New-York tribune., 1910-05-25
Mr.. ROOSEVELT'S ESCAPE
Near Death in Charge of a Big
Bull ELEPHANT in Africa,

In the June number of "Scribner's Maga-
zine ex-President Roosevelt continuing
his series on african Game Trails tells
of Elephant Hunting on Mount Kenia' -
The African elephant has never been
trained as the Indian elephant. therefore
neither the natives nor the hunters have
the kind of intimacy and knowledge which
domesticaion gives; moreover, hunting in
the forest is surrounded with danger and
excitement, which Mr.. Roosevelt has
graphically portrayed. in this article. The
ex-Presfdent writes:
No other animal not the lion himself. is
SO constant theme Of talk and a subject
OF such unfagging interest round the camp
fires of African hunters and in the native
villages of the African wilderness as the
elephant Indeed. the elephant has always
profoundly impressed the imagination of
mankind. 1t is, not only to hunters, but to
naturalists, and to all people who possess
any curiosity about wild creatures and the
wild life of nature, the most interesting of
all animals. It's huge bulk, it's singular
form, the value of its ivory. It's great in
telligence-in which it is matched, if at all,
only by the highest apes, and possibly by
one or two of the highest carnivores-and
it's varied habits, all combine to give it an
interest such as attaches to no other living
creature below the rank of man. In line Of
descent and in physical formation it stands
by itself, wholly apart from all the other
great land beasts, and differing from them
even more widely than they differ from one
another. The two existing species-the
African, which is the larger and finer ami
NAL and the Asiatic-ditfer from one an
other as much they do from the mann
moth and similar extinct forms which were
the contemporaries of early man in Europe
palaolithc forefathers, etched on bone by
cavern dwellerS. from whom We are sun
dered by ages which stretch into an i'm
memorial past. show that in their lives the
hairy elephant of the north played the
same part that his remote collateral de-
scendant row plays in the lives, of the
savages who dwell under a vertical sun
beside the tepid waters of the Nile and the
Congo.
That Mr.. Roosevelt had a narrow escape
from death while after his big quarry is
shown In his account of a flank attack by
companion of an elephant he had brought
down. He says:
At last we came in sight of the mighty
game. The trail took twist to one side
and there, thirty yards in front of us, we
made out part of the gray and massive
head of an elephant resting his tusks on
the branches of a young tree-elephants
hardly ever feed at noon A couple of min
utes passed before, by cautious scrutiny,
we were able to tell whether the animal
we could see was a COW or a bull and
whether if a bull. il carried heavy enough
horns. Then We saw that it was a big bull
with good ivory. 1t turned its head in my
direction and ! saw its eye; and l fired a
little to one side of the eye at spot which
thought would lead to the brain. struck
elephant is enormous and the brain small
and the bullet missed it. However. the
shock momentarily stunned the beast. He
stumbled forward, half falling and as he
recovered I fired with the second barrel.
again aiming for the brain. This time the
bullet sped true. and as I lowered the rifle
from my shoulder ! sh;aw saw u the A great lord of
But at that very instant, before there
was a moments time in which to reload
the thick bushes parted Immediately on my
left front and through them surged the
vast bulk of charging bull elephant, the
matted mass OF tough creepers swapping
like packthread before his rush He was
so close that he could have touched me
with his trunk. ! ieaped TO one side and
lodged behind q tree trunk. opening the
rife throwing out the empty shells and
slipping in two cartridges, Meanwhile Cum
inghame fired right and left, at the same
the other side. Both his bullets went home
and the bull stopped short in his charge,
wheeled and immediately disappeared In
the thick cover. We ran forward. but the
forest had closed over his wake We heard
him trumpet shrilly, and then all sounds
ceased -------------