April io, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
571 
enjoying themselves. They took no notice of 
me. My stand was about forty yards off and 
I had my large rifle. I must have waited fully 
an hour, and the sun was going down, when 
there was a great disturbance among the birds. 
At first I was unable to see anything, although 
certain that it must be caused by some animal, 
when all at once there was a movement in the 
corn, and out walked a lion, slowly going to¬ 
ward the bait. 
Half way he stopped and gave me the shot 
I wanted, and uttering a loud growl, he rolled 
over dead. He was a very old mangy lion and 
his teeth all decayed and broken off. He was 
not worth the trouble of skinning, and taking 
his claws, I gave the carcass to the natives who, 
attracted by the sound of the shot, hurried to 
the scene. In a few seconds they were busy, 
getting out what little fat there was on him 
and pulling out his whiskers. He was very thin 
and was doubtless the same lion that had killed 
the woman. So old was he that it was hard 
for him to get his living by killing game and 
therefore he had become a “man-eater.” It is 
generally the fact that a “man-eater” is an old 
lion or lioness past looking after itself and there¬ 
fore obliged to kill humans. 
The villagers were delighted and escorted me 
back to camp, promising all sorts of things, but 
on the following day I took my departure, tak¬ 
ing two natives from this village to act as guides. 
These said that we should be among the ele¬ 
phants in a week’s march, and loading the spare 
porters with corn, I told the chief that if he 
would send boys with me I would kill them meat 
in return. This I did without difficulty, killing 
a zebra and a hartebeeste, with the meat of 
which I paid for the corn. 
Trade goods differ all over Africa. In some 
parts it is one thing which in another part of 
the country has no value, but there are certain 
staple articles, such as blankets, “American!” 
(calico), and copper or brass -wire. Here I 
found the natives were very keen on a largish 
white shell of which I had a good quantity, 
bought in Buluwayo. They bored a hole through 
a polished one of these and wore it round the 
neck or arm. Blankets as trade goods are al¬ 
ways reliable. The mosquitoes were again very 
bad and I suffered torments. The only cure is 
not to scratch, but that is an impossibility, and 
the whole time you have the gloomy satisfaction 
of knowing that they are also filling your blood 
with malaria germs. 
Five days after leaving we came across fresh 
elephant spoor, a small herd traveling. It was 
useless to follow them up, for when roaming 
they travel immense distances, and we continued 
on our course. Two natives met us a few days 
later and reported a large herd in the vicinity. 
We made our camp as sheltered as possible, as 
it was my plan to stay here for several days to 
give the surrounding country a good look over. 
I gave up all idea of further shooting at buck 
for the present, lest I should disturb the ele¬ 
phants, and had therefore to fall back on my 
stores. For two whole days I tramped, and al¬ 
though I saw any amount of elephant spoor, 
none was fresh enough to follow. The next 
day, however, I struck the spoor of a herd that 
had passed during the night, and as they were 
feeding as they went, I followed. I had walked 
for about four hours and was getting pretty 
well done up—for the heat was terrific—when 
I could hear them breaking branches off the 
trees. I had with me only my gun bearer and 
the boy who had brought in the news, and now, 
as we were getting close to them, he in some 
unaccountable way got a fit of fright and would 
go no further. I told him to stay where he 
was and went on with the gun bearer only, and 
a little later I told him to climb a tree and have 
a good look around to see if he could locate 
anything. He did this most carefully and in a 
few minutes made signs to me to go straight 
ahead. The ground was all in favor of the 
stalker, there was ample cover, and the wind 
was right. Climbing a small hill a little to the 
right I beheld a sight that nearly frightened me. 
There were twenty to thirty elephants scat¬ 
tered around, some standing in the shade and 
others lazily feeding. The main herd, among 
which was a fine bull with large tusks, was too 
far off to attempt a shot, but how to get closer 
to him I did not know. About 150 yards from 
me, between the main herd and myself, were 
standing two old cows contentedly flapping their 
ears. I could easily get past them, but as soon 
as I did so they would get my wind and give 
the alarm. Besides that being alone, I did not 
care to get between them. The only thing to 
do was to wait and it seemed quite two hours 
before these two made a move, and in the mean¬ 
while the remainder were out of sight. I cursed 
these two old cows, but hurry they would not 
and I was forced to remain behind. One of 
them had quite a useful pair of tusks, and as 
the sun was now on the downward turn and 
time was short, I felt half inclined to shoot the 
one with the large tusks, when from behind a 
small rise came a bull. He was not a large 
one, but his ivory was quite good and so I fired 
a double shot with my .450, but they seemed to 
have no effect whatever, and away crashed the 
three, the cows trumpeting and making an awful 
noise. I followed up as quickly as I could, but 
with caution, and found the bull dead ,300 yards 
further on. Both shots had hit him in a vital 
spot. To follow up the remainder was impos¬ 
sible, as it was a toss up if we got back to 
camp now before dark. 
Early in the morning, leading back boys to 
bring in the ivory, I started in the opposite direc¬ 
tion. The country was hilly and well watered 
and there was a lot of spoor, but I was puzzled 
to know what was best to do or what direction 
to follow, so taking a hill as a point I made 
for it. .Several times I felt half inclined to 
follow up some spoor, but decided to keep on. 
I reached the hill and it was then time to be 
returning if I wished to get to camp that night. 
However, I decided to sleep out. We had 
luckily brought some food with us and after 
eating and a rest, we pushed on. We followed 
down a small river and the sign showed that 
this had been much used by elephants for water¬ 
ing. There were some large pools and in one 
of them there was a hippo. Where he came 
from I have no idea; he was certainly a long 
distance from any large river, yet often they 
travel long distances from water to water. We 
saluted and passed on, but he appeared quite un¬ 
conscious of our presence. 
It was now getting near sunset and I told 
the boy that we would make camp, when look¬ 
ing at the opposite side of the river I saw three 
elephants. The ground was comparatively open 
for some hundreds of yards, but it was too dark 
to shoot. We dared not light a fire, as this 
would scare our game, and so were obliged to 
sit up. All night long we could hear them 
splashing and crashing about. 
It is a curious sensation and none too agree¬ 
able to sit up in the dark all night long with¬ 
out a fire and hear the different noises caused 
by prowling beasts. Everything seems to be 
close and one imagines all sorts of things. At 
all events I did. Toward dawn it became quiet 
and nothing disturbed the silence but an occas¬ 
ional hyena. As soon as it was light enough 
we started down to the river. The whole place 
was tracked up and it was difficult to tell in 
what direction the elephants had gone. I struck 
out away from the river, keeping to our side, 
and when two miles from it, turned, trying to 
keep parallel to it, intending to follow the first 
fresh spoor I came upon. The traveling was 
good and we went far, but found no fresh spoor. 
To go on was impossible, as I had to return to 
camp that night for more food. We made our 
way back and reached camp to find all well and 
the two tusks which the boys had brought in. 
They weighed only forty-eight and fifty-three 
pounds, but they were a nice pair and the ivory 
good. 
For three more days I worked hard, and al¬ 
though coming across elephants once, it was only 
a very small herd with no bull. I left them in 
peace. Then I moved north, changing camp at 
the same time. 
The Magic Word. 
Time for the spring poet, who may now be 
found in type almost anywhere. The following 
unversified lines signed Joe Cone in the New 
York Sun, are, we think, worth reading: 
“In the hives the bees are stirring, in the 
sun the cats are purring, in the yard the hens 
are scratching for the luscious early worm; in 
the school the boys are wishing they were up 
the brook a-fishing, hating books and slates 
and study the remainder of the term. In the 
streams the stock is wading, for the ice and 
snow are fading, and the grass is shooting up¬ 
ward where the sun shines warm and bright; 
and the noisy marshland chorus starts to play 
again and bore us with its shrill and piping 
music through the long and dreary night. 
“In the trees the birds are hieing, safe re¬ 
treats for homes espying, pigeons ’neath the 
eaves are cooing to their meek and trusting 
mates; in the house the lads and lasses take the 
sulphur mother passes, and the gloom of yearly 
cleaning haunts the high and low estates. In 
the papers ads are telling of their bitters all 
excelling, and the grocer with his seed box 
wears a broad and welcome smile, while that 
strange uneasy feeling comes upon a fellow 
stealing, while he wishes he could journey to 
some far and restful isle. 
“Why this note of joy and gladness, why this 
undertone of sadness, why this weary, tired 
feeling that is everywhere in sight? Why this 
lag and why this hustle, why this sag and why 
this bustle, why this regular upheaval that has 
smote us with its might? Oh, the answer is a 
tame one, it is every year the same one, it is 
a little word, sir, but it makes the poets sing; 
it has ‘s-p-r-’ you see, sir, and with ‘i’ and 
‘n’ and ‘g,’ sir, makes the world sit up and 
listen, for it’s greenie, grassie Spring!” 
