Hunting Ground Limited,

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 183, 29 April 1919, Page 6

Hunting Ground Limited,

Buffalo hunting to-day, stated Mr. Cahill; is limited to the vicinity, of • tho Adelaide River district, the other parts of the Territory having been,shot out, till oulv a few stray animals are met with. Before tho hide industry had become firmly established Mr. Cahill, on ono occasion, saw a mob of 3000 buffaloes on one plain. On one occasion, by simply taking cover behind an ant-hill, Mr. Cahill, with a silencer on his rifle, 6hot 27 in a short period at distances of 50 1o 200 yards. Tlie uninjured animals, instead' of becoming alarmed ftt the fall of their mates, walked across to the fallen bodies with an unsophisticated curiosity onlv to become victims themselves. Mr. CabiU's last hunt was 31 years ago on behalf of tlio Commonwealth Government on the Woolner aboriginal reserve. With "Quilp," an exnert aboriginal, who accompanies Mr. Cahill ou his trii) to Melbourne, he accounted for 300 buffaloes in 2S days. The hides average 30s. each. Altogether, Mr. Cahill states, 200,000 animals have been shot since the hide industry was established, and of these he has accounted for nearly 10,000. , . "Bone-Heads." "Many of tho old bull buffaloes," said Mr. Cauill, "in certain parts of the forehead have a bono five inches in thickness, and I have shot several bullets at such an animal, which only shook _ its head at the impact, and come straight on. Tho young 'bulls, of course,, are different. I attribute this strength of bono in the old animals to tho thickening of tho sull through fighting. Soma of these beasts are 15 hundredweight, and when they fight, which is often, they do so in the manner of. rams. They btart off and charge'one another from a distance of 50 yaids or'so. The bulls will maintain a feud for days, aud m. their quarrel ono will follow tho other until they get separated from the herd, and in souie cases two such animals havo-often managed to stray right down to Queensland. , ' "Tho buffaloes are extremely powerful, and one occasion I saw a horse tossed completely into tho air, and another had its thigh torn clean off.. When charging the animals lower their heads and shut their eyes, but.so long as a man keeps cool he can dodge. "Somo amusement was created when Iho natives of tho back country wero first brought into contact with horses. They entertained the somewhat strange idea that where a white man could go his horse could go also, and Mr. Cahill found in ono case a terror-stricken abori"ine, who had 'been ohased by a buffalo, sealed in a tree hauling away at the horse's halter in an endeavour to get it to climb also.