The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-12-16
ELEPHANT AND LION HUNT.
Chances of Finding Big Game in
East Africa.

name the locality where the best
shooting is to be had for although
was told Of some places which were
better than others, the information
which I was able to pick up on rap
id tour was so incomplete that it
might be misleading to put it on
record. | will confne myself to
saying that if | were younger man
I should certainly lose no time in
making a soprting tour in east Af-
RIGA" says Sir Edward Buck in the
Englishman.
"The country has not been over
shot yet, but every year will tend
to make the game more shy. And
I will add that / should be tempted
to push on through Uganda to the
Albert Lake and thence down the
Nile to Egypt thus avoiding the long
sea journey round by the Red sea.
The road from Entebbe, at which
place the traveller is landed by the
Victoria Lake steamer, to the Albert
Lake is very good one, and the
journey takes about eight days. At
the lake boat is procurable which
takes passengers through the lake
down the upper reaches of the Nile.
Then a weeks journey by land is
made imperative by rapids, which
make the river unnavigable. After
this march the traveller can proceed
in steamer direct to Clara.
*'One of the temptations, at least
it would be to me, on this route is
the fishing on Lake Albert and in
some of the reaches of the Nile. A
fish which appears to behave very
like the nahseer is very plenti full,
and one was taken last year weigh
ing 90 pounds But the fish which
gives the best sport is, so I was
told by an official who had caught
mahseer in the Himalayas, the tiger
fish, which, though smaller in size,
running only to ten pounds, is much
more active than the mahseer and
requires more skill and care to land.
The sportsman will find another
advantage on this route. He may
take out a second license for shoot
ing in the Uganda Protectorate un-
der the same restrictions as in the
east Africa Protectorate, thus doub-
ling the number of animals which he
may kill, and as ne has better
chance than elsewhere Of meeting
with male elephants with exception
ally good tusks he may, if he is for
tunate, obtain ivory of which the
value will be materially more than
the license fee of 50 pounds. And
he will have obtained perhaps some
fairly good tusks in the east Africa
Protectorate of which the price will,
if he chooses to sell the ivory, make
up the whole of the 100 pounds,
leaving the only charges to be met
the cost of shikaries, coolies and
food. AS far as I could ascertain
the charges for these are not exces-
sive, provided that the tent carried
is light
CAS- I have referred to the elephant
it will not be out of place to mention
that on board the lake steamer I
met an interesting character who had
devoted the last ten years Of his life
to elephant hunting. He was then
returning from the Congo forests,
which lie beyond the Uganda Pro-
tectorate, and in which he said the
finest ivory and the greatest abun-
dance of elephants were to be found.
The open season in the Congo State
is six months. of which he had only
had time for the last two, but in
that period he had shot nineteen
males. Naturally the tusks were ex-
ceptionally good and he had sold the
ivory at Entebbe at the rate of SIX
rupees a pound, for sum, which
after payment to the Congo author
tiles the percentage of 20 per cent,