Evening star., 1926-10-12

1T taxes q long llrlS 10 get d IctlcI
from Oar rEs- Salaam, Tanganyika
Territory, East Africa. to Washing
ton.
BY radio the distance between Dar-
s-Salaam and Washington. with
proper equipment provided, is only
minute fraction of a second. BY
telegraph and cable, with all the in
cidental delays in transmission, the
distance is only an hour or so. But
by letter, it still requires about two
months to get news through.
That is why the full details Of how
DIR. William NJ. Mann captured a
giraffe for the children of Washing
ton has just been received at the
Smithsonian Institution.
Here is how DR. Mann describes
the capture:
"Since writing you last l left the
others at their various posts and
started out again on the quest for
young rhinoceros. | took with me
Charles B. Goss, the best hunter of
big game in East Africa.
"Same Old Thing"
1T was the same old thing. We
went into the Morogoro district. where
Mr.. Goss knew of rhino. We saw
tracks every day and adult rhino
every other day. But there were no
young ones. l have no excuse for not
getting one, except that there is
great deal of chance in it. You run
across them or you don't. l shall re-
member Africa as place full o..
rhino trails to follow.
I'VE camped near to and far from
drinking places and waited both early
in the morning and late in the eve
q ylio N
above the water holes and watched
all night. Any amount of game came
to drink - impalla, wildebeeste, con-
goni and SO forth. A lion circled us
half a dozen times and three hyenas
came directly beneath us. But there
were no young rhinos. Finally, as m!
time was getting short. I reluctantly
left there and went into the Tulo
country, where there are any amount
Of giraffes, hoping to get some OF
them at least.
1--WE camped alongside a stream
and one could come across giraffe
within half an hour Of camp in any
direction. The one good way Of get
ting giraffe is to run them down
with horses. But there are no horses
here on account of the tsetse flies.
The two Sultans we had asked to
help us came to camp with their men.
For days the men kept coming and
going. about 400 being with us all
the time. They have nets for game
like coarse Seines which are 20 feet
long and feet high.
"A hundred Of these nets make
great line. After the nets are set
the natives form a large circle about
herd Of giraffe which has been
previously located by our scouts and
attempt to drive them into the nets.
But they won't drive. Once out of
three or four times we got them
headed our way, and in each case
the big bull that headed the herd
dashed through the nets, the others
| following in single file. This hap
pened day after day.
Natives Fail to Help.
keeping on in this way day after
day and losing hope with each new
drive, we finally built a corral and
tried to drive them in. The natives
could not get the idea. Twice we had
young in the corral, and twice the
natives failed to close in at the proper
time.
"Then we had a bit of luck-we
managed to surround youngster.
One native got 1t by the neck and
another got it by the tail and it
fell. We sent to a nearby house for
native bed. put feet of grass
on it, loaded the baby on to it, and
took it into camp and into our reed
and thatch house. When it stood up
in the room it was s feet high.
We left it alone for the night and in
the morning fed it with milk and
acacia leaves. 1t took some Of both.
That's the story of how / got the
giraffe. AS soon as 1t was safely
housed I rushed into Ngerengere and
took the train for Dar-es-Salaam,
where 1 sat in a Hindu carpenters
shop until they had made the crate,
took the crate to the railway station
and telegraphed to you. Abdul is
just in. He tells me that it is in
good condition, though very nervous.
II want to get that giraffe home
safely more than anything else I can
think Of. From now on / shall keep
right with him all the time. In order