Hunting Big Game: In Africa and Asia

By Col. Townsend Whelen

Here are the most exciting big game hunting yarns ever written about Africa and Asia. Ten superb stories on hunting lions, elephants, tigers, buffalos, leopards and sheep, with chapters on big game rifles, equipment and knives.
The authors are Selous, Baker, Kirby, Neumann, and Litledale—the most expert and fearless hunters ever to track big game.
These anthologies make fascinating reading for the practical hunter or the armchair outdoorsman. Whelen has dug deeply into the literature of hunting and has selected what, in his expert opinion, are the best big game hunting stories of all times. They have been chosen with two points in mind: first for extreme readability and adventure; and second, for the technical hunting information in them. All the stories rank high on both sides.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Release date: Mar 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780811767286

Book preview

HUNTING BIG GAME

HUNTING BIG GAME

An Anthology of True

and Thrilling Adventures

Volume I

AFRICA AND ASIA

Edited with introductions and notes by

TOWNSEND WHELEN

Hunting Editor of

Sports Afield

A National Rifle Association Library Book

STACKPOLE

BOOKS

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

Published by Stackpole Books

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

Unit A. Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright © 1946 by The Military Service Publishing Company

First Printing, December, 1946

Second Printing, April, 1947

First Stackpole Books paperback edition 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

ISBN 978-0-8117-3752-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-0-8117-6728-6 (electronic)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

I. INTRODUCTION . Townsend Whelen

II. FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS

1. Introduction

2. Early Ivory Hunting

3. The Audacity and Perseverance of Lions

4. A Day with Elephants

III. WILLIAM COTTON OSWELL

1. Introduction by Sir Samuel W. Baker

2. African Game and Rifles

3. Rhinos and Buffaloes

4. Adventures with Lions

5. The African Elephant and Hippo

6. Second Expedition to South Africa

7. Later Visits to South Africa

IV. SIR SAMUEL W. BAKER

1. Introduction

2. The Tiger in India

3. Buffalo Hunting—And Weapons—in Ceylon

4. Boar Hunting with a Knife

5. The Rifle of a Past Half Century

V. ARTHUR H. NEUMANN

1. Introduction

2. Early Days in British East Africa

3. Remarks on Rifles and Ammunition

4. Mauled by a Elephant

5. Further Hunting Adventures

VI. ST. GEORGE LITTLEDALE

1. Introduction

2. The Marco Polo Sheep of the Pamir

VII. FREDERICK VAUGHAN KIRBY

1. Introduction

2. Lion Hunting

3. An Adventure with a Hill Leopard

4. The African Game Rifle

Introduction

ENGLISHMEN and Americans have always had the spirit of adventure in their blood. They have been the explorers and pioneers of the world. At first their explorations had for incentive the discovery and opening of new lands for colonization, the extension of the fur trade and other commerce, the discovery of the Northwest Passage, the first attainment of the Poles. We have all read of these explorations in our histories.

By the middle of the last century most of the big exploration had been completed, the last of such expeditions being by Livingstone and Stanley in Africa. Then our adventurers turned their attention to lesser explorations in the wilder portions of the globe. These latter-day explorers, not backed by Governments, went for love of adventure, of sport, of hunting, of nature, and particularly of wandering in wild places, winning their way and subsistance by rifle and axe alone.

This anthology presents a glimpse into their lives, their adventures, and their sports.

These men were our greatest hunter-riflemen and hunter-naturalists. Unlike the present day big game hunters they did not employ a guide to conduct them through the hunting country, to point out to them the game, and to all but hold the rifle for them. They entered entirely unknown and unexplored country of which there was not even a rough map, and in which there were often savage men as well as beasts; where there was absolutely no source of supply but their own trail back to the jumping off place. They won their way alone or with the help of a few natives to do the hard work of portage and camp. The territory was as strange to the natives as to them. They lived literally by the rifle, killing, butchering, and preserving their game, and subsisting for the main part on meat alone.

They wrote of their adventures and their sport, and because these men were really great they were not vain boasters. Their accounts are absolutely truthful and accurate, without exaggeration; proved so a thousand times by latter day sportsmen who have travelled on their trails.

They were not game butchers. Some of them hunted for ivory, others for natural history institutions, many for science, and most all for sport. Some of their bags seem to us unduly large until it is remembered that they had many natives to feed. But above all these men were nature lovers. Most of them are numbered among our prominent field naturalists. While their writings are mainly concerned with exploration and sport with the rifle, they also cover local history, geology, botany, ornithology, and zoology.

It has been my good fortune to have known some of the younger of these hunter-riflemen, and to have heard from their lips some of their adventures, and those of still older hunters whom they had known. But mostly I have perused these adventures in the well thumbed and rather extensive library in my home. Besides the works from which extracts have been made here, there are many, many others which have served to wile away winter evenings when cold and storm and the days work made it impossible to get away for serious sport in the open, into the hills, into God’s countries.

May the present day reader derive as much pleasure and profit from these truthful and vivid tales as I have.

Due to the limitations of a single work, only a glimpse of the lives of these hunter-riflemen can be presented here. The rest, and that of others of their kind, are now buried where only library research will bring them to light. It is too bad that this is so, for I know of no other reading which will breed in young men a love of adventure, manly and humane spon, desire for achievement, disregard for hard work, development of all the manly virtues, and strong and competent bodies.

The watchword of these giants of the unspoiled earth, who have now passed forever to the Happy Hunting Grounds was Peace and Utter Freedom.

Washington, D. C.

May, 1946

TOWNSEND WHELEN

FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS*

INTRODUCTION

FOR the first I have chosen selections from the works of Frederick Courteney Selous * because he is universally acknowledged to be the greatest of all our hunter-riflemen, and indeed deserves to rank among the great pioneers of all times.

Selous was born in Regents Park, London, in 1851, and entered Rugby in 1866 where he obtained his early education. There he distinguished himself by his studies in Natural History, and by his pranks in connection therewith. Even at school he was celebrated for his acute senses of sight, hearing, smell, and taste, and he distinguished himself in running, football, and swimming. In 1869 he completed his youthful education by studies in Switzerland and Germany.

He had been an avid reader of the works of Gordon Cumming, Baldwin, and Livingstone, early African hunters and explorers, and he determined to go to that continent and live the life of a hunter. So, on September 4, 1871 he landed at Algoa Bay with £400 in my pocket and the weight of only nineteen years upon my shoulders. And there he penetrated a thousand miles to the north into practically unknown Matabele Land and became for the next eight years a professional elephant hunter. He wandered all over the country which is now Southern Rhodesia, hunting, exploring, trading for ivory with the wild natives. He was one of the first, if not the first, white man to penetrate most of that country.

In those days hunters went up country as far as they could, hauling a year or more of supplies and trade goods with ox-teams, and then they hunted elephants on foot in the Fly as it was called, the tse-tse fly country where oxen and horses could not live. Thus did Selous hunt these large and dangerous beasts for months at a time away from his wagons; with only half a dozen wild natives to carry his ivory; with no supplies at all but his heavy ammunition which he carried himself.

His First Weapons

He brought to Africa a small, double breech-loading rifle by Reilly (which was soon stolen) and a double 10-bore muzzle loading rifle by Vaughan, (a very inferior weapon as it threw its bullets across one another), and a little double-gun that shot well with both shot and bullet. None of these were suitable for the larger beasts, elephant, rhinoceros, and buffalo, so he was obliged to purchase two common 4-bore (.935-inch) single-barrel muzzle loading smooth-bore guns of a type that were invariably used by the professional Dutch and native elephant hunters. They were made by Isaac Hollis of Birmingham weighed 12½ pounds, and cost Selous £6 apiece. They were loaded with a 4-ounce round lead-ball and a handful of coarse trade powder. They kicked like a mule, but were very effective at short range. He used them for three years, and killed seventy-eight elephants with them, all but one of which he shot on foot. Since then I have shot with very expensive large bore breech-loaders and Curtis and Harvey’s best powder, but I have never used or seen used a rifle which drove better than these common-made old muzzle-loaders. However, they were so light that, when loaded as they were by hand from a leather bag of powder slung at my side (I find that an ordinary handful of powder is over twenty drachms), they kicked most frightfully, and in my case the punishment I received from these guns has affected my nerves to such an extent as to have materially influenced my shooting ever since, and I am heartily sorry that I ever had anything to do with them.

Selous’ plan of campaign in those days was to buy his supplies for a year or more in one of the small towns in what is now the Transvaal, or else at Bamangwato across the Limpopo, then the most northern habitat of white men. From there he would trek north with a large Boer waggon or a Scotch cart ladened with the supplies and drawn by a span of twenty or more oxen. Five or six Kafirs were his assistants. Arriving at Bulawayo three or four hundred miles to the north, he would obtain permission from Lobengula, the powerful king of the Matabele, to hunt in the elephant country which was north, northeast, and northwest of that native town. Continuing about a hundred miles further he would make a permanent camp and leave a couple of Kafirs there in charge of his wagons and oxen.

From this permanent camp he would set out on foot into the fly country accompanied by four or five Kafirs, to be gone hunting one to three months at a time. The Kafirs carried his blanket, one of his elephant guns, and a little Kafir corn. He carried his other gun and his ammunition. That is all.

His Shooting Methods

Selous always wore a felt hat, a shirt, and shoes, nothing else, not even pants, so as to be in light running order. They thus traveled ten to twenty miles a day through rough and absolutely unknown country. When they struck fresh spoor of elephants, perhaps once in five to ten days, they would follow it until they came up with the herd. Then carefully and slowly they would stalk up-wind on the beasts until they got within fifteen or twenty yards. Selecting the bull with the best ivory, Selous would endeavor to give it a heart shot. Usually this first cool shot was successful, then seizing the other gun he would give chase to the fast disappearing herd, and such was his running ability that he usually overtook one or more within a couple of miles to which he also delivered, or tried to deliver, a fatal shot. In this way he would often shoot three or four elephants in a day. The tusks were then cut out and buried to be picked up on the way back. They lived on elephant, rhinoceros and antelope meat and a little corn, and they camped in the open where night found them. A hard life.

From about 1876 on, Selous armed himself with much more modern breech-loading rifles by prominent British makers. For elephant, rhinoceros, and usually for buffalo, he used chiefly double 10-bore rifles shooting conical lead bullets of about 875 grains, and about eight drams of black powder. And for antelope and lion he was partial to single-barrel breech-loading falling-block rifles of .450-bore, shooting express bullets of about 360 grains and solid lead bullets of about 540 grains, both with about 90 to 96 grains of Curtis and Harvey No. 6 black powder.

Starting about 1900 he used the more modern high power smokeless powder rifles exclusively. For ordinary game his favorite cartridges were the .303 British taking a 215 grain expanding jacketed-bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,000 feet per second, and the .375 Cordite cartridge with a similar bullet of 270 grains and 40 grains of Cordite powder, also giving a M. V. of 2,000 f. s. For these cartridges he was very partial to the single-shot Farquharson falling-block action. On the thick skinned, dangerous African game he used a double .450 Cordite rifle, 480 grain full jacketed (solid) bullet with a M. V. of 2,200 f. s., made, I think, by Holland and Holland. In 1908 he mentioned the .256 Mannlicher rifle as being excellent for light game, but I do not believe he ever used it personally.

I also think that Selous used the open rear sight exclusively on all his rifles.

In 1881, having become fairly well-to-do from the sale of his ivory, Selous returned to England for a few months, and on getting back to Africa found that elephant hunting was about a thing of the past, the beasts having either been exterminated by heavy hunting, or driven north of the Zambezi where transportation was such that it did not pay to hunt them. While in England he had made arrangements with the Natural History Department of the British Museum to collect specimens of the various African animals for them, and he now took up this fairly profitable work, and he also received orders for the South African Museums. Many of the specimens of African mammals one now sees in those museums were collected by Selous.

His Later Expeditions

For many years he travelled all over what is now Southern and Northern Rhodesia and Bechuanaland, collecting and also trading with the natives for ivory, ostrich feathers and other products. At one time in Northern Rhodesia his camp was attacked by hostile natives and he lost everything he had. All his followers were killed, and he barely escaped with his life, having to travel alone, mostly at night, for hundreds of miles to the south before he fell in with white people. In 1893 he was a scout in the First Matabele war, and was with Colonel Gould Adams’ column in its advance on Bulawayo, the stronghold of King Lobengula.

In 1896 he returned to England, married, and settled down at Worplesdon, having in the meantime become fairly well-to-do from his ivory, collecting, and the sale of his many successful books. But he was infected with the virus of wanderlust, and he could not remain at home for long. He made many long and short trips abroad for hunting, collecting, and nature study. He hunted in Wyoming and Montana for wapiti and grizzly, in Ontario and New Brunswick for moose, in Newfoundland for caribou, in Asia Minor for deer and goats. In 1904 he hunted in Yukon Territory with Charles Sheldon for moose, caribou, sheep, and bear, and returned there again in 1906 alone. He made many trips to various parts of Africa, and helped to arrange Theodore Roosevelt’s expedition to Kenya and Uganda.

When the first World War broke out in 1914 he offered his services in any capacity, but had much difficulty in getting accepted for he was then sixty-three years old, although physically the superior of many men of thirty-five. Finally he was given a commission as Captain, 25th Royal Fusiliers, and returned to his beloved Africa for service against the Germans in Tanganyika, where he served in many engagements with much distinction, winning the Distinguished Service Order, until finally he was killed in action January 4, 1917 in the engagement near Kissaki. He was buried where he fell as he would like to have been. His bones now rest in a lonely grave where of nights hyaenas laugh and lions roar, but where a gigantic bronze rhinoceros, modelled by Carl Akeley, a last tribute from his sportsmen friends in the United States, stands guard.

Game Shot by Selous

There is no precise record of the game which Selous shot during his long experience, but Mr. Edgar N. Barclay* has carefully compiled a list from Selous various books, from The Life of F. C. Selous by J. G. Millais, 1918; from the Catalogue of the Selous Collection of Big Game in the British Museum; and from the article Captain Selous and his Trophies, Country Life, January 13, 1917, from which I take the liberty of quoting the following:

Species of African Game shot by F. C. Selous

Elephant 106

White Rhinoceros 23

Black Rhinoceros 28

Hippopotamus

South African Buffalo 177

East African Buffalo 177

Lion 31

Leopard

East African Serval.

South African Cheetah.

South African Giraffe 67

Uganda Giraffe 67

Reticulated Giraffe 67

Mashonaland Eland 120

East African Eland 120

Sudan Derby Eland 120

Kudu 60

Lesser Kudu

Sable Antelope 125

Roan Antelope 88

Gemsbuck 65

Ibean Beisa

Coke Hartebeest

Nakuru Hartebeest

Jackson Hartebeest

Selborne Rooi Hartebeest.

Powell-Cotton’s Oribi

Nile Oribi

Cape Steinbuck

Transvaal Steinbuck

East African Steinbuck

Grysbok

Kenya Pigmy Antelope.

Desert Pigmy Antelope.

Zululand Pigmy Antelope

Cavendish’s Dik-Dik

Lesser Jubaland Dik-Dik

Nyika Dik-Dik

Smith’s Dik-Dik

Vaal Rhebok

Reedbuck

Ward’s Reedbuck

Rooi Rhebok

Chandler’s Reedbuck

Waterbuck

Defassa

Lechwe

Uganda Kob

White-eared Kob

Puku

Impala

Jubaland Impala

Litchenstein Hartebeest.

Bontebok

Blesbok

Tsesebe or Sassaby 139

Tiang

Jimela.

Wildebeest or Gnu.

Natal Duiker.

Ravine Red Duiker.

Blue Duiker.

Common Duiker

Abyssinian Duiker.

Klipspringer

Oribi

Thomson’s Gazelle

Black-snouted Thomson’s Gazelle

Grants Gazelle

Springhuck

Gerenuk

Highland Bushbuck

Chobe Bushbuck

Cape Bushbuck

Nyala or Ingala

Zambesi Situtunga

Zebra

Grevy’s Zebra.

Wart-Hog

Species of North American Big Game shot by F. C. Selous

Moose 6

Wapiti 9

Osborn’s Caribou 7

Newfoundland Caribou 9

White-tailed Deer 2

Mule Deer 7

Prongbuck (Antelope) 2

Canadian Lynx 1

Alaskan Timber Wolf 2

Species of European Big Game shot by F. C. Selous

Red Deer 6

Reindeer 5

Chamois 8

Sardinian Mouflon 5

Species of Asia Minor Big Game shot by F. C. Selous

Eastern Red Deer or Maral 1

Wild Goat or Pasang 6

Works of F. C. Selous

A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa, 1881

Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa, 1893

Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia

Sport and Travel East and West, 1900

Recent Hunting Trips in British North America, 1907

African Nature Notes and Reminiscence, 1908

And many contributions to other works and magazines.

Life of Frederick Courteney Selous, D. S. O.

By J. G. Millais, 1919

Early Ivory Hunting*

[When Selous landed at Port Elizabeth at the age of nineteen, he took transport to the Diamond Fields, and there he purchased a small wooden-axled wagon and a span of oxen, and laying in provisions and trade goods, he started north on the long trek for the game country. The journey took almost a year, with some varied hunting en-route, and in August 1872 he reached the then native town of Gubulawayo, the capitol of Lobengula, the powerful king of the Matabele, from whom he received permission to enter and hunt in the elephant country to the east, in what is now Rhodesia. Much of this country, roughly 200 to 300 miles south of the Zambesi River, was in the Fly, that is where tse-tse flies were in such great numbers, it was not possible for horses and oxen to live, and it was thus necessary to travel and hunt on foot. It was here that Selous, under the tutelage of a primitive Hottentot named Cigar, served his apprenticeship as an elephant hunter. T.W.]

AFTER buying com and rice I left my waggon to be brought on by the driver, and saddling up my horse started along for Gwenia, in order to reach Viljoen’s camp within ten days as agreed upon. I slept that same evening at the Boer encampment at Sebakwe, where old Petrus Jacobs, finding I intended the next night to sleep in the bush entirely alone, would not hear of it. Remarking to his wife; Allemagtig, de leevws will de arme dome Englesman opfret, (By the Almighty the lions will eat up the poor stupid Englishman), he called up two of his Kafirs, whom he ordered to go with me, and carry axes with them in order to make a proper camp. The next night we slept, after having built a good fence around the horse, on the far side of the Se-whoi-whoi River. On the way I saw a splendid herd of Elands, one of which I shot, and a good deal of smaller game. Though we heard many lions roaring during the night, none troubled us, and the following day I once more reached the Viljoen encampment.

On passing the Griqua waggons at Jomani, I saw for the first time a Hottentot named Cigar, with whom I before long became much better acquainted. He had just returned from the fly country to the north, and brought with him a nice lot of ivory. He told me that if I had not agreed to go with the Viljoens he would have been glad to have taken me in with him and shown me how to shoot elephants. Upon reaching Viljoen’s encampment I found that no Kafirs had yet returned from the fly. Here I remained for a week, expecting news but getting none. On the seventh day Mandy arrived from Gubulawayo, having come on with some goods to do a little trade with the Boer and Griqua hunters. I was rejoiced to see him, and as he wanted to go on at once to Sebakwe, I resolved to trek with him as far as Jomani, and then go hunting with Cigar the Hottentot, rather than wait any longer for the Viljoen’s, whom I thought must have forgotten me altogether. Upon our arrival at Jomani we found that Cigar had just returned from another short trip, and I soon arranged to accompany him on his next hunt, leaving my waggons and oxen under the charge of his wife. At last, just about the commencement of October, I bade good-bye to Mandy, and at length made a start in elephant hunting with the Hottentot Cigar.

As but few Englishmen, I fancy, have hunted in so rough and ready a fashion as I was compelled to do during my first hunting season, I may as well say a few words concerning my outfit.

Having now run through all my supplies of coffee, tea, sugar, and meal, we had nothing in the provision line but Kafir corn and the meat of the animals we shot, washed down by cold water.

Cigar, besides two Kafirs who were shooting for him and carried their own guns and a supply of ammunition, had only three spare boys who carried his blankets, powder, Kafir corn, and a supply of fresh meat. He himself carried his own rifle, a heavy old six-bore muzzle-loader. As for me, having had to leave two of my Ḳafirs to look after my horses and oxen, I had but one youngster with me, who carried my blanket and spare ammunition, whilst I shouldered my four-bore muzzle-loader, and carried besides a leather bag filled with powder, and a pouch containing twenty four-ounce round bullets. Though this was hardly doing the thing en grand seigneur. I was young and enthusiastic in those days, and trudged along under the now intense heat with a light heart.

On the first day of our hastily organized venture we shot a magnificent old eland bull, and made a most excellent dinner on slices of fat meat from his breast, and a potful of boiled Kafir corn. Whilst our repast was preparing Cigar wiled away the time with many a story about his elephant-hunting experiences, which he described most graphically. In South Central Africa at the hunter’s camp fire the elephant takes the place of the grizzly bar in North America, or the chamois in the chalets of the Alps in Europe; and there are more yarns spun concerning him than about any other animal. As soon as supper was over I stretched myself on my bed of dry grass, and rather tired with my first day’s tramp, soon fell asleep. On the following morning we were up before the sun, and travelling in a northerly direction, soon became aware that we were in a district frequented by elephants, for everywhere we looked trees were broken down, large branches snapped off, and bark and leaves strewn about in all directions, whilst the impress of their huge feet was to be seen in every piece of sandy ground.

Sighting the First Elephant

About mid-day, while crossing an open place in the forest, we came upon the fresh spoor of an old bull, which of course we followed. From the condition of the bruised leaves scattered along his track we soon found he was not far ahead of us, and my heart beat hard with joy at the near prospect of at last beholding as African bull elephant, and perhaps managing to shoot him. Well, we had been following his spoor for about an hour when all at once I, who was walking behind Cigar, was the first to see him, standing in pretty thick bush, like an enormous ant-heap, fanning himself with his gigantic ears. The mighty beast was quite unconscious of our near proximity.

We then went to the foot of a large tree, and taking off our trousers, stood just in cotton shirts, hats and shoes—nice light running order. Then we advanced quietly upon our victim, who stood broadside to us perfectly still, until we were within sixty yards of him, when he must have noticed us, for he wheeled around, spread his huge ears, and then with raised head advanced a few paces towards us. We stood motionless and the suspicious brute, after staring hard for a few seconds, was just in the act of turning, when Cigar whispered to me to fire, so aiming for his shoulder I pressed the trigger. He gave a sort of loud roar and rushed off, we following at our best pace, I myself with an empty gun, for I was afraid of losing sight of him if I stopped to load.

Upon Cigar giving him a shot, he turned and came walking towards us, with his ears up and the end of his trunk raised. I now loaded with all expedition, and advancing steadily to within twenty yards of him, again fired, striking him upon the point of the shoulder, and bringing him down with a crash. He tried to get up again but could not manage it. He was now in a kneeling position, and evidently dying, and one more bullet in the back of the head from Cigar’s rifle snapped the cord by which he still clung to life. He was a grand old bull that, for many a decade before this, to him, fatal day, must have wandered monarch of all he surveyed through these pathless forests. His tusks were long, white, and perfect, and proved to weigh 61 pounds and 58 pounds respectively. As it was still early we chopped out the tusks and buried them the same day, intending to pick them up on our return to the waggons. That evening for the first time I tasted elephant’s heart, roasted on a forked stick over the ashes, which I thought then, and still consider, to be one of the greatest delicacies that an African hunter is likely to enjoy. The meat from the thick part of the trunk and from the cavity above the eye is also very well tasted, but needs much stewing to make it tender; the foot I consider tasteless and insipid.

A Bag of Eight Elepbants

Early the next day (Wednesday) we struck the spoor of a herd of elephants, and after following it for many hours under a burning sun, at last came up with them fanning themselves with their ears under a clump of trees. Cigar again gave me the first shot, and approaching pretty close, I fired with good effect, hitting a young bull with tusks weighing about twenty pounds apiece, right through the heart. He ran off with the herd but fell when he had gone about a hundred yards. Loading as I ran, I got up to the elephants again, and with my second bullet brought down a fine cow that fell to the shot as if struck by lightning. Never doubting for a moment that she was dead, I ran past her and once more getting pretty close behind the herd, I gave a young bull a shot that brought him on to his hind-quarters. He regained his legs and walked off slowly, and I managed, though now very tired, to keep up with him until I had the satisfaction of seeing him fall to the earth with a crash. I could still hear Cigar firing, but I was so thoroughly exhausted that I did not attempt to stir from where I lay panting in the shade cast by my last elephant’s carcass.

Cigar the Hunter

Presently Cigar returned. He had killed four elephants, and his boys two more. I may here say that Cigar was a slight-built, active Hottentot, possessed of wonderful powers of endurance, and a very good game shot, though a bad marksman at a target. These qualities, added to lots of pluck, made him a most successful elephant hunter, and for foot hunting in fly country I do not think I could have had a more skillful or a kinder preceptor; for although only an uneducated Hottentot—once a jockey at Graham’s Town—he continually allowed me to have the first shot whilst the elephants were standing—a great advantage to give me—and never tried in any way to overreach me or claim that he had first wounded any animal that I had killed. Strangely enough, Cigar told me that when the celebrated hunter, Mr. William Finaughty, first took him after elephants on horseback, he had such dreadful fear of the huge beasts that, after getting nearly caught by one, he had begged his master to let him remain at the waggons. When I knew him this fear must have long worn off, and I have never since seen his equal as a foot hunter.

We now went back to look for the cow I had shot with my second bullet, and were disgusted to find nothing of her but a piece of the tusk broken off in her fall. She must have been struck too high, and only paralyzed for a short time; at any rate she made good her escape leaving about six pounds of ivory as a souvenir. On Thursday, after many hours tracking, we again came up with a herd of elephants. This was an unlucky day for me, for although the elephant I attacked left the herd after receiving my first bullet, he yet ran clean away and got off.

It is fearfully hard work walking for many hours on elephant spoor under a burning sun, carrying one’s own gun and heavy ammunition, and having to end with a run. Cigar killed three elephants, all young bulls. At night two parties of lions came down to the carcasses, near which we were sleeping, and together with the hyaenas made night hideous with their noisy revels.

On Friday, after chopping out the tusks, we walked back to our camp near the eight animals shot on Wednesday, where Cigar had left two of his Kafirs to chop out the tusks, all sixteen of which we found lying in a rowan the ground. About this part of the country there were (at that time) many rhinoceroses, both of the square-mouthed and prehensile-lipped species. The day before I counted eight of them, which we passed during our walk from camp to camp. Many kinds of smaller game were also plentiful, the noble-looking sable antelope being particularly abundant. Elands, roan antelopes, koodoos, water-bucks, reed-bucks, impalas, tsessebes, zebras, buffaloes, duikers, and stein-bucks were also met with daily; and in the river Umniati, only a few miles from where we were hunting, Cigar said there were a good many hippopotami. On Saturday we again took a round in search of elephants, and having found no fresh spoor by mid-day, we lay down in the shade of some large trees—Kafirs and all—and slept until late in the afternoon. Towards evening we were returning to camp, when coming to a little hill we climbed up it to get a view of the surrounding country. We had not yet reached the top when one of the Kafirs said suddenly; Looks at the elephants, or words to that effect. Turning my eyes to where he pointed I saw at once a string of elephants walking quickly along in single file, not more than a quarter of a mile off. As soon as Cigar saw the direction in which they were going he called out: Come on, come on quickly, they’ll smell our spoor and run. We soon clambered down the little hill and ran to intercept them. We were just in time for as the foremost elephant, a huge cow, came upon our tracks we emerged from the bush not two hundred yards away. The keensighted brute did not cross our spoor, but stopped dead the instant her outstretched trunk had caught the taint left by our footsteps. In this position she stood for a few seconds, moving the tip of her trunk about close to the ground, and then wheeling round made off at a run, followed by all the rest. From this incident which I myself witnessed some idea of the keenness of scent possessed by the African elephant may be formed. Out of the herd I managed to kill two, the second after a very hard run, and Cigar disposed of three more. It was then dark so we made a large fire and slept where we were without blankets alongside one of the carcasses. The following Monday we started for the waggons, which we reached on the third day, taking as much ivory with us as the Kafirs could carry, and leaving the rest buried. On the way we shot a white rhinoceros cow with a fine long horn measuring 3 feet 7 inches. I need hardly say that I was intensely delighted with the result of this my first elephant-hunting expedition, and was eager to start on a second trip as soon as possible.

The Return for Supplies

Finding on my return to the camp at Jomani that the Griquas and Hottentots were out of ammunition and many other things, I decided to make a quick trip back to Gubulawayo with the cart and procure a supply of what was wanted from Mr. Kisch. Accordingly, having borrowed four fat oxen, I inspanned and started the following day. On reaching Gwenia I found that the Viljoens had returned from the veldt bringing with them a fine lot of ivory. Sadlier was very much dissatisfied, saying that the Boers had claimed an elephant which he had shot first, and as he did not care about hunting any more, he returned to Gubulawayo.

There being a splendid moon, I travelled day and night, and on the fifth night reached Gubulawayo and loaded up all I required except provisions, none of which were to be had, and starting back the same evening, reached Jomani once more after an absence of only ten days. The country was now getting fearfully parched up and the heat was very great as the rains were due and the most oppressive weather is always just before the rainy season starts.

On the second of November, Cigar and I again went in on foot after the elephants, and in the afternoon of the very first day, after following some distance on their spoor, we came up with a herd of eight or ten bulls, four of which we killed, two of them falling to my rifle.

A Tough Four-Shot Cow

Two days later, as we were resting late in the afternoon under a shady tree, and when not far from a small river for which we were making, a large herd of elephant cows walked out of the forest into a narrow open glade about half a mile distant, which they quickly crossed, disappearing in the bush on the farther side. Though we had been walking for many hours in the heat of the sun without water, having found that a rivulet where we expected to find some had dried up, and were very thirsty, we at once ran to intercept the elephants, and soon came up with them as they were walking through an open patch of forest. I fired first and a large cow which I had aimed at fell with a crash to the shot as if struck by lightning. I was loading and running after the herd when Cigar called out to me; Lookout, your elephant is getting up again, and glancing round I was just in time to see my supposed victim regaining her feet. As she only walked off rather slowly, I soon ran alongside of and gave her another shot, on which she came to a halt under a large tree. I then approached her cautiously, but she caught sight of or winded me, for raising her head and extending her ears, she gave a scream and came towards me at a great rate. I stood where I was and gave her a shot in the front of the head as she came on. This shot was too high for the brain, but it stopped her at once, and she wheeled right around and went back to the same tree again, where I killed her with another bullet behind the shoulder. As all the Kafirs were with Cigar, I now walked back in the direction of the last shots I had heard, and threading my way through the bush, came suddenly upon a young bull elephant—one that Cigar had wounded. He evidently had heard me, but neither seeing or smelling anything, could not make out my whereabouts. He looked very vicious as he stood with his head raised and huge ears spread, testing the wind in all directions with the end of his upturned trunk. He was standing exactly facing me, and in a most awkward position for a shot, so I waited for him to turn, which at length he did, when I gave him a good shot behind the shoulder to which he succumbed after running at a sharp pace for about 200 yards. Immediately afterwards Cigar and the Kafirs came up. We were all excessively thirsty before we saw the elephants, and the run we had had after them made us thirstier still, so we at once started for the little river not far distant, where we expected to find water. Just at dusk we reached it almost at the same instant as a black rhinoceros that was approaching from the other side. Ten minutes walk down the river’s bed brought us to the water-hole, which to our chagrin we found to be as dry as a bone. In this strait there was nothing for it but to follow down the course of the rivulet until we came to water. For several hours we trudged silently on, sometimes finding a little mud but not a drop of water, which had all been sucked up by the blistering heat. At last, about midnight, we came to a deep hole in which there was still a little water. The Kafirs soon dug it out with their assegais, and in another hour we had all quenched our thirst. It was a warm night and so done were we that, without making a fire, or undoing anything, we just