May .8, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
729 
Two daj's afterward I had a shot at a rhino, 
but missed him; how I do not know. I was out 
looking for buck and had only my .303 with me 
when I saw him. How I cursed at not having 
my big rifle, but that did not help matters. In¬ 
stead of charging, as I fully expected, he made 
off as fast as he could. On returning to camp 
I came across an enormous bunch of baboons, 
some of them tremendous brutes, but they, were 
very shy and made off as fast as they could. 
One very old one I could not resist a shot at, 
although a very long way off, and bowled him 
over. On stepping it off to find out the distance, 
I made it over 400 yards. He was a patriarch 
if ever there was one, and it took two boys to 
lift him off the ground. They were very anxious 
to have the skin, so I turned it over to them. 
At the same time I was annoyed with myself 
at having shot the animal. I could not break 
camp, as one of the porters was taken very ill 
and he died the next morning. 
On the whole of this trip we had not seen or 
heard any lions, and this was more than extra¬ 
ordinary, as all along the Zambesi they are very 
abundant, and from what we could glean from 
the villagers, there were plenty about. Mere I 
had a rather funny experience with a harte- 
beeste, and it is certainly the only time I have 
ever known one to charge. I believe that either 
he did not see me or did not see me until too 
late to get out of my way. There were two, and 
I was stalking them, taking cover in a small 
washout. On shooting number one the other 
'dashed down the gulley straight at me, and al¬ 
though I stood up and waved my arms, think¬ 
ing to turn him. he came straight on like a steam 
engine. I had only time to take a snapshot and 
throw myself behind a small bush, when he 
dashed by. He did not turn back again, but 
made off. rather to my relief, as I did not want 
to kill more meat than we could use. He made 
me feel rather shaky for a few mini:tes. 
Villages were now few and far between and 
grain very hard to obtain, so I had to fall back 
upon “good old meat straight’’ for my carriers, 
getting grain whenever I could. 
We were now well in the elephant country 
and I hoped at any moment to find a herd or 
fresh sign. Sign there was, and plenty of it, 
but very ancient. Three days later we ran right 
into a large herd and it was by a piece of won¬ 
derful good luck that my Matabele boy, who 
generally carried my big rifle, was not killed. 
There were several fine bulls, but one very much 
better than all the rest and the ivory he carried 
made me perhaps a little reckless and too anx¬ 
ious to get him. So eager was I that I got 
up to within about fifteen yards before I fired 
at his brain, which I missed. The only effect 
the shot had was to enrage him and he made 
directly for where we were. Sam never handed 
me. my second rifle, but raced away as hard as 
he could with the bull close behind him. I fired 
my second shot with better results, as it was 
a raking one and evidently s.taggered him. At 
all events it gave the boy time to shin up a 
tree, which he did in record time, and got out 
of danger. If he had remained with me in¬ 
stead of running away I do not think the bull 
would have found us, and he very nearly got 
me into trouble. The diversion, however, gave 
me tim“ to reload, and taking another shot, the 
bull sank to his knees, but got up again and 
walked slowly away, but only for a short dis¬ 
tance, when he rolled over, dead. His ivory 
was fine, the tusks, allhough long, were fairly 
thick, and in extremely good condition. Ele¬ 
phant ivory varies very much of course. Cow 
STEINBUCK. 
ivory is worth more in the market than hull, 
being of finer grain and in all respects superior, 
but sometimes even the best experts may be 
puzzled to determine the difference between cow 
ivory and that of a young bull. 
In British East Africa it is a most heinous 
offense to kill a cow elephant. You may make 
any excuses, but you will not be forgiven. Here 
is a true story which shows how the most ex¬ 
pert people may be misled or make a mistake 
which may very seriously embarrass or incul¬ 
pate innocent parties. It is rather a good one 
on the Government official. 
Two Englishmen had been out for some 
months with varying success, when they came 
across a herd of elephant. G. killed his bull, 
but E. did not or could not get a shot at a 
large bull, and therefore determined to shoot 
a small one, as the time had nearly come when 
they must return to India. He wished to be 
able to say that after all he had shot an ele¬ 
phant. He shot a small bull and as the ivory 
was very small and much resembled that of a 
cow, he took the precaution to cut from the 
carcass some further evidence that proved the 
animal a male. This he carefully pickled and 
took back with him to Nairobi. On leaving the 
country it is necessary to show your ivory, to 
have it passed, and to obtain the permit with¬ 
out which it cannot be exported. 
The ivory was shown to an official in high 
standing who immediately pronounced it cow 
ivory. E. vehemently expostulated and kept on 
reiterating that it was a bull. The Indian ex¬ 
pert or ivory buyer was called in and he pro¬ 
nounced it cow ivory and offered to buy it as 
such. E.’s father is a very prominent peer and 
public man, and after E. had stubbornly stuck 
to his story about it being a bull, he at last pro¬ 
duced his little parcel of pickled evidence and 
said, “Well, you all say it was a cow, but this 
belonged to the carcass of the elephant whose 
ivory you now have before you.’’ He further 
said that he was prepared to make an affidavit 
to that effect. On this he was given the benefit 
of the doubt, but had he been any ordinary in¬ 
dividual he would probably have been fined. 
I followed the herd for two solid days, but 
never again got near them, and there were some 
more good bulls among them. When elephant 
get scared, however, and start to travel, they 
go, and the amount of ground they cover is 
extraordinary. 
A few days later I came to a village and did 
some good trading for ivory and the chief also 
told me that if I returned after some months 
he would have plenty of rubber ready for me. 
When I asked him what he meant by plenty, he 
pointed to three huts and said, “You shall have 
those full.’’ It was my intention to return, but 
up to the present time have never done so. 
There are doubtless still places in Central 
Africa where money may be made in trading 
ivory and other things, but at the present time 
these places are few. In British East Africa 
ivory is now a Government monopoly and you 
may not trade an ounce of it. 
From here I turned back through Barotse- 
land, where I was successful in securing many 
really fine karosses (skin rugs) and enjoying 
the very best of sport. It was on my return 
homeward that I shot the best koodoo I ever 
had the luck to see and it was on this journey 
also that I had the closest call I ever wish to 
have with a lion, which, although knocking me 
down by his charge and weight, never even 
grazed my skin, but killed one of the negroes 
walking just behind me before he gave up. Such 
was my luck. 
