660 
FOREST AND STREAM 
NOV. 22, I 9 I 3 . 
Sir Thomas Dewar’s Expedition Into East Africa 
By E. G. B. FITZHAMON, Foreign Staff Correspondent. 
(From Our Staff Correspondent). 
Duluth, Nov. 10. — The wicked whine of 
high-powered big-game guns was heard in the 
north woods to-day, the first of the big game 
season in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Hunters 
teemed in the great outdoors, over 400 leaving 
Duluth during the night, while the range cities 
poured hundreds more into the game belt. 
Small towns of the north to-day are without 
mayors, city councils failed to meet; a quarter 
of the usual quota of physicians is left behind, 
while professional men, bankers, farmers and the 
work-a-day men vied with each other in getting 
first to the runways of the antlered tribes. A 
near-zero temperature met the nimrods as they 
stepped, laden with camp outfits and guns, from 
their trains or boats. 
Reports indicate that deer and moose in plen¬ 
tiful droves await the annual slaughter. Hunt¬ 
ers and lumbermen say that certain parts of 
Minnesota, especially up Lake Superior’s north 
shore, are cut into cross-sections by game run¬ 
ways and that with an inch of snow on the forest 
floor to aid the hunters, the indications are that 
the bag will be as large as it was last year—a 
record year for deer, moose and bear. 
Bear have been coming into Duluth with 
regular precision for the last two weeks. Three 
hunters recently brought in over 200 snow rab¬ 
bits. Wild ducks have been killed in abundance, 
with an occasional wild turkey and several wild 
geese to diversify the bag. 
It is estimated that Duluth, Superior and 
the ranges sent forth over 1,500 hunters, while 
other states as far east as Massachusetts and 
as far west as Missouri are represented on the 
license books, which were opened three days ago. 
Crookston, Minn., Nov. 10.—The big game 
season opened to-day with more men afield than 
ever known before in northern Minnesota. While 
some of the veterans are awaiting a fall of snow, 
the open weather has been an inducement for the 
“tenderfoot” to try his luck. The trains Satur¬ 
day and Sunday carried big delegations from the 
cities to points along the Warroad and Duluth 
lines. Because of the large number of green 
hunters the old-timers are predicting more acci¬ 
dents than ever before. 
Grand Rapids, Minn., Nov. 10.—Nearly 400 
hunting licenses have been issued at the county 
auditor’s office. This is the largest number is¬ 
sued previous to the actual opening of the season 
in the history of this country. 
California Fish For Hawaiian Waters. 
BY GOLDEN GATE. 
The black bass introduced into Hawaii sev¬ 
eral years ago from California have thrived 
wonderfully, and efforts are now being made to 
transplant other varieties of fish that promise 
to do well. Quite recently a shipment of rain¬ 
bow and steelhead trout was made to the islands, 
and striped bass will also be sent at a later date. 
Temperature records have been taken of the 
water of several island streams, and it is be¬ 
lieved that trout will thrive in these. 
It Pays to Advertise. 
A pointer dog belonging to a man in 
Nashville was. lost, and the owner suspected 
that it had been stolen, so he put this notice 
in the paper, and insisted that it be printed as 
he had written it: 
“Lost or Run Away.—One liver cullered 
burd dog named Jim. Will show signs of 
hiderfobby in three days.” 
The dog came home the following day. 
W HY should a wealthy bachelor, still in 
his forties, with the best of health and 
every opportunity and means to get the 
most out of life—-why should he deliberately 
bury himself for half a year in the jungles of 
the Dark Continent and plan to pass the ap¬ 
proaching Yuletide without a friend to give him 
a “Merry Christmas, Sir Thomas”? Such 
thoughts ran through my mind as I sauntered 
down the sunny side of the Haymarket toward 
Dewar House. 
“Sport and empire-building,” was the answer 
I received. 
“I am going primarily to hunt big game,” 
was Sir Thomas Dewar’s explanation; also be¬ 
cause I have interests in coffee, rubber and cocoa 
along the west shore of the great lake Victoria 
Nyanza, six hundred miles inland from the east 
coast of Africa. It is a wonderful country, and 
destined to become highly productive, I believe. 
Also such an extended expedition as I have 
planned affords a complete rest and change from 
the hurly-burly of life in a great metropolis.” 
Sir Thomas Dewar should reach Mombassa, 
on the east coast, by Sunday, Nov. 23. By the 
Ugandi railway he will reach Nairobi a few 
days later. There he will take hold of his safari, 
or hunting retinue, and push into the bush. He 
has taken a great cinematograph equipment and 
two operators. “The pictures will include big 
game hunting,” he said, “but I also want a fine 
set doing full justice to the wonderful beauties 
of British East Africa, Uganda and the White 
Nile.” 
One may presume that the cinema operators’ 
supreme moment will come—let us presume that 
a fine fat zebra has been killed for bait—when 
the great prize, Simba, hurls itself with fearsome 
roar from crashing bush. 
“Simba!” cry the native bearers, skinners 
and beaters, unsteadied for a moment by excite¬ 
ment tinged with anxiety. It is their name for 
the great African lion. 
Sir Thomas will—or hopes to—attend to the 
mighty Simba with a .470 cordite rifle. It will 
come in handy also for the spotted cheetah, an¬ 
other savage beast of the East African bush. 
Smaller rifles will serve should his quarry be 
gazelle, eland, baboon, impala, hartebeeste, or 
warte-hog. It is usual for two gun-bearers to 
attend the hunter at all times. 
When a buffalo is shot in the bush there must 
be no bungling markmanship, for Sir Thomas 
says it is a terror to face when enraged by a 
wound. It not only charges, but it will hunt a 
man hither and thither like a greyhound wrench¬ 
ing a hare. 
One can imagine what a gorgeously exciting 
film such a desperate incident would make—pro¬ 
vided, of course, that the hunted hunter and the 
infuriated buffalo would “keep in the picture,” 
as the cinema operators say. 
Then, too, one can imagine the wounded buf¬ 
falo charging upon and pursuing the unhappy 
operator instead of the hunter! It will not be a 
soft job—this taking of movies of ferocious deni¬ 
zens of the jungle. 
It is Sir Thomas Dewar's opinion that Brit¬ 
ish East Africa will become the country to go 
to and will progress rapidly when it receives 
stronger support from the Colonial Office of the 
British Government. 
His hunting, he told me, will be done in the 
very early morning—about sunrise there always 
is the chance of encountering some large car- 
niverous beast returning from its kill, gorged— 
and during an hour or so before sunset. From 
10 a. m. until 3 :oo p. m. resting in the shade is 
wisest. 
In that climate it is best, so far as is possi¬ 
ble, to eat only at night. Such is the custom of 
the natives. 
Eight or ten camp-fires are kept alight all 
night, for one dare not be five minutes in the 
dark without fires, which are the only protec¬ 
tion against beasts of prey. 
The camp is circular, with a boma (small 
stable constructed of interwoven grass and 
boughs) at its center. Therein are put the 
shooting mules or horses, but always with a 
large fire blazing all night at the open door¬ 
way ; for Simba loves horseflesh and has been 
known to spring into the middle of a camp at 
night in order to gratify the lust for it. 
The natives take good care to slumber very 
close to the fires—so close that sometimes they 
scorch their knees or feet. 
Forest Service Studies Cypress. 
W. R. Mattoon, forest examiner, has just 
left Washington to study cypress in the South. 
Cypress grows along the Atlantic Coast and 
Gulf of Mexico from Maryland to Texas, and 
in the Mississippi River valley it extends as far 
north as Cairo, Illinois, at the junction of the 
Mississippi and Ohio rivers. It is distinctly a 
tree of the swamps, and more than 90 per cent, 
of it is found at an elevation of less than 100 
feet above sea level. 
Extensive cypress forests occur in the 
delta of the Mississippi, covering several thou¬ 
sand square miles, and also in some of the large 
swamps of Georgia and Florida, such as the 
Okefenokee and the great cypress swamps fring¬ 
ing the Everglades. In some places it occurs 
where the soil is covered with water for weeks 
or months at a time, and in a few places the 
base of trunk is submerged throughout the 
year. Usually the lower part of the trunk is 
heavily buttressed and numerous projections, 
or “knees,” are sent up from the roots, prob¬ 
ably as an aid in securing air. 
Cypress wood has great durability, which 
adapts it to many purposes for which some 
other species are unsuited. Census statistics 
show that in 1911 over 981,000,000 feet of it were 
used for lumber, lath and shingles, and that in 
point of annual consumption it stands seventh 
among the various softwoods, or coniferous trees. 
It is one of the few conifers which shed their 
leaves each winter. It is used for a great va¬ 
riety of purposes, such as tanks, cisterns, 
columns, exterior and interior finish, railroad 
ties, poles, and wharf piling. It is especially 
valuable for green house construction. 
While cypress wood has so many good qual¬ 
ities, the tree itself presents many problems 
to the forester. Its rate of growth, they say, is 
extremely low, so that the cost of producing 
large-sized timber is great as compared with 
that of producing wood from other more rapid¬ 
growing trees. Furthermore, it does not readily 
reproduce itself, and there is some doubt as to 
whether mature stands will replace themselves 
after being cui 
