Thomas Wallace Knox

“ Passing around a clump of bushes through a medium-sized mud-hole, and then around another clump, I came in sight of a fine bull-elephant; not as large as my first one of the morning, but still a very fine one for a hunter's bag. Unfortunately he was standing directly tail on toward me. A shot at the stern of a ship may sometimes do great damage, but not so a shot at the stern of an elephant: there is a great mass of fleshy matter there, and you can fire into it with anything short of a cannon-ball without doing much damage, and, what is more, without impeding the movements of the beast. ”

“ No visit of men could have raised in us the energy to do what we have done—nothing short of a visit of fair women. I have often thought that if Adam had been left in Eden without the presence of Eve he would have become as great a barbarian as a South African hunter, and the only security for the animals which abounded there was that he didn't have any firearms."
"Oh, but he could have dug a pitfall for them, just as the natives do here," said Miss Boland; "or perhaps he would have driven them into a kraal and slaughtered them by wholesale." ”

“ The giraffes took no alarm whatever, but went on with their feeding among some scattered mimosa-trees on the plain. By the aid of the ox she got within ten yards of one of the giraffes—a medium-sized cow—and then, resting the rifle over David's shoulder, and getting good aim, she put a bullet straight into the heart of the towering beast, which came to the ground instantly. Before the rest of the herd could take alarm Miss Boland fired at another giraffe, barely thirty yards away, and laid it low with a broken foreshoulder. ”

“ In our ride across the country toward our destination we had proof of the correctness of the adage, "What odd things we see when we haven't got a gun!" Off to the south we could make out a troop of giraffes; to the north, at the edge of the forest already described, half a dozen elephants were in sight, and offering a splendid chance to the hunter properly equipped for them. When within about two miles of the amazonian hunters we descried a herd of buffaloes, and also, half a mile away from them, a herd of elands—a dozen at least. What splendid sport there was within our reach! ”

“ Of course Mirogo and Kalil accompanied me.
When we had gone about three hundred yards we met a native tracker who was unknown to me, and also to both my servants. He had a few words with Mirogo, and it was evident that they understood each other. Mirogo turned to me and said there was another hunter who had shot an elephant, and was back in the forest a short distance.
"Very well," I said to Mirogo; "show me where he is and I'll make his acquaintance."
"He isn't a man," said Mirogo; "he's a woman!"
"What!" I exclaimed, "a woman hunting elephants?" ”

“ He had gone up there in pursuit of some small animal, as crocodiles frequently do. I had a good chance at him, and killed him with an explosive bullet; he was dead as the proverbial door-nail, and when I reached camp I told the negroes about it, and suggested that they could go in the morning and bring away whatever they liked.
"No crocodile there to-morrow morning," said Mirogo.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Other crocodiles pull him into river," was the reply; "he no be there in morning." ”

“ A man can easily dodge an elephant around a large tree; the animal is so bulky and unwieldy that he cannot turn and twist as rapidly as a man can, and in this respect the biped has the advantage over the quadruped.
I was almost paralyzed with astonishment—of course I will not say fear—when I saw the bulk of the creature I had shot at, and his immense tusks. I knew it was a case of life and death, and he was not likely to give up his pursuit of me in a hurry. ”

“ A cry of horror arose from the bank where we stood, and the faces of all of us became the complexion of marble. A woman struggling in the river! The river full of crocodiles! Can anything more horrible be imagined?
Jack gave the order for the paddlers to turn the boat; and luckily they paddled in the right direction, and whirled the craft so as to bring the bow directly over Miss Boland. Jack braced himself, reached down, and clutched her garments between the shoulders. As he did so he glanced along the water, and saw several crocodiles coming in his direction! ”

“ Harry remarked, after a pause.
"Oh, call her a hunter," said Jack; "don't bother about that straining word 'huntress.' In sport, as in science, there's no distinction of sex. When women first began to study medicine one who obtained her degree was called 'doctress.' Now that nonsense is dropped, and she's called doctor, like any other medical practitioner. Hunting big game in South Africa is entitled to be called a science; anyhow, it requires a lot of science to succeed in it. ”

“ We were seated at breakfast the next morning, and making good headway with our damper and stewed hippopotamus, when we were interrupted by our manager. He came to announce that the after-rider from the ladies' camp had just come with the news that they were missing again.
"Missing again!" said Jack, as he sprang to his feet; "I hope it isn't lions this time."
"I hope so, too," said Harry, as he imitated Jack's movements, and in his precipitation dropped a cupful of coffee, which went splashing over the table.
"I'll bet it isn't lions," said I; "but it's something equally serious. ”

“ We dined that night on eland-steak and boiled hippopotamus, and found both dishes excellent; and we pieced out the dinner with some tinned peaches, which Jack drew from the recesses of the wagon. Blessings on the head of the man who invented tinning, or canning, edible things! They have softened the asperities of life in rough regions to a wonderful extent, and have rendered it possible for men to live a long time away from fresh meats and fruits without danger of that terrible disease, scurvy. ”

“ It is a rule of the chase in Africa that, when several people are hunting together, the first shot is the counting one. If I fire at an animal and wound it, and it runs off in your direction, and you shoot and bring it down, the prize is mine, not yours. In some cases such a decision seems to be very unjust, but on a moment's reflection the reader will see that it is founded on justice. The first one who hits a creature disables it more or less, and through the disability that he creates the subsequent hunter or hunters are enabled to kill it. ”

“ Harry and Jack kept about a quarter of a mile behind me, ready to bear a hand in case of necessity.
The beast was there just as we had left him, not having moved a yard. Not another elephant was in sight, and I speedily made up my mind that the creature was what is called a "rogue." Perhaps you do not know what a rogue elephant is. Well, he is an elephant that for some reason—nobody knows why—has become separated from his herd, and is not allowed to rejoin it. Should he seek to come into any herd of elephants, all will turn upon him and drive him away. ”

“ By the time we got back to camp it was past noon, and we were, literally, hungry as hunters. The cook was ready for us with a dinner of gemsbok-steak and stewed rhinoceros. Rhinoceros is not by any means a bad dish, and many is the meal I have made of it. You can have it in a steak, a roast, or a stew. I think it goes best in a stew; but there is a difference of opinion on that point, just as there is in everything else in the cooking line. A young elephant is not at all bad eating, and elephants' feet, no matter whether the animal be young or old, are one of the delicacies of Africa. ”

“ The wait-a-bit thorn is barbed like a fish-hook, and whenever you get into one of the bushes you cannot get out in a hurry; as fast as you release one piece of your clothing another gets entangled, and very often the stranger leaves the greater part of his wardrobe in the possession of the bush. This is particularly the case when he happens to be in a hurry; when an elephant, buffalo, lion, or other savage beast is charging upon a hunter, and a wait-a-bit thorn-bush stands in the way, the hunter has many lacerations, both of clothing and flesh, in order to escape. ”

“ My idea is, that we had better stick to our business; mind our own affairs, in fact, and let them politely alone. We may run across them hunting some day, and they'll be far more likely to respect us if we hold aloof than if we go running after them."
"Oh, that's all rubbish," said Harry; "we'll ride over to their camp; that is, we'll get within half a mile or so of it, and send along the most intelligent of our servants. He can go to their camp, and through their principal servant let the women know that it would give us pleasure to call on them if entirely agreeable." ”

“ After discussing the whereabouts of the various kinds of game, we concluded that the best available place, with our present information, was the hippopotamus-ground. The hippos had not been disturbed very recently, and perhaps we could bag two or three without much trouble.
"Before I go on any hippopotamus-hunt," said Jack, "I'm going to have a boat! Without a boat you can't do much."
"As to that," replied Harry, "there isn't a boat that one of us would trust himself in in all this part of South Africa. Do you propose to send back to the settlements for a boat?" ”

“ A short distance before we reached the lake we caught sight of two buffaloes that were having a good time wallowing in a large puddle of mud and water. That is one of the buffalo's amusements: nothing delights him more than a wallow in the mud; and the more he can cause the stuff to adhere to his skin the better he seems to be satisfied. ”

“ It is a rule all through Africa never to abandon goods and allow them to fall into the hands of the natives. If goods must be left behind, the true African traveler always sets fire to them, or in some other way renders them worthless.
Down to quite recently it was the custom for hunting-parties of from two to five or six men to club together, buy an outfit, and go up-country on a hunting-expedition. ”

“ We agreed to have another day's hunting and then inspan and trek away, each party in its own direction. Happily for us, a large herd of elands put in its appearance early in the day, and we went in pursuit of them. There were so many of us on horseback that we managed to surround the herd and drive it into a hollow, of whose existence we knew, where a precipitous wall on three sides of an area of a few acres caught the creatures as in a trap. We could have killed the entire herd without difficulty, but we were merciful, and only shot enough to give us a good supply of meat. ”

“ It is far easier to approach an elephant than a koodoo; in fact, it is a complete science to be an accomplished hunter of this animal or any of his African kindred. One of each herd is generally on the watch, and they seem to select him for his superior eyesight, hearing, and powers of smelling. You must study the wind down to a single point of the compass, take your bearings with the utmost care, and then creep along very much as a cat creeps after a mouse before she makes her spring. If the animals see you there is no use following them ”

“ A dozen or twenty natives will get away with the best part of a fair-sized buffalo; after they have eaten their fill they lie down and rest until there is space for a little more, when they rise and resume eating.
With the natives of South Africa it is generally a feast or a famine, and I may also remark that it is very much the same with a hunter: there are days in camp when his supply of food is more than he knows what to do with, and these are preceded or followed by days when his stomach is well-nigh empty, if not entirely so. ”

“ When I got the bull separated from the herd my horse seemed to enter into the spirit of the thing, and dashed on through everything. I had brought along a Winchester, thinking it would be better for the business in hand than a Remington, and it did not take me long to find out that I was right. There was no possibility of dismounting to take aim, and, moreover, the giraffe was such a huge beast that it seemed as if he could be hit as easily as the side of a barn. But, after all, he is not very vulnerable, and a bullet must be well planted to disable him. ”

“ We took a slight luncheon and then went out hunting, I in pursuit of gemsbok—in which I was successful—Harry after a young buffalo, and Jack in search of vegetable provender. Jack said that a salad was necessary for a fashionable luncheon; he had seen a plant growing on the bank of the river which he thought resembled lettuce. He said he would get a quantity of the stuff and eat heartily of it that night; if it did not kill him by morning he would consider it a safe material for the concoction of the salad. ”

“ Africa is no place for headaches such as women complain of in civilized lands. Perhaps the two are hunting together, and are working the buffalo-herd from opposite sides. She continues to come this way, so I presume she has no objection to meeting me. Miss Boland evidently gave me a good character when she got back to camp. Perhaps she didn't mention me at all; may have considered the incident, and the man, too trivial to refer to. However, I'll descend from the mound and meet the lady, who quite likely will ask if I've seen any buffaloes belonging to her. ”

“ If he had been an ordinary herd elephant I think he would have given up at this point, and made off as fast as he could; but with his unusually ugly disposition he was not discouraged at the mishap, but resumed his pursuit of me as soon as he got to his feet.
I may remark by the way that not only is the elephant an unwieldy beast on a side-hill, but a loaded one is very unwieldy when ascending a steep hill. Of course we do not have loaded elephants in Africa, where the animal is not domesticated; but in Asia they are a very common sight. ”

“ Even the lion does not disdain to perform his share, and when you see him associating with hyenas and jackals you have very little inclination to rank him as the king of beasts and give him all the prerogatives of royalty.
Harry was in great glee over the elephant he had shot, especially as he had had a narrow escape in the performance. He had taken his position behind a tree, close by an elephant-path leading from the open ground into the forest. He heard the elephant crashing along among the trees, and stood ready to give him a shot. ”