ELEPHANT HUNTING

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 11 December 1914, Page 3

ELEPHANT HUNTING

In hunting the elephant in Africa. Captain C. H. Stigand gives the result of thirteen years of perilous experience. He did not always succeed in securing the animal that was being hunted. In regard to . one incident of this kind, he writes : —"It is difficult to combine the H^l^ absorbing task of hunting elepliant with a conscientious peri formance of one's work, and, if one tried to, the chances are one does both badly. In this case I was unable to devote another d;iy to the following of the wounded elephant. ' It was the two paths which defeated the old hyena,' said one of """" ' the Swahalis to console me for ~l my disappointment, referring- to a J£f folklore story in which a hyena |X . came to the fork of two paths aiyl $£. could not make up his mind which M /-•'-> take. Finally his right legs (jr^^^s/^tried to take the right-hand path Wo^^ an;l his left legs the left-hand one, JU and he split in two." |t": On at least one occasion the hunV- ' ter became the hunted. "1 dodged sharply to my right, thinking that the elephant would pass and I would get a side shot as he did so, but I tripped over a fallen |; tree, perhaps one he had pulled down W,.. earlier in the day. I wont sprawl- |^ ing, dropping my rido, and ju.st §L managed to seize it by the inuzg'< , ' zle as the elephant was about to Sjp^- ' tread on it. I then dived head fore0.- r' ' most into the branches of the fallen !',,_ tree. " T made frantic o.'Torts to crawl ■0/ thi'ough, Itut a stout branch re-

| ststej my progress, an.i at the ■same moment the Gal.in.^wa pushed in after me, and pushed mo through the branches to the other side. Two drops of blood I'nnu his forehead i fell on my short:-:—;,ue on the thigh 'and one on th:- knee. Instead of i pushing me straight through in front of him, though. Ir? kieke ! ni" sideways. The impetus he gave me bent asi;ie the stubborn branch, and the next moment I found myself I crawling out on hands and knees lon one .sn!e of the tree, with rifle I still grasped by the muzzle, whilst | the elephant was e.xecuiing a. dance | and stamping up the ground the other side, five yards from me, evidently thinking that 1 was under I his feet." I The kind of ground the hunter has to travel through is indicated in tire following passage : —"These I paths consist of a number of un- ! even holes made by the feet of elephants. It is impossible to see one's foothold, owing to mud and water. At one moment one sinks into a deep hole, and the next one strikes a mound under water. "Worse still, it is when one treads just on the edge of one of these deep elephant, footprints and slides suddenly to the bottom, clutching wildly at the reeds on either side. On recovering one's balance one's hands are covered with a downlike growth of hundreds of minute little hairs, which have come off the stem of the reeds ami enter the pores (V the skin suHi.-iently to cause irritation, especially when anything- is handled." An illusion •" dear to the boy reader 'of tales of adventure is thus destroyed :— "One's first idea of the savage as a warrior, tracker, ' and bush man, are generally founded j on boys' tales of West Indians. The disillusionist is disappointing when it is found that he is neither lynxeyed, stealthy, cunning, quick-wit-ted, or quick, of hearing, and that ! he is a wonderfully had marksman j with the poor weapons he has. Prac- ' tically the only tilings in which he | is really remarkable, are his powers! of enduring the rays of the fierce ■ sun and the way he has of getting: through thick timber .at a rapid pace, especially when escaping from anything."