The New York herald., 1920-01-11
AMAZING ACCOUNT OF A GREAT HUNT FOR CORuLAS
WRITTEN BY OF UGANDA WHO ATRAGEDY
THAT CAME WHEN HIS BROTHER LATER WAS SLAIN BY LION
Wonderful Description Is Civ
en- by Mr.. Foster of the In
terror of the Great Forests.
WAR PREDICTED BY
THE STRANGE BLACKS
Story Is Told of the Weird Ways of
the Little Men, knowledge of Whom
3 Always Has Been Limited.

|
must be something new in the ape line.
They certainly could not be chimpanzees,
as this was not the right sort OF country
for them and we had never seen their
beds anywhere else but up the trees In
thick forest, and having come so far and
our curiosity being greatly aroused we de-
cided to do all in our power to find them
and secure a SHIN.
- Beds OF the Creatures.
| We returned to our camp and the next
| two days saw us starting out early in the
morning on our hunt. Nothing of any
| Importance happened. We found 1t very
| cold at this altitude. especially at night,
and as the sun on most days hardly ap-
peared at all and the mountain was en-
veloped in clouds from some distance be-
| low us we found it necessary for the
| first time since we had been in the tropics
| to wear coats in order to keep warm. All
the water (of which there was a plentiful
| SUPPLY which we came across was icy
cold as it ran down in small streams
| from the snow several thousand feet above
us. Fine showers, which increased some
times to heavy rain. together with the
discomfort of the giant nettles which |
have already described, and the hard up
Ihlii gong uld not coHlDlne 10 make liIe
|enjoyable.
| We saw some game, among which was
what the natives call 'fumbiv,' species
| of red duylSer, which is rather rare and
which we had not seen before. We also
saw some mountain buffalo. Much to the
disappointment of the pignies we did not
attempt to shoot any of these, as we did
not want to lose the pigmies nor to alarm
the gorillas if they happened to be within
earShOt of our rifles
| Having tried in an easterly and westerly
direction from our camp. on the fourth day
after our arrival on the mountain we
decided to explore that part Of the noun
tain directly above Als. We found il very
hard going and had to make long detours
20 avoid gulleys and perpendicular cliffs
which were too steep to climb. By eleven
O'Clock we decided we were only about
1000 feet higher than the camp, but we
seemed to have got over the worst part
Of our road. We came across some buff
falo spoor here and the pigmies tried their
best to persuade us to follow them up. but
We refused and were very glad after
ward that we had.
We continued straight uphill and in
about ten minutes suddenly came on some
of the beds which the pigmies had told
us the gorilas make out of bamboo twigs
We found them to be as the pigmies had
described, simply bamboo twigs heaped
sat and so flattened down the tops, which
were now about two and one-half feet
from the ground. Each bed was about
four feet in diameter, and we could see
that they were quite new and from the
spoor came to the conclusion that the
gorilIas had left only an hour or two be-
fore we arrived
Most OF the beds were fairly close to-
gether. but one we saw was several yards
avDmippd
spoor close to this and found that the
footprints were larger than any of those
Of the rest of the family, and In compare
son with our own were considerably
larger. We both agreed that we were up
against something rather formida BILE in
the monkey line and that hostilities at
close quarters must at all costs be avoided.
We therefore commenced to follow the
tracks very cautiously. Apparently they
had not been in any hurry, as they had
been feeding all the way along on young
bamboo shoots and n certain kind of weed
which grew very plentifully hereabouts.
We found the pigmies very useful now, as
they had not the slightest difficulty in
Keeping on the track. which, of course,
was plain enough: but, what was more TO
the point we knew we could rely on them
to let us know when we were close to
the gorillas.
The tracks had led us in an uphill di-
recton through thick bamboo forest, and
we had been going an hour or little more
and had noticed that the forest was get
ting thinner We found later that we
were on the upper edge OF the Damnoos.
The Game Found.
When the pigmies suddenly vanished we
had heard or seen nothing. and after
waiting a minute or two they reappeareo
and beckoned US to follow, which we did.
fstr har IN
see i'm a clearing OF the forest party or
nine or ten huge apes. They were seated
on the ground more or less in circle and
appeared to be resting, but one young one
about half grown was facing directiy our
way, and / think must have caught slSfs
Of one Of us. as he got up with sruh'
which apparently put all the rest on tue
qui vive, as they all rose.
One gorilla which was probably the OLD
man Of the party. as he was larger and
appeared to have become partly gray WIFI
age. started to come toward us. we ureo
and killed him before he had advanced
MANY steps. The remainder. probably sur
prised and frightened at the SOUND OF our
rifles and at seeing their leader ran nesi-
tated and backed away making nioeous
noise not unlike a. frightened paoooh ou'
much louder and deeper. - a.
/ noticed as they drew OF that .ne
gorilla nearest US was holding III ne,
arms a very young one, SO i,reo auu an,
wounded her and she came TOWARD u.s. sun
clasping her baby. We both fired again
and she dropped. uhe rest by TINS .,ne
were just disappearing ana havins sno.
two good specimens we did not attempt
TO follow them.
We approached the female gorilla ana
found her lying face down resting on ner
elbows and still clasping her young ono
underneath her. She was evidently dying
and we took photo Of her in TINS positioi.
We did not want 10 damage the skin
moro than necessary. so we waited for her
to die. which she did in n few minutes.
We then took away the young one, wnicn
from indications we thought could not pc
more than twenty-four hours old. IL was
a female and qaite uninjured. The oIo
man gorilla had never stirred from wnero
he fell when we shot him and we no"
examined him with interest. We had see"
/