Thomas Baines

“ The main sheet of an open boat should never be made fast, but held either by the steersman, or some one near him, in readiness to ease off. A squall seldom comes so suddenly that the first puff, if well watched, will not help the boat into the wind before the full strength comes; but on the coast of Australia we have known a squall come so suddenly through the dead calm of the night that it struck us at once like a blow from a sledge-hammer, and, though we had taken all the usual precautions, the sea was pouring like a jet-black cataract flecked with diamonds over 8ft. ”

“ I cannot conclude my letter without expressing to you my truest thanks for the expression of your friendship towards me,—and my confidence that, happen what may, you will always duly appreciate my public and private conduct to you.
Believe me, my dear M. de Vidal, that my sentiments and my utmost efforts will always be in unison to draw closer the ties of friendship which have been so happily established, through you in great part, between the two countries where we first drew our breath, and my labour will be unceasing to preserve them unchanged. ”

“ Many, perhaps, are wounded; but unless he does it at a stroke the lion has no time to kill, for he is already bristling like a porcupine with spears, and one moment of inaction would expose him to the fatal shower that would pour in upon him from every side. His fate sooner or later is sealed; whatever way he charges his foes elude him; wound after wound exhausts his strength, till, bleeding and helpless, he sinks upon the ground, and his skin and paws are borne in triumph to the chief ”

“ The height and strength of the palisade forbids all hope of escape; the natives, wild with delight, are shouting and pressing on their rear, they rush thundering on to the narrowest part, the slight fence which hides the pit from view is easily leaped, others follow, blindly pushed on by the crowd in the rear, until at length the pit is filled with perhaps one or two hundred animals, writhing, struggling, and suffocating, and moreover bruised and stunned by the hoofs of those which rush madly on, seeking to escape over them. ”

“ When it is considered (and it ought never to be lost sight of,) that the commerce of foreign nations with the whole of the central regions of South America depends entirely on the keeping open one or other of these lines of communication, it will be seen that it is a matter, not merely of national but of universal importance, though in an especial manner to England, to maintain the entire independence of Monte Video of Buenos Ayres, so as to diminish as much as possible the danger of both being closed at the same time and by the same political events. ”

“ Calm water will reflect the colour of the sky according to the angle at which it is viewed; if you look down on it, it will reflect the dark blue of the zenith, but at the same time, if it be transparent, it will also transmit the broken colours of the ground beneath, and thus many beautiful effects are produced—the yellow sand of the tropics imparting a brilliant green to the shallow sea, while rocks or sea-weed will give rich tones of brown. If the spectator is low down, the water will reflect the colour of the horizon, and its own local colour will be lost or much diminished ”

“ The stranger to the wilds would feel no little compassion for the poor crippled lapwing plover, who, crying plaintively, totters on and struggles to escape from the hunter, until at length, on a good space of ground being travelled over in fruitless pursuit, the cunning bird wheels away aloft with a mocking whistle, and shortly rejoins her brood of mouse-like little ones among the moss hags. We once saw a hyena near our camp take a piece of old dry goat’s hide in his mouth and perform a number of strange and uncouth movements, as if either lame or drunk ”

“ A few years since, when all the elephants had to fear was the pitfall of the Bushmen, with its sharpened stakes at the bottom, they would come fearlessly on, trusting to their leader, as with extended trunk as above mentioned, would literally feel the ground inch by inch, and, having once detected a frail deceitful covering that masked the pitfall, would toss aside the sticks and grass, and the whole herd would follow in contemptuous security along the very edge of the now undreaded snare. ”

“ As the boat approaches, the boat steerer lays in his oar and stands up, harpoon in hand, watching the most favourable moment to drive it with all his force, through skin and blubber, deep into the solid flesh, the boat sometimes actually touching the whale before the harpoon is launched. The oarsmen back the boat off as quickly as possible out of the reach of the sweeping tail, and the whale generally dives, then darts forward at full speed, sometimes below and sometimes at the surface of the water. ”

“ The distant hills may either melt into the soft tints of the sky, partaking of roseate light and faint sky shadow, or may rise cold and dark against a clear horizon, or may be shown in full light against a heavy storm cloud; in any case, the tone of colour proper to their respective distances must be preserved, and in this respect there can be no better rule than to copy those that nature herself presents. ”

“ If the journal of to-day is put off, the events of to-morrow will confuse and dim the impressions that ought in all their pristine vigour to have been committed to paper; procrastination is the thief of time, and we may well say that it will rob the journal of the traveller of all that freshness and vivacity which alone can make it interesting. ”

“ Whether the rather more than half-reasoning elephants know that the fly kills horses or not, we cannot undertake to say; but they certainly connect the idea of comparative security with the “fly country,” just as an Australian horse knows that the stockyard is the only place in which he is never flogged, and retreats to it whenever he hears the cracking of the dreaded stock whip. ”

“ But a lion hunt on fair and open ground, by a tribe of savage warriors, must have been an exciting scene. With them the preparatory tracking up and gathering of information essential to the English hunter are needless; the haunts and habits of the lion they intend to hunt have long been too familiar to them. The hunters with their naked bodies fresh anointed, and lithe and well-turned limbs, assemble around with light assegais or javelins, and with long sticks tufted with black ostrich feathers. ”

“ On the American Continent a sport known as fire-hunting is much followed. This mode of hunting is prosecuted at night. The hunter provides himself with a rifle, an old frying-pan, fastened to the end of a pole, and a good supply of resinous pine knots. These he ignites in the pan, and as the bright flame leaps up, he watches carefully for the gleam from the eyes of the deer amongst the dark shadows of the forest. ”

“ The forest is then surrounded, the elephants disturbed with loud noises, driven from their favourite haunts, and forced to take refuge in the thickest forest; and here men, previously stationed in the trees, cut the remaining bush vines, and let the tangle fall like a boarding netting among and around the elephants; spears and assegais are also hurled down on them at every opportunity. This is, however, a service of great danger, for the persecuted animal, with his far-reaching trunk, may seize the nearest hunter and dash him to jelly against a tree, or trample him to death. ”

“ If the traveller is content with the solid flesh, of course he can let them do as they like; if not, he must look out in time. It is quite well to know that the marrow-bones slightly warmed afford most delicious food; the marrow of the ox is good, that of the buffalo is better, but that of the koodoo is the ne plus ultra. The bones of the quagga—at least, so far as our experience goes—afford no marrow; indeed, there is no hollow for it, the inside being a cellular structure filled with oil. The flesh, also, being rather rank, persons of very delicate taste do not relish it. ”

“ The hunter of the fur-clad denizens of the forest and the field, who, for the love of sport and the obtainment of trophies of the chase, penetrates to little-known regions; and the hardy and keen trapper—who, with pack, traps, kit, and rifle, steers his own course to the most remote and untrodden solitudes—each require a somewhat different mode by which to fit their spoils when gathered for transport to either the cities of Europe or the trading port of the professional peltry dealers. ”

“ Every effect of storm or sunshine on the hills, catching the passing rain cloud while the shower was still falling, with its misty fragments torn off by the gale, illuminated by the beauteous rainbow, or lighted up by rays of sunshine piercing through the gloom; and when such luxurious appliances can be obtained, and are used, moreover, to so good a purpose, far be it from us to say a word against them. ”

“ Among the Bushmen the lion is not much hunted; in fact, some of them seem to look upon him as an involuntary benefactor, who, after he has killed his prey, will certainly let some remain for them, and may, perhaps, be scared from his repast, so as to leave them all. Sometimes, perhaps, they venture, if annoyed by one of men-eating propensities, to track him to his lair, and as he lies in dreamy enjoyment after a full meal, to lodge a poisoned arrow in his side. ”

“ The stays were formed of slips of bamboo, and sometimes even of the poles, which, being well fastened, would not only resist tension on the weather-side as well as ropes, but on the lee would, by their rigidity, help to support the masts. The outriggers of these were more elaborately framed with a lighter set of beams, which supported stanchions and hand-rails, so that, when the wind freshened, men might run out upon the weather outrigger and, holding on by the hand-rail and stays, which lead from the mast-head, serve as a counterpoise to the immense sails as the boat dashed through the water. ”

“ The man who, by chopping down a tree and washing its pith for a week or two, can provide himself with a substitute for bread for a whole year is not likely to be, nor is he really equal either in physical strength, activity, or intelligence to him who must earn his food by cultivation of the soil, by chasing wild animals in their forest haunts, or by launching his little craft upon the waters, and ensnaring or doing battle with the denizens of the ocean. ”

“ Water, either for drinking or other purposes, is as scarce as in the driest parts of India or Africa; for though in temperate countries it may be a luxury to let a piece of ice melt in the mouth, the expenditure of animal heat in thawing a mouthful of snow in the Arctic regions would be greater than even the most robust constitution could afford.
Water, in fact, unless kept in constant agitation, loses its fluidity. A sheet of ice is as dry as a piece of glass, and snow seems to have no more moisture in it than the dust of the highway on a Derby day. ”

“ The mode of harnessing, too, differs in almost every country. Whilst we, in England, usually content ourselves with a team harnessed in pairs, the Russians not unfrequently work three and four a-breast. The Spanish and Portuguese race, in their devious wanderings about the world, have taken the enormously high wheel of the Peninsula with them, and delight to see a big-booted postilion, black or white, acting as pilot to the lumbering old-world conveyance they journey in. ”