Evening star., 1909-06-06

in Africa is a trade. almost profession.
In America one merely takes rifle and
goes out to shoot. In Africa. to hunt a
Ia mode. one takes a battery of arms.
usually three and sometimes four, high
power rifles of different caliber. ranging
from a six and fve-tenths millimeter to
60 cordite express. The cartridges for
these rifles are charged with various bull
lets. solid nickel steel. soft nose long. soft
nose short and split
Each of these bullets was designed by
experts for special use. and on the way
they are used depends the success of ones
shot. Often the use of the unsuita BILE bull
let ends in the hunters death. On small
game the light caliber arm, six five-tenth
millimeter. is used. and on large and dan
gerous game the nine millimeter Mauser
and 800 Caliber cordite express give the
best results. The ashamed rifle strikes
the enormous blow of &, 100 pounds. and
has recoil of close on a hundred weight.
That the man whose hunting experiences
has been confined to bird shooting with
shotguns. or small game. with. say. a 81
caliber rife, may understand the meaning
of these figures. let me state that the or
dinary 32-caiber rifle has recoil perhaps
ten to twelve pounds The double-bar-
relied shotgun. which to the ordinary hunt
er seems TO have all the Kicking ca
pacity any weapon needs, has a recoil of
from twenty-five to thirty pounds.
The 600 caiiber cordite express is the
most deadly hand arm made.
Notwithstanding the terrific force this
COO express bullet it must be placed in
the correct part OF an elephants or a
rftneoceros' anatomy to bring him down.
The hunter must put the shot into the
animals head or heart, or he must face ID
charge that will probably end in his de-
struction.
Rifles of various caIiber are carried for
economy 1t is cheaper to use a small six
five-tenths millmeter rifle on small game.
a nine millimeter on medium game. and a
GOD express on big game. than to carry
one weapon for all-round work, which
would have to be big enough at least for
the largest game Nothing smaller than
$50 express would do for that, and it
would be distinctly. uneconomical. not to
say foolish. to shoot small antelope, the
size of goat. with a 900 express. 1t
would be like using pile driver TO kill
mosquito. Again cartridges become very
costly by the time they reach the interior
of Africa. A cartridge for a 800 express
rife for instance, costing sixpence IL
centsp in London. reaches an enormous
price by the time it gets into the hunting
grounds of Africa: ! have seen them
scarce at that. Nor is this such an ex-
travagant price when one takes into con-
sideration that every ounce has to be car
ried by porters who plod for months
through swamps, across rivers, over
mountains, traversing the parched weld
and penetrating the dismal forest, often
fighting their way foot by foot before they
reach their destination. 1t il easy to see
that weight is an important factor in
cartridge economics. Four six fve-tenths
millimeter cartridges are equal in weight
TO one D0 express. That is. 1t is four
deaths against one. for the same weight.
yha ant
welt must learn before he can consider
himself up on the ways of safari-' If the
President hunts like an Africander and
not like the average European that visits
danger: danger that tries a hunters
nerve that requires an alert intelligence
and quick eye to pass through 1t and
live.
~
Mr.. Cunninghame. who Is organizing
the Roosevelt expedition. is one of the
most experienced and clever Of African
hunters. He will have complete charge of
everything from the largest to the small
est detail With him at the head of things
the President can depend on having sue
cessful hunt. That is, II he is going for
sport and not merely as scribe looking
for local atmosphere for his book. Many
great African hunters have killed all their
game in the narrow and dark confines Of
an ink bottle
Africa is a menagerie 11.5OO.OoO miles
in area. with the greatest combination of
lakes. rivers. mountains and weld imag-
inable. a veritab'e paradise for wild ami
mails Notwithstanding 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 hippo
potan1i. rhnoceroses. elephants leopa rds
lions gorillas and dozens of varieties of
antelope. the names of which have never
been heard by the majority of Europeans
or Americans sambol and fatten in glut-
tonous plenitude undisturbed BY the
crack Of the 600 caliber express 1t is
only in reachable districts that the game
East African term for an expedition of any
kind. especially hunting expedition.