"Buffalo" Jones.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14977, 26 May 1914, Page 6

"Buffalo" Jones.

"Buffalo" Jones has the reputation of being the most astonishing conqueror of animals that has ever lived, and no less an authority on the subject of big game hunting than Mr Roosevelt, has declared that ''Daniel and Samson were* nothing to him."' Soma of his conquests are related by a ''Daily Mail" , writer. At the age of twelve ho deserted the peaceable paths of business

for the exciting occupation of buffaloeatching, and it is attributed solely to his energies in this direction that n herd, now about 2CO strong, is preserved in tho Yellowstone Park. Tho most extraordinary feature about this hunters exploits is his method and the explanation he gives of it. If other men climbed tin trees after leopards or poked a full-grown lioness out of her lair with a stick, they would probably be tho for their experiment, to put tho matter mildly. But this is just tho sort of tiling Mr Jones does. A lion comes rushing towards him. preparing to spring. Ho stands loaning forward, watching! At tho first and slightest sign of pau-so in the creature he springs forward with a. fierce shout, and .... the lion bolts. At least, this is Mr Jones's description of tho process. He explains his success by the theory that ho is an '"animal psychologist" and knows in some occult war just what the creatures are thinking. "AH animals." he says, '-value their lives as wo do. The only problem with the bigger and fiercer ones is how to make them feel that they are risking their lives. Directly they feel that yon are sate. I would much rather deal with a wild animal than a half-tame, one, because, the half-tame one does not feel that his life or safety is threatened; and so you have not this primal instinct of self-preservation to work upon." Tho theory is an interesting one, though lew people would care to put it to the test of practice. Another sphere in which "Buffalo" Jones has attained f.-irco is in tho crossing and hybridising of animals. Ho has crossed sheep and goats, a feat previously deemed impossible, and produced a strange blend of the goat, the merino, and the fat-tailed Persian sheep, which ho has called by tho "portmanteau" MIM o f ••go-inersian." One of his ambitions ho says, is to bo granted a reserve ; n British East Africa, where he could experiment in crossing his American buffalo with the nativo zebu or cow Just at present ho is engaged on an expedition to Africa to lasso that most powerful and cunning of wild animals, the gorilla, tho only animal which ho lies not yet conquered.