48 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



personal courage that has led them to incur a real risk in the pursuit of 

 science." Now, I quite agree with this, but I would like to point out that 

 animal photographers really take less risk than do men whose desire it is to 

 kill the game they hunt. Most hunters know that few wild animals are 

 really dangerous until they are wounded, and it is usual for them to make 

 a bolt as long as they have the strength to do so. 



Mr. Radclyffe Dugmore, in his interesting book " Camera Adventures in 

 the African Wilds," makes some rather derogatory remarks about the man 

 with the rifle, and there can be no doubt that he and his comrade, as well as 

 Mr. Kearton and his brother, all took great risks in photographing lions 

 and rhinos ; more especially the latter, as in certain parts of British East 

 Africa these animals are known to charge without provocation. Perhaps 

 getting to within twenty yards of a crusty rhino might, however, be sufficient 

 excuse for it to charge, and so we can hardly blame the animal for acting on 

 the defensive. 



Men who take telephotographs do not need to get much closer than a 

 man who is trying to kill with a rifle. When a lion, buffalo, elephant, rhino, 

 or leopard is wounded and followed into dense grass or bush, I am certain 

 the risk is infinitely greater than it is to try to photograph any of those 

 animals which are unwounded, and I am sure that all practical hunters will 

 agree with me. I do not for a moment wish to detract from the dangers 

 undergone by big-game photographers, for it needs much courage to go 

 close to dangerous game with a camera; but I contend that the danger is 

 really less than it would be if the game had been wounded and was being 

 fol'owed with a rifle. 



A famous surgeon who visited British East Africa wrote some derogatory 

 remarks about lion shooting. Following lions on horseback with a pack of 

 dogs may not be very dangerous, or following them with a crowd of natives 

 and four or five guns may also lack much danger ; but to follow a wounded 

 lion, buffalo, elephant, or rhino into dense covert by oneself accompanied by 

 only a second gunbearer is very dangerous. The graves of many good 

 sportsmen all over Africa prove it, and so does the record of those who 

 have had the bad luck to get mauled. 



Field, April 20, 1912. D. D. L. 



SIR, As one who, like Mr. Lyell, has had long experience of hunting 

 great game in most parts of the African continent, I heartily endorse his 

 remarks as to the nonsense that is talked about the danger incurred in 

 getting these photographs. I also agree with him that getting close-range 

 photos of rhino, particularly in East Africa, involves more risk than any 

 other animal. With a telephoto camera it is not necessary to get anything 

 like so close to the really dangerous animals as a really good man does when 

 hunting alone. A telephoto lens will give excellent results of elephants at 

 100 yards ; but the old hand after elephants gets vastly closer than this 

 before taking his shot, ditto with rhino. I have shot rhino in various parts 

 of Africa, and never found them particularly dangerous till I went to East 

 Africa, for the first and only time, twelve years ago. As regards lions, in 

 broad daylight the danger is practically nil until the animal has been 



