The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-11-16
TRAPPING WILD BEASTS
Not Difficult if Certain Rules
are Followed by Hunters
MANY ARE WORTHLESS
Vessels to Inssre Safe TranSpOrta-
ton of Such Cargo As No Insur-
ance Company will Take the Risks
--Iions and Renrs Not Valuable.


ancc Company will Take the Risks
Lions and Bears Not Valuable.
If we were asked why we adopted
ne profession we have chosen in
reference to all others, writes
charles Mayer, "trapper to the King
.' Siam" in the London Magazine.
doubt not most of us would find
question difficult to answer, and
can only explain that took to the
business of trapping big game be-
cause it appeared TO offer a life of
adventure not altogether dissociated
with pleasure nor devoid of profit.
Since I made my choice, eighteen
years ago, l have pursued my calling
mostly in the Malay Archipelago. with
occasional expeditions in China, In
dia, Siam and South America.
The risk the trapper is called upon
to run does not end with the caging
OF the quarry. True, the actual peril
of the hunt is at an end, but he has
yet TO get his merchandise to market
or to the purchaser, which is not al
ways a matter of ease. The varia-
tions of climate the animals will en-
counter during a voyage, and their
liability to succumb under unfavora-
bic conditions, make it imperative
that no chance of transportation
shall be lost during the favorable
season
the obvious remedy against loss
both at the port and on the sea would
40 In hrt to
no insurance company will take risks
on. Consequently, the best thing to
do is to personally interview the cap
tain, and give him an interest in the
selling value of the cargo-say, of
third or half. This may seem a lot
to give away, but it is wiser to pock-
ct reduced profit than to sustain
total loss.
1t is because of such difficulties as
these, and of the personal danger run
by the trapper, that the prices of big
game for live delivery run high. Ti-
gers are worth anything from $50 to
s100, leopards from $50 to $50, ele-
plants from &100 to 5000, while a
rhinoceros or a giraffe top the list as
profitable bags, selling at from $500
to 81 900 each. Lions, however, are
a drug on the market, and worth
comparatively nothing, being such
good breeders in captivity; nor is
there much money in bears. Snakes
re a good line, when they run to any
.. The largest | ever had the
I'D fortune to handle was a thirty
80 foot python, and sold for 5000.
I'd there is this advantage about
lese eptiles-they can be stuffed
with sufficient food to last for
months, and, being fed are shipped,
will travel in a state of coma, giving
no trouble during the voyage.
Elephant trapping pays well when
the business is rightly managed; but
if the herd that is being trapped
stampedes weeks of work may be
thrown away, with the possible loss
OF two or three lives Where it can
be arranged the better plan is to
work with a tame elephant, which
acts as a decoy to induce the herd to
enter the stockade; but this is often
impossible, and was SO on the first
occasion | went hunting in the little
known and uneXplored state of
Tringgaun in the Malay Peninsula.
We were in about three and a half
to four miles of the trap, with the
herd going so we'll that ! was in
hopes of seeing them in the trap the
next evening, when toward midnight
the dreaded accident took place. The
elephants had got wind of us; pos
sibly a baby elephant had seen one of
the men: and, with trumpetings loud
and fierce, the lot turned and STAN
peded, crashing through the jungle
like a hurricane, and clearing every
thing in their way. / had just time
to jump behind a tree-in fact, | was
almost thrown there-away from a
big bull elephant. He missed me,
but, unfortunately, caught the native
who had ofticiated at the ceremony of
blessing the trap, grasping his body
with his trunk. Placing one foot on
the poor fellows chest, he literally
tore him in halves, splashing me
with his blood. A moment later he
had another man in his trunk and
dashed him to death against the tree
he was trying to reach for shelter.
When torches were lighted and the
men collected, we found twelve had
been dashed or trampled to death;
and the whole thing occurred in
much shorter time than it takes TO
relate. But seven days later, having
reorganized the hunt, had forty
four fine elephants safely in the trap,
Including a rarity in the way of
youngster with five toes on each
foot, which passed into the posses
sion of the Maharajah of Mysore.
Small monkeys are easy to catch;
they can be caught with birdlime or
a bottle; and by means of the latter
! have captured hundreds The bottle
must not be too wide in the neck,
and It must be baited inside with
sweetstuff, or a damp rag sweetened
with sugar; then it is fastened by
string 10 a tree. The monkey comes
along, scents the sweetmeat and