The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1910-01-21
TWO UGLY ANIMALS,
Those Big Pigs, the Rhinoceros
and the Hippopotamus.
THEY AREHARD TO CAPTURE.

Getting Away With One of the Colossal
Brutes Makes the Work Of Trapping
the Big FeIines Seem Like Child's
Play--Methods of the Hunters.
Trapping the big felines is child's
play compared with the work Of cap
turing those numbering. colossal ami
mails of the "big pig" family, the rhi-
noceros and the hippopotamus.
Too stupid to tame or to break to q
halter and too heavy to transport
through hundreds Of miles of wilder.
ness, it would take man half life.
time to bring one Of these five to six
thousand pound creatures out Of jun
gle into civilization. Therefore the
experts only chance is to find COW
with calf and to capture the young
one.
Compared with the alert, grim ex-
terror of the felines, there is little in
the appearance Of phlegmatic, pom
derous pig like rhinoceros to indicate
its real ferociousness. There is hard
ly wild animal In existence which Is
more dangerous than this rarest Of all
our menagerie captives. Awkward as
the great creature appears when at
rest, once aroused it dashes through
the densest thicket with the irresisti-
BILE speed of an express train.
To catch rhinoceros the trapper
proceeds with preparations much as
would an explorer bound for two Oh
three year expedition In the interior
of an unexplored continent, for the
difficulty confronting him is the three
fold one of first penetrating a thou
sand or more miles into the interior;
second, of finding not only a rhinoce-
ros, but rhinoceros COW with calf
old enough to capture, and, lastly, OF
transporting his prize across hills and
mountains and plains, over rivers and
ravines, across swamps and through
forests to civilization.
Szirting swamps and rivers, the men
are ever on the lookout for the deep,
round spoors, like pie plate driven
into the mud, for in this wet ground
the rhinoceros loves to wallow. Ere
quently Eve or six months elapse be-
fore the tracks of COW and calf are
picked up.
Noiseless and from well to leeward,
the trapper and his men gradually
steal nearer until the COW ana the
calf are inclosed in circle. From
ahead, out of the maze Of cane and
creeper, sounds the uneasy stamping
Of the COW. With half snort, hall
grunt in an instant the rhinoceros is
all attention. Head raised and nostrils
smiling, she searches the air steadily
At sight Of one Of the savages the COW
dashes with the speed of race horse
at the man, charging the human decoy
and at that instant the trapper's rifle
is heard, and her furious charge is
over, provided the bullet reaches the
heart by striking just behind the left
foreleg-the only vulnerable point In
the inch thick armor with which the
beast is clad.
Now and then 1t happens that the
trapper fails to kill in time-his gun
may miss fire, intervening trees may
interfere or the marksman may miss
his aim. Then the life of the decoy
depends upon his own agility. To run
to one side before the rhinoceros Is al
most on top of him would be fatal, for
the swift brute would overtake him
with few bounds. His only hope Is
to wait until the deadly horn Is almost
ut his feet and then, with the swift
ness of mongoose lodging the aim OF
q cobra, to leap to one side While the
ponderous creature, unable to turn
short in time, dashes onward under its
own impetus. Twice, three times, a
clever native hunter will dodge in this
way, giving the trapper ample time to
bring down the rhinoceros.
Then comes the tracking OF the
frightened calf, which has fled at the
first sign Of trouble. and soon it Is
pushed, prodded and showed up a
bridge Of log skids into q cage of tho
bullock cart.
But even more dangerous is the trap
ping of the hippopotamus, for, al
though in itself the ''rhino" is a more
savage antagonist than the river
horse" the trapper hunts the former
on land and brings down at a safe dis
tance, whereas in the case Of the hip
popotamus he must fight in the same
primitive fashion that sayages have
used for ages. Hand to nav. as II
were, he must engage this two ton
monster while standing In the bow OF
a frail canoe, for the hippopotamus,
us its name, the .river horse" means
Is land and water animal and must
be harpooned and brought ashore be-
fore 1t expires, otherwise it would sink
at once to the bottom of the river the
coveted calf escaping among the other
hippopotamAses instead Of following
the stricken COW to shore, so that the
youngster may be caught-A' w
Rolker in st. Nicholas.
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