The mirror., 1922-05-04
CAMERA-HUNTING
Continued from page I

don for the cruise, johnson could really
cook, and before the end of the voyage he
was doing more than cooking-he was
London's close friend and constant COM
panion.
When fellow gets start like that he
is pretty sure to 60 on with the job and
when the cruise of The Shark was aban-
doned after two years, because of Jack
London's ill health, Martin worked his
way until he completed the trip round the
world-and he was back in Kansas, ready
to start right out again
This time he went rambling at the head
of his own expedition, and armed with
what had become his favorite weapon, a
camera He had been the unofficial photo
grapher on The Shark trip, and he had
become an expert He returned to Kansas
after time and talked of settling down,
but the lust of adventure was strong, and
when the Kansas girl he married re-
marked that she hoped he was going wan
dering again, because she wanted to go
along-well, there was nothing to 90 but
60 Their first objective point was again
the South Seas, but Martin Johnson was
like Alexander, looking for new worlds to
conquer.
Johnson finally decided on British North
Borneo. The place was tropical forest,
through which few men had ever tracked.
1t abounded in wild beasts, large and
small. Their next stop was to be SAM
dakan, the principal city Of North Borneo,
and located at the mouth of the Kiniba-
tangan River. -
The Johnsons had not been in Sanda-
kan very long before the President of the
British North Borneo Company called. He
had heard that Johnson was going jungle
hunting with camera, and he wondered
if he could have set cf all pictures made.
He made an offer. He would give john
son the use of the company's launch,
coolies to carry the equipment, and an
escort of native police boys, all the labor
to be paid for by the company, in return
for copy of eve4 picture made. John
son accepted quickly.
The start from Sandakan was made in
the company's launch, which could be used
for the first 140 miles up the Kinibatangan
River. After that the journey to the
headwaters, nearly 500 miles in all, was to
be made in native boats-gobongs.
The first big game to be Shot with the
camera were crocodiles. The crocodile is
the terror of the tropical rivers. A big
crocodile will measure IL or IS feet, and
is mean customer.
Each day of the trip held its new ad-
venture as the boat made its lazy way up
stream, against strong current. In few.
hours after leaving Sandakan, the jungle
closed like wall about the little party.
1t took three days to complete the first
stage of the journey to Lamang, after
which the launch could not be used.
Three days of real adventure. Monkeys
of every description chattered in the tree
tops, scolding at the invasion of their
territory. Tropical birds screeched. and
snakes were numerous, both cobras and
pythons. The pythons were largest but
the king cobras were more deadly, and
sometimes were eight or nine feet long,
Many species of wild animals were
glimpsed along the shore. Johnson got
wonderful shot of python that must
have been 20 feet long. The reptile was
coiled in small tree.
The real adventures were above La
mang, for there the natives were really
primitive and the beasts more abundant.
This proved to be great drawback, how
ever, for while the wild animals were
constantly heard in the forests, they were
seldom seen. But johnson determined that
he was going to stay in the interior until