his Lcbcii der ]'ogcL has already raised a poetical
monument to them made up of beautiful lines. But I
could not picture to myself the morning concert of the
bird world in the Nyika without the strange cry of
the sand-fowl and the cooing of the doves, and the
peculiar sound of the beating wings of the velt-fowl as

298

^. rhe X'oices of the Wilderness

they rise in scattered flight from their resting-places, — a
sound that impresses itself strongly and distinctly on the
ear, more than that of any other bird I know, as the
" Klack-klack-klack " of the rising woodcock strikes the
ear of the sportsman in Germany.

The wonderful flight of the velt-fowl, their calls
and cries, their hurry and bustle, afforded me ever new-
interest. It always seemed to me as though the wide
wilderness here sent out its lovingly guarded favourite
children as envoys, with the mission of making it known
that even now, in this dull, barren time, life has not
died out even in the most remote deserts. So I see
and hear them once more in fancy, beautiful, timid, and
full of the joy ot life. It is thus their countless millions
enliven the wastes of Africa, as well as the endless tundra
marshes of Asia.

Deep, long-drawn-out notes, like those of musical
glasses, ring in my ears. The brooding noonday heat
is round me. The sun is in the zenith, and hardly
another sound is to be heard all around. The wilderness
lies before me in the hot glowing sunlight as if dead.
My weary bearers have given themselves up to a dozing
sleep, at the place where I have at last halted, after a
march of many hours with a few companions.

Before me is a miniature mountain-world lighted up
by the dazzling sunbeams. There is a mass of precipitous
rocks, so characteristic of the Masai- Xyika district, that
stretches away into the distance. The Candelabra
Euphorbias spread out their strange forms against the
light, in grotesque clumps, and seem to me to make

299

In Wildest Africa ^

themselves one with the rocks, whose inorganic character
and nature appear to be repeated in their characteristic

forms.

From out of the midst of this stony wilderness these
remarkable notes come sounding in my ears. They seem
to be mysterious voices of rock and stone. The eye
searching expectantly for the singer that is uttering
this belldike melodious music can discover nothing.
And yet the notes come from the throat of a bird. It
is once more some hornbills that are making their song
of love and wooing resound in this wilderness. I have
been able to listen to them for hours, losing myself in
dreams, and 1 cannot say why I seemed to identify
precisely these bird-voices with the voice of the African
Sphinx, that legendary Sphinx which has sung already
to so many, and lured many back again for ever. Thus
may the songs and voices of the old sanctuaries of
Northern Africa once have been. Again and again,
when I heard it, I had to think of those men who,
with burning longing in their hearts, went forth into the
Dark Continent to wrest from it the secrets of its fauna,
but had to pay for the undertaking with their lives.

A burning glow of sunshine, a dazzling light in
overwhelming^ abundance over all the desert waste of
rock— and amidst it, again and again, that deep, ghostly,
metallic note, that directly impresses the traveller as
though it were the language of the wilderness, peculiarly
its own. But how can I describe all this in words ?

And at a moment like this, as if to heighten the effect,
over there the voice of the mightiest bird that the earth

300

C. C. 5cV; ////«_..., /,/,ot.

NESTS OF WEAVER-BIRDS ON THE BOUGHS OF AN ACACIA.

-^ The \'oices of the Wilderness

bears in this our day sounds forth. I hear in the distance

the ringing cry of a hen-ostrich, and I listen to it with

attention strained to the highest point.

The strange duet has now long died away. But it

often comes up to me again in the midst of the movement

of civihsed life and takes me back on the wings of fancy

to the glorious beauty of the wilderness.

But that uncouth tropical singer is not really needed

to conjure up this frame of mind. A little unseen lark,

all by itself, can evoke for me the charm of the solitudes

of Nyi'ka as with a magic wand.

How this comes to pass, I will tell the reader. We

must make a long tour. Now we are in the north, in
our native country, in the midst of the spring, amongst
the spreading fields of our German homeland. The song
of the lark fills the air, and our heart expands to its
music. We go out upon the open moor. We hear a
trilling and quavering of another kind, with a strangely
sweet touch of sadness in it, especially at night— the song
of the woodlark. But now let the reader follow me to
the little island of Heligoland. In the glare from the
lighthouse, that sends afar its rays,— in this case rays that
bring destruction,— countless numbers of larks flutter
and wheel about, bewildered in the darkness of the
autumn night, and full of anxiety and fear. On a dark,
rainy October night thousands of them fall victims to
the death that lies waiting in ambush for them below
this tower raised by the hand of man. Their little wings
have brought them safe over the ocean to the small island.
But there one hears no rejoicing song. No ! there

In Wildest Africa ^

resounds only something like an agonised cry tor help
from weak creatures in the direst peril of death.

Millions of larks fly thus each year southwards and
northwards, obedient to that mysterious migratory m^^ulse
that guides them on their way.

The sono- of the lark and the cry of the lark are
very differen't things. To those who know them they
mean a song of happy springtime, and a cry for help
in the night of death. _

How comes it that I thus speak of, and have to thmk
of, sounds uttered by the birds here at home ? Snnply
because over there, in other lands, my flmcy so often and
so readily imagined the flying bird to be a messenger,--a
courier for thoughts of home,-and connected such wishes
and longings with its appearance and disappearance.

In autumn, the noblest of our northern songsters
makes its way in a few days and nights into the inmost
heart of the Dark Continent. It disappears again in
spring, to return to the north over velt and desert,
n.orass, mountain and sea. The cuckoo, that only a
few days ago could be seen in our northern lands by the
eyes of men who knew how to recognise it, I see on the
African velt, a wandering, fleeting visitor. Thus it seems
to bring me a greeting, like that brought by our oriole,
our nio-htingale, and many other children of the homeland.
No" one can be surprised that in these solitudes these
birds, and their coming and going, are closely associated
with our thoughts. It is the less to be wondered at
seeino- that they are all such eloquent witnesses to the
mirack that these weak creatures with their feeble wings

;o.

-»> The Voices of the Wilderness

twice each year traverse continents and tly safely over
seas.

We cannot help thinking of the lark and its spring
song at home, when in the wikJs of Africa we hear its
voice ; and it appeals so impressively to the wanderer in the
wilderness, that afterwards it has the power of brineino-
back by its music a picture of the Nyika in all its
characteristic wildness. It is a song that has a character
of its own. When I hear it, if it is in the Nyi'ka,
I cannot help thinking of the songster's frail, weak
brethren of Europe, that, following an irresistible
impulse, are perhaps at this moment meeting their
death on the little island of Heligoland — obedient to the
same instinct that sends myriads of their kind each year
towards pole or equator. For even as the northern
song of the lark awakens the soft, poetic spell of
smiling fields, so, too, the mysterious and still deeply
veiled spell of the Nyi'ka can find expression in its
wonderful music.

Small, invisible almost, it rises in the air. Soon it is
lost to sight in the sky. Then suddenly a song that,
though so often heard before, is still a marvel, comes
distinctly on the ear, its notes sharply accented and
emphasised as if it were close to us. There is a sharp,
rhythmical, clapping sound, as if small laths or pieces of
whalebone were being rattled together. It comes from
that tree right in front of us. No mistake about it seems
possible. But the eye searches in vain for the producer
of the sound.

Again and again one is deceived in this way. Who

305 ^o

In Wildest Africa ^

could imagine that that little bird far away over there,
a hardly perceptible speck on the horizon, is producing this
strange music ? " Knack ! knack ! knack ! " again, and yet
ao-ain, it comes to us ringing out loud and clear. Our
little invisible songster does not tire of pouring out its
strange misleading song. It is a kind of love-song of
a species of lark, which was discovered by Fischer some
fifteen years ago and bears the name of the naturalist,
now long deceased; Mirafra fischeri, Rchw.,^ is its
scientific name. Its clapping and rattling are undoubtedly
part of the charm of a journey in certain districts of the
Masai-Nyika.

Even in my tent, in the midst of the comparatively
loud noise of the busy camp of my numerous caravan, I
can hear the clapping, rattling voice of this lark. Some
hundreds of yards away it flies up into the sky, like our own
skylark, and hovers about clattering in the air, so loudly
and distinctly that if I did not know its character and
habits, I would have been continually looking for it close
to my tent. It is very hard to quite free oneself from
this illusion. One continually thinks that one hears the
cry of the bird in one's immediate neighbourhood, the
sound being produced much in the same way as that of

the snipe.

And yet another strange voice of a lark resounds
in my ears : a melancholy, plaintive, soft sound, till
now unknown to me and to most others. All night
lono- its calls and cries resound about my camp. I
should never have thought that it was a lark [Mirafra
1 Cf. Professor Dr. A. Reichenow, Die Vogel Afrikas.
306

-^ The Voices of the Wilderness

intercedens Rchw.) that thus made itself heard in the
night, as our woodlarks do in moonlight nights at
home. It was at the cost of much careful research
that the discovery was made of what bird produced this
sono-.

And the strange voice of yet another bird is inseparable
from my recollections of the wilderness of East Africa.
The xerophytic flora of the far-spreading thorny mimosa
thickets gives shelter to a privileged member of the bird
world, which is thus guarded in safety from all clanger
amid their thorny boughs and branches. I refer to a
peculiar bird, belonging to the group of the Musophagicte,
grey-feathered, green-beaked, long-tailed, and adorned
with a crest. l^his strange fellow roves about rest-
lessly—a bird about as big as a jay, misleading the
traveller with his cry in the most curious way. Science
calls him Chizaei-his lencogastra, Riipp. ; the German
language has given him the name of '' Ldrmvoger'
(" noisy bird ").

And he has a perfect right to bear his name. There
resounds somewhere near us, and in a way that completely
deceives us, now the barking and snarling of a dog, now
the bleating of sheep. Following the direction of the
sound we look to see what produces it, and we find our
bird hopping about nimbly upon the tops of the thorn-
trees and acacias, appearing to have no anxiety about
the thorny spikes of the branches, in which he makes his
home. With a cleverness that borders on the miraculous
he makes his way amongst them, protected by them
against the attacks of birds or beasts of prey, and in his

307

In Wildest Africa -^

conscious reliance on the security of his dwelHng-place,
so to say, mocking at all enemies. So deceptive
are his cries that at first, and especially when I was
in the neighbourhood of native settlements, I was
continually Poking everywhere for sheep and their

shepherds.

Many other tvpical bird-voices live in my memory.
I hear the peculiar plaintive cry of the large cormorants
that are busv with their fishing by the salt lakes of the
wilderness, a cry that seems most fitted for these solitudes.
The mysterious chattering and chirping of the little
swamp-fowl come to my ear from the shallows and the
bushes along the banks of silent rivers of the primeval
forest, a bird-language so strange that the natives believe
the birds are conversing with the fish in the stream. I
hear the cackling of the knowing Nile-geese, that seem
to be always engaged in conversation ; when on the wing,
too, a pair of them, in their affectionate fidelity, have
always some warning, some reminder of something or
other to call out to each other. Where their cry resounds
one hears also frequently that of the wonderful, waihng
peewit ; it has a plaintive and melancholy eftect on the
mind of the listener. Far difi"erent is the noisy outcry
of its brightly coloured cousin, a denizen of the thirsty
wilderness {Stephanibyx coronatus. Bodd.). Shrill and
harsh the voice of the bird rings out. a watch-cry by day
and night, and when in bright moonlight nights they fly
in flocks over the camp. Swarms of these remarkable
birds, the police of the wilderness in feathered uniforms,
flutter around the traveller as he approaches. They rum

30S

-^ The Voices of the Wilderness

his attempts to stalk wild animals, and their strident
screeches, to which all other animals hearken, haunt him
long after, as also the call and cry of the large, yellow-
eyed thick-knee, an inhabitant of the loneliest solitudes.
But I cannot imagine the low shores of African lakes
and the sea-coast without the cry of the widely distributed

t^'

«ki**-\

A SHRIKE (L.-JX/t-S C.-IVD.ITCS' Cab.) ON THE LOOK-OUT FROM THE HIGH BOUGHS
OF AN ACACIA. ITS CRIES WHEN IT SEES A HUNTER ON THE MOVE
OFTEN WARN THE ANIMALS HE IS STALKING.

.sandpiper, which has its home in the for north. In winter
its low pkiintive cry is heard at every step : but even in
summer the trained ear can distinguish it here and there.
These individual stragglers from the north are thus to
be found during all times of the year in this distant
country, while the most of their kindred tribe have

309

In Wildest Africa ^

successfully made their way to the Polar lands, their usual
summer breeding-place.

High over my head the voice of the pretty avocet
{^Recurvirostra avocetta. L.), one of the most charming
forms of the bird world known to us, transports me by
magic to the distant and mournful lakes of the Masalland
wilderness. What the dwarf bustards {Otis gindiana,
Oust.) keep calling out to each other with their continually
repeated " Ragga-ga-ragga " is not to be discovered. But
their cry, which has kept the fancy of the natives busy
since olden days, Is as Inseparably associated with regions
on which the grass grows high, as the voices and cries
of the sandfowl, the francollns, and, above all, the
jarring outcries of the guinea-fowl, on the velt. All the
manifold voices of doves, cuckoos, parrots, hornbills,
bee-eaters, shrikes, orioles, starlings, finches, weaver-
birds, sylvlans, and the rest, calling, exulting, rejoicing,
uttering cries of alarm or complaint, have woven them-
selves Into my recollections of happy days and days

of toil.

Thus there still rings In my ear the triple note of
the yellowish green bulbul [Pycnonotus layardi, Gurn.),
which, like our sparrow, Is present everywhere, till one
almost tires of it. Most curious Is the friendly play which
the handsomely coloured glossy starling {Spreo superlms,
Riipp.) carries on with a weaver-bird {Dincmellia diuemclli.
[Hartl.] Riipp) in flights like those of our sparrows. It
comes back to me all the more vividly when I recall
the notes uttered by these two birds, which, though such
close friends and taking such delight in each other's

The Voices of the Wilderness

company, are so distantly related. The curious warbling
of the honey-finder [Indicator indicator, Gm.), which
often guides the man who follows it to a wild bees' nest,
also easily makes a permanent impression on the ear of
the traveller.

And there are many other bird-voices that delight
any one who takes pleasure in sound. When silvery
moonbeams streamed over the camp, the night-jars
(especially Caprimulgus fossei [Verr.] Hartl.) buzzed and
hummed forth their strange song everywhere around. No
matter how remote and desolate the wilderness in which
the traveller laid down his head to rest, these goat-suckers
were to be heard. Their voice makes a strong impression
on us even in our own country in the lonely woods, but
its effect is much more striking on the far-off equatorial
velt. With noiseless soft beatino; of its winos the bird
comes gliding past us ; its wings almost touch us. When
it pours forth its song, its monotonous sleepy song, I
could listen to it for hours. In the daytime it starts up
suddenly from the ground here and there in front of
you, uttering the feeblest of cries, that it is impossible
to represent. In the next instant it vanishes like some
huge moth, and even the sharpest eye cannot dis-
tinguish it amongst the dry branches and leaves, or
clinging close to the rocky ground. The song of the
night-jar is among my most vivid recollections of the
bird-voices of Africa.

In the neighbourhood of water, wherever it may be,
and in the thick undergrowth, wherever the African
wilderness extends, you hear the call and cry of a peculiar

^i I

In Wildest Africa -»>

bird-voice. It rings out through the stillness with a
deep double piping note, that impresses itself in a lasting
way on the ear. It is the voice of the handsome organ-
shrike {Lauiarins ccthiopicus, Gni.). These shrikes, which
mate permanently, always utter this note in such quick
succession, one of the pair after the other, that at first
you think you are listening to only a single bird. This
beautiful bird-note indicates the proximity of water, and
thus it has acquired quite a special significance in these

countries.

Finally there is no sound from the throat of a bird
that I call to mind so plainly, or so continually, as the
song of the African nightingale [Erithacus africanus,
[Fschr.] Rchw.). I have very frequently heard this beautitul
song during the months of our winter, in many districts
round Kilimanjaro. When I heard it unexpectedly for
the first time. I was most deeply moved by it. Ten
years ago I heard it during a day's march in the wooded
gullies of the great volcanic mountain, and it was most
dear and full and beautiful. I never expected thus to
hear this northern bird-voice in the tropics. Later on,
when I was camped at a considerable altitude in the
primeval forests of Kilimanjaro, I was saluted with the
cries of northern migratory birds, that, wheeling round
the mountain, seemed to be flying over its everlasting
snowfields. It was a strange coincidence in those
Christmas days, the song of the northern nightingale,
and those northern birds of passage on the wing under
the equatorial sun! It is worth noting that this voice of
the nightingale was the only genuine northern bird-song

,12

-^ The \'oices of the Wilderness

that I ever heard in Africa. That our nightingale also
sometimes breeds there is indicated by the discovery of
its nest by the late Dr. Fischer. But the problem o(
the extraordinary identity in character of this nightingale
with its northern sister still awaits solution. Many
difficult observations will have to be made in order to
investigate it thoroughly.

What a contrast to this song of our northern
nightingale is presented by the voices of the hyenas
and jackals, the strange cry uttered by the leopard, all
the sounds emitted by the antelopes, and finally the
indescribably startling, harsh-sounding bellow of the
crocodile !

But neither individually nor collectively can the effect
of all these voices be expressed in words. They associate
themselves with the forms of a flora untouched by the
hand of man, and the unceasing throb of animal life. I
think of them all together as a theatre of nature now
flooded with sunlight, now in the mysterious darkness of
night, or with glistening moonbeams playing over it.
What impresses one so much is not merely these individual
voices, but the way in which all the myriad voices
mingle in one mighty chorus.

If this symphony of nature is to be written down, it
must be by some master who will combine in one
marvellous melody these musical utterances that are so
mighty and impressive, so full of mystery and charm,
and so often dying away in the deepest and most delicate
cadences. None of these tones should be missing, no
note of them all should be struck out.

In Wildest Africa -^

I should like to set in contrast with this mighty
primeval harmony of the wilderness the sounds and
voices of the modern industrial world, which gradually
and unwittingly we take to be something natural. He
who would feel all its greatness and perfection must keep
himself far away for weeks and months from the screamhig
whistle he hears on the railway and the howling siren of

a steamship.

Then there is the insect world ! Those flower-covered
bushes have attracted a multitude of great droning beetles.
They hasten to them in heavy flight. On the ground
a host of scarabsus beedes are busy with their special
work. The ceaseless sharp chirps of the cicadas sing
their continual song. Through all its variations there
o-oes on this hum and buzz of the millions and mfllions
of the lower creation. And joined with it there ring
out the thousands and thousands of songs of the birds ;
the powerful voices of the great mammals bellow over
plain and bushland, through swamps and primeval forests,
over dale and hill. The concert of the feathered songsters
is suddenly silent, as, it may be, the harsh cry of the
leopard resounds, or the mighty, dull, rumbling roar of
the king of the desert thunders over the earth ; or the
trumpet-like cry of the elephant vibrates through the
woods ; or harsh war-cries from human lips, battle-songs
of primitive men, are heard-but heedless of it all, even
at these moments, day and night resound the weak voices
of all the myriads of lesser creatures of the animal world.
But he who penetrates into this wilderness must have
receptive senses to understand the full beauty of it all.

314

-^ The Voices of the Wilderness

For him this harmony exists wherever the primitive
animal world lives its life.

ON THE WEST SIDE OF KILIMANJARO I FOUND A BROOK, CALLED BY THE
MASAI "mOLOGH." about TEN MILES FROM THE WESTERN 'nJIRI
SWAMPS IN THE DRY SEASON IT SUDDENLY DISAPPEARS AMONG THE
STONES AND REACHES THE SWAMPS BY AN UNDERGROUND CHANNEL.

^ J "

In Wildest Africa -*

Glorious and grand, too. is the language of Nature
when she herself raises her primeval voice, associated
with no sound of life that we can perceive. Thus ,t
is in the hours of storm by night, when on the plam,
or in the primeval forest, or on the hill slopes, the thunder
roars round the little camp, and the crackling lightnmg
comes down in zig-zags. Then the rumbling thunder
the rushing downpour of the water-floods, the roar of
the storm-wind, speak with an inipressiveness that is
bevond all description. Then in their hour of death the
aiants of the primeval forest, the mighty, venerable
"rees suddenlv themselves find a voice that strikes
loudly on the ear ; they groan in the embrace of the
wind, and under its fury crash thundering to the ground.
Then when the earth and the rocks under our feet seem
to shake, when the powers of Nature are let loose in all
their mioht, when weak little man in his small tent,
alone in die midst of all this violence, listens to the sounds,
alone and abandoned like the sailor on a frail plank in
the midst ofa raging ocean, then it is that the wilderness
sines its greatest, noblest, most wonderful song.

The traveller may yet return to the African wilderness
and hear once more the voices of the smaller denizens
of the wild. The chirping of cicadas will lull hinn to
rest or the buzzing of the mosquitoes forbid it. Their
chirping and buzzing will bear witness that these waves
of life roll on untroubled and uninjured by the incoming
of civilisation. But the greater voices will become rarer and
rarer Soon the trumpeting of the elephant, the roar of the
lion, the bellow of the hippopotamus will be heard no longer.

■lib

-9:,

The Voices of the Wilderness

But to-day one can still hear all these sounds which
I have described, and which our most remote ancestors
listened to all day and all night in the ages when there
still lived in Europe a fauna very similar to that which
we find dying out in East Africa. By day and night
they go forth in trees and thickets, by swamp and
reed-bed. The song of birds is accompanied by the
monotonous deafening chorus of the bullfrogs. Even
in the traveller's tent the crickets chirp, and the night-
jar buzzes and buzzes past it, and tells and whispers of
the nightly life and movement of the animal world, in
its monotonous mysterious song.

A jackal holds a conversation with the evening star.
In the dark night the deep bass of the hyena is heard ;
and then it laughs aloud, in a weird, shrill, shrieking
treble. This laugh, seldom uttered, but when heard
making one's heart shudder, is not a thing to forget ; on
feverish nights it plagues one still in memory. No one
need jest about it who has not himself heard it. He
who has heard it understands how the Arabs take the
hyenas to be wicked men living under a spell.

Now at last the lion raises his commandino- voice, and
one thing only is wanting to the whole nocturnal spell —
the noisy trampling of timid and harassed droves of
zebras and other herds of wild things. But if the o-round
of the velt, hardened by the burning sun, rings once
more to the thundering hoof-beats of the zebras, the
eye fails in the darkness, and only our ears perceive by
their numberless sounds the waves of life that are surging
around us ; and then indeed the listener comes to full

3^7

In Wildest Africa ^

consciousness of how rich the animal-language of the
Nyika still is. . . . Nowhere else in the world of
to-day do all the voices of the wild resound more
impressively, and for him who listens to this language
there is no escape from that mysterious spell— the Spell of
the Elelescho !

SPURRED GEESE [PLkC J ROITLRLS G.i.\JBhNS/S).

VIII

In a Primeval Forest

SCENES of marvellous beauty open out before the
wanderer who follows the windinos of some o-reat
river through the unknown regions of Equatorial East
Africa.

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

319 21

In Wildest Africa ^

a few steps away from the sustaining river. The abun-
dance of fish in the river is tremendous in its wilder
reaches-inexhaustible, it would seem, despite the thousands
of animal enemies. The river continually overflows its
banks, and the resulting swamps give such endless oppor-
tunities for spawning that at times every channel is alive
with fry and inconceivable multitudes of small fishes.

It is onlv here and there and for short stretches that
the river is^ lost in impenetrable thickets. Marvellous
arc those serried ranks of trees! marvellous, too, the
sylvan o-alleries through which more usually it shapes its
,vay' Thev take the eye captive and seem to withhold
some unsuspected secret, some strange riddle, behind their
solid mass of succulent foliage. It is strange that these
primeval trees should still survive in all their strength with
all the parasitic plants and creepers that cling to them,
strangling them in their embrace. You would almost say
that t^hev lived on but as a prop to support the plants and
creepers in their fight for life. Convolvuli. white and
violet, stoop forward over the water, and the golden
yellow acacia blossoms brighten the picture.

In the more open reaches dragonflies and butterflies
o-listen all around us in the moist atmosphere. A grass-
areen tree-snake glides swiftly through the branches of a
shrub close by. A Waran {U'aranus mloticui) runs
to the water 'with a strange sudden rustle through
the parched foliage. Everywhere are myriads ot insects.
Wherever you look, the woods teem with lite. These
woods screen the river from the neighbouring velt,
the uniformity of which is but seldom broken m upon by

320

In a Primeval Forest

patches of vegetation. The character of the flora has
something northern about it to the unlearned eye, as is the
case so often in East Africa. It is only when you come
suddenly upon the Dutch palms {Borassus crt/iiopicus,
Mart., or the beautiful Hyphcsne t/icdaica, Mart.) that you
feel once again that you are in the tropics.

The river now makes a great curve round to the right.
A different kind of scene opens out to the gaze — a great
stretch of open country. In the foreground the mud-banks
of the stream are astir with hua^e crocodiles orlidino: into
the water and moving about this way and that, like
tree-trunks come suddenly to life. Now they vanish from
sight, but onlv to take up their position in ambush, ready
to snap at any breathing thing that comes unexpectedly
within their reach. Doubtless they find it the more easy
to sink beneath the surface ot the river by reason of the
o-reat number of sometimes quite heavv stones thev have
swallowed, and have inside them. I have sometimes found
as much as seven pounds of stones and pebbles in the
stomach of a crocodile.

The deep reaches of the river are their special domain.
Multitudes of birds frequent the shallows, knowing from
experience that they are safe from their enemy. One
of the most interesting things that have come under my
observation is the way these birds keep aloof from the
deep waters which the crocodiles infest. I have mentioned
it elsewhere, but am tempted to allude to it once again.

Our attention is cauo'ht bv the wonderful wealth of
bird-life now spread out before us in every direction.
Here comes a flock of the curious clatter-bills [Aua-

325

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

326

-»5 In a Primeval Forest

nothing but a certain mild surprise — at the sight of
man.

Now, with a noisy clattering of wings, those less
comely creatures, the Hagedasch ibises, rise in front of
us, filling the air with their extraordinary cry: "Heiha!
Ha heiha ! "

Now we have a strange spectacle before our eyes — a
number of wild geese, perched upon the trees. The great,
heavy birds make several f^dse starts before they make up
their minds to escape to safety. They present a beautiful
sight as they make off on their powerful wings. They are
rightly styled " spurred geese," by reason of the sharp
spurs they have on their wings. Hammerheads {Scopus
inubj^etta, Gm.) move about in all directions. A colony
of darters now comes into sight, and monopolises my
attention. A few of their flat-shaped nests are visible
among the pendent branches of some huge acacias, rising
from an island in mid-stream. While several of the lone-
necked fishing-birds seek safety in flight, others — clearly the
females — remain seated awhile on the eggs in their nests,
but at last, with a sudden dart, take also to their wings
and disappear. Beneath the nesting-places of these birds
I found great hidden shaded cavities, the resorts for ages
past of hippopotami, which find a safe and comfortable
haven in these small islands.

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

329

In Wildest Africa -^

curve alonq- the river's course, at a fair height. They are
returnino- to their nests, and as they draw near I get a
better chance of observing the varying phases of their flight.
But look where I may, I see all around me a wealth
of tropical bird-life. Snow-white herons balance them-
selves on the topmost branches of the acacias. Barely
visible against the deep-blue sky, a brood-colony of
wood ibis pelicans ( Tantalus ibis. L.) fly hither and thither,
seeking food for their young. Other species of herons,
notably the black-headed heron, so like our own common
heron {Ardea inelanocephala. \'ig., Chiklr.). and further
awav a o-reat flock of cow-herons {Buhulcus ibis, L.),
brooding on the acacias upon the island, attract my
attention. Egyptian Kingfishers [Cevyle riuiis, L.) dart
down to the water's edge, and return holding tiny fishes
in their beaks to their perch above.

The numbers and varieties of birds are in truth almost
bewildering to the spectator. Here is a marabou which
has had its midday drink and is keeping company for the
n^oment with a pair of fine-looking saddled storks {Ephip-
piorhym-hns senega Iciisis, Shaw) ; there great regiments of
crested cranes; single specimens of giant hQron {Ardea
goliath. Cretzschm.) keep on the look-out for fish in a
quiet creek; on the sandbanks, and in among ^ the
thickets alongside, a tern {CEdieneiuiis -jerniieiilafus, Cab.)
is enjoying a sense of security. Near it are gobbling
Egyptian geese and small plovers. A great number ot
cormorants now fly past, some of them settling on the
branches of a tree which has fallen into the water. They
are followed by Tree-geese {Deudroeygna lidiiata. E.),

-»> In a Primeval Forest

some plovers and night-herons, numerous sea-swallows
as well as seagulls; snipe {Gallinago media, Frisch.), and
the strange painted snipe {^Rostratiila denoaieiisis, L.), the
Actophylus africanus, and marsh-fowl {Ortvgoiiietra
piisilla ohscura, Neum.), spurred lapwing {Hoplopteinis
spectosus, Lcht.), and many other species. Now there
rings out, distinguishable from all the others, the clear
cry — to me already so familiar and so dear — of the
screeching sea-eagle, that most typical frequenter of
these riverside regions of Africa and so well meriting
its name. A chorus of voices, a very Babel of sound,
breaks continually upon the ear, for the varieties of small
birds are also well represented in this region. The most
beautiful of all are the cries of the organ-shrike and of the
sea-eagle. The veritable concerts of song, however, that
you hear from time to time are beyond the powers of
description, and can only be cherished in the memory.

There is a glamour about the whole life of the African
vv^onderland that recalls the forgotten feiry tales of child-
hood's days, a sense of stillness and loveliness. Every
curve of the stream tells of secrets to be unearthed and
reveals unsuspected beauties, in the forms and shapes of
the Phoenix palms and all the varieties of vegetation ; in
the indescribable tangle of the creepers ; in the ever-
changing effects of light and shade ; finally in the sudden
glimpses into the life of the animals that here make their
home. You see the deep, hollowed-out passages down to
the river that tell of the coming and going of the hippo-
potamus and rhinoceros, made use of also by the crocodiles.
It is with a shock of surprise that you see a specimen of our

In Wildest Africa -^

own great red deer come hither at midday to quench his
thirst— a splendid figure, considerably bigger and stronger
than he is to be seen elsewhere. A herd of wallowing
wart-hogs or river-swine will sometimes startle you into
hasty retreat before you realise what they are. The
tree-tops rock under the weight and motion of apes
unceasingly scurrying from branch to branch. Every
now and again the eye is caught by the sight of groups of
crocodiles, now basking contentedly in the sun, now
betaking themselves again to the water in that stealthy,
sinister, gliding way of theirs.

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

it now remains.

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

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

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

-) -I A

oo4

C. G. Sc/n7h'/ii,rs, phot.

A fisherman's bag ! THREE CROCODILES SECURED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE
WAY DESCRIBED IN " WITH FLASHLIGHT AND RIFLE."

-^ In a Primeval Forest

rainy season. In the dry season they present insuperable
obstacles to navigation of any kind.

The basin of the Djipe Lake in the upper reaches of the
Pangani, and the Pangani swamps below its lower reaches,
formed a kind of natural preserve for everv variety of the
marvellous fauna of East Africa. It was a veritable El
Dorado lor the European sportsman, but one attended by
all kinds of perils and difficulties. The explorer found
manifold compensation, however, for everythino- in the
unexampled opportunities afforded him for the study of
wild life in the midst of these stifling marshes and lagoons.
The experience of listening night after night to the myriad
voices of the wilderness is beyond description.

Hippopotami were extraordinarily numerous at one time
in the comparatively small basin of the Djipe Lake. In
all my long sojourn by the banks of the Pangani I only
killed two, and I never again went after any. There were
such numbers, however, round Djipe Lake ten years ao-o
that you often saw dozens of them together at one time.
I fear that by now they have been nearly exterminated.

Here, as everywhere else, the natives have levied but
a small tribute upon the numbers of the wild animals, a
tribute in keeping with the nature of their primitive
weapons. Elephants used regularly to make their way
down to the water-side from the Kilimanjaro woods. My
old friend Nguruman, the Ndorobo chieftain, used to lie in
wait for them, with his followers, concealed in the dense
woods along the river. But the time came when the
elephants ceased to make their appearance. The old
hunter, whose body bore signs of many an encounter

In Wildest Africa -^

with lions as well as elephants, and who used often to hold
forth to me beside camp fires on the subject ot these
adventures, could not make out why his eagerly coveted
quarry had become so scarce. Every other species of
" bier o-ame " was well represented, however, and accordmg
to the" time of the year 1 enjoyed ever fresh opportuni-
ties for observation. Generally speaking, it would be a case
of watching one aspect of wild life one day and another all
the next, but now and again my eyes and ears would be
surfeited and bewildered by its manifestations. 1 he sketch-
plans on which I used to record my day's doings and
seeino-s serve now to recall to me all the multiform
exper^iences that fell to my lot. What a pity it is that the
old explorers of South Africa have left no such memoranda
behind them for our benefit! They would enable us to
form a better idea of things than we can derive irom any
kind of pictures or descriptions.

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

^ Male Emperor-moths {Saturnia pyr'^ hasten Irom great distances,
even against the wind, to a female of the species emergn.g from he
chrysah^ state m captivity. Elephants, the author beheves, can scent a
fall of rain at a distance of many miles.

338

In a Primeval Forest

to nie to trace the immense footsteps of these nocturnal
visitors. Perhaps the cunning animals would have already
put several miles between my camp and their momentary
stopping place. But their tracks afforded me always most
interesting clues to their habits, all the more valuable by
reason of the rare chances one has of observing them in
daylight, when they almost always hide away in impenetrable
thickets. What excitement there is in the stiHed cry
" Tembo ! " In a moment your own eye perceives the
unmistakable traces ot the giant's progress. The next
thing to do is to examine into the tracks and ascertain as
far as possible the number, age and sex of the animals.
Then you follow theni up, though generally, as 1 have said,
in vain.

The hunter, however, who without real hope of over-
taking the elephants themselves yet persists in following
up their tracks just because they have so much to tell him,
will be all the readier to turn aside presently, enticed in
another direction by the scarcely less notable traces of a
herd of buffaloes. Follow these now and you will soon
discover that they too have found safety, having made their
way into an impenetrable morass. To make sure of this
you must perhaps clamber up a thorny old mimosa tree,
all alive with ants — not a very comfortable method of
getting a bird's-eye view. Numbers of snow-white ox-
peckers flying about over one particular point in the great
wilderness ot reeds and rushes betray the spot in which the
buffaloes have taken refugee.

The great green expanse stretches out before you
monotonously, and even in the bright sunlight you can see

-> 1 T

OHO

In Wildest Africa -^

no other sign of the animal life of various kinds conce^Jed
beneath the sea of rushes waving gently in the breeze.
Myriads of insects, especially mosquitoes and ixodides,
attack the invaders ; the animals are few that do not
fight shy of these morasses. They are the province of
the elephants, which here enjoy complete security ; ot the
hippopotami, whose mighty voice often resounds over them
by day as by night ; of the buffaloes, which wallow in the
mud and pools of water to escape from their enemies the
aadflies ; and finally of the waterbuck, which are also able
to make their way through even the deeper regions of the
swamp. Wart-hogs also— the African equivalent of our
own wild boars— contrive to penetrate into these regions,
so inhospitable to mankind. We shall find no other
representatives, however, of the big game ot Atrica. It is
only in Central Africa and in the west that certain species
of antelope frequent the swamps. In the daytime the
elephant and the buftalo are seldom actually to be seen in
them, nor does one often catch sight of the hippopotami,
thouo-h they are so numerous and their voices are to be
heard. As we grope through the borders of the swamp,
curlew {Glareola fiisca, L.) flying hither and thither all
around us, we are startled ever and anon by a sudden rush
of bush and reed buck plunging out from their resting-
places and speeding away from us for their lite. Even
when quite small antelopes are thus started up by the
sound of our advance, so violent is their flight that tor
the moment we imagine that we have to deal with some
huge and perhaps dangerous beast.

In those spots where large pools, adorned with wondertul

344

'■ o

- z

> p

^ 5
a

^ i

A SINGLE PAIR OF CRESTED CRANES W ICKi; OFTHX TO ]JE SKliX XJ.Ak

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

OF THIS BIRD.

ffplf

-^ In a Primeval Forest

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

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

355

In Wildest Africa ^

The quantities of fish I have found in every pool in
these swamps defy description — I am anxious to insist
upon this point — and this although almost all the count-
less birds depend on them chiefly for their food. Busy
beaks and bills ravage every pool and the whole surface
of the lagoon-like swamp for young fish and fry. The
herons and darters [Assingka riifa, Lacep. Daud.) manage
even to do some successful fishing in the deeper waters
of the river. And yet. in spite of all these Jish-eaters, the
river harbours almost a S2iperab2Lndance of fish}

Wandering along by the river, we take in all these
impressions. For experiences of quite another kind, we
have only to make for the neighbouring velt, now arid
again and barren, and thence to ascend the steep ridges
leading up to the tableland of Nyika.

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

^ The author would like to bring this fact home to all destroyers of
herons, kingfishers, and diving-birds.

C. G. Schillings, phot.

MY OLD FRIEND " NGURUMAN," A WANDOROBO CHIEF. HIS BODY IS SEARED
BY MANY SCARS THAT TELL OF ENCOUNTERS WITH ELEPHANTS AND LIONS.

-^ In a Primeval Forest

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

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

^6i

In W^ildest Africa -^

Only in this one region of the velt hcive I come upon this
exquisite bird {Tmetothylaciis tenellus, Cal.), nowhere else

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

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

362

V-^tj

<^^-^iyioo)y^A X^^^j,^^ix^

,^.,o^.- ,y;-" & _ i.i^^sr.;:t.:i.^!t^ ^^-^^p^i^^,.^ ^^^>f^a.x^
S'%^-''^'^'^ ^^%; 1 /v^^ |,^.^^ij.^ ^^i.i^^ ?^i.Sl%^^'^

Saw /r;_~^«?(f«!.i|i^df?^^

t-/fc^€^

%^-UA:.

..^.

■••1 r a-w^

C G. Schillings, phot.

FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION OF ONE OF MY HUNTING RECORD-CARDS, ENUMERATING
ALL THE DIFFERENT ANIMALS I SIGHTED ONE DAY (AUGUST 21 1 898) IN
THE COURSE OF AN EXPEDITION IN THE VICINITY OF THE MASImInI HILLS
HALF-WAY UP THE PANGANI RIVER. THE DOTTED LINE SHOWS MY ROUTE
AND THE NUMBERS INDICATE THE SPOTS AT WHICH I CAME UPON THE VARIOUS
SPECIES OF GAME. AT ANOTHER TIME OF THE YEAR THIS DISTRICT WOULD
BE ENTIRELY DESTITUTE OF WILD LIFE.

■^ In 3. Primeval Forest

extant In the river valleys, when hippopotami made their
home m the Rhine and Main, and elephants and rhinoceroses
still flourished. . . . What I saw there before me in the
flesh I learnt to see with my mind's eye in the lono--
forgotten past. It is the duty of any one whose good
fortune it has been to witness such scenes of charm and
lovehness to endeavour to leave some record of them as
best he may, and by whatever means he has at his
command.

A SEA-GULL,

369

■^¥-\

A MASAI THROWING HIS SPEAK.

After Elephants with Wandorobo

BIG game hunting is a fine education!" With this
opinion of Mr. H. A. Bryden I am in entire
agreement, but I cannot assent to the dictum so ofi:en cited
of some of the most experienced African hunters, to the
effect that Equatorial East Africa offers the sportsman no
adequate compensation for all the difficulties and dangers
there to be faced.

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

370

-^ After Elephants with Wandorobo

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

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

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

371

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

61-

ORYX ANTELOPE BULL, NOT YET AWARE OF MY APPROACH.

A HERD OF ORYX ANTELOPES {ORJX CALLOTIS. 1 h(
COAST-FOLK " CHIROA."

ALLED BY THE

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

UlAU OF A BULL WATERBUCK {COBUS £LL/J'S/PJ^rAJNL-S. Ogilb.).

After Elephants with Wandorobo

when incidents of this kind have been heaped up one on
another within a brief space of time, the effects upon the
nervous system become so great that even with the utmost
self-mastery a man ceases to be able to bear them. As
I have already said, the total number of casualties in the
ranks of African sportsmen is not inconsiderable.

In Germany, of course, we have time-honoured sports
of a dangerous nature too, but these are exceptions — for
instance, killing the wild boar with a spear, and mountain-
climbing and stalking.

In order to understand fully the mental condition of the
sportsman in dangerous circumstances such as I have
described, it is necessary to realise the way in which he
is affected by his loneliness, his complete severance from
the rest of mankind. There is all the difference in the"
world between the situation of a number of men taking
up a post of danger side by side, and that of the man who
stands by himself, either at the call of duty or impelled
by a sense of daring. He has to struggle with thoughts
and fears against which the others are sustained by mutual
example and encouragement.

But, as I have said, the great fascination of sport in
the tropics lies precisely in the dangers attached. Therein,
too, lies the source of that pluck and vigour which the
sport-hardened Boers displayed in their struggles with
the English. The perils they had faced in their pursuit
of big game had made brave men of them.

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

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

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

378

^ After Elephants with Wandorobo

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

But the wily beasts do not come a second time, and we
are obliged to await morning to follow their tracks in
the hope of luck. The Wandorobo on ahead, I and two
of my men following, make up the small caravan, while
some of my other followers remain behind at the watering-
place in a rough camp. I have provided myself with all
essentials for two or three days, including a supply of
water contained in double-lined water-tight sacks. For
hour after hour we follow the tracks clearly defined upon
the still damp surflice of the velt. Presently they lead us
through endless stretches of shrubs and acacia bushes and
bow-string hemp, then through the dried-up beds of rain-
pools now sprouting here and there with luxuriant vege-
tation. Then again we come to stretches of scorched grals,
featureless save for the footsteps of the elephants. As we
advance I am enabled to note how the animals feed them-
selves in this desert-like region, from which they never
wander any great distance. Here, stamping with their
mighty feet, they have smashed some young tree-trunks

'o^o 25

In Wildest Africa -^

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

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

It is astonishing what a small supply of arms and

384

After Elephants with Wanclorobo

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

'^^i^^fat^

AN MRVX ANTliLOPii'S MKTIIODS Ui' DliL L.i\Cii.

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

389

In Wildest Africa ^

few Implements are attached, as well as a leathern pouch
containing odds and ends. Their bow they hold in one
hand, while their quivers, filled with poisoned arrows, are
also fiistened to their shoulders by a strap. In addition
they carry a sword in a primitive kind of scabbard. Thus
equipped they are ready to cope with all the dangers and

V DWARF KUDU {S7KEPS7CEROS f.MBJ-J^BfS. Blyth). I HAVE NEVER YET
SUCCEEDED IN PHOTOGRAPHING THIS ANIMAL ALIVE AND IN FREEDOM.
SO FAR I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PHOTOGRAPH ONLY SPECIMENS WHICH
I HAVE SHOT.

discomforts of the velt, and succeed somehow in coming
out of them victorious.

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

390

-♦5

After Elephants with Wandorobo

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

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

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

395

In Wildest Africa -^

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

I endeavour to win the goodwill of my guides by
keeping to the pace they set-an easy matter for me.
In every other way also I take pains to fall in with the
ways and habits of the Wandorobo, so as to attenuate
that feeling of antagonism which my uncivilised friends
necessarily harbour towards the European. I owe it to
this, perhaps, that they did their utmost to find the
elephant-tracks for me.

For hour after hour we continue our march, in and
out, over velt and brushwood, coming every few hours
to 'a watering-place, and meeting in the hollow of one
valley an exceptionally large herd of oryx antelopes.
Under cover of the brushwood, and favoured by the wind,
I succeed in getting quite near this herd and thus in
studying their movements close at hand.

396

^ After Elephants with Wandorobo

In the bush, not far from these oryx antelopes, I
come unexpectedly on a small herd of beautiful dwarf
kudus. I'hey take to flight, but reappear for a moment
in a glade. This kind of sudden glimpse of these timid,
pretty creatures is a real delight to one. Their great
anxious eyes gaze inquiringly at the intruder, while their
large ears stand forward in a way that gives a most
curious aspect to their shapely heads. The colouring of
their bodies accords in a most remarkable degree with
their environment, and this accentuates the individuality
of their heads, seen thus by the hunter. Off they scamper
again now, in a series of extraordinarilv lonor and hio-h
jumps, gathering speed as they go. and unexpectedly
darting now in one direction, now in another. It is very
exciting work tracking the fugitive kudu, and when it is
a question ot a single specimen you may very well mark
it down in the end ; but according to my own experience
it is next to impossible to follow up a herd, for one
animal after another breaks away from it, seeking safety
on its own account.

Now we come again to an open grassy stretch of
velt. With a sudden clatter of hoofs a herd of some
thirty zebras some hundred paces off take to flight and
escape unhurt by us into the security of a distant thicket.
The older animals and the leaders of the herd keep
looking backwards anxiously with outstretched necks.
Even in the thicket their bright colouring makes them
discernible at this hour of the day. But our attention
is distracted now elsewhere. Far away on the horizon
appear the unique outlines of a herd of giraffes. The

399 26

In Wildest Africa -*

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

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

Now, just because I have no thought of hunting,
every kind of wild animal crosses my path ! Their
number and variety are beyond belief We come upon
more zebras, oryx antelopes, hartebeests. Grant's gazelles,
impalla antelopes ; upon ostriches, guinea-fowl {Numida
reichcnoivi and Acryllinni vulturimuu. Hardw.). and
francolins. The recent rains seem to have conjured
them all into existence here as though by magic.

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

400

grant's gazelles.

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

A grant's gazelle buck standing out conspicuously on the dried-up

BED OF a lake NOW SO INCRUSTATED WITH SALT AS TO LOOK AS
THOUGH SNOW-COVERED.

FOUR grant's GAZELLES.

After Elephants with Wandorobo

hard by animals, evidently during the last few days.
Large numbers of rhinoceroses have trampled down this
way to the water, but neither they nor the elephants
are to be seen in the neighbourhood while the sun is up.
They are too well acquainted with the habits of their
enemy man, and they keep at a safe distance out on
the velt. To-day, therefore, I am to catch no glimpse
of either elephant or rhinoceros. Wherever I turn my
eyes, however, I see other animals of all sorts — among
others, some more big giraffes. I am not to be put off,
however, and 1 decide to follow up the tracks of a number
of the elephants, evidently males, giving myself up anew
to the unfailing interest I find in the study of their ways,
and confirming the observations I had already made as
to their finding their chiel nourishment on the velt in
tree-bark and small branches.

Night set in more quickly than we expected while
we were pitching camp before sunset in a cutting in a
thorn-thicket. Spots on which fires had recently been
lit showed us that native hunters had been there a few
days before, and my guides said they must have been
the Wakamba people, keen elephant-hunters, with whom
they live at enmity, and of whose very deadly poisoned
arrows they stand in great dread. Therefore we drew
close round a very small camp-fire, carefully kept down.
The glow of a bio- fire mieht have brouo-ht the Wakamba
people down on us if they were anywhere in the neigh-
bourhood. It seems that natives who are at war often
attack each other in the dark. It may easily be imagined,
then, that the first hours of our "night's repose" were

405

In Wildest Africa -^

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

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

Day dawned. No bird-voices greeted it, for. strange
to relate, we found nothing but big game in this wooded
wilderness, save for guinea-fowl {Nuniida reichenoivi and
Acrylliuvi vulturiuujn, Hardw.) and francolins. The
small birds seem to have known that the water would
soon be exhausted, and that until the advent of the
next rainy season this was no place for them.

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

406

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After Elephants with Wandorobo

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

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

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

411

In Wildest Africa -*

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

The third day's pursuit of the elephants also proved
entirely fruidess. ' We did not even come within sight of
a female specimen.

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

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

41 2

-^ After Elephants with Wandorobo

sportsman has when after a Bruiift stag — he cares for

no other kind of game ; he has no mind for anything

but the stag. But the elephant fever attacks you out

in Africa even more virulently than the stag fever here
at home.

Yet It is fine to remember one's ordinary shooting
expeditions in the tropics. You need some luck, of course
^the velt is illimitable and the game scattered all over
It. But if the rains have just ceased, if you have
secured good guides, if you yourself are equal to facing all
the hardships, then indeed it is a wonderful experience.
There is no doubt about it— you have to be ready for a
combination of every kind of strain and exertion. You can
stand it tor a day perhaps, or two or three, but you must
then take a rest. The man who has gone through with
this may venture on the experiment of pursuing elephants
for several days together. He will, I think, bear me out
in saying that until you have done that also you do not
know the limits of endurance and fatigue.

The most glorious hour in the African sportsman's life
is that in which he bags a bull-elephant. When he
succeeds in bringing the animal dow^n at close range in a
thicket such as I have so often described, his heart beats
with delight — it is just a chance in such cases what your
fate may be. Wide as are the differences in the views
taken by experienced travellers and by other writers in
regard to African sport in general, they are all agreed
that elephant-hunting is the most dangerous task a man
can set himself The hunting of Indian or Ceylon
elephants — save in the case of a " rogue " — is not to be

417

In Wildest Africa -^

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

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

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

years.

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

418

-•i

After Elephants with Wandorobo

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

An experience I had in the Berlin Zoological Gardens
illustrates this. I was called in to dispatch a huge bull-
elephant which had to be killed, and which had rejected
all the forms of poison that had been administered to it.
In order to give it a quick and painless end I selected a
newly invented elephant-rifle, calibre 1075, loaded with
4 gr. ot smokeless powder and a steel-capped bullet. On
reflection the steel cap seemed to me too dangerous in
the circumstances, so I had it filed off I shall allow
Professor Schmalz to describe what now happened : " The
first shot entered the skin between the second and third
ribs, and then simply went into splinters. It did no
serious damage to the interior organs, and a stag thus
wounded would merely take madly to flight. A piece of
the cap reached the lung, but only a single splinter
had penetrated, causing a slight flow of blood. The
second shot was excellently placed, namely just below
the root of the lung. It lacerated both the lung
arteries and both the bronchial, and thus caused instant
death."

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

423

In Wildest Africa

-»)

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

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

A MISSIONARY'S DWELLING NEAR KILIMANJARO IN WHICH I STAYED SEVERAL

TIMES AS GUEST.

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BLACK-HEADED HERONS {.IKniLl MULAOCEPH.! L.l. VIG. Childr.).

Rhinoceros-hunting

MANY sportsmen of to-day have no idea what
numbers of rhinoceroses there used to be in
Germany in those distant epochs when the cave-dweller
waged war with his primitive weapons against all the
mighty animals of old— a war that came in the course
of the centuries to take the shape of our modern sport.

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

431 2^

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

It was strength pitted against strength then. Strength
and skill and swiftness were what won men the day.
Later came a time when mankind learnt a lesson from
the serpent and improved on it, discharging poisoned
darts from tightened bow-strings. The slightest wound
from them brought death. Then there was another step
in advance, and the hunter brought down his game at

432

Li-'-'lf^

C. G. Srfn/iina-'^, phot.

x^^^^y^

RHINOCEROS HEADS.

C. C. SchUlings., pliol.

RHINOCEROS HEADS.

-^ Rhinoceros-hunting

even greater ranges with bullets of lead and steel. A
glance through the telescopic sight affixed to the perfected
rifle of to-day, a gentle pressure with the finger, and the
rhinoceros, all unconscious of its enemy in the distance,
meets its end.

But there is at least more dano-er and more romance
for the modern hunter in this unequal strife when it takes
place in a wilderness where bush and brushwood enforce a
fight at close quarters. Then, if he doesn't kill his beast
outright on the spot, or if he has to deal with several
at a time, the bravest man's heart will have good reason
to beat fast.

Now for our start.

We make our way up the side of a hill with the first
rays of the tropical sun striking hot already on the earth.
The country is wild, the ascent is difficult, and we have
to dodge now this way, now that, to extricate ourselves
from the rocky valley into which we have got. The
veo^etation all around us is rank and stranofe ; strong o-rass
up to our knees, and dense creepers and thorn-bushes
retard our progress. Here are the mouldering trunks of
giant trees uprooted by the wind, there living trees standing
strong and unshaken. But as we advance we come
gradually to a more arid stretch, and green vegetation
gives place to a rocky region, broken into crevices and
chasms. Here we find the rock-badger in hundreds.
But the leaders have given their warning sort of whistle,
and they are all oft' like lightning. It may be quite a
long time before they reappear from the nooks and
crannies to which they have fled. I^izards share these

437

In Wildest Africa -^

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

438

-»i Rhinoceros-hunting

It is strange to contrast the general disappearance of
big game in all other parts of the earth with their endless
profusion in those regions which the European has not
yet opened out. I feel that it sounds almost incredible
when I talk of having sighted hundreds of rhinoceroses
with my own eyes : incredible to the average man, I mean,
not to the student of such matters. Not until the mighty
animal has been exterminated will the facts of its existence
— in what numbers it throve, how it lived and how it
came to die — become known to the public through its
biographer. We have no time to trouble about the living
nowadays.

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

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

439

In Wildest Africa ^

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

as these.

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

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

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

440

(.'. G. Sc/tillings, phot

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

^ Rhinoceros-hunting

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

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

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

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

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

443

In Wildest Africa -*

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

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

444

-») Rhinoceros-hunting

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

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

AN ELAND r.ri.I, illl. I I. Mil. K ol A HKRD WHICH AT THE MOMENT OF THIS
PHOTOGRAPH WAS IN CONCEALMENT BEHIND THE THORN-BUSHES.

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

We have reached the higher ranges of the hills and are

445

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

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

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

446

-♦» Rhinoceros-hunting

no interest for us to-day : we are in pursuit of bigger
game. vSuddenly, an hour later, my men become excited.
" Pharu, bwana ! " they whisper to me from behind,
pointing down towards a group of acacia trees on a plateau
a few hundred paces away. True enough, there are two
rhinoceroses. I perceive first one, then the other lumbering
along, looking, doubtless, for a suitable resting-place. My
field-glasses tell me that they are a pair, male and female,
both furnished with big horns. Now for my plan of
campaign. I have to make a wide circuit which will take
me twenty-five minutes, moving over difficult ground.

Arrived at the point in question, I rejoice to see that
the animals have not got far away from where I first spied
them. The wind is favourable to me here, and there is
little danger at this hour of its suddenly veering round.
I examine my rifle carefully. It seems all right. INIy men
crouch down by my order, and I advance stealthily alone.

I am under a spell now. The rest of the world has
vanished from my consciousness. I look neither to right
nor left. I have no thought for anything but my quarry
and my gun. What will the beasts do ? Will this be
my last appearance as a hunter of big game? Is the
rhinoceros family at last to have its revenge ?

I have another look at them through my field-glasses.
The bull has really fine horns ; the cow good enough,
but nothing special. I decide therefore to secure him
alone if possible, for his flesh will provide food in plenty
for my men. On I move, as noiselessly as possible,
the wind still in my favour. Up on these heights the
rhinoceroses miss their watchful friends the ox-peckers,

447 29

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

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

448

-^ Rhinoceros-hunting

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

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

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

453

In Wildest Africa ^

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

But to come back to our rhinoceroses. Not long-
before sunset I saw another animal grazing peacefully on
a ridge just below me, apparently finding the short grass
growing there entirely to his taste. The monstrous
outlines of the great beast munching away in among
the iao-2"ed rocks stood out most strikingly in the red
glow of the setting sun. It would have been no good
to me to shoot him, for all my thoughts were set on
finding a satisfactory camping-place for the night. Soon
afterwards I came suddenly upon two others right in my
path— a cow with a young one very nearly full grown.
In a moment my men, who were a little behind, had
skedaddled behind a ridge of rocks. I myself just
managed to spring aside in time to escape the cow,
putting a great boulder between us. Round she came
after me, and I realised as never before the degree to
which a man is handicapped by his boots in attempting
thus to dodge an animal. It was a narrow escape, but
in this case also a well-aimed bullet did the trick. We
left the body where it lay, intending to come back next
morning for the horns. Some minutes later, after scurrying
downhill for a few hundred paces as quickly as we could,
so as to avoid being overtaken by the night, we met
three other rhinoceroses which evidently had not heard
my shot ring out. They were standing on a grassy
knoll in the midst of the valley which we had now reached,

454

-* Rhinoceros-hunting

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

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

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

457

In Wildest Africa ^

a camp-fire serves all right to frighten lions away. It is
a remarkable comment on this that over a hundred Indians
employed on the Uganda Railway should have been seized
by lions. In other parts of Africa even the natives are
reluctant to go through the night unprotected by a zareba,
because they know that lions when short of other prey
are apt to attack human beings, and neither the hunter
nor his camp-fire have any terrors for them.

However that may be, the true sportsman and
naturalist in the tropics will continue to find himselt
obliged to encamp as best he may a la belle cHoile, trusting
to his lucky star to protect him as he sinks wearily to
sleep.

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

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

With my taxidermist Orgeich I march at the head of

458

Rhinoceros-hunting

y caravan. My camera has to remain idle, for once

J'"-*.

HOW ONE OF MY MEN SOUGH i bHELlER WHEN IHE RHINOCEROS CAME FOR US.

again, as so often happens, we get no sun. It would be
useless to attempt snapshots in such unfavourable light.

459

In Wildest Africa -^

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

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

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

460

-^ Rhinoceros-hunting

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

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

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

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

461

In Wildest Africa ^

On receipt of my fifth bullet my assailant swerves round
and lays himself open to my sixth just as he decides to
take flight. Off he speeds now, never to be seen again,
though we spend an hour trying to mark him down—
a task which it is the easier for us to undertake in that
he has fled in the direction in which we have to continue

our march.

Orgeich, in his good-humoured way, remarks drily,

" That was a near thing."

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

On another occasion, two rhinoceroses that I had not
seen until that moment made for me suddenly. In trying
to escape 1 tripped over a moss-covered root of a tree,
and fell so heavily on my right hip that at first I could
not o-et up again. Both the animals rushed close by me,
Oro-eich and my men only succeeding in escaping also
behind trees at the last moment.

>;^ * * * *

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

462

-^ Rhinoceros-hunting

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

Stomach hke a serpent, making the utmost use of whatever
cover offers, and keeping note all the time of the direction

46.

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

It has not become aware of me yet, nor of the peril
awaiting it. It sits up, turned right in my direction.
Now there is no going either forwards or backwards tor
me. The grass encumbers my legs — the old growth
(spared by the great fires that sometimes ravage the whole
velt between two rainy seasons) mingling with the new
1 See With Flashlight and Rifle.
464

^ Rhinoceros-hunting

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

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

*****

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

465

In Wildest Africa ^

down to the river-side. Endless morasses of reeds
enfolded us, in whose miry depths the foot sinks even
in the dry weather, in which the sultry heat enervates
us, shut in as we are by the rank growth that meets
above our heads as we grope through it. At last we
reach some solid earth, and it looks as though here,
beneath some sycamores, we have found a better camping
place. Deep-trodden paths lead down to the waterside.
We follow them through the brushwood, 1 leading
the way, and thus reach the stream. The rush and
roar of the river resounds in our ears, and we catch the
notes, too, of birds. Suddenly, right in front of me, the
ground seems to quicken into life. My first notion is
that it must be a gigantic crocodile ; but no, it is a
rhinoceros which has just been bathing, and which now,
disturbed, is glancing in our direction and about to attack
us or take t^o its heels— who can say ? Escape seems
impossible. Clasping my rifle I plunge back into the
dense brushwood. But the tough viscous branches pro-
ject me forward again. Now for it. The rhinoceros is
"coming for" us. We tumble about in all directions. Some
seconds later we exchange stupefied glances. The animal
has fled past us, just grazing us and bespattering us with
mud, and has disappeared from sight. How small we
felt at that moment 1 cannot express! In such moments
you experience the same kind of sensation as when your
horse throws you or you are knocked over by a motor-
car. (Perhaps this latter simile comes home to one best
nowadays!) You realise, too, why the native hunters throw
off all their clothing when they are after big game. On

466

C G. Sc/ii/iiiii;s, phot.

A ROCK-POOL ON KILIMANJARO.

-»> Rhinoceros-hunting

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

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

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

469

MASAI KILLING A HYENA WITH THEIR CLUBS,

The Capturing of a Lion

SI MBA Station — Lion Station — is the name of a place
on the Uganda Raihvay, which connects the Indian
Ocean with the Victoria-Nyanza. It is situated near
Nairobi, and the sound of its name recalls vividly to
my memory January 25, 1897, the great day when I
came face to face with three lions.

At that time no iron road led to the interior of the
country ; there were neither railway lines nor telegraph
wires to vibrate to the sound of the voice of the monarch
of the wilderness. But the white man was soon to bar
his path by day and night along the whole length of
the Q^reat railroad from lake to ocean.

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

470

-»>

The Capturing of a Lion

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

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

475

In Wildest Africa ^

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

Although 1 do not think that lions, at least in districts
where game is very plentiful are so dangerous as some
would make out, yet I quite agree with the statement
made by H. A. Bryden that a lion-hunt made on foot
must be reckoned as one of the most dangerous sports
there are. The experience of an authority like Selous,
who was seized by lions during the night in the
jungle, proves this.

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

476

-♦)

The Capturing of a Lion

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

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

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

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

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

477

In Wildest Africa -^

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

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

Of course a certain number of the lions used in the
arena-fights in Rome were probably reared in the Roman
provinces by some potentate. But without doubt a large
number were caught when fully grown by means ot nets,
pitfalls, and other devices of which we have no precise

details.

It seemed to me worth while to make a trial of the
means which had once been so successful. As I have
already pointed out, there is a great difference between
a man who scours the wilderness solely as a hunter, and
one who makes practical investigations into the life of the
animal world. The sportsman may possibly sneer at the
use of pitfalls. He has no mind for anything but an
exciting encounter with the lion, an encounter which,
thanks to modern means of warfare, is much easier for the
man than formerly.

478

v-^ \\

"^^"5^^^:

?-^^^

"^^^^

>'^

> al^'f*i|*^i*^'

AsjiL.

tu ja

v*— ^»^ ^^•s.i»\ r>.-k» N^J*- v?*f "«>--•> «J>^ip4J . [A»«-<

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

^ The Capturing of a Lion

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

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

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

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

In Wildest Africa -^

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

In 1897 1 i'l^^cl already observed that the lion was to be
found in great troops in thinly populated neighbourhoods,
where he was at no loss for prey and where he had not
much to fear from man. As many as thirty lions have been
found together, and I myself have seen a troop of fourteen
with my own eyes. Other sportsmen have seen still larger
troops in East Africa. Quite recently Duke Adolf
Friedrich of Mecklenburg, who, on the occasion of his
second African trip, made some interesting observations m
regard to lions, has borne witness to the existence of very
large troops. During the period in which I devoted myself
entirely to making photographic studies of wild life, and
consequently left undisturbed all the different species of
game which swarmed around my camp, I was sometmies
surrounded for days, weeks even, by great numbers of
them, sometimes to an alarming extent. I have already
described how one night an old lion brushed close by
my tent to drink at the brook near which we were
encamping, although it was just as easy for him to drmk
from the same stream at any point for miles to either side
of us. On another occasion, as could be seen from the
tracks, lions approached our camp until within a few yards
of it. When I was photographing the lions falling upon
the heifers and donkeys, as described in IVit/i Flashlight

482

-* The Capturing of a Lion
and Rifle, I must have been, judging by the tracks,

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

483

In Wildest Africa ^

in various stages of development and age are much
needed, or to protect the natives who were menaced
bv lions, or whose relatives had perhaps been seized

by them.

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

by day.

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

484

STUDIES OF A TRAPPED LION AT CLOSK yUAKlKRS.

'♦ The Capturing of a Lion

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

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

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

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

487

In Wildest Africa ^

the sun, and which in the moonHght must have attracted
their attention. They had evidently amused themselves
for a while with this plaything, for the hard surface of the
tortoise's shell was marked with their claws. Then they
had returned to their mother. I concluded that the old
lioness was not hungry and had no more lust for prey —
another confirmation of the fact that lions, when sated,
are not destructive. This new proof seemed to me to be
worth all the trouble I had taken.

The two following nights, to my disappointment, the
lions approached my heifer again without molesting it.

This was the more annoying because I had hoped by
capturing the old lioness to obtain possession of all the
young cubs as well.

In this case, as in many others, the behaviour of the
heifer was a matter of great interest. As already remarked,
in most cases I made use of sick cows mortally afflicted by
the tsetse-fly. In many districts in German East Africa
the tsetse-fly, which causes the dreadful sleeping sickness
in man, also makes it impossible to keep cattle except
under quite special conditions. This heifer, then, was
already doomed to a painful death through the tsetse
illness, and the fate I provided for it was more merciful,
for the lion kills its prey by one single powerful bite. I
observed, moreover, that the bound animal took its food
quite placidly and showed no signs of unrest so long as
the lion came up to her peaceably, as in this case. This
accorded entirely with my frequent observations of the
behaviour of animals towards lions on the open velt.
Antelopes out on the velt apparently take very little

488

-»> The Capturing of a Lion

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

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

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

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

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

491

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

A L MIL KLl. I.IU.NL.-.-., SXAI'MIUTTED AT THE VERY MOMENT OF
BEING TRAPPED.

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

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

492

The Capturing of a Lion

had recourse to strong cord, which 1 made into a lasso.
It was wonderful, when I caught the head of the prisoner
in the noose, to see him grip it with his teeth and to watch
the thick rope fall to pieces as if cut with a pair of scissors
after a few quick, angry bites. During this trial I made a
false step on the smooth, grassy ground, so well known to
xA.frican explorers, and was within a hair's breadth of falling

A TRAPPED LION.

I HEARD HIM ROARING ATA DISTANCE OF A MILE
AND A HALF.

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

493

In Wildest Africa ^

the trap and, fastened to a tree-trunk, was carried into

camp.

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

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

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

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

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

494

-^ The Capturing of a Lion

a bad sore gradually festered. It wounded one of my
people very badly by ripping open a vein in his arm when
he went to feed it.

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

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

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

497

In Wildest 'Africa ^

I had a most interesting adventure, once, with a Hon
on the rio-ht bank of the Rufu River.

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

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

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

498

-»)

The Capturing of a Lion

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

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

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

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

501

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

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

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

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

^ Hen- Niedieck also undersvcnt a similar experience. See his book
Alit der Bilchse in fihif Weltteileu, and my own With Flashiiglit and Rijie.

502

^.J^^

-^ The Capturing of a Lion

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

On another occasion I caught two full-grown lions in

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

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

505

In Wildest Africa ^

was impossible to follow the tracks further. Several hours
passed before 1 succeeded finally in finding first one lion
and then the other. To kill them was no easy matter.
I could hear the clanking of the chains where they were
moving about, but I must see them before I could take
effective aim. Meanwhile one of the lions was making
frantic efforts to free himself Supposing the irons were
to give way ! But these efforts were followed by moments
of quiet and watching. How the beasts growled !

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

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

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

506

•A'J!rj£i^l-'%X%»LWm ■3»*';in ^vssiWji':

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

■^ The Capturing of a Lion

The extermination of wild life has been almost as o-reat
a disaster to the lions as to the bushmen of South Africa.
Extermination awaits bushman and lion in their turn —
not through hunger alone.

I was more fortunate in my attempt to get a fine
example of the striped hyena {Hyena schillingsi, Mtsch.),
which I had previously discovered, and in bringing it to
Germany, where I presented it to the Berlin Zoological
Gardens. On page 501 is to be seen a picture of one of
this species caught in a trap. Orgeich, my plucky
assistant, had armed himself with a big cudgel, for use in
the case of the beast attacking him, but never lost his
equanimity, and smoked his indispensable and inseparable
pipe the whole time ! Another illustration is of a hyena
which was confined in the camp. This fine specimen,
an old female, was very difficult to take to the coast.
Something like forty bearers were needed to transport
the heavy iron apparatus with its inmate as far as Tanga.
This representative of its species was one of the first
brought alive to Europe, and lived for several years in
the Berlin Zoological Gardens.

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

509

In Wildest Africa ^

Although grown jackals may be fairly easily brought
over to Europe, we had great difficulty with members of
the more noble feline race, and above all with the King
of Beasts himself I learnt by experience that lynxes and
wild cats were only to be tamed with great difficulty,
and 1 once lost a captive lynx very suddenly in spite of
every care.

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

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

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

XII

A Dying Race of Giants

EVERY one who knows Equatorial East Africa will
bear me out in saying that it is easier nowadays
to kill fifty rhinoceroses than a single bull-elephant
carrying tusks weighing upwards of a couple of hundred
pounds.

There are only a few survivors left of this world-
old race of giants. Many species, probably, have
disappeared without leaving a single trace behind. The
block granite sarcophagi on the Field of the Dead in
Sakkarah in Egypt, dating from 3,500 years ago, are
memorials (each weighing some 64 tons) of the sacred
bulls of Apis : the mightiest monument ever raised by
man to beast. Bulls were sacred to Ptah, the God of
Memphis, and their gravestones — which Mariette, for
instance, brought to light in 185 i — yield striking evidence

5^1 2>2>

In Wildest Africa ^

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

But no monument has been raised to the African
elephants that have been slaughtered by millions in the
last hundred years. Save for some of the huge tusks
for which they were killed, there will be scarcely a
trace of them in the days to come, when their Indian
cousins — the sacred white elephants — may perhaps still
be revered.

John Hanning Speke, wdio with his fellow-countryman
Grant discovered the Victoria Nyanza, found elephant
herds grazing quite peacefully on its banks. 1 he animals,
nowadays so wild, hardly took any notice when some of
their number were killed or wounded : they merely passed
a little farther on and returned to their grazing.

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

Should any one differ from me as to this. I would beg
him to substantiate his opinion by the help of photo-

Photogiaphcd at Zanzibar

THE HEAVIEST ELEPHANTS' TUSKS EVER RECORDED IN THE ANNALS OF EAST
AFRICAN TRADE. THEY WEIGHED 45O POUNDS. I TRIED IN VAIN TO SECURE
THEM FOR A GERMAN MUSEUM. THEY WERE BOUGHT FOR AMERICA.

-^ A Dying Race of Giants

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

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

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

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

In Wildest Africa ^

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

By a singular coincidence, the mammoth remains pre-
served in the ice have been found just at a time when
the craze for slaughtering their African relations has reached
its climax, and when by means of arms that deal out death
at great, and therefore safe distances, the work of annihila-
tion is all too rapidly progressing. The scientific equip-
ment of mankind is so nearly perfect that we are able to
make the huo-e ice-bound mammoths, which have perhaps
been reposing in their cold grave for thousands of years,
speak for themselves. And it can be proved by means
of the so-called " physiological blood-proof" that the
frozen blood of the Siberian mammoths shows its kinship
with the Indian and African elephant!

It is strano-e to reflect that mankind, having attained
to its present condition of enlightenment, should yet have
designs upon the last survivors of this African race of
giants — and chiefly in the interests of a game ! For the
ivory is chiefly required to make billiard balls! Is it not
possible to contrive some substitute in these days when
nothing seems beyond the power of science ?

A. H. Neumann, a well-known English hunter, says
that some years ago it was already too late to reap a
good ivory harvest in Equatorial Africa or in Mombasa.
He had to seek farther afield in the far-lying districts
between the Indian Ocean and the Upper Nile, where
he obtained about ^5,000 worth of ivory during one
hunting expedition.

516

A Dying Race of Giants

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

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

519

In Wildest Africa -^

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

The price of ivory has been rising gradually, and is
now ten times what it was some forty years ago in the
Sudan, according to Brehm's statistics. In Morgen's
time one could buy a fifty-pound tusk in the Cameroons
for sonie stuff worth about sevenpence. In the last
century or two the price of ivory has risen commensurately
with that of all other such wares. Nowadays a sum
varying from /300 to ^^400 may be obtained for the
eo-p- of the Great Auk, which became extinct less than
half a century ago : whilst a stuffed specimen of the bird
itself is worth at least ^1,000. What will be the price of
such things in years to come !

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

520

-^ A Dying Race of Giants

patient waiting to sight this rare conjunction of animals
from my place of observation either with a Goerz-Trizeder
or with the naked eye, but only for a few seconds at a
time, because of the heavy showers of rain which kept
falling. How disappointing and mortifying- it was to find
oneself left in the lurch by the sun — and just inimediately
under the Equator, where one had a right to it ! What I
had so often experienced in my photographic experiments
in the forests by the Rufu River — that is, the want of
sunlight for days together — now made me almost desperate.
At any moment the little gathering of animals might break
up, in which case I should never be able to get a photo-
graphic record of the strange friendship. Since the publica-
tion of my first work I have often been asked to give some
further particulars about this matter. Therefore, perhaps
these details, supported by photographs, will not be
unacceptable to my readers.

I candidly admit that had I suddenly come upon these
great bull-elephants in the jungle in years gone by I could
not have resisted killing them. But I have gradually
learned to restrain myself in this respect. It would have
been a fine sensation from the sportsman's standpoint, and
would besides have brought in a round sum of perhaps
^500 ; but what was all that in comparison with the
securing of one single authentic photograph which would
afford irrefutable proof of so surprising a fact ?

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

523

In Wildest Africa -^

its lowest parts the waters collect and form the western
Njiri marshes, which at some seasons of the year are
almost dry. Volcanic hills arise here and there on the
plain, from whose summits one can obtain a wide view.
One of the most prominent of these hills has a cavity at
its summit. It is evidently the crater of an extinct volcano
which is filled with water, like the volcanic lakes of my
native Eifel district. A thicket begins not far from this
hill, and gradually extends until it merges into the forest
beyond. The burning sun has dried up all the grass up
to the ed^e of the thicket. There is so little rain here
that the poor Xerophites are the only exception that can
stand the drought. Only on the inner walls of the steep
crater do bushes and shrubs grow, for these are only
exposed at midday to the sun's heat.

Thus a cool moisture pervades this hollow except
during the very hottest season. Paths, trodden down by
crowds of game, lead to the shining mirror of the little
lake. It used to be the haunt of beasts of prey, and
the smaller animals would probably seek drinking-places
miles distant rather than come to this grim declivity.
There is, however, a kind ot road leading to the summit
of this hill, a very uneven road, wide at first, then gradually
narrower and narrower, which had become almost im-
passable with grass and brushwood when I made my way
up. This road was trodden by the cattle herds of the
Masai. It may be that rhinoceroses and elephants were
the original makers of it before the warlike shepherds
began to lead their thirsty cattle to this secluded lake.
Be this as it may, my Masai friends assured me that they

524

-9^ A Dying Race of Giants

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

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

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

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

527 34

In Wildest Africa -^

slumbers with indifference, for they have little concern for
probable dangers. But the imaginative European is on
the look-out for peril— the thought of it holds and
fascinates him. . . . Somewhere in the distance, perhaps,
the heavens are illuminated with a bright light. Far, far
away a conflagration is raging, devastating miles upon
miles of the vale below. The sky reflects the light, which
blazes up now purple, now scarlet! Often it will last
for days and nights, nay weeks, whole table-lands being
in flames and acting as giant beacons to light up the
landscape! ... My thoughts would turn towards the
bonfires which in Germany of old flashed their message
across the land— news, perhaps, of the burial of some
o-reat prince. ... So, now, it seemed to me that those
distant flames told of the last moments of some monarch

of the wild.

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

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

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

528

-^ A Dying Race of Giants

for what were giraffes, buffaloes, and rhinoceroses to them,
and what interest could they have in such worthless
creatures! The whole mind of the natives has been for
many years past directed by us Europeans upon ivory.
Native hunters in scantily populated districts dream and
think only of "jumbe" — ivory, and always more ivory, as
the Esquimaux yearns for seal blubber and oil and the
European for gold, gold, gold! In these parts giraffes
and rhinoceroses count for nothing in comparison with the
elephant — the native thinks no more of them than one of
our own mountaineers would think of a rabbit or a hare.
Only those who have seen this for themselves can realise
how quickly one gets accustomed to the point of view ! In
the gameless and populous coast districts the appearance of
a dwarf antelope or of a bustard counts for a good deal, and
holds out promise to the sportsman of other such game —
waterbuck, perhaps. I have read in one of the coast
newspapers the interesting news that Mr. So and So was
fortunate enough to kill a bustard and an antelope. That
certainly was quite good luck, for you may search long in
populous districts and find nothing. As you penetrate
into the wilder districts conditions change rapidly, and
after weeks and months of marching in the interior you
get accustomed to expecting only the biggest of big game.
The other animals become so numerous that the sight of
them no longer quickens the pulse.

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

529

In Wildest Africa -*

ravs of the sun. But as at this time of the year the
sun hardly ever penetrated the thick bank of clouds, there
was a chance of seeing the elephants at a later hour and
in the bush. So every morning- either I or one of my
scouts was posted on one of the hills — Kilepo especially —
to keep a sharp look-out. It needed three hours in the
dark and two in the daylight to get up the hill. It was
not a pleasant climb. We were always drenched to the
skin by the wet grass and bushes, and it was impossible
to lio-ht a fire to dry ourselves, for the animals would
certainly have scented it. We had to stay there in our
wet clothes, hour after hour, watching most carefully and
making the utmost of the rare moments when the mist
rolled away in the valley and enabled us to peer into
the thickets. It may seem surprising that we should
have found so much difficulty in sighting the elephants,
but one must remember that they emerge from their
mud-baths with a coating that harmonises perfectly with the
tree-trunks and the general environment, and are therefore
hard to descry. Besides, the conditions of light in the
tropics are very different from what we are accustomed
to in our own northern clime, and are very deceptive.

When fortune was kind I could just catch a glimpse
during a brief spell of sunshine of a gigantic elephant's
form in the deep valley beneath. But only for a few
instants. The next moment there was nothing to be seen
save long vistas of damp green plants and trees. The
deep rain-channels stood out clear and small in the
landscape from where I stood. The mightiest trees
looked like bushes ; the hundred-feet-high trunks of

-^ A Dying Race of Giants

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

For once the mist rolls off rapidly ; a gust of wind
drives away the clouds. The sun breaks through. Look !
there is a whole herd of elephants below us in the
valley ! But in another second the impenetrable forest
of trees screens them from my camera. At last they
become clearly visible again, and I manage to photograph
two cow-elephants in the distance. The sun vanishes
again now, and an hour later I have at last the whole
herd clearly before me in the hollow. How the little
calves cling to their mothers ! How quietly the massive
beasts move about, now disappearing into the gullies,
now reappearing and climbing up the hillside with a
sureness of foot that makes them seem more like auto-
matons than animals. Every now and again the ruddy
earth-coloured backs emerge from the mass of foliage.
A wonderful and moving picture ! For I know full well
that the gigantic mothers are caring for their children
and protecting them from the human fiend who seeks
to destroy theni with pitfalls, poisoned arrows, or death-
dealing guns. How cautiously they all move, scenting
the wind with uplifted trunks, and keeping a look-out for
pitfalls ! Every movement shows careful foresight ; the
gigantic old leaders have evidendy been through some
dire experiences.

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

535

In Wildest Africa

-♦i

channels of the hill— the " Subugo woods" of the
Wandorobo hunters.

Had the elephants not got these places of refuge to
fly to they would have died out long ago ! This is the
only means by which they are still able to exist in Africa.
I feel how difficult it is to depict accurately the constant
warf^ire that is going on between man and beast, and
can only give others a vague idea of what it is like.
Many secrets of the life and f^ite and the speedy annihi-
lation of the African elephants will sink into the grave
with the last commercial elephant-hunters. And once
acrain civilisation will have done away with an entire
species in the course of a single century. The question
as to how far this was necessary will provide ample
material for pamphlets and discussions in times to come.
When one knows the " subugo," however, one under-
stands how it has been possible for elephants in South
Africa to have held out so long in the Knysna and
Zitzikama forests until European hunters began to go
after them with rifles in expert fiishion. Fritsch visited
the Knysna forests in 1863. "It is easy," he says, '< to
understand how elephants have managed to remain in
their forests for weeks together before one of their number
has fallen, even when hundreds of men have been after
them There are spots in these forests-regular islands
completely surrounded by water-where they take refuge,
and where no one can get at them."

Of course, Fritsch speaks of a time when the art ot
shooting was in its infancy. One must not forget that

536

-* A Dying Race of Giants

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

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

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

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

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

539

In Wildest Africa ^

cold, I wandered every morning through the tall grass ta
the top of the hill and waited and waited. . . .

The elephants seemed to have completely disappeared ;
no matter how far I extended my daily excursions, they
were nowhere to be seen. At length I came across a
fairly big herd, but they had taken up their stand in
such an impenetrable thicket that it was quite impossible
to sight them. After much creeping and crawling through
the elephant and rhinoceros paths in the undergrowth I
managed to get just for a few minutes a faint glimpse of
the vague outline of single animals, but so indistinct that
it was impossible to determine their age, size, or sex.
In East Africa elephants are generally seen under these
unfavourable conditions. Very seldom does one come
upon a good male tusk-bearing specimen, as well-meaning
but inexperienced persons, such as I myselt was at one
time, would desire.

There is something very exciting and stimulating in
coming face to face with these gigantic creatures in
the thick undergrowth. All one's nerves are strained
to see or hear the faintest indication of the whereabouts
of the herd ; the sultry air, the dense tangle through
which we have to move, and which hinders every step,
combine to excite us. We can only see a few paces
around. The strong scent of elephant stimulates us. The
snapping and creaking of branches and twigs, the noises
made by the beasts themselves, especially the shrill cry of
warning given out from time to time by one of the herd-
all add to the tension. The clanging, pealing sound of
this cry has something particularly weird in it in the

540

■^ A Dying Race of Giants

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

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

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

541

In Wildest Africa -^

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

But now ! At last ! 1 shall never forget how suddenly
in one of the brilliant bursts of sunshine the mighty white
tusks of two bull-elephants shone out in the hollow so
dazzlingly white that one must have beheld them to under-
stand their extraordinary effect, seen thus against that
impressive background. Close by was a bull-giraffe.
Vividly standing out from the landscape, they would have
baffled any artist trying to put them on the canvas. I
understood then why A. H. Neumann, one of the most
skih^ul English elephant-hunters, so often remarked on the
overwhelming impression he received from these snow-
white, shining elephant-tusks. So white do they come
out in the photographs that the prints look as though they
had been touched up. But these astonishing pictures are
as free from any such tampering as are all the rest of my
studies of animal life."^

Before I succeeded in getting my first picture of the

elephants and giraffes consorting together, I was much

tempted to kill the two huge bull-elephants. They came

so often close to the foot of my hill that I had plenty of

opportunities of killing them without over-much danger to

^ The raison cTctre of these powerful weapons of the i\frican elephant
is a difficult question. Why did the extinct mammoth carry such very
different tusks, curving upwards? Why has the Indian elephant such
small tusks, and the Ceylon elephant hardly any at all, whilst the African's
are so huge and heavy ?

-•) A Dying Race of Giants

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

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

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

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

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

547

In Wildest Africa -^

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

Kilepo Hill will always standout vividly in my memory.
Elephants may still climb up to the small still lake shut in
by the walldike hillsides, as they have done for ages, to
quench their thirst at its refreshing waters. For hundreds

548

-^ A Dying Race of Giants

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

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

549

A STUDY IN rROTKCrn-K ' :\IIMICRV.

XIII

A Vanishing Feature of the Velt

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

550

-^ A Vanishing Feature of the Velt

indeed ; for to secure a good result you need plenty
of sunlight, besides the absence of trees between you and
the desired object. And when everything seems to favour
you, there is sure to be something wanting — very probably
the camera itself. Fortune favours the photographer at
sudden and unexpected moments, and then only for a very
short while. One instant too late, and you may have
to wait weeks, months, even years for your next oppor-
tunity. I would give nine-tenths of the photos I have
taken of animal life for some half-dozen others which I was
unable to take because I did not have my camera to hand
just at the right moment. Fhus it was with the photo-
graphing of the three lions I killed on January 25, 1897,
and of the four others I saw on the same day, on the then
almost unknown Athi plains in the Wakikuju country.
Also with that great herd of elephants which so nearly did
for me, and which I should have dearly liked to photograph
just as they began their onrush. (I have told the story
in Wii/i Flashlig/it and Rifle.) I remember, too, the sio-ht
of a giraffe herd of forty-five head which I came across
on November 4, 1897,^ about two days' journey north-west
of the Kilimanjaro. Fhe hunter of to-day would travel
over the velt for a very long while before meeting with
anything similar. In earlier days immense numbers of
long-necked giraffe-like creatures, now extinct, lived on the
velt ; the rare Okapi, that was discovered in the Central
African forests a short time ago, has aroused the interest
ot zoologists as being a relative of that extinct species.
Within the last hundred or even fifty years, the
^ On that occasion I had not at hand a telcphoto-lens of sufficient range.

555

In Wildest Africa ^

giraffe itself was to be found in large herds in many parts
of Africa. The first giraffe of which we know appeared
in the Roman arena. About two hundred years ago we
are told some specimens were brought over to Europe, and
caused much astonishment. The Nubian menageries some
years ago brought a goodly number of the strange beasts
to our zoological gardens.^ But how many people have
seen giraffes In their native haunts ? When, In 1896, I saw
them thus for the first time, I realised how thin and
wretched our captive specimens are by the side of the
splendid creatures of the velt. Le X'alllant, in his accounts
of his travels In Cape Colony and the country known to-day
as German South-West Africa, gives a spirited description
of these animals, and tells how after much labour and
trouble he managed to take a carefully dried skin to the
coast and to send It to Germany. That was seventy years
aero. Since then many Europeans have seen giraftes, but
they have told us very little about them. The German
explorer Dr. Richard Bohm has given us wonderfully
accurate Information about them and their ways. But the
beautiful water-colours so excellently drawn by a hand so
soon to be disabled in Africa, were lost in that dreadful
conflao-ration in which his huntino--box on the peaceful Wala
River and most of his diaries were destroyed. Dr. Richard
Kandt, whilst on his expeditions In search of the sources
of the Nile, found the charred remains of the hut. " Ubi
sunt, qui ante nos In mundo fuere ? "

Zoological experts tell us that there are several species

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

■•^^'

C. C. Scliillinis, phot.

TELEPHOTO STUDIES OF GIRAFFES {GIJi.lFF.I SCII/LL/XGSf, Mtsch.).

-.6

^ A Vanishino" Feature of the Velt

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

Though by n;iture peaceful, the giraffe is not defenceless
— a kick from one of its immense legs, or a blow side-
ways with the great thick-necked head of a bull, would
be quite enough to kill a mere man. But this gigantic
beast, whose coat so much resembles that ot the blood-
thirsty tiger, leopard, and jaguar, never attacks, and only
brings its forces into play for purposes of defence. It
harms no man, and it has lived on the velt since time
immemorial. It is the more to be deplored, therefore, that
it should disappear now so quickly and so suddenly.

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

1 Later observers questioned this fact. ^Vhen I have used the word
"mimicry," I have done so not in the original sense of Bates and U'allace,
but as denoting the conformity of the appearance of animals with their
environment.

In Wildest Africa -»>

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

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

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

562

-^ A Vanishing Feature of the Velt

Or it may happen that you will sight giraffes about

noontide sheltering under the fragrant acacia trees. I

remember one occasion especially, in the neighbourhood

of the Gelei volcanic hills. I had hardly penetrated

for more than about a hundred and twenty paces into

an acacia wood, when I suddenly saw the legs of several

gigantic giraffes— their heads were hidden in the crowns

ot mmiosa. The wind was favourable. I might within a

few minutes find myself in the middle of the herd ! But,

a moment later, I felt the ground tremble and the huge

beasts with their hard hoofs were thumping over the

sun-baked ground. They crashed through the branches

and fled to the next shelter of mimosa trees. Although

I might easily have killed some of them, it was absolutely

impossible to take a photograph. But I was at times more

fortunate in snapshotting single specimens. Carefully

and cautiously, I would creep forward, of course alone,

leaving my people behind, until I came within about twenty

paces of the giraff'e. By dodging about the trees or shrubs

near which it stood I have sometimes managed to obtain

good pictures of the animal making off' in its queer way.

The utmost caution was necessary. I had to consider

not only the place where the animal was but the position

of the sun, and that most carefully. The possibility of

photographing giraffes with the telephoto lens is very

slight indeed. One's opportunities are turned to best

account by the skilful use of an ordinary hand-camera.

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

567

In Wildest Africa ^

hunters may hunt girafics with poisoned arrows. I have
often met natives in possession of freshly killed giraffe
flesh.

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

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

When you see these animals in their wild state, your
thoughts naturally revert to the penned-up tame specimens
in zoological gardens or those preserved in museums,

568

HEAD OF A GIRAFFE {c/RAFF.l RHTICUI.ATA De Willtou), KILLED IN SOUTH SOMALI-
LAND BY THE EXPLORER CARLO VON ERLANGER. (BY KIND PERMISSION OF
THE BARONESS VON ERLANGER.)

■^ A Vanishing Feature of the Velt

Well do I remember that the first wild zebra I saw looked
to me little like a tame specimen in a zoological garden.
The death-knell of the giraffe has tolled. This wonderful
and harmless animal ' is being completely annihilated ! Fate
has decreed that a somewhat near relative should be dis-
covered in later days— namely the Okapi, which inhabits
the Central African forests. It may be safely asserted that
these unique animals will exist long after the complete
extermination of the real giraffe. The species of giraffe,
however, which has been dying out In the north and south
of the African continent will be represented In the future
by pictures within every man's reach. Every observation
as to their habits, every correct representation obtained,
every specimen preserved for exhibition Is of real value.
And this I would Impress on every Intelligent man who
has the opportunity of doing any of these things out In
the wild.

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

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

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

In Wildest Africa ^

A fine stuffed specimen ofthese beautifully coloured giraffes
is to be found in the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfort-
on-Maine. An illustration gives the head of a giraffe killed
by my late friend, and proves to the reader how much the
two species differ— namely the South Somaliland giraffe as
here depicted,^ and that which I was the first to discover
in Masailand. We have in Erlanger's diary and in this
illustration the only existing information about the presence
of the giraffe in South Somaliland, a region which none
but my daring friend and his companions have so far

traversed.

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

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

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

1 Giraffa reijcidata de AN'inton and Girajfa srhilliii^^si, Mtsch.

J.<#^-

C. G. Schillmgs, phot.

GIRAFFA SCHILLINGSI, MtSCh.

[P- 576

■^ A Vanishing Feature of the Velt

those eyes, an expression which has been immortahsed
by poets in song and ballad for thousands of years, will
not easily forget it, any more than he will forget the strong
impression made on him when he looked at the " Serafa "
of the Arabs in the wilderness.

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

'■4, ^ "^ 'X':

CRESTED CRANES ON THE WING.

577

HUNGRY VULTURES IN THE VICINITY OF MY CAMP.

XIV

Camping out on the Velt

AMONG the happiest days of my hfe I reckon those
which I spent camping out in the heart of the Nyika.

Nearly every hour there had something fresh to arouse
my interest, not only in the life of the wild animals that
roamed at large all about, but also in that of the specimens
which I had caught or my men had brought to me, and
whose habits and ways I could observe within the enclosure
of the camp. Of course our unique menagerie could not
boast members of all the most attractive species of the
African fauna, but it included some very rare and
interesting animals which Europe has never seen. To
know these one must go and live in wildest Africa and see
them at home.

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

578

-♦)

Camping out on the Velt

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

MY TAXIDERMIST, ORGEICH, AT WORK.

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

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

581

In Wildest Africa ^

with pleasure certain strong and good characters amono-
my followers.

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

My goods and chattels were stowed away in a hut
which I had put up myself, and which was protected from
wind, rain, and sun by masses of reeds and velt grasses.
This hut was of the simplest construction, but I was very
proud of it. It was useful not only for protecting zooloo-ical
collections from the all-pervading rays of the sun, and
from rain and cold, but also from the numerous little
fiends of insects against which continual warfare has to
be waged. The destructive activity of ants is a constant
source of annoyance to travellers and collectors ; I
remember how my one-time . fellow-traveller Prince
Johannes Lowenstein had the flag on his tent destroyed
by them in a single night. In one night also these ants
bit through the ticket-threads by which my specimens
were classified ; in one night, again, the tiny fiends
destroyed the bottoms of several trunks which had been
carelessly put away !

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

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

582

? -

S j^

k t

-^ Camping out on the Velt

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

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

But by the time I got friendly with these nomads they
were off again. It is against their habits to stay long in
one place, and they do not willingly enter into close relations
with a European— or indeed with any one. Suddenly one
fine morning we find their sleeping quarters empty ; they
have disappeared, never to return. No obligation, no
command, would ever bind these wanderers to one place.
Children of the moment, children of the wilderness, their
lives are spent in constant roaming.

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

585

In Wildest Africa -^

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

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

"Why did you beat your wife last night?"
The Askari (who has served under both German and
English masters) stands to attention.

" Because she was badly behaved--! will not keep
her any more — I am sending her away."

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

And they go and make friends.

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

Countless similar events succeed one another, and ever

586

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

Camping out on the Velt

.tssf*-

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

the everyday monotony of the simple camp life has its
dehg-hts.

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

589

InlAVildest Africa ^

young lion 1 add to it, to-morrow a hyena, a jackal, a
monkey, a marabou, geese, and other velt-dwellers, all of
which I instal as members of my little community and try
to become friends with. My efforts have sometimes been
amply rewarded. Once during the early morning hours we
discovered a large troop of baboons. It was cool: the

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

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

59c

" POSCIl

MV CARAV

A.X-I.; MM l; 1 L\ >, P 1 N ' . '>' 1 I ■ I :• iN'ISIONS.

bearer's wife getting ready the evening meal.

M^■ ^"M^.\(, i;a i;i .i )X -, in front of my X)

YOUNG OSTRICHES.

-»s Camping out on the Velt

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

MARABOU NESTS.

to be met with outbursts of joy by my chained-up baboons.
They recognised their master in the far distance, reared
themselves on their hind legs, and gave demonstrations of
joy in every possible way as they saw him approaching.

Sometimes, too, other inmates of my camp evinced
their pleasure at my appearance. This was especially
the case with a marabou which I had caught when fully

. 595

In Wildest Africa -^

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

596

't>{

J'X

-* Camping out on the Velt

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

I was often able to contemplate idyllic scenes among
my quaint collection of animals. The behaviour of my
baby rhinoceros interested me greatly. It was the pet
ot my caravan, and I was very proud of having reared
it, for I had longed for two years for such a little
creature, and had made many vain attempts to obtain
one. Its friendship with two goats I have already
mentioned in my previous book. They formed a strange
trio. Very often the kid used the rhinoceros as a cushion,
and all three were inseparable. The beast and the two
goats often made little excursions out into the immediate
neighbourhood of my camp. At these times they were
carefully guarded by two of my most trustworthy people.
The "rhino" was provided with its accustomed vegetable
foods. When the little beast was in a good humour it
would play with me like a dog, and would scamper about
in the camp snorting in its own peculiar way. Such
merry games alternated with hours of anxiety, during
which I was obliged to give my foster-child food and
medicine with my own hands, and to fight the chigoes
i^Sarcopsylla penetrans. L.), commonly called "jiggers," those
horrible tormentors which Africa has received from
America.

In the evening my flocks and herds of sheep, goats

603

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

604

w -,S

-^ Camping- out on the Velt

animals coming close to the camp. 1 have even followed
the movements ot^ rhinoceroses with my helcl-olasses for
some time.

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

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

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

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

609

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

6io

HOW MY CAPTIVE YOUNG " RHINO " WAS CARRIED TO CAMP.

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

FATIMA " (as I CHRISTENED MY " RHINO ") AND HER TWO COMl'ANIOXS
ON THEIR WAY TO THE COAST.

^^U|jpyj||,!Hinp,.,||p , ,-

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

-^ Camping out on the V'elt

the next morning.^ Hyenas and jackals came very often,
and even lions sometimes came to within a short distance
of the camp. Thus my zoological garden, in spite of its
size, could well boast of being, so to speak, the most
primitive in the world.

But we had our anxious moments. Death levied its
toll among my people, and the continual rumours of
uprisings and attacks from outside gave plenty to talk
about during the whole day, and often far on into the
night over the camp-fire. When one of these charming
African moonlit nights had set in over my homestead,
when the noise of the bearers with their chatter and
clatter had ceased, and my work, too, was done, then I
used to sit awhile in front of the flickering flames and
think. Or I would wander from fire to fire to exchano-e
a few words with my watchmen, to learn their news and
their wishes and to ask much that I wanted to know.
This IS the hour when men are most communicative, and
unless there be urgent need of sleep the conversation
may continue far into the nieht

There is something strangely beautiful about those
nights in the wilderness. My thoughts go back to an
encampment I once made at the foot of the volcanic
mountain of Gelei, close to a picturesque rocky gorge, in
the depths of which was a small stream— a mere trickle
during the hot weather. Its source lay in the midst of
an extensive acacia wood, which tailed off on one side
into the bare, open " boga," while on the other it became
merged in a dense thicket of euphorbia trees, creepers,
1 Cf. With Flas/ilio/if ami Rifle.
615

In Wildest Africa ^^

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

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

6i6

#«

C. G. Scihllings, phot.

MY PELICANS {T.-Ii\T.-!LUS IBIS. L.), WHICH AFTERWARDS TOOK UP THEIR ABODE IN
THE BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.

■^ Camping out on the Velt

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

A SIESTA IN CAMP. THE MIDDAY HOUR.

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

625

In Wildest Africa ^

Beyond the glow of the camp-hre our eyes cannot
ti-^^vel — we cannot see what is happening outside the camp,
even quite close at hand. This intensifies one's feeling of
insecurity, for 1 know well how suddenly and with what
lightning speed the great felines manage their attacks. It
is in just such circumstances that so many men fall victims
to lion and leopard. One evening a leopard will snatch a
small dog from your feet, the next it will carry off one of
the native women before the eyes of the whole population
of your camp. You must have had such things happen
to you, or hear of them from eye-witnesses, to realise
the danger.

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

626

o
o

ffi

O
g

*-Xkgik.-

TIIE ]5EAKliKS ALWAYS LIKK TO " KILL ' THE GAME IN ACCORDANCE WITH
MOHAMMEDAN RITES, EVEN WHEN DEATH HAS ALREADY BEEN ENSURED
BY THE HUNTERS AND HAS BEGUN TO SET IN. WHEN THESE RITES
CANNOT BE FULFILLED, THEY WILL SOMETIMES REFUSE TO EAT THE
FLESH.

&^..

WHILE THE GAME IS BEING CUT UP, THE NATIVES OFTEN HAVE RECOURSE TO
INNOCENT HORSEPLAY BY WAY OF VENTING THEIR HIGH SPIRITS.

-^ Camping out on the Velt

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

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

A TRAPPED LEOPARD.

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

635

In Wildest Africa ^

He comes to me now and says, as he has had so often
to say before : " Master, do you hear the lions yonder in
the distance ? " And he makes his way towards the great
fire in the centre of the camp and throws some fresh logs
upon it. Flames spring up, blazing" and flickering in the
moonlio-ht.

THE BABOON AND THE LITTLE BLACK LADY,

636

A FOWL OF THE VELT {pTHROCLES GUTTURALIS SATURATIOR, Hart).

Night Photography under Difficuhies

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

When I have encamped in such localities it has generally
been with a view to securing specimens of rare birds,

In A\^ildest Africa

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

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

In the course of my last journey I encamped for the
second time at the foot of the Donje-Erok mountain
(the circuit of wdiich is a two-days' march), to the north-
west of Kilimanjaro. The region had been well known to
me since 1899. Previously to then it had been traversed
only by Count Teleki's expedition. His comrade, the
well-known o-eoo-raijher Ritter von Hohnel, had marked
its outlines on the map. Xo one, however, had pene-
trated into the interior, and here a wonderful field oftered

638

-* Night Photography under Difficulties

itself to the sportsman and explorer. A number of small
streams take their rise on the Donje-Erok. In the dry
weather these are speedily absorbed by the sun-dried soil
of the velt, but in the wet season they have quite a lono-
course, and combine to form a series of small swamps.
When these have gradually begun to dry and have come
to be mere stretches of blackish mud, they reveal the

■ti^t_-.

A RIVtU-IIuKSK RL.bUkT.

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

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

639 41

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

640

-^ Night Photography under Difficulties

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

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

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

641

In Wildest Africa -»>

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

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

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

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

642

-^ Night Photography under Difficulties

more over my treasure-trove in that it exempted me from
shooting any more zebras or gnus myseH. But my
calculations were all to be upset. On my notification to
the station that I had not bagged the animals myself, but
had found them lying about in a bush-camp where they
had been abandoned by nomadic native hunters, it was
decided that they could not be recognised as my property

VULTURES.

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

645

In Wildest Africa -^

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

It took me about a week to decide on the spots best
suited for my flashlight photographs. After a good deal
of really hard work, and after any number of unsuccessful
eftbrts, I was at last satisfied that my three cameras were
so placed as to promise good results if I had any luck.
But the fates seemed against me. There were hundreds
of different drinking-places along the course of the stream,
and with so great a choice at their disposal the animals
appeared to give my camera a wide berth.

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

646

-^ Night Photography under Difficulties

into two sections, I set out instantly with one of them in
the direction of the Askari, leavins: the other with Orwich
to defend the camp.

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

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

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

651

In Wildest Africa ^

hood of the stream, and that they had encamped for the
nioht in a mouldering old kraal in the thorn-thicket, and
it was while slumbering peacefully in this that they were
disturbed by my Askari. Scattered all over the place
were o-oods and chattels of various descriptions which they
had left behind them in their hasty flight, and which I
now had carefully collected together. From their nature
I concluded that the Masai were making for some place
at a considerable distance, and that there was, therefore,
no danger of unpleasant consequences. I returned to my
camp to reassure my people, and at once got some of my
Masai friends, who had been with me for a long time, to
go after the fugitives and bring them back. That was
the only way to effect an understanding — any other
messeno-ers would have failed in the mission.

Towards midday my Masai returned to camp with
some thirty of the spear-armed warriors and a number
of their women-folk. I gave them back their belongings,
together with a present by way of amende for their fright.
This they accepted with equanimity after the manner of
all natives. Then they took their departure, the incident
being thus happily terminated without bloodshed.

Curiously enough, Orgeich had had a somewhat similar
encounter with Masai a short time before. He had been
for a turn in the neighbourhood of the camp, and was
comino- back in the dark along a rhinoceros-track. When
he had got to within a quarter of an hour's walk of the
camp, there was a sudden clatter right in front ot hmi,
and in the uncertain moonlight he descried a band of
armed IMasai. Remembering the recent night-encounter

652

-^ Night PhotogTaphy under Difficulties

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

MY NIGHT-APPARATUS IN PCJSITION, READY TO WORK.

case also there were no ill consequences. But, as he still
continues to declare, it was a near thino-.

653

In Wildest Africa ^

Such incidents, it will be recognised, can very easily
lead to serious results.

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

A PET OF THE CARAVAN.

654

^'^^ii.'

C G. Schillings, phot.

A BAOBAB {AD.IXSOMA DlGIT.lT.l). THESE TREES ARE OFTEN BELIEVED BY THE
NATIVES TO BE INHABITED BY GHOSTS. THEY USED TO COME INTO THE
STORIES TOI.D BY MY FOLLOWERS.

THli MKsr l-'l ASIII.IGHT PlIOT( )l,k A I'l I Willi W 1 1 K II I HAM AW MIAslKE OF
SUCCESS ! A MONGOOSE MAY BE JUST GUESSED AT UNDER THE THORN-BRANCH.

XVI

Photography by Day and by Night

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

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

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

657

In Wildest Africa -^

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

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

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

658

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

THE GOERZ-SCHILLINGS NIGHT-APPARATUS.

-^ Photography by Day and by Night

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

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

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

After going through a careful course of instruction

in Kiesling's Photographic Institution, I did not succeed

in entirely satisfying myself with the daylight photographs

I took on my second expedition of 1899— 1900. It was

impossible at that time to photograph objects at great

distances, the telephoto lens not yet carrying far enouo-h.

My efforts to photograph the animals by night proved

entirely fruitless, for one reason because the flashlight

apparatus would not work. It was exasperating to find

that my heavy and expensive "accumulators" — procured

after consultation with technical experts — refused to act,

and I remember vividly how I tiung them out into the

middle of a river ! I achieved but one single success

at this period with a self-acting apparatus, namely the

photograph of two vultures contending over carrion, here

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

is just about to assert its right to part of the meal. The

attitudes of the two birds are very interesting, and one

feels that it would have been very difficult for a painter

to have put them on record. But all my other attempts

failed, as I have said, from technical causes, and I had

to content myself for the most part with photographing

the animals I hunted, though I did succeed in getting

pictures of a waterbuck and a giraffe at which I had not

66;

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

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

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

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

664

-»)

Photography by Day and by Night

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

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

long enough to secure a clear impression, yet not so long
as to make the moving animals come out quite blurred.
I am strongly of opinion that it is not of much advantage
to make out a table of calculations as to the time ot

667

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

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

668

-^ Photography by Day and by Night

hght that rise up out of the scorched soil, for instance

make it peculiarly hard to calculate the time of exposure,
and many photographs turn out failures which you have
felt cjuite sure of having taken properly. This is specially
disappointing in the case of animals that you may never
have another opportunity of photographing. In such cases
I make a practice of giving as many exposures as possible,
in the hope of one or other of them turning out ricdit.

You often miss splendid chances, of course, simply
through not having your camera at hand. A few moments'
delay may lose you an opportunity that will never come
to you again. Then, again, you are just as apt in Africa
as elsewhere to make the mistakes so well known to
all photographers— wrong focussing, using the same plate
twice, not getting your objects properly on the plate, etc.
Nor can you always avoid having a tree or bush or branch
between you and the animal you want to photograph.
These things are often enough to quite spoil your picture.
The weight of the camera, too, is in itself a hindrance.
It is not every one who can handle a 13 x i8-cm. tele-
photo camera. Even aQ x 12-cm. is heavy enough. It
must be remembered that on one's journeyings through
the wilderness it is almost as much as one can do to carry
with one a sufficient supply of water— that most essential
thing of all. And one has to be most careful of the
apparatus, tor mischances may occur at any moment.

Though my experiences and those of others will have
had the effect of smoothing the way for all who go photo-
graphing in future in Equatorial Africa, still, hunting with
the camera will remain a much more difficult thing than

671 43

In Wildest Africa -*

hunting with the rifle. The practised shot needs only a
fraction of a second to bring down his game— often he
scarcely even sees it, and fires at it through dense shrubs
or bushes, whereas the photographer can achieve nothing
until he has contrived to secure a combination of favour-
able conditions, and he wants in many cases to "bring
down" not just one animal, but a whole herd. His most
tempting chances come to him very often when he is
unprepared. That is why I insist upon the desirability
of his shouldering a camera like a gun. At short range
you can secure wonderful pictures even with an ordinary
small hand-camera, but for this kind of work you must
of course have good nerves. ... It was in this way I
took the photographs of the rhinoceroses in the pool
reproduced in JJuih Flashlight and Rifle, some of the
best I ever secured. One of these, taken at a distance
of fifteen or twenty paces, shows the " rhino," not yet
hit, rushing down upon Orgeich and me. In another
instant I had thrown my little hand-camera to the
ground, and just managed to get a bullet into him in the
nick of time. He swerved to one side and made oft
into the thicket, where I eventually secured him. He is
now to be seen in the Munich Museum.

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

672

-♦)

Photography by Day and by Night

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

In the animal pictures of the Munich painter Ztigel,
we see admirably rendered all the many shades of colouring
we note, under different conditions, close at hand or far
away, when we have the actual wild life before our eyes.
There we note that the upper part of the animal's body
often reflects so strongly the cold blue of the sky that
its own colouring is, as it were, cancelled, or at least very
greatly modified. We note, too, that an animal in reality
reddish-brown in colour becomes violet owing to the blue
in the atmosphere. Refinements of form and hue are lost
in the glare of the sun, and only the stronger outlines
and more pronounced colours assert themselves. vSome-
times the sun's rays, reflected from the animals' skins,
produce the effect of glowing patches of light, sometimes
they are absorbed ; sometimes the animals look quite black,
sometimes absolutely white. Photographs of animals
taken under such conditions do not, of course, give a good
idea of the normal colourino of the animals. The success
of a photograph depends, therefore, very largely upon the
nature of the light.

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

675

In Wildest Africa ^

ao-ain you may happen upon them standing- under trees ;
and when this occurs you may hope for good results,
because the way in which the blue rays of light are
reflected from the trees has a favourable effect upon
the bromide-silver plates.

While it is true that there can be nothing more
disappointing than the disc(wery, when developing one's
photographs of animals in a coimtry like Africa, that
negatives of which one had great hopes are no good,
this very possibility adds to the fascination of the work,
and is, as it were, a link between the sport and that of
our fathers and grandfathers. The kind of rifle-shooting
we go in for nowadays has nothing in common with that
of the hunter who was dependent upon a single bullet
the eftect of which he could only get to make sure of
after long experience. To the true sportsman the camera
is the best substitute for the old-fashioned gun, inasmuch
as it in\'olves very much the same degree of difliculty
and danger

How keenly I regret that I had not the advantage
from the first of the perfected photographic apparatus
that has come into existence as the result of long ex-
perience ! I look back with regret upon the many
failures I experienced in my earlier efforts, the ex-
citement of the moment often causing me to neglect
some necessary precaution. Lions, rhinoceroses, hippo-
potami, giraffes, and antelopes innumerable — nearly all
my attempts to photograph them were fruitless. When
I came to develop the negatives at night-time I would
find a blurred suggestion of the objects I had seen so

676

-»i Photography by Day and by Night

distinctly before me in the daylight, or else, owing-
to some mishap, an absolute blank. All the greater
was my joy when on rare occasions I did succeed in
getting such pictures as those of the rhinoceroses already
referred to.

I made it a practice to develop at night in my tent,
as soon as I possibly could, all negatives that I thought
at all likely to be successful, llie only negatives I sent
to Europe were duplicates of those which I had already
developed myself. At home, of course, the developing
can be done much more carefully. No one who has
not had the experience can realise what it means to have
to develop plates in the heat and damp of Equatorial
Africa and with the kind of water at one's disposal there.
When I found that my negatives were successful, not
content with developing them, I always made a number of
bromide-silver copies of them. These were put away in
separate cases and the original was despatched home as
soon as possible. If this original negative got lost en
rottie, I was almost sure of having one of the copies,
even if some of the packing-cases got lost also.

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

It is very interesting to note that my photographs of
birds on the wing have put so many people, especially
painters, in mind of the work of Japanese artists. Doflein,
in his book Ostasienfahrf, speaks as follows of the peculiar
faculty the Japanese have in this field of art. " The

679

In Wildest Africa ^

Japanese animal painters," he says, "show a more highly
developed power of observing nature than that of their
Western fellow-workers. They render the swift, sudden
motion of animals with astonishing dexterity. . . . They
had learned to see and reproduce them correctly before
the coming of instantaneous photography. . . . The
Japanese seem to have a very highly developed nervous
organism. Their art is evidence of this, no less than
their methods of warfare — their effective use of their
guns at sea, for instance."

I would add to this my own opinion that an
inferior shot would have no success whatever with a tele-
photo lens. You must have learnt to stalk your quarry
warily — this is as important as a steady hand. A practised
shot who knows how to get within range of the animals
is peculiarly well fitted for the work. The least twitch
at the moment of taking the photograph ruins everything,
for even in the case of moving objects the exposure is
not what can be accurately called instantaneous, owing
to the peculiarity of the lens.

I have already expressed my view that this non-
instantaneous exposure (when not too prolonged) imparts
a certain softness and vagueness to the photograph which
give it an artistic effect. It gives scope also for the
personal taste and preferences of the operator. When
taken against the horizon photographs require less exposure
than with the velt for background. The dark green of the
trees and shrubs no less than the red laterite soil offering
unfavourable backgrounds for photographs of animals in
Africa, as elsewhere, one has to pay particular attention,

680

Photography by Day and by Night

TELEPHOTOGRAPHS OF BIRDS ON THE WING. FIRST ROW : THE STORK-VULTURE
{snRPnAT.lKIUS SJ-RPFA-JARIL'S \mIV.1.-E-R\). SECOND ROW I HAMMERHEAD [SCOPU^
UMBRETTA, Gm.), SMALL BUSTARD {OTIS GINDIANA [OUSX]) SADDLE STORK
{EPHIPPWRHYNCHVS SENEGALENSIS [SHAW]). THIRD ROW ; BATELEUR EAGLE
[HELOJARSUS ECAUDATUii\pAX!'D.']), VULTURE [PSEUnOGVPS AFRICAXUS SCHJELLVOSj,
Erl.), MARABOU {fAiPTOPTlLOS CRUMENIFER, [cUV.], LcSS.).

of course, to the effects of shadows, shadows which to
the eye seem quite natural producing extraordinary eft'ects
upon the negatives.

Some of the photographer's difficukies are avoided

683

In Wildest Africa -^

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

I l.l.l.l'HOTOGRAPH OF A DWAICl' (,A/i;i.lj: [C.-IZHLLA THOMSON!, GWl^-X .) IN FULL
FLIGHT, TAKEN AT A DISTANCE OF 6o PACES. WHEN ANIMALS IN RAPID
MOTION ARE THUS PHOTOGRAPHED, THE BACKGROUND ALMOST INEVITABLY
COMES OUT BLURRED.

of such pictures, namely the representation of the animal
in its natural surroundings. However, I would like to
call the attention of all travellers to the fact that such
apparatus are available. Their weight and size entail
the putting forth of great strength and energy, both in
the carrying of them and the handling of them, but to

684

-^ Photography by Day and by Night

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

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

As I have said already, I did not succeed with my
flashlight photographs on my second expedition. And
my third expedition, on which I managed to take a few,
was brought to a sudden end by severe illness. At that
time I had not found a way to combine the working of
the flashlight with that of the shutter, essential to the
photographing of objects in rapid motion. My cameras
stood ready for use in the dark with the lens uncovered
and the plates exposed, the shutter being closed auto-
matically when the flashlight contrivance worked. To my
surprise and disappointment this arrangement proved too
slow ; the exposure was too long in the case of animals
moving quickly. Jackals emerged from my negatives with
six heads, hyenas with long snake-like bodies. Unfor-
tunately I destroyed all these monstrosities, and cannot
therefore reproduce any of them here. Now and again,

68/ 44

in Wildest Africa -^

however, I was fortunate enough to get a picture worth
having — for instance, that of a hyena making off with
the head of a zebra, and that of three jackals, included
in the illustrations to ]]'ith Flashlight and Rifle. The
first photograph 1 succeeded with in 1902 was that of a
mongoose coming up to the bait placed for him. On
■page 657 the reader may see this martendike animal taking
to flight among the thorn-bushes. I secured a number
of other pictures, notably of hyenas, both spotted and
striped, and of jackals, in all kinds of strange positions,
moving hither and thither in search of prey.

What a state of excitement and suspense 1 used to
be in at first when the flashlight flamed out — until I got
to realise that owing to the rapid movements of the animals
most of the photographs were sure to be failures.

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

Equipped with this new apparatus, I set out on my
fourth expedition, betaking m\self for two reasons to
districts with which I was already familiar. In the first
place, success was much more likely in a country the
speech of whose inhabitants and all their habits and
customs were known to me ; but my chief reason was
that 1 wished to achieve a pictorial record of the wild
life of the German region of Africa. As a matter of

688

" "^

—^-

•S

a fc' V

-*»

Li>lk , £%.jy 4' • / ♦ ^ ?:

Photography by Day and by Night

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

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

691

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

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

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

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■^ Photography by Day and by Night

nearly gave the thing up as hopeless) before I managed
to get good results in the wilderness, though theoretically,
and to a certain extent in practice at home, the apparatus
had been perfected. The heavy dew of the tropical
night, or a sudden shower of rain, may easily " do for" the
flashlight unless the apparatus has been thoroughly safe-
guarded. And there are any number of other mishaps

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

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

697

In Wildest Africa ^

worth of powder is consumed in each explosion of the
flashlio-ht is in itself a serious consideration. Of course,
there is always the additional danger of the cameras being
stolen or destroyed by natives — a misfortune I experienced
more than once.

I would give the intending photographer a special

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

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

698

C. G. Schillings, phot.
PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES OF ANTELOPES SHOT BY THE AUTHOR AND NOW TO BE SEEN
PRESERVED IN GERMAN MUSEUMS. I, 2. WATERBUCK {COBUS. AFR. IILLIPSIPRVMXUS.
Ogilb.), MALE AND FEMALE. 3. ELAND (^ORE.IS I.IVINGSTONI, Sclat.), FEMALE.
4. MASAI HARTEBEEST {bU BALIS COKE/, Gthr.), YoUNG BUCK.

-^ Photography by Day and by Night

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

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

Many wrong impressions are current in regard to
this kind of photography. It can be managed in two
ways. Either the photographer himself remains on the
spot to attend in person both to the tiashlight and the
exposure, or else the mechanism is worked by a strino-
against which the animal moves. Before I took my
photographs I had been a spectator of all the various
incidents represented in them, watching them all from
hiding-places in dense thorn-bushes, thus coming, as it
were, into personal touch with lions and other animals.
Though not so dangerous really as camping out on
the velt, where one's tatigue and the darkness leave one
defenceless against the possible attacks of elephants or
rhinocero.ses, you need good nerves to spend the night in
your thorn-thicket hiding-place with a view to flashlight
snapshots of lions at close quarters. In that interestine
work Zu den Aidihans, by Count Hoyos, and in Count
Wickenburg's Wanderimgen in. Ostafrika. the reader will
find interesting and authentic accounts of night-shoots

701

In Wildest Africa ^

which correspond with my own experiences. Count
Coudenhove in his first book describes very vividly the
effect upon the nerves ot^ the apparition of numbers of
lions within a few paces of him, when concealed in a
thorn-bush at night.

There is a wonderful fascination at all times in lying
in wait by night for animals, and watching their goings
and comings and all their habits. Even here at home,
in our game preserves, the experience of passing hour
after hour on the look-out has a charm about it difficult
to describe in words. Out in the wilderness it is increased
immeasurably. It is an intense pleasure to me to read
other people's impressions of such experiences, when I
feel the accounts are trustworthy. They are so different
in some respects, so much alike in others. In my first
book I cited Count Coudenhove, mentioned above, in
this connection, as a man of proved courage, who writes
at once sympathetically and convincingly. Here let
me give a passage from the book of another sportsman,
Count Hans Palffy. In his Wild unci Hund he speaks
as follows : " I had been waiting for two hours or so in
the darkness without being able to descry the carcase
of the rhinoceros " [which he himself had shot and which
he was using as a bait for the lion], " when suddenly I
heard a sound like that of a heavy body falling on the
ground, and then almost immediately the lion began
oTowlin^ beside the dead animal. I could hear the King
of Beasts quite distincdy, as he began to pull and bite
at the fiesh. ... He would move away from it every
ten or twenty minutes, always in the same direction, to

C. G. Schillings, phot.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES SHOT BY THE AUTHOR AND NOW
PRESERVED IN VARIOUS MUSEUMS. I. SMALL KUDU (STREPSICEROS I.UFr.RUIS.

Blyth), BUCK. 2. DWARF GAZELLE {GAZELI.A TIIOMSOXI. Gthr.), BUCK.

3. WHITE-BEARDED GNU {CONNOCHAiTES ALBOJUBATVS. ThOS.), BULL. 4. BUSH-
BUCK \{tragelaphus masaicus. Neum), buck. (the female of the first-
named, AND LAST-NAMED SPECIES HAVE NO HORNS.)

^. Photography by Day and by Night

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

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

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

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

In Wildest Africa -^

cowering- gait of the animal came out very strikingly on

the negative.

There is wide scope for a man's dexterity and resource-
fulness in the setting up of a flashlight apparatus. All
the qualities that go to the making of a big-game hunter
are essential to success in this field also. You have
to keep a sharp look-out for the tracks of the different
animals and to watch for their appearance, takmg up
your position in some thorn-bush hiding-place or up a
tree if you propose to operate the camera yourself by
means of a string. In the case of most animals you have,
of course, to pay special attention to the direction of the
wind. This is not necessary, however, in the case of
lions. Lions take no notice whatever of the man in
hiding. Elephants, on the contrary, are very easily excited,
and when this is so they are apt to force their way into
his thorn retreat and trample on him or to drag him
down from his point of vantage.

Future workers in this field will find that my labours
have served to some extent to clear the ground for them,
and we may look forward to many interesting achieve-
ments. There can be no doubt that the explorer who
provides himself with the necessary photographic equip-
ment will find ample scope for his activities.

My own process was simple enough. 1 stretched lines
of string round the heifer or goat which was to serve
as a bait, and the lions, hyenas, etc., falling on their prey
pulled these strings, which worked the flashlight-the
animals thus taking their own photographs. Some of these

706

MORE ANTELOPES. I. BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPE {■■UPVCEROS SU.IRA. 'Mtsch.), BUCK.
2. MOUNTAIN REEDBUCK {CERflCArRA CH.WLF.RI, Rothsch.). 3. GRANT'S GAZELLE
{GAZELLA GRANT/, BrOOke), DOE. 4. ORYX ANTELOPE (O^ }V1' C./ZAOr/^. ThoS.),

BUCK.

■^ Photography by Day and by Night

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

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

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

709

In Wildest Africa ^

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

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

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

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

71Q

PHOTOGRAPHS OF (l) A SPOTTED HYENA [CKU^UI i.i i, Ji/;M/\.I \.\. Altscll.) ; (2) AND (4)
STRIPED HYENAS {HY.-ENA SCHILLINGSI, Mtsch.), AND {3) A JACKA;,,

Photography by Day and by Night

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

This is true not merely of Africa, but of other parts of
the world as well. Who is attempting to secure photo-
graphic records of the great elk and mighty bears of

SNAPSHOT OF A JACKAL IN FULL FLIGHT.

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

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

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

7^3

In Wildest Africa -^

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

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

GUINEA-FOWL.

Envoi

I MAY be permitted a few words in conclusion to
reaffirm certain views to which I cling. I would
not have my readers attach any special importance to what
I myself have achieved, but I would like them to take to
heart the moral of my book.

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

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

715

linvoi -*

as "useful." The realm of nature should not be reofarded
exclusively from the point of view of sport ; the sportsman
should stand rather in the position of a guardian or trustee,
responsible to all nature-lovers for the condition of the
fauna and flora left to his charo^e.

I would have the German hunter establish the same
kind of reservations, the same kind of " sanctuaries " for
wild life that exist in America. In our German colonies,
especially in Africa, we should model those reservations
on English examples. Such institutions, in which both
flora and fauna should be really well looked after, would
be a source at once of instruction and enjoyment of the
highest kind to all lovers of natural history.

FAREW ICLL TO AFRICA

Printed by Hazell, Watson <5" Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury^ England.

716

University of British Columbia Library

DUE DATE

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Full text of "In wildest Africa, by C.G. Schillings, Tr. by Frederic Whyte. With over 300 photographic studies direct from the author's negatives, taken by day and night; and other illustrations"

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