May I, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
691 
was very amusing. He kept on saying, “Fox 
hunting,'yes, fox hunting is fine sport, but not 
to be compared to lion shooting.” The feat 
was, indeed, one to be proud of. I had the boys 
cut a lot of pegs and we set to work to stretch 
out the skins. This must be done properly and 
it takes a lot of trouble and care to make the 
two sides correspond as. of course, they should 
do. We did not move camp for two days, as 
the following day it rained and we could not 
dry the skins and it would have broken A.’s 
heart had anything happened to spoil them. I 
easily assented to his proposal to remain an¬ 
other day, and in spite of the rain I started 
next morning in the opposite direction to what 
A. had taken the day before and left him in 
camp to attend to his skins. I had not traveled 
far before I saw three waterbuck. I let them 
alone and pushed on. I had not gone very far 
before it commenced to pour again, and I was 
debating in my own mind whether to return 
or not, when I saw three eland, but they had 
already seen me and were off. Their spoor in 
the wet ground was easily followed and enter¬ 
ing a small belt of timber I had a snapshot at 
one which unfortunately I killed, as it turned 
out to be a cow, but she had very long horns, 
and although sorry to have shot a cow, this 
turned out to be the largest head I ever got. 
Here was, indeed, meat in plenty and we hur¬ 
ried to camp so that the boys could get in the 
meat before dark. It poured with rain the 
greater part of the night, but they seemed to 
keep up their spirits by gorging and singing. 
In the morning it had stopped raining and the 
sun coming out, everything w'as soon dry and 
we again made a start. 
That day we made camp early and after din¬ 
ner A. and I started out together for a short 
look round. We had not gone far before we 
saw an old sow warthog with a litter of little 
pigs. These w'e did not shoot at, but I had half 
a mind to shoot a little one just to try wild 
sucking pig. The old mother soon became 
aware of our presence and aw'ay they all went, 
and it was surprising to see how quickly the 
little ones got over the ground. 
We marched on with varying success for an¬ 
other two weeks, nothing very exciting occur¬ 
ring, with one exception, when I missed a lion. 
It was a running shot and easily excusable, as 
the light was very bad and he was a good hun¬ 
dred yards away. I had been out with my boy, 
going in one direction, while A. went in the 
other, and as meat was wanted I had to try 
and shoot something, and eventually shot a doe 
reedbuck which was the only thing we saw. I 
was walking ahead and the boy coming behind 
carrying the buck on his back, when on coming 
to a small dip we suddenly ran right on to this 
lion, which evidently was also traveling, and 
seeing us as soon, as we did him, made off at 
a great rate. Missing him was really a bad 
shot and I knew it. 
On reaching camp I found A. had already re¬ 
turned. He had struck a village and some of 
the natives had followed him into camp as usual 
to beg for meat. They were full of informa¬ 
tion and said we were likely to strike elephant 
at any time now, as at this time of the year 
herds were on the march and might be run 
j across anywhere, and that three days’ march 
would bring us to a country where we were 
almost certain to find them. We traded grain 
from these natives and I made arrangements 
with the chief to leave several loads of trophies 
with him to look after, while A. and I went on 
toward the promised land. 
For five days we journeyed, but with the ex¬ 
ception of coming across some fresh buffalo 
spoor, which we carefully left alone for fear 
of disturbing elephant, we saw nothing. The 
ground was much broken and marshy in the 
bottoms and traveling was necessarily slow, and 
the mosquitoes very bad. On the sixth day 
TROPHIES SECURED BY MR. LETHBRIDGE’S SHOOTING 
COMPANION. 
just after starting, we came across the trail of 
a small herd of elephants that had not long pre¬ 
ceded us. Leaving the boys to make camp we 
hurried on after the herd with our own boys. 
A short distance on and the herd had separated 
and A. took after one lot and I after the other. 
I had not gone far before I heard two shots in 
rapid succession and then two more, and knew 
that A. had got up to his lot and so, of course, 
scared mine, and so determined to retrace my 
steps and follow up A. to see what had hap¬ 
pened. I found he had secured a good bull with 
a nice average pair of tusks. This was his first 
essay at an elephant and he had killed him with¬ 
out any trouble with his first two shots and 
had fired another two at a larger bull, which 
at first had been hidden from view by some 
trees. By the spoor I made out there were only 
seven in the bunch and the second one was hit 
as he had gone off by himself. We sent back 
to camp for boys and food and started out 
after the second bull. It is scarcely credible 
that an elephant should travel as he does, but 
up and down, over hard and soft ground, it 
seems to make no difference. We walked miles 
and then gave it up, as we did not want to 
sleep out, and when we got back to camp, of¬ 
fered a reward to anyone who could find the 
bull. Three boys started out and next day we 
met them returning with the tusks. They had 
found him about four miles from where we 
had left off the day before. I told A. that he 
would hunt a long time before he had such luck 
again, and although he has hunted elephants 
many times since, he never had the luck to bag 
two bulls practically in one day. 
The following day we started on our return 
journey, and making long marches, in four days 
reached the village where we had left our stuff. 
The old chief had taken great care of every¬ 
thing and we rewarded him correspondingly and 
also for his information. He appeared much 
pleased at our success and I assured him that 
I should return at no very late date. He also 
told me that there were, from what I could 
understand, some white rhino in this vicinity, 
or what are termed white rhino. I have never 
been fortunate enough to see one, but two were 
shot not very far from there which I was 
told were sold to a museum for £500 apiece. 
The man who killed them was a professional 
hunter and had the luck to find the two to¬ 
gether and wounded both. Turning to his boy 
he gave him orders to follow that one, desig¬ 
nating the spoor, and not leave it, and the 
other he himself followed. The boy was suc¬ 
cessful and so was also his master, who earned 
for himself that one day the very respectable 
little sum of £1,000. It is a fact, I think, that 
these rhino are different from those found fur¬ 
ther north and are lighter in color. In British 
East Africa the rhino are found in the open 
plains, while in this country they stick very 
much to the thick bush which makes it very 
much harder to secure one. 
A. was very keen to have a try for one, also 
for a buffalo, but could not possibly spare the 
time. We traveled together until he was with¬ 
in easy distance of Livingstone and then I bade 
him farewell, as my time was my own and I 
wanted to remain out longer. He was a good 
companion and I never wish to meet a better 
man to travel with. Although new to the game, 
in manner he was a veteran and could give 
many an old timer pointers. He had had a 
very successful trip, two elephants, two lions, 
a buck of almost every kind he wanted and 
among them the largest hartebeeste I ever saw. 
I now went north again to try for buffalo 
which I was told were fairly plentiful. Buffalo 
are without doubt the most dangerous of Afri¬ 
can game and one of the finest trophies. It 
is very hard to beat a good buffalo head when 
properly mounted, and he is no mean foe; in 
fact, he fights you with his head in two ways. 
He puts his wits against yours and you must 
use yours to good advantage when going after 
him if you wish to keep out of trouble. If 
wounded he will wait for you and charge when 
least expected. A buffalo is not a hard animal 
to kill once you get a fair shot, but he is gen¬ 
erally to be found only in swamps and thick 
bush which makes a fair shot difficult. 
