The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-05-18
4 GREAT NImROD.

But from his youth up Mr.. Selous
was seized with . passion for wander
inp adventure, winch could only be
satisfied in other lands than ours.
He himself speaks ofa Unborn love
for all branches of natural history,
which was stimulated by the early
study of all works on sport and travel
on which he could lay his hands, until
the longing for free and easy gypsy
sort of life described by Gordon Cum
ming, Baldwin, and others became in
supportable, and leaving England
behind him he began his career of
adventure in South Africa at the early
age of nineteen. This was in Sep
TENDER, 1871. He started life with
f4OO in his pockets and a constitution
that was worth many hundred pounds.
He remained in the hunting field from
1871 to 1875. After a year in England
he returned to his first love and spent
another FIVE years in African interior.
He returned home in 1881 for brief
visit, but since then, although he has
twice run over to the old country
during the season, he has practically
made South Africa his home. For
the last three years he has been work
ing with the Chartered Company in
Mashonaland. He is now arranging
his wonderful collection of trophies
aad writing his book.
MR.. sELoTsi OF TO-DAY.
Mr.. Selous seems to have suffered
almost every description of accident
and TO have almost broken every limb
in his body. But somehow or other il
was only almost. He bears to this
day the mark of the scar which was
left on his face when double loaded
elephant gun burst at his shoulder
but even that gaping wound did not
prevent him going on with the hunt
in which he was engaged. Mr.. Selous
is not, to look at him, what would be
regarded as a typical Nimrod. He
is middle-sized, slightly-built, spare
light-complexioned man, modest ano
unassuming in manner, with nothing
to distinguish him from any othe
quiet, elf-possessnd English gentle
, man. No one who sees him in club o
drawing-room would imagine tina
this was the man who has wrestlet
with wild beasts in African jungles
who has run mile after mile in his ha
and shirt after elephants. and has ex
perienced all the worst vicissitudes O
pioneering in tropical Africa.
! E1FPHAST1ANA.
Mr.. Selous is full of elephant stories
, He has killed over hundred of thes
monsterous pachyderms. He say
: that, although they smell man yer.
. quickly, they do not discern him We
with their eyes. If he stands quit
motionless. the odds are they will mis-
take him for q tree or stump an
leave him alone. African elephant
stand about 10 feet high, and thei
tusks weigh from 30 to 20 pound
each. The most edible part of a
elephant is its heart, after that its foe
and its trunk. The elephant is
, natural reservoir of fat, and out of b
: cavernous interior the natives CAREFUL
e excavate every particle of tallow a
a soon as he is disembowled. As the
e bathe in his blood, and allow it to dr.
d on their bodies, they are not yer
IS desirable companions. The elephar
when wounded goes on. and on, #
IS ever until be drops, hence it is seldol
any use following up the trail of an
but a very badly wounded beas
When very hot they insert their trunl
l. in their stomachs. draw up water, an
J. sprinkle it over their backs-prefer
@ ing apparently to have the moistu
: out side rather than inside. II
le natives eat all the elephant to the ba
? bones, if they can keep the carca
, from the lions and the hyenas.
In reply to the question as
l. whether there were any elephan
3. living in his country. e., in Il
} country in which he made his liEi1
ia as an elephant hunter when he fir
1t went out-he said there were still
T. few stragglers, but there were q
n sufficient to make it worth any one
rs viii e to hunt them for the sake
the ivory. There were still some (
N the Pungwe, where he shot Ia
re October, but in Mashonaland Al
e along the Zambesie. where once tn,
abounded, there were practically on
to be found some struggling spe
imens.-From Mr.. W. T. Stead's Cha
J. acter Sketch of friedrich Selous in t
to May Review of Reviews.