BULL CHARGES TRAIN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 169, 4 August 1937, Page 10

BULL CHARGES TRAIN

(Own Correspondent-

South African ^ Encounters with Animals

— By Air Mail.)

JOHANNESBURG, July 3. Another round in the long battle between railway engine-drivers and wild animals in Southi Africa was fought recently on the track near Messina, in the Northern Transvaal, when a fullgrown Koodoo bull charged along the rail's, struck the cow-catcher and delayed the mail train. Only a few months ago a rhinoceros charged and derailed a train on th«» Mombasa-Nairobi line — and that was not the first time suchi a clash had oceurred. A remarkable point about the recent encounter, however, was that a short time previously the train had struck a giraffe, chased across the line by lions. 1 Lions have often invaded the more remote railway stations in East Africa, lapping up water spilt at the locomotive fanks after the trains have moved on, Th© Indian stationmasters beat petrol tins before venturing out of their offices at night. The drivers of a goods train between Komatipooit and Leydsdorp once saw 12 full grown lions restlng on the line. They withdrew quietly as the engine approached. Giraffes and ostriches often stride along the railway track in this arca.