The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1909-02-25

looking for local atmosphere for his
book Many great American hunters
have killed all their game in the mar
row and dark confines OF an ink bot
tie.
Africa is menagerie II 500 90
miles in area, with the greatest COM
bination of lakes, rivers. mountains
and weld imaginable. veritable pa
radise for wild animals. Notwith-
standing the destruction of big game,
there are still thousands of herds of
everything Africa possesses for the
hunter, roaming over the weld only
a few days travel afoot from the
coast, There are hundreds of rivers
that have rarely been visited by the
white man. On the banks of these
streams hippopotami, rhinoceri, ele-
plants, leopards, lions, gorillas, and
dozens of varieties of antelope, the
names of which have never been
heard by the majority of Europeans
or Americans, gambol and fatten in
gluttonous plentitude undisturbed by
the crack of the six-hundred caliber
express. 1t is only In reachable
districts that the game is killed toany
great extent. The cost and danger
of hunting in most of the country
have protected it and will protect it
for many years to come
Where game is most abundant the
| frightful diseases that nature seems
to have placed as a barrier against
| the white mans invasion are also
abundant. In Africa's wild, beautiful,
mysterious forests, more to be fear
ed than all the lions and rhinos, Turk
the germs of the deadly blackwater
fever, malaria, science defying sleep
ing sickness and the unknown reason
for the weld sores that drain ones
life out in few months These with
the miasmal swamps, the noyious in
sects, the Shiny poisonous reptiles,
and very often the poisonous spears
RIGA no game for the chicken-hearted.
OF course, hunting as a business
is one thing and hunting for pleas
ure is another. 1t is possible to kill
African game to a limited extent with
out the slightest hardship. One can
go On safari accompanied by natives
xryho ID oil hA
ing the sportsman in hammock up
to the game, selecting the correct
rifle, loading with the proper ammu-
milton, pointing out the place to
shoot at and handing the hunter the
weapon. The hunter merely pulls the
trigger, after seeing that there are
a number of natives hunters in readi-
ness to protect him should he miss
his mark and the game charge. AS
often as not he misses, shikaree
shoots the game, and his employer
gets the credit. It is the dangerous
side only of African hunting that has
any attractions for the man with any
sporting instincts in him, and it is
only that side of til ehunt that is of
interest to the laity.
According to the present intentions,
Mr.. Cunninghame will take the Roose-
Velt party over the route | have COW
cred twice, the last time very recent
ly. What | have passed through
Roosevelt must. face. He will be
lucky if he comes out alive
Like most Beers, have been hunt
ing. on and off, and associating with
hunters since | was ten years old.
Danger and hairbredth escapes have
happened so frequently to me that
most, of my hunting experiences ap-
pear almost too commonplace to re-
cord. Yet someof them stand out
wildly from the rest, especially those
Of recent occurance. 1t would be i'm
possible to hunt any length of time in
Africa without having some adven-
lures worth relating; adventures in
which a steady eye, nerves of steel,
and brain as quick as lightning are
life-saving essentials to big game
hunter.
Most game drops at the first shot
from the rifle of an experienced hun
ter. THE game that makes the
story is the game that's missed" as
the Swahili-East coast natives say,
and there is nothing truer tan that
saying, as far as my experiences go,
for a bad shot nearly ended my trek
little while ago in the Lake coun-
try. | was treking between Lake
Albert Edward N'Yanza and Lake
Kivu. the greatest stretch of hunting
ground in the world, with caravan
of a hundred men. We had marched
steadily through the early part of the
day and, now that the merciless white
hot sun was directly overhead,
called a halt Each member of the