Sept. 9, 1905.] 
2lS 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
— I 2 
Big-Game Hunting in Africa* 
BY EDOUARD FOA. 
Translated for Forest and Stream. 
Mr. Edouard Foa was dispatched by the Minister of 
Public Instruction of France to go to southern Africa 
on an exploring and investigating tour. In carrying 
out these instructions, Mr. Foa visited the Cape Colony, 
the Qrange Free State, the Transvaal, a part of Mata- 
bule Land, the country of Gaza, and the lower and 
middle Zanbesi country as far as Lake Nyassa. All 
these travels have been described in a book entitled 
■“From the Cape to Lake Nyassa.” As a part of his 
studies and his travels in the wilderness, Mr. Foa had a 
great _deal of big-game shooting. Sometimes this was 
for pleasure, more often from necessity. The African 
explorer — especially if he visits lands where the ter- 
rible ^tsetse fly is abundant — is obliged to have all his 
supplies carried on the backs of native bearers. This 
may require for one or two men a retinue of 200 natives, 
and these natives must eat. Often therefore the ex- 
plorer js obliged to spend most of his time in hunting, 
for it is his rifle which supports the people whom he 
has under him, on whom he depends for the success of 
his journey, and for whose comfort he must care. 
Thus travel through Africa is largely on foot, and dur- 
ing four years occupied by Mr. Foa in journeying in 
equatorial Africa, thirty-six months out of the forty- 
two which were devoted to travel were spent on foot. 
The result of months and years of a life such as this 
cannot fail to bring one who endures it to a very high 
pitch of physical perfection. The life of constant ex- 
ercise- and hard work out of doors, of simple food, 
of freedom from the luxuries and the temptations of 
cities and civilizations, ultimately enables him to do 
an amount of work hardly to be comprehended by the 
feeble dwellers in the cities with whom we daily rub 
shoulders. 
Mr. Foa has written a number of books on his 
African experiences, and especially on his hunting. 
One of the best of these is entitled “Mes Grandes 
Chasses Dans L’Afrique Centrale” — My Big Hunts in 
Central Africa. 
Mr. Foa’s armament consisted of an English express 
rifle, caliber .577, a double-barrelled 12-bore rifle and a 
double-barrelled 8-bore rifle. These arms carried as- 
tonishing charges of powder and balls of different 
weights and hardness, according to the need of the hunt- 
ing. Besides this armament and the multitude of other 
implements necessary for such a trip, he carried a tig 
12-bore duck gun for use on birds or other small 
game. Mr. Foa went up the country and at last reached 
Crocodile River, where he believed himself to be on 
the borders of a country abounding in big game, and 
it is on his first hunt in this region that we shall now 
accompany him. 
The natives of a little neighboring village had come 
to visit us, and one of them had agreed for a moderate 
payment to guide our caravan to the encampment of the 
morrow. " Another had consented to go with me, to 
show me; the big game and then to guide me to the 
camp. 
In the morning when the sky began to show violet 
tints and the cocks of the neighboring hamlet were 
from here and there saluting the coming of the day, 
we hastily swallowed a little black coffee to warm us 
up, for after these cold and damp nights one feels 
the need, 'of a certain, reinforcement when he gets up; 
and set out. 
As soon as we had left the camp, we separated; 
Manner, my companion, taking one side and I the 
other. 7ln hunting large game, the opportunities for 
shooting are so few that when two are together, one 
of the hunters must often, yield the shot to his com- 
panion. - It is better therefore not only to separate, but 
to be distant from each other for several miles; other- 
wise the shots of your neighbor frighten your game. 
We went down to the shores of the river to look for 
tracks.. It is there that the surest indications of game 
are usually found; the animals — in inhabited regions — 
commonly, coming to drink at night. A part of the 
bank is passed over and the animal is chosen which 
seems most worthy of pursuit. On that morning we 
saw tracks of gazelles, kobi, zebras, guibs, and finally 
of elands, Of these last there must have been six or 
seven, and we had good hope of overtaking them. At 
once we began to follow their trail across the broken 
and brushy .plains, always going ahead without stop- 
ping or resting up to ii o’clock. 
We were traversing some little woods peculiar to 
central Africa, composed for the most part of mopane 
trees. Growing irregularly and by chance, singly or in 
groups, the gnarled trees do not exceed four or five 
yards in, height. Among them grow freely tall grass 
and plants of all sorts, and every year the fire sweeps 
away all this low, dry vegetation, scorching a little the 
trunks of .the . trees. It is this, perhaps, which keeps 
them from growing more. . , 
The elands, had been walking in this low forest for 
several h'o~urs, but suddenly our men saw them in front 
of us. The brush was thick, and still full of greenish 
color. The fire had not yet cleaned up the soil. We 
were making some noise without intending it, walking 
on the bfapches which strewed the soil, or rustling the 
foliage, .and we now redoubled our precautions,, so as 
not to- lef - our presence be known. The elands .were 
more tliaM three hundred yards distant, and seenied 
still unaware of the danger which was threateriing 
them. One of them had stopped under a tree;. -his 
back turned almost squarely toward us. .A second, his 
head stretched up in the air, seemed to . be eating, 
the leaves, ,We did not see the others. , ' - 
The . men stayed behind, hiding themselves, exc.ept .a- 
single one, 'who. came with me. We were very careful; 
bent alrnost. double, going from one tree to another, 
by many zig-zags, not putting a foot to the ground save- 
with the utmost care. The wind was in our favor.- We 
were hardly 2,00 meters distant, when the eland,-. whj.qh 
was eating’, stopped and looked fixedly toward usV 
His neighbor did the same; a third and a fourth eland 
showed themselves a little further off, and I hesitated 
to advance further. My black signed to me that we 
must hide more carefully; so I got down on all fours, 
ipaking long steps, glow and silent, and shoving my 
gun ahead of me as I advanced. The elands kept lis- 
tening all the time, but could see nothing. Antelope in 
general look and listen thus for a long time when they 
cannot smell; but when the wind is wrong — that is to 
say, when it blows from the hunter to the game— 
their sense of smell warns them and they move off 
without ever turning back. However, our big animals 
were beginning to get uneasy, walking about and stop- 
ping from time to time to listen again. If they took 
flight they would escape us perhaps altogether. 
I raised myself slowly behind a tree to be able to 
shoot. The distance must have been more than 180 
meters. When I shot, I thought that . I had missed, for 
the whole herd disappeared at a gallop among the trees. 
But wdien they saw one of the elands lagging behind, 
the hunters had called out to each other that it was 
wounded, and we began to run as hard as we could. As 
we passed over the distance which separated us from it 
we saw it drop from a gallop to a trot, then from a 
trot to a walk; then it violently threw up its head several 
times, described two or three circles, turned about and 
fell heavily in the grass. Its four feet were seen in 
motion for a moment, and we saw nothing more. 
It was an enormous female, which measured over five 
feet from the sole of the forefoot to. the withers, and 
must have weighed 700 kilograms. Its size equalled 
that of an ordinary ox, the head recalling that of a cow. 
but being more elegant. The tawney- hide was marked 
with nine white cross bands on the back and little black 
cross matks behind the forearm. It was a beautiful 
beast. 
The ball had made a little round hole just below and 
back of the elbow. The heart was pierced, and the 
lungs, torn to_ pieces, indicated that the bullet had ex- 
panded in this place. Nevertheless, the unfortunate 
beast had the strength to start off at a gallop and to 
cover about 150 meters. I shall often have occasion 
to call attention to this extraordinary vitality, which 
seems to increase in proportion to the weight, among 
the antelope and other savage beasts. 
Massachusetts Quail. 
Aug. 25. Editor Forest and Stream: One of the most 
competent observers of bird life in Massachusetts is 
Mr. M. A. Walton, known in Essex county as the 
Hermit,” on account of the isolated situation of his 
cabin home on the remote outskirts of Gloucester. He 
is quite well known as a writer on natural history sub- 
jects. He writes me that he fed a flock of eighteen 
birds through the winter, and counted fourteen in the 
spring. Some of them would have nested near his 
home, he says, had not hounds driven them away. The 
hounds were chasing deer almost every day in the 
week. This spring he found four partridge nests, but 
some of them were looted by crows. He has seen sev- 
eral young grouse and twelve old birds wintered near 
his house. He wishes crows might be exterminated, be- 
cause they kill most of the young quail and grouse, 
besides destroying song birds. His opinion is that they 
do more damage than all other bird enemies put to- 
gether.” 
Kingbirds should be protected because they keep off 
crows and hawks; but in his section they have been 
nearly exterminated by foreigners. 
Game laws not well observed, is his verdict for his 
neighborhood. 
Mr. Leighton, of Hamilton, the home of Congress- 
man, A. P. Gardner, reports few quail and partridges. 
“More pheasants than anything else.” 
Mr. Russell, an experienced hunter of Colrain much 
interested in protection, expresses the opinion that if 
quail were planted in his region they would do well. 
'This is a town in Franklin county, the whole of which 
is without the quail zone, as shown on the map of the 
Biological_ Department of the Board of Agriculture. 
In classifying Berkshire as not a quail county in a pre- 
vious_ communication I was led into an error by reports 
sent in from several men of that county. I have now 
before me a reproduction of the Government map of our 
State and find fully three-fourths of the county is shown 
to be within the quail zone. Savoy, Florida and Monroe 
are not in the quail section. Franklin county is the only 
one lying entirely without the quail zone. About one- 
third of Hampshire, four-fifths of 'Worcester and five- 
sixths of Middlesex are included in. the quail region on 
the Government map. All other counties not already 
named are wholly within the quail zone. Of the entire 
area of the State about five-sixths is within that zone. 
Possibly if a new map were to be prepared now it might 
differ somewhat from the one now in vogue on account 
of the loss of birds during the last f-wm years. 
The problem that is up to the sportsmen to solve just 
now is how to replenish the covers. Every effort pos- 
sible to plant quail from outside the State should be 
made, and besides that great self-denial on the part of 
gunners should be practiced when the shooting season 
comes. 
Several correspondents whose reports have just come in 
urge a hunter’s license, and some of them urge the plac- 
ing of restrictions on the number of birds per dav to a 
gun 
Mr. Church, of Douglas, says to save the birds “we 
must catch all the foxes we can.” A friend in Ran- 
dolph complains that Brockton parties are cleaning up 
the rabbits by the use of ferrets. An active sportsman 
from Webster makes a similar complaint,' and he has been 
told by a man he deems good authority that in his town 
and the adjoining town of Dudley there, are as many as 
forty or fifty ferrets used in , hunting; The result, he says, 
is that rabbits have been cleaned up. A similar complain^ 
comes from Hudson. The destruction of birds by for- 
eigners IS the cause of loud complaints in Hingham” 
Many correspondents declare more, paid wardens are 
.greatly needed,^ and one gentleman reports to me whaf 
he considers a “great indiscretion” on the part of a cer- 
tain deputy which consisted in his telling a man in a town 
where snaring: is going on that “'he (the warden) wa* 
going to lay for the fellows that set the snares.” Every- 
body in the town, says my informant, "knows all about’'it 
"ow.” H. H. Kimball. 
THE MANY-USE OIL 
grans grime aad powder smoke from fac? and hands, -4(fy. 
Ducks of Mexico. 
Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico, Aug. g — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The duck shooting on this coast is splen- 
did during the months of November, December and Janu- 
ary. 'We get a lot of migratory duck which, I presume, 
come down the coast from California, which is only 2,000 
miles north of us. I have shot teal, widgeon, sprig, 
spoonbills and butterballs, besides our two- varieties of 
native ducks, the pijije and Muscovy. ” 
A large Muscovy drake will weigh -six pounds. The 
first year they are coal black, and after the first year the 
wings are about half white. They are very nice eating. 
The pijije is about the size of a widgeon. I do not think 
that it is the Mexican wood duck, as I have never seen 
them in trees. But the Muscovy simply lives and nests in 
trees. The nests are built in some hollow and they bring 
the young down to the ponds; 
There are some lakes and ponds down on this coast 
wdnch a breechloader has never been fired over. An 
Indian does not shoot ducks, as there is too little result 
for him in such small game, and his little $3 gun does not 
do much damage with small shot. He much prefers to 
load with either ball or buckshot and get a deer or a wild 
hog. 
I have seen ducks in such numbers on one of these 
ponds that I am sure one could have fired five or six hun- 
dred shells in a day’s shoot. 1 he great drawback to this 
shooting is that it is a long way from civilization, and 
the heat is great. There is no ice, and game will not 
keep longer than twelve hours, so one has to limit his 
bag as there are no towns nor inhabitants near enough 
to use the game. I have at times and' in suitable places 
given away as man}'^ as fifty to some Indian hunters and 
they then made a barbecue and just half cooked the birds. 
They tell me that they will then keep for days, but of 
course they are not very good eating after being singed 
and smoked over the fire. 
I have an idea that more American ducks come down 
every year to these magnificent feeding grounds, where 
they pass the whole winter without ever having a shot 
fired at them. I was told by an American plume hunter 
that he had seen canvasback down on these, lagoons, but I 
very much doubt it as I have had greater o.oportunities 
than he for havins' met with this duck. Nor have I ever 
seen a mallard. The varieties, already, mentioned are the 
only ones I have ever seen here on this coast. 
I presume the more shooting done in the 'United States 
Ihe more the birds, will be driven down into these coun- 
tries, where they have complete rest, and possibly there 
will come a time when some of them will stay here and 
breed, though they will have to learn to keep out of the 
. Guatemala. 
[Tapachula is on the Pacific coast of Mexico-, in the ex- 
treme southeastern part, on a meridian about midway be- 
tween Galveston, Tex., and New Orleans, La.] 
The Maine Moose Law. 
Jersey City N. J., Aug. 30 . — Editor Forest and Stream: 
In his article on the “Maine Moose Problem” Tscien- 
netto finds fault with the law of Maine allowing only 
bull moose of a certain age to- be killed, and predicts 
their _ extermination for that reason,, for, as he writes, 
therein the trouble lies. 
Change the law, according to Tsciennetto, so that any 
hunter can take one moose, be it bull, cow, calf or what 
not, and you will equalize the killing so that nature can 
carry ori her wonderful work. 
Put his suggestion in the form of a game law and in a 
few years there w-’ould be precious little left for nature - 
to work on. 
If there is danger of extinction from the killing of bull 
moose only, how will the killing off of cows and calves 
prolong the existence of that noble game? Has the dis- 
creditable killing of does and fawns in different States 
saved our deer? 
I think not, and the wail sent' up to-day that deer are 
becoming scarce all over the country is proof conclusive. 
It is quite certain that anyone hunting moose tries for 
as good a head, as he, can get, a state of affairs wherein 
there is danger, 'according to Tsciennetto. Nevertheless, 
he would allow this same hunter, in case he was not suc- 
cessful m gettmg a. fair head, to kill cowq calf or what 
not, in the moose family, in order to save that noble ani- 
mal from possible extinction. 
If there are so few moose in Maine that there is dan- 
ger from interbreeding, as Tsciennetto claims, why not 
establish a close season for an indefinite period? The 
temale of the nioose, caribou and deer should be pro- 
tected at all times.. Some day a wise Legislature will 
pass a law to protect doe deer. 
Canada has a law this season to protect the cow cari- 
bou. In Canada I have seen antlered cow caribou, the 
Heads of which I would prefer to some of the small two 
or three-prong moose heads that are taken in Maine every 
fall. ' .. 
Stop the killing, of moose in the calling season and 
allow them^ to be hunted only in November, when to kill 
test of ability and endurance, and the moose 
will hold his own for years to come. 
I was told by a noted guide in Canada that caribou 
outnumber the moose in New Brunswick, yet every year 
there are more moose killed, by a great .majority, than 
caribou. The reason is plain, the nioose falls an easy 
prey answering to the call of the twisted birch bark 
'VV'ith the caribou it is quite different. To kill the wily 
caribou in New Brunswick you need something more 
substantial than birch bark to work on. Caribou in that 
country are not as obliging as the moos.e, they lead you a 
merry chase and give you a taste of the' strenuous lifi 
for that reason there will be caribou aplenty' when the 
king of them all, the noble moose, will be- no more unless 
there is a change from, the present conditions. 
. . Otto Keim. 
'OSSINING, Y. in 
■ ^ - recenr issue ot me Daily Citizei 
of this place, the fact was set forth that George Sniffin 
the Upper Dock fish dealer, had on exhibition an eight 
foot Japanese redfin, and that the .specimen was foreigi 
I0 these waters, and that crowds had flocked to (he Uppei 
Dock to view It which, indeed, they. did. For the papei 
faded to state that the fish was made of paper inflater 
' 
