UNKNOWN MONSTERS

Shannon News, 21 January 1927, Page 2

UNKNOWN MONSTERS

UNDISOOVJSRED ANIMALS. ROAMING THE AFRICAN FORESTS. BY BIG GAME HUNTER. Incredible though they seem, experienced big game hunters do not disbelieve the curious native tales Avhieh tell of ferocious 'unknown ttiottsters roaming through the unpenetrated Avilds of Africa’s forest, bush and swamp, and the project of a big game hunting expedition shortly leaving for the Congo to hunt Avhat is said to be the prehistoric brontosaurus, a hugh swamp animal weighing 20 tons, measuring 60 feet from nose to tail, Avith an elephant’s body, a hippo’s legs, a lizard’s head, and a long giraffe-like neck, is by no means fantastic. This big unknoAvn brut i is probably the same as the fame is giant lizard seen some years ago in South Africa, and for which Lewanika, King of the Zulus, kept a special warrior’s Avatcli. In an official report to the British Resident he described its track as being “as large as that of a full-sized trek-Avaggon, from, which the wheels had been removed,' and though he did not see the monster, his hunters did, and told of a creature ten times bigger than a crocodile. Tile Booming Lau. A similar hugh pachyderm like a gigantic hippopotamus, with rhino-ceros-like horns on its head is said by many native tribes to live in Lakes Benguclo, Mavoi'U, and Tanganyika, and Avas thought to be the brontosau* 0 rus. A famous American scientific instititution equipped an expedition to capture it; but a train smash postponed the attempt. An enormous broAvn and yellow creature, like a gigantic cobra, is the lau, another unknoAvn monster, Avhieh not only natives, but European hunters have averred seeing in the vast SAyamps of Lake No and the Nile Valley. Measuring 40 to a 100 feet in length, the lau has been fought Avhile devouring native canoe-men, and it is said often to be heard making a loud booming cry at night. A ferocious undiscovered beast Avhieh famous hunter s lia\’e tried to captiire is the Nandi bear, or, as the natives call it, 'the chimiset, a creature half-bear, half-gorilla, which lurks in the dense forests of Kenya, prowling round native kraals, and preying on cattle, goats, women, and children. It s weird three-toed footprints belong to no known animal, but such great authorities as the late p. C. Selous and Captain Blayney Fercival, for 25 years Game Warden in Kenya, have asserted their belief in its existence. Africa’s Giant Cat.. The ngoloko, a huge unknown ape. and the nunda, a gigantic cat, a s big as a donkey, both of which prey on men and cattle, are other undiscovered beasts of Africa, while from Java reports come of a bear-ape-man known as the sedopak, a beast with long hair, walking upright but swinging swiftly from trees by it s arms, Avhieh also preys on' men, but which has not yet been shot or though often tracked. Strange unidentified beasts living in rocks and caves, Avalking like men with red faces and bear’s hair, are still uncaptured in Thibet, Avhere under the name of migu or snowmen, the Thibetans look oh. them as devils. When hunting in the wilds one Is often asked by the natives to trap or shoot wild beast s Avhose c"™™* 3 tracks fit no knoAvn animal. npumasimba, a monster hunted but not captured, by the writer in Tanganyika, left the toe-prints of a man and trefoil pugmarks of a lion: its victims included full-grown cattle, dogs, goats, and children, and the natives asserted that it Avas an unknown zirnwe or demon. Fear and superstition account for some such tales, but Avhen one remembers that such a big striking beast as the okapi remained undiscovered by Avhitemen until Sir Harry Johnstone captured it a few years back, it is not to be denied that othei unknown animals may still roam in quieter corners of the world. Haymaking days will scon be nere and. for Hie farmer who wishes to handle his crop expeditiously it will be Avelcome neAvs that Booth Macdonald and Co., Ltd., are iioav building sAveep rakes and stackers in New Zealand. These machines are on view at their ShoAvroom, llangitikei Street, together with the celebrated “Osborne” line of mowers and dump rakes. Ring J. E. Hall, telephone 247, Levin, for further particular'