The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 26, 1857.

1256

being a member of it, to explain questions of international
or municipaklaw, on which the most important measures of
government may depend ?" M.—" Yes, I do. Whoever is
St to be Minister should know enough of general principles
to guide him, and when any technicalities arise we can
consult the Attorney and Solicitor-General."
So Lord Melbourne went oil, as long as be could, with
the Great Seal in commission, and he was exceedingly
annoyed by the thought of a Chancellor being intruded into
the Cabinet. In the beginning of 1836 he was alarmed by
the loud complaints that the Lords Commissioners were
incompetent to do the judicial business of the Chancellor,
as they were unable to clear off the arrears in their own
proper courts,—and he reluctantly made a Chancellor—
but with tin intimation that the office was to be divided as
soon as possible. _ _

And after some detail, too lengthy for extract,
Lord Campbell thus concludes :

But, when we consider the perils to be encountered,
perhaps we ought to rejoice that the office still survives,
and that the Chancellor still presides on the woolsack,
and has a seat in the Cabinet. The creation of Lords
Justices of Appeal under Lord Truro may have been a
necessary evil, and the complaints against the exercise of
the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords may have
arisen from fortuitous circumstances not to be foreseen,
and not likely to recur,—without any particle of blame
being imputable to any of the very learned, and able, and
honourable men on whom the exercise of this jurisdiction
devolved. _ _

My anxious wish is that the ascendancy of the Great
Seal should be fully maintained. Considering the diffi-
culties with which the holders of it recently have been
encompassed and with which 1 should have been unable to
cope, 1 consider my lot felicitous iu escaping it.

Suave maxi magno,&o.
But, instead of calmly enjoying the contrast between my
position and that of others, I am earnestly desirous to
contribute, if I could, to the relief and safety of thosewho
are tossed by the tempest.
Hatrigge, Sept. 22nd, 1857.
There is an excellent and most copious
index to the whole ten volumes, occupying not
less than seventy (!) pages of nonpareil type.
This is a most valuable addition to the work.
In one or two instances we note an error—as
when the reversal of the attainder of Lord
StAfford is classed under "Strafford." But
these slight mistakes must be expected in
every copious index.

Sporting Scenes znimyst the Mrs rfl South
Africa. By Captain Alfred \V. Drayson,
B. A. London : Routledge.

THERE is not a more inspiriting book than a
volume of sporting adventures well told.
Every Englishman possesses, in a greater or
less degree, sufficient sporting taste to appre-
ciate a detailed description of sport, whether
it be of a five and thirty minutes'
burst across country at a pace that " weeds
the mob," of a tearing gallop across vast
plains after a herd of magnificent antelopes,
of a run for life from the rush of a troop of
angry elephants, or of the rapid dodging of
the charge of a savage rhinoceros. We enter
fully into all the excitement of such adven-
tures, we accept as our own the hopes and
fears of the sportsman, we sympathise with
his disappointments, we relish his perils,
and applaud his skill in bringing down
his game, or in effecting a clever
escape. To the youth of this country
nothing is so attractive as a good book of
sporting adventures, but it is to boys of bigger
growth that a book like the one before us
must be principally recommended. " Should
" any gentleman," says Captain Drayson,
" feel that he has finished everything in
" Europe, and is disposed for sport and ex-
" citetnent, let him at once give up white kids
" and patents, and take to skin shoes and
" leather breeches ; lay out a couple of hun-
" dreds in rifles, sadtres, and powder, and
" start for the wilds of South Africa."
And then he continues:—
There will be the excitement of midnight hazard, for
ivory is plentiful in Africa. although only lu the rough at
present, while lions' teeth may be looked upon as the
bones," and are nearly as fatal. And if the traveller is
not wide awake, the lion will carry off the stakes to a
certainty.

A man who has passed through an African shooting
campaign will find that his health is improved ; that he
is better able to help himself, has a greater trust in his
natural gifts, and that trifles cease to annoy him. He will
return to England without having lost much of his taste
for his native sports My parting advice to all
sportsmen is—" Try a shooting trip for a year in the bush,
and on the plains of South Africa, the true fairy-land of
sport."

Most men now know the nature of the sport
to be met with in South Africa. It is a little
duff. I tilt. fr. In plwasaut-shooting awl fox-hunt-

ing—not quite so easy, and more inspiriting.
The game, too, is less tractable than that of
our coverts and stubble•fields. There are the
eland, the hartebeest, the buffalo, the wild
boar, the leopard, the lion, the rhinoceros,
and the elephant. Then the qualifications de-
manded of a sportsman in South Africa
are such as exceed the accomplishments of
ordinary European sporting men. Let us hear
Captain Drayson upon this point :

It is absolutely necessary not only to be a good shot, but
to be so after a sharp four•mile gallop, and from either
shoulder; to load as well while at full speed as when on
foot ; to be able to ride boldly across country, and allow
your horse to go down-hill at speed over the large stones
and with a loose rein ; to pull up, dismount, fire, and get
up again with a rapidity a monkey might envy; and
when an animal has been wounded and is out of sight,
to lean over your horse's shoulder, and follow the spoor
at a canter on the hard ground with the accuracy of a
hound ; and last and not least, to take care to fly clear
of your horse when he turns over in a jackal's or porcu-
pine's hole, instead of letting him come on you and
smash a few ribs. These and many other qualifications, I
have no doubt, most of my readers possess; but there may
be some who do not, and who in consequence would not
stand A 1 in the far south.

Hence it is very clear that any man going out
to enjoy the sports of Africa, must, before ho
can become anything more than a mere
sporting man, servo a certain apprenticeship.
Then with high courage should he combine ex•
treme patience, keen observation, considerable
skill, and no little personal activity and powers
of endurance. In point of fact, sport in South
Africa is very arduous, and, until certain
practical experience is gained, such as a
knowledge of the spoor of different
animals, &c., very unsatisfactory work.
Our author acknowledges that in the first
three months of his buck-shooting he only
bagged five. The principal reason why other-
wise good shots fail in so marked a manner
when they first use the bullet against the
larger animals in the bush we take to be this
—that they are deficient in patience and cau-
tion. Of all shooting, that in the bush re-
quires the utmost care in your approach to
the game. You must move through the bush
with stealth and watchfulness, or you will
never get a shot. The snap of a twig, the click
of your lock—even the rustle of a dead leaf—
will startle the acute hearing or excite the keen
scent of your wary game, be it buck or bull
elephant, and before you can fairly sight
him, whew !he is off—if a buck, with a bound
and a whistle—or if an elephant, with a vin-
dictive trumpet scream lie is crashing down
upon you full charge, like " a runaway railway
engine." Then is the time to try your nerve—
to put into him either one or two of your ten-
to-the-pound hardened with tin, and fly for
your life. Woe to you if your legs are not
strong, your wind sound, and your head cool,
when the giant of the forest bears down in
chase ; it is a run then for life, for a long
trunk, sharp tusks, and a heavy foot, are
close behind. Captain Drayson of course met
with many adventures in his two years' sport-
ing. Those of most interest relate princi-
pally to the elephant shooting. The elephant
in his natural state appears, from Captain
Drayson's account, to be quite as wise, but by
no means so timid, as he is generally repre-
sented ; in fact, his temper wouli appear, like
that of certain other animals, to depend much
upon the state of his digestion. " It fluctuates
" even in a greater degree than that of man,'
writes Captain Drayson ; but, whether they
show temper or turn tail, elephants always
afford good sport Here is an instance in
point One morning, when stopping at
the little frontier town of D'Urban, fresh ele-
phants were reported about three miles off.
Accompanied by two Ka& s carrying his guns,
Captain Drayson started. The elephants had
wandered about in the open for some time at
daylight, and at length, as the sun rose, had
entered in single file the deep recesses of the
forest :
We entered on their footsteps, lionyosi leading the
spoor; we advanced with the usual slow, noiseless tread,
with occasional rests of five or ten minutes, for the pur-
pose of listening. This latter performance is tiresome to
the impatient hunter, but most essential.
Listening is the only certain means of discovering
the presence of elephants, as they will frequently stand
for hours, in perfect stillness, especially on a calm hot
day, and when the bush affords them a secure and cool
cover.

The rumbling noise in their vest interior they cannot
keep quiet; this sounds like bubbles cowing up iu %ger,

and is sure to be heard every five or ten minutes on a
still day, even when at a hundred yards' distance.
We had proceeded about two miles on their traces, and
had entered the densest part of the forest, when we heard
this noise, and at once sat down to listen, to find out all
about them.

" They must never know you are coming,
" and have time to make a plan," was the ad-
vice of an old hunter, and so Captain Drayson
moved on with great caution:—
Wu continued our advance till we were within a hundred
yards of the elephant that we had first heard. We sat
down and listened for some minutes to discover if any
others were near, as it would have been injudicious to
make an attack on this one, and thereby stand a chance of
having our retreat cut off by any other elephant that might
be nearer. We discovered no others very close, but the
snapping of branches in the distance occasionally showed
that our purposed victim was not without company.
Throwing up some sand, we found the wind was favour.
able for our advance, although the eddies that are always
met in the bush rendered it advisable to move on with as
much quickness as was consistent with silence.
Our advance, although conducted with the same stealth
that marks the movement of a cat towards its prey, was
still not sufficiently inaudible to escape the refined senses
of the elephant. He ceased feeding, and remained for
some minutes like a statue. A novice would have laughed
had he been told that a wild elephant of twelve feet high
was within a few yards of him; the only indication the
animal gave of his presence was a slight blowing through
the trunk as the unsavourj flavour of my warm Kaffirs was
wafted to his sensitive olfactories, or as a dried stick
cracked under his spungy feet. The density of the under-
wood, which was caused by the festoons of wild vine and
creepers, prevented our seeing more than a yard or two in
many parts ; and though the branches directly over us
were shaken by the movement of the monster's body, yet
we could make out nothing but a dark mass of bush; to
have fired thus, therefore, would have been folly.

The elephant's patience was the first to he
exhausted, and, with " a half growl and half
"'trumpet," he crashed through the bush upon
the party. Captain Drayson fired, hit him,
and then, with a rush that a harlequin might
have envied, gave a practical illustration of
the better part of valour. After much manceu-
vring on both sides, another elephant was
hit, but both of them got off to the quietly in
the bush.

-----
Of the remarkable speed of the elephant
Captain Drayson gives several instances. They
are in reality very quick " upon their pins,"
and in spite of their waddling, like a man with
a baggy pair of trousers on, in the bush, they
will run a man to earth very soon, for their
enormous bull clears through obstacles which
are fatal to the rapid progress of more dimi-
nutive animals. On one occasion our author
was very nearly run to earth by his heavy -footed
friends. He tells the story well :
I had left my horse to graze, and was walking round
the bush, near some deserted Kaffir gardens. I was
searching for buck, and had no idea of elephants being
near. A fine black bush-buck gave me a chance, and I
fired at him; he bolted away into the bush, and I followed.
There was only one elephant-path, and it was so over-
grown and blocked up that I could with difficulty force my
way along it. I kept a good look-out for the buck's spoor,
which I followed for about a quarter of a mile into the
bush, when I suddenly beard en elephant move close to
me. I lay down on the ground to try and get a glimpse
of him, and soon saw a whole string of elephants moving
along very quickly, distant about silty yards. I knew at
once, by their way of moving, that they were after me,
either from curiosity or rage. My shot at the buck had
made them acquainted with my presence. They seemed
to be moving round so as to cross my footsteps, and thus
to block up the only path by which I could retreat.
I feared also, that, when they caught my scent, they would
hunt me up.
Only a few days previous I had found the skeleton of a
Kaffir in the bush with the ribs smashed, evidently the
work of some powerful pressure or blow; and Inyovu
seemed to think that it hail been done by an elephant's
foot.

I did not like the look of things, but there was very
little time in which to make up my mind; so turning, I ran
as well as I could down the path up which I had just come,
hoping thus to get along in front of the elephants and
before they could cross my spoor. I could hear them
crushing through the bush nearly in front of me, and was
afraid that I was already blocked in, but they were still
some yards distant ; the branches struck me some smart
whacks on the face, and one or two thorns buried them-
selves in my legs. I won the race, however, though only
1)3 a few yard., as the elephants were close to the path as
I passed them: they heard and smelt me, and gave tre-
mendous shrill screams. I kept on, ant was soon clear
of the bush, but did not cease looking behind me until on
my pony's back.
"This sort of work," he adds, " certainly keeps
" one up to the mark," and may be decidedly
called " sharp practice."
-Mese extracts will sufficiently serve to give
our readers some notion of the style of adven-
ture to be encountered in Southern Africa.
Captain Drayson spends nearly two years in
hunting end shooting deer and buffalo and