The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-12-20
Search for a Lost
AbvSSiE7ioE1 Lnke.

But am telling my tale backward. In
the beginning we went into the blue"
or the bush, with our safari, from Mai
robi in British East Africa. We went to
take pictures, and for one other purpose.
to find a mysterious lake. a lost lake, if
/ may call it so, far up on the borders
Of Abyssinia. A Scotch missionary had
seen it long ago, written book about it,
which I CHANGED upon in the Nairobi IL
brary, and he thought 1t one of the most
beautiful and unspoiled spots Of the
world, No white man, as far as l know
had ever seen it since.
! like adventure and I like the lure
OF the unknown, so out we set for mys-
terious lake in mysterious land,
and adventure followed in our train
We crossed the equator near Kenya
Mountain, we went through the
Lorian swamps, we turned west and
forded the Guasa Myrra River; we went
through fenland, through dense woods
where we could hear but not see hordes
of elephants, over rolling plains high
with buffalo grass and finally across
parched desert, where camel trains have
been in use through the dark centuries.
Then at last we came to our lake, the
missionary's lake. Lake Paradise. And it
was just that.
1t was wild; it was virgin land. The
natives wore few clothes and bore bows
and spears. Animals were all about, and
one night Mrs. Johnson and 1 saw the
lake half full of elephants, 1t was Ele-
plant land with vengeance; we could
and we photographed them.
That was a real experience and the
closest call I ever had. This was the
way of 1t. We found the elephants
browsing about the bush, and while
went cautiously forward with a gun my
wife turned the camera crank. The ele-
phants-there were several of them
scented me and started for me- They
didn't actually charge me: 1 think they
were just stampeding. 1 shot at the
leader, which was an enormous bull, and
ran, and shot and ran again. The herd
came pounding on. The leader had just
reached out his trunk to grab me, and
1t was less than ten feet away, should
BAY, when Mrs. Johnson dropped the
Gamera, snatched UP her gun and brought
the beast down. / could see his trunk
curling out toward me when over he
went Tt was as quick as that The
rest Of the herd divided and bolted by us.
/ imagine, from all we saw and heard,
that there were about twenty-five thou
sand elephants about Lake Paradise. and
for all of me they shall stay there I
have never told the exact location of the
lake, and / never shall. 1t is Paradise
no~, an Africa that has been the same
for hundreds on hundreds of years.
Write men would spoil It,
E-e~ what big game there is in Africa
should be preserved. There are still an
lelope herds, zebra, water buck, and SO
IN IN good number. The carnivorous
nn1maIs hardly do more than keep the
average even, keep the smaller game
down to proportions where it will not be
swept by epidemics of disease. And of
the animals, only five in Africa are dan
gerous to man. First, the lion, then
Che leopard the elephant, the rhinocer-
Gus and the water buffalo I have heard
It said that the last is the most danger
Gus, and personally I would not dis
prove it.
Once on the course of our Journey we
were encamped between two swamps.
There was flat plain and tall grass all
about, and in the swamps the grass ran
rank. high up above a mans head. That
swamp and its tangle of grasses made
me shudder, am frank to admit 1
wanted to explore into it bit, but when