The national forum., 1910-07-23

There is at least one kind Of tropi-
cal beast that is not in the bag of q
great faunal naturalist who's been
killing every kind there is to be
found in the East African jungle. No
where in the cabled reports or the
magazine articles occurs the name oil
seladang Yet Ralph H, lsham OF
Elizabeth, N. j., who recently re-
turned from a trip around the world,
killed five.
One doesn't hear very much Of Sc
ladong in these parts. Mr.. lsham,
who is at the Imperial, said yesterday
that the animal is only to be found in
the Malay Peninsula, and Is scarce
there. He himself was in the bush two
weeks before he got his first shot. 1t
was only recently that traveller
coming from the Far East described
in The New York San how Mr.. Is
hams exploit was the talk of the
Malay Peninsula, for his bag had beat
en- the record established only few
weeks previously by another young
American. i., -
That the seladang is not of the
temper Of a giraffe or a zebra may be
gathered from the fact that British
army officer who went out to shoot
one three years ago was caught by
the animal he was trailing and gored
to death. Mr.. Isham didn't want to go
into the particulars of certain hair
breadth escapes, the report OF WhiQh
had been brought by another travel
Ter, because he said he did not want
o make racket about what he had
lone.
81 had no intention of going after
eladang when | reached Singapore,
laid Mr.. Isham, "but there l met
Fowler, the chap who had killed two
and l thought would like to have a
try l did not even have any guns Of
my own with me- but managed tc
borrow a 500 cordite double barrellec
Express from friend and taking a
cook from Singapore started for the
seladang country,
What is a seladang? Well, the
word is pronounced as if 1t were
spelled slahdang.' 1t belongs to the
buffalo family, / should say, and the
only other of the family that ap'
proaches it in size is the Cape buffa'
To- The biggest l killed was six feet
seven inches from the top Of his
shoulders to the ground, and there
was 36 inches inside the span of his
horns.
"The seladang has a heavy mant
and is hairy about the head, but there
is no hair at all ON his fanks Il
there were it would1be torn off by thu
thorns and twigs Of the jungle. The
skin of the animal is full incl
thick. His legs are of peculiar shape
for the foot is smaller than the ankle
and the legs look like fat hams all
the way down, the flesh oyerhang'
ing thR hoof. He is tremendously
heavy ,uild but remarkably fleet o.
foot, a1u there is ttihis great differenc;
between him and the ordinary buf
falo, that the latter when hurt viii
flee, while the seladang will try t.
stalk you If you injure him.
"To get to this particular jungle
had to go on steamer from Singa
pore to Port Swettenham and thence
on a train of very low cars with th'
roofs projecting to Kualalumpur. TIT
majority of the towns in the Mala.
Peninsula, by the way, have the pre-
fix 'kuala' before their names 'Kuala
means mouth of river. 'Kualalum
pur' means mouth of the mud river
and the name fits Well, from ther
took another train to Kualakub
and from there actually rode in me
tor bus operated by the Government
to Raub. There got conveyance in
baggage wagon, my baggage follow
ing me in bullock carts, and at tn
end of the fourth day from Singapor
was at Kualalipis on the Penang riy
er.
Here got large dugout about .
feet long with sort Of cabin owe
the stern composed of thatche
roof. only three feet high and to &c
under which | had to crawl on m
hands and knees. got my five boat
men at Kualalipis,, and our plan wa
to drift down the river with the cu1
rent, stopping along the banks at In
! tervals when we saw natives to In
Quire whether any seladang had bee
seen. We travelled good deal b
night. getting out and looking abou
by day. We did this for two week
before having ascended the Krau rive
where | heard that seladang ha
been seen.
~ kept after that beast for tw
days before getting near enough
him to try a shot, for | had to kee
in a direction opposite the wind so b
would not get my scent, had n
tent because the men could so cas-
ly build little huts out of sticks an
thatch them with banana leaves. Niue
of the time we went through swamp
land and in spite Of stout shoes an
leather puttees the teaches got at m
legs and gave me some scars that
can't get rid Of. had had prepare
two bags of boiled rice from whic
the water had been squeezed, an
when we had nothing else to eat "
used to break off as much of this q
we needed.
ITO make any progress at all
some places | had to keep hackin
nmar in front of me with q knife. an