The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-05
~ KTTEyF ET0@ AKT ConerB roUshton
DANIEL E1NWTAINn and Streets.
MANY BRUSHES WITH DEATH.
Remarkable Adventures of a Hunt
err of Big Game.
From an Exchange.

From an Exchange.
After playing hide and seek with
death for nearly half a century F. C.
Selous, the greatest big game hunter
in Africa and the Alan Quarterman
of Haggards novels, is still a hearty
and healthy man, ready at a moments
notice to go out and face new dan
gers.
1t would be understanding it to say
that he has faced death a hundred
times, as his estimates of danger and
the estimates of ordinary persons vary
as widely.
Selous has had a thirst for danger
and adventure ever since he was a
boy at Rugby. Even in those early
days he was never so happy as when
he was risking his neck or doing some
feat of exceptional daring; and he had
so thoroughly made up his mind to be
a huntsman of renown that he used
to sleep next the dormitory window,
which he opened wide on the coolest
nights, as the nearest approach he
could get to sleeping in the open"
They still tell at Rugby how Selous
robbed jackdaw's nest one dark night
Under the window and nose of DR..
Temple, then head master, and how,
one bitterly cold March day, he swan
across to the heronry at Coombs ABB
hey, removed his wet clothes, climbed
lofty tree, and swan back again
with a couple of coveted heron's eggs
in his hand.
This was the boy who, in few
years later-he was only 10 then
bearded Lobengula. gun in hand, and
asked his permission to hunt elephants
in Matabeleland. Hunt elephants?"
why, you are only a boy; you had
better hunt antelopes.' little knowing
that the slim, fair TRIPPING would prove
to be the doughtiest huntSman who
had ever set foot in Africa.
This was years ago, and practically
ever since that day Mr.. Selous has
made his home in the wilds of South
Africa, waging war against the flercest
! and most dangerous animals he could
find, rubbing shoulders with death a
hundred times, and surviving hard
ships and adventure such as probably
no other man living has faced.
Hunting has been to Mr.. Selouse no
! idle pastime, but serious business, for
! all the capital he had in the world was
/ 81 600 and for twenty years he had to
/ live on the spoil of his busy gun. How
busy it was may be seen from the fact
that of elephants alone he has killed
| u.s. and of lions more than a score
three of them falling in four successive
shots.
Within four years, from Jan. 1, 1877,
| to Dec. 81, 1880, his bag reached the
unrivaled total of 54S head of big game,
! including twenty elephants, 100 buffa-
! loes, 304 antelopes, thirteen lions, a
/ dozen rhinoceroSes, eighteen giraffes
and forty-eight Zebras, and in six
months, in 1874, he accounted for nine
/ ty-three head, including twenty-four
elephants, nineteen buffaloes, nine rhin-
| oceroses and a lion.
1t is eloquent of the daring of the
man that of his seventy EIGHT elephants
all but one were shot on foot, and that
one nearly brought the hunters career
to a tragic conclusion. He and his
! companions had slaughtered twenty
! two elephants out of a herd of sixty
! when an enormous bull charged him
| furiously, and, striking his horse with
| terrible force, dashed both horse and
! rider violently to the ground. When
! Mr. Selous recovered his senses he
| found the leviathan kneeling over but
luckily not on him. and he was able to
! crawl from the dangerous position and
escape into the bush.
On another occasion. when he was
! pursuing wounded elephant on foot
! he found himself holly chased by an
| Infatuated bull. which was literally
whirling its trunk over the huntsman's
head and screaming with rage. How 1
| got away" he says, II scarcely know
Urged on by the short. piercing
! screams, I bounded over and through
| thorn bushes which in cold blood l
should have deemed impossible. 1
emerged from the bush without a shred
of clothing on me-"
Still undaunted, he turned round on
his pursuer, and raising his gun, fired
at him at short range. The gun, how
ever had been loaded twice, and the
recoil dashed him to the ground. in
| flicting a serious wound on his face
of which he bears the mark to-day.
But many of Mr. Se1ous' most dam
! gerous adventures have been with buff
| faloes, of which he has shot consider
ably over ZOO "At one fierce bull he
| pulled the trigger twice, and twice the
! gun missed fire. AS he was charged
| fiercely, plunging his horns deeply into
the horses body and sending his rider
sprawling on the ground. In moment
the buffalo was charging at Mr.. Selous
PROSTATE body, but, although he was
| struck heavily by the animals horns.
the points failed to touch him.
Of such narrow escapes from death
Mr.. Selous could tell scores if his un-
conquerable modesty would permit him
| to talk of his adventures. Several
times HAS iAe ldS beeH attempted Dy
| treacherous and unfriendly natives and
in one midnight raid on his camp his
| escape was nothing less than provi-
| Dental When he found himself in
! safety he was clad in a shirt, light
coat and a pair of shoes, and for four
teen terrible days he wandered alone
in the jungle before deliverance came.
On another occasion he spent ninety
hours without food or water: at one
time or another he has broken almost
every bone in his body: he has been
at deaths door with fever and ague:
he has defied for a score of years every
law of health and safety, and yet at
81 he remains the picture of health and
strength and boasts a consultation that
has few rivals in the world.