The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-25
Colonel Roosevelt Has an EXcit-
ing Experience.
But He Met 1t With His Usual
FOrtitude.
BULLET WENT TRUE.
And King of Beasts Bit Dust at
Hunters Feet.
RhinOs Seem to Be Plentiful in
the Jungles.

New York, March 25-In Colonel
Roosevelt's seventh installment of his
African Game Trails" which appears
in the April Scribner under the title of
Hunting in the Sotik,' he tells of his
really first exciting experience with the
big game. 1t concerns the charge of a
lion which was met by the noted
hunter, as everybody had reason to be-
lieve that such an occasion would be.
with courage and fortitude. In this
instance, it was Colonel Roosevelt's
bullet alone which saved him from n
hand-to-hand n1ixup with a king of
beasts. He had a friend with him but
the friend shot wild at a critical mo-
n1ent and the doughty colonel had the
situation to handle all by himself,
which was very much to his liking.
In addition to it's hunting features, this
seventh article, as has been notable in
all that MIR. Roosevelt has written is
filled with information about the plant
life, the rich flora, the bird life and the
small animal life. 1t is illustrated with
many striking pictures from Kermit's
camera and is altogether one of the
most interesting of the tales from
Africa that Mr.. Roosevelt has yet
written.
A Time for Courage.
OF his contest with a charging lion
Mr. Roosevelt writes: 1.-The lion stop
ped and lay down behind bush; jump
ing off 1 took a shot at him at two
hundred yards, but only wounded him
slightly in one paw; and after mo-
ment's sullen hesitation off he went,
lsshing his tail. We mounted our horses
and went after him; Tarlton lost sight
of him but 1 marked him lying down
behind a low grassy ant hill Again
We dismounted at a distance of two
hundred yards; Tarlton telling me that
now he was sure to charge. In all East
Africa there is no man, not even Cum
~ 7 I,
have by me than Tarlton, if in diff
culties with q charging lion; on this
occasion, however. 1 am glad to say
that his rifle was badly sighted, and
shot altogether too low.
Again 1 knelt and fired; but the
mass of hair on the lion made me
think he was nearer than he was, and
I undershot, infiicting a flesh wound
that was neither Gripping nor fatal
He was already grunting savagely and
tossing his tail erect. with his head
held low: and at the shot the great
sinewy beast came toward us with the
speed of a greyhound. TarltOn then,
very properly. fired. for lion hunting
is no child's play. and it is not good
to run risks. Ordinarily it is a very
mean thing to experience joy at a
friends miss; but this was not an or
binary case. and 1 felt keen delight
when the bullet from the badly sighted
rifle missed. striking the ground many
yards short. 1 was sighting carefully,
lion all right; Cor though he galloped
at great pace. he came on steadily
ears laid back. and uttering terrific
coughing gruntS-and there was now
no question of making allowance for
distance. nor, as he was out in the
open, for the fact that he had not be-
fore been distinctly visible. The bead
of my foresight was exactly on the
center of his chest as 1 pressed the
trigger, and the bullet went as true
as If the place had been plotted with
dividers. The blow brought him up all
standing. and he fell forward on his
head. The soft-nosed Winchester bull
let had gone straight through the chest
cavity, smashing the lungs and the big
blood vessels of the heart. Painfully
ne recovered his feet. and tried to come
On, his ferocious courage holding out
to the last
The "Prehistoric'' Rhinos.
Colonel Roosevelt also writes inter
estingly of the rhinos and evidently
they are not merely as extinct species
of animals as some people imagine. He
says:
soon afterward we made out three
rhino a mile away. They were out in
the bare plain, alternately grazing and
enjoying q noontide rest; the bull by
himself, the COW with her calf a quar- |
ter OF a mile off. There was not a |
scrap of cover, but we walked up wind |
to within $50 yards of the bull Even |
then he did not seem to see us. but
the tick birds, which clinging to his |
back and sides. gave the alarm. and |
he trotted to and fro, uncertain as to |
the cause OF the disturbance. If Heller |
had not had his hands full with the |
giraffeS I might have shot the bull |
rlnino; but his horn and bulk of body, |
though fair, were not remarkable, and |
I did not modest him. He went toward |
the COW, which left her calf and adj
vanced toward him in distinctly belli- |
cose style; then she recognized him, |
her calf trotted up. and the three ami |
mails stood together, tossing their |
heads. and evidently trying to make |
out what was near them. But we |
were down wind, and they do not see
well, with their little twinkling pigs |
eyes. We were anxious not to be |
charged by the COW and calf as her |
horn was very poor, and it would have |
been unpleasant to be obliged to shoot |
her; and so we drew off.
Next day, when Kermit and / were
out alone with our gun bearers we saw
another rhino. bull, with a stubby |
horn. This rhino, like the others of /
the neighborhood. was enjoying his |
MONDAY rest in the open, miles from |
cover. Look at him. said Kermit, |
African plain, deep in prehistoric |
thought Indeed the rhinoceros
does seem like survival from the
elder world that has vanished he was /
in place in the pliocene: he would [
not have been out of place in the I
miocene; but nowadays he can only I
exist at all in regions that have Jagged /
behind, while the rest of the world,
for good or for evil, has gone for
ward