Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-06-14
SELLING BIG GAME.
Transportation on Shipboard Risky
Unless CAPTAIN Gets "Graft."

Unless Captain Gets Graft"
The animal trainer was speaking OF
the difficulties encountered in trapping
and shipping wild animals.
But to secure their passage is not
merely a matter of visiting the ship
ping agents offices at say, Singapore,
and booking the space required on the
next steamship. You may do this, but
If the captain of the steamsip does
not want the bother of the animals
and they are not always an agreeable
cargo-he will soon discover he is full
up, and it is never wise to prove that
he is not and insist on your rights.
So you must take your chance with
the next boat, and the delay thus oc-
casioned means not only extra expense
in feeding the animals, but also the
prolonged risk of their death ere they
can be got to their destination.
1.-The obvious remedy against loss
both at port and at sea would be in
surance, but it is q cargo that no in
surance company will take risks on.
Consequently the best thing to do is to
personally interview the captain, and
give him an interest in the selling
value of the cargo-say a third or a
half. That may seem a lot to give
away, but it is wiser to pocket a re-
duced profit than sustain a total loss.
1T Is because of such difficulties and
Of the personal danger run by the
trapper that the prices of big game
for live delivery run high. Tigers are
worth anything from $3.50 to $500,
leopards from $500 to $1,000, while a
rhinoceros or a giraffe tops the list as
profitable bags, selling at from $4,000
to $4,000 each.
Lions, however. are a drug on the
market, and worth comparatively moth
ing, being such good breeders in cap
tivity; nor is there much money In
bears. Snakes are a good line When
they run to any size. The largest I
ever had the good fortune to handle
was a forty-two foot python, which
sold for $1,000.
And there is this advantage about
these reptiles-they can be stu1fed
with sufficient food to last for months,
and being fed before shipment, will
travel in a state Of coma, giving no
trouble during the voyage.
1T is after a heavy meal that py-
thons are captured; then they can be
handled with safety, being too overfed
to exert the terrible strength they are
capable of displaying. / had only one
tussel with a python, and, although
nothing serious resulted, it sufficed to
convince me that their strength had in
no way been exaggerated
Hunting big game to capture Is, l
need hardly tell you far more dan
gerous business than hunting merely
to kill, and when on the trail one can
not be too cautious. But with care
full man, who never fails to take every
precaution, there is far less likelihood
of accident and death during eight
months in the jungle than In a week
spent in city streets.
'T say this with no desire Of belit-
tling the dangers surrounding the
trappers life, for during twelve years
spent in the jungles Of Malaysia, l
have met with not a few accidents, and
on more than one occasion it has been
touch and go with death.
Elephant trapping pays well when
the business is rightly managed, but
if the herd that is being trapped stam-
pedes weeks of work may be thrown
away, with the possible loss of two
or three lives. Where it can be arrang-
ed, the better plan is to work with a
tame elephant, which acts as decoy
to induce the herd to enter the stock
ade"-Philadelphia Ledger.