Adventures on the great hunting grounds of the world

Chapter I. Paob

The Gorilla : — 1. Stories of Travellers. — 2. Stories of the negroes. — 3. On the Hunting Ground — More Hunting Stories. — 4. Baby Gorillas— Capture of Young Male— His escape — Young Female taken — Man severely bitten . . . . . . .1-35

Chapter II

Bears : — 1. Grizzly Bears — William Cannon pursued — Kept in a Tree all Night by a Grizzly — John Day's attack — Fight in a Pit with a Grizzly. — 2. The Brown Bear— Mode of Hunting by Russian Peasants — Horses frightened by Bear-skins. — 3. The Wliite Bear — Sailor seized and killed — The Bear attacked — Another sailor seized antl torn to pieces — The Bear killed — Another Story . 36-61

Chapter III

The Tiger : — The Plaintive Sigh. — 2. A Tigress seizes a Hunter from an Elephant's Back ; can-ies him into the Jungle — The Tigress shot by the Hunter whilst almost Dead in her Jaws — Another Hunt of a Tigress with Elephants — A Tiger in the Fair at Hurdwar. — 4. Another Hunt — An Indian torn to pieces— Tiger cubs — Another Tiger shot 52-66

Chapter IV

The Lion : — 1. The Lion of South Africa. — 2, Lions round the Camp Fires — A Heifer carried 6fiF. — 3. Bands of Lions hunting together — Three Lions leaped on a Buffalo — Buffalo carried off by a Lion — The young Lion's respect for an older one — The Lion and the Zebra. — 4. Dr. Livingstone attacked by a Lion. — 5. A Lion keeping Guard over a Man for Two Nights and Three Days — A Hottentot's manoeuvre — A Widow killed — Two Kaminouquois frightfully mangled. — 6. A family of Lions attacked . . 67-99

Yi CONTENTS.

Chapter V

The Mupflom :— Its habits— Various modes of Hunting . . 100-104 CHAPTEE VI.

The Musk Ox: — Description of mode of Hunting— Ross attacked by a Musk Ox — Gluttony of the Esquimaux . . . 105-108

Chapter VII

Thb Giraffe: — Le Vaillant's first Giraffe — A Hunt — Fight with Dogs— Eaten by Natives — Skinning — Preparation of Skin for preserving — A Lion's fatal leap and Giraffe's escape . . . 109-117

CHAPTER VIIL

Tapirs :— Easily tamed— Familiarity of — Mode of Hunting — A Swim for Life— Fight with Dogs— Anecdotes .... 118-126

Chapter IX

The Hippopotamus: — 1. An unsuccessful Hunt. — 2. A N;ili\e Cut in Two. — 3. Mode of living. — 4. A Calf captured. — 5. A Fight between two Hippopotami.— 6. Mr. Mofftit in danger— A Boat upset — A Man dragged from a Boat. — 7. Hunt with Hook and Float — Du Chaillu shooting Hippopotami — Le Vaillant's attack on a troop 126-142

Chapter X

The Rhinoceros : — A Traitor and Aggressor — Mr. Oswell on horseback Tossed in the Air — Various modes of Hunting — Le Vaillant's attack on a Male and Female — The Female killed . , . 143-152

CHAPTER XL

The Elephant : — 1. The White Elephant an object of veneration — Hunting in India. — 2, Fifteen individuals killed by a solitary — Conrier crushed — Two Woodmen killed. — 3. A Herd of about Seventy surrounding Camp Fires. — 4. Method of taking in India. — 5. Used as domestics by the Siamese — Intelligence of Elephant firing Howitzers at Lucknow. — 6. Killing Elephants — Anecdote 153-170

CONTENTS. VU

Chapter XII

Elephants {continued):— 7. Hunting in Nubia.— 8. Captain Speke in the Oungoro. — 9. Le Vaillant and Du Chaillu fallen into Pits- Mode of killing in the Zambesi.— 10. Livingstone's description of mode of attack.— 11. Claas Volk killed— Cobus Klopper killed — Krieger thrown into the Air and trampled to DeatL — 12. Cooper Rose— Journey and Hunt with a veteran Hunter . , , 171-190

Chapter XIII

Elephants {continued) :— The Dukg of Edinburgh's Hunt at the Kuysna 191-204

Chapter XIV

The Ostrich: — 1. Description of. — 2. Fables and absurdities respecting— S.Want of Sense of Taste — Copper Candlestick swallowed. 4. Habits. — 5. Anecdotes— Extraordinary Speed. — 6. Strength of. — 7. Reputed want of Intelligence — Attack on a Horseman by a Male — Excessive timidity— Sociability .... 205-223

Chapter XV

Thk Ostrich (continued) :— 8. The period of laying— Violent character of the Male during Incubation. — 9. The two Sexes Build the Nest — Capturing a Female. — 10. Ostrich Hunts — Various methods— Anecdotes 224-236

Chapter XVI

Crocodiles and Caymans : — 1. The Scene and the Actors. — 2. Their dwellings. — 3. Habits — Dr. Livingstone attacked— Picking the Crocodile's Teeth by a Plover— A Fight with Caricaris —Fight with a Jaguar 237-256

Chapter XVII

Crocodiles {continued) :— i. The question as to their Ferocity — Anecdotes — Fights and Adventures.— 5. On taming Crocodiles. — 6. Differences of Opinions reconciled— Anecdotes. — 7. Anecdotes —Methods of Taking, &c 257-297

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS.

1. "The Animal gave him a tremendous Blow** ,

2. Hunters followed by a Bear

?,. "The Fin walks straight up to the Encounter** .

4. **He hit the Be.\r a little above the Eye" .

5. *'R despatched her with a Ball behind the Ear"

6. **He could not fire, for the Man and the Tiger were

so entangled"

8. ** They heard him breaking the Bones of the Animal

9. "He stretched out his Hand to seize his Gun" .

10. "An old Male keeps sentry"

11. "He owed his Safety to a large Fragment of Rock"

13. "If he can reach Deep Water, he plunges in"

14. "On the RivEa Bank the Mother showed herself**

15. "The Hunter was tossed in the Air" .

16. "He tore away the upper part of his Body"

17. "The old Male stumbled, and fell on uis Knees*'

18. Herd of Elephants

19 "The Duke discharged both Barrels in quick succession"

20. "The Ostrich then turned its blows against Si-Moham-

med "

21. Crocodiles on the Mud-banks of the Guayaquil

36 43 48 57

219 238

22. Fight bstwebn thb Cayman and the Jaguab • « 245

CHAPTER !•

L — Stories op Travellers.

For three centuries the rumour has been current that there existed on the western coast of Africa, north and south of the equator, an ape of immense strength and gigantic size,— of all animals the largest and most formidable — ^the king of the African forests.

Let us see what travellers say concerning this animal.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century Andrew Battel, who had been for a long time a prisoner of the Portuguese in Angola, described, under the name of Pongo, an ape resembling a man in all his proportions, but as large as a giant, and so strong that ten men were not sufficient to subdue one of them.

** He has a human face," said Battel, " with sunken eyes, long hair on the sides of his head, his face naked, as well as his ears and his hands; his body rather shaggy; his hair of dark brown. He differs from

B man in outward appearance chiefly in having little or no calves to his legs. Nevertheless, he walks upright, holding his hands clasped behind his neck He sleeps in trees, and constructs for himself a shelter against the sun and rain ; he lives on fruits ; he cannot talk, although he has a better understanding than other animals. When travellers abandon, in the morning, the fire which they have kept during the night, the pongoes come and sit around it until it becomes extinct, but they have not sufficient intelligence to gather wood to keep it aiif e. They go in companies , they kill the negroes they encounter ; they will even attack an elephant, and put him to flight by blows with their fists or with sticks."

Bosman, another traveller in Guinea, has spoken of the same ape. " They grow extremely large," he wrote ; "I have seen one with my own eyes which was five feet high ; they have a very ugly figure, are very wicked, very bold, and sufficiently daring to attack men. Some negroes assure us that these apes can talk, and that if they don*t do so, it is because they don't wish to give themselves the trouble. It would perhaps be better to say that they are capable of understanding all one would wish to teach them."

M. de la Brosse, in a journey on the coast of Angola, published in 1738, says that they attain the

STORIES OF TRAVELLERS. 3

height of six and seven feet, that their strength is without equal, that they live in huts, and use clubs to defend themselves. He thus describes them : —

**Face dull, nose snubbed and flat, ears without cushions, skin a little lighter than that of a mulatto, hair long and thin on many parts of the body, stomach extremely tight, the heels flat, and elevated about half an inch at the back, They walk on two feet, and on all-fours when they have the fancy to do so.'* M. de la Brosse adds that they endeavour to carry oflf the negresses, keep them with them, and tr^t them very welL "I have known at Lowango a negress who had been three years with these animals."

Finally, Mr, Bowditch, in his " Narrative of a Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee" (London, 1819), writes :—

** The favourite and most curious subject of our conversation on natural history was the Tngena, an animal like the orang-outang, but of a much greater size, being five feet in height and four feet across the shoulders. Its paw was said to be still more disproportionate, and one blow of it would cause death. Travellers who go to Kaybe frequently encounter him. He lies in ambush to kill passers-by, and he principally feeds on wild honey, ^mong other traits which characterize this animal, and on which all persons agree, it is reported that he builds for himself a hut, in rude

B 2

4 THE 60BILLA.

imitation of that of the natives, and that he sleeps outside on the roof of this dwelling.

It is needless to say that Africa does not contain an ape which hears resemblance to man in all his proportions, and which differs from him exteriorly only in the small protuberance of his calves, and who does not talk simply because he does not wish to give himself the trouble. '*I regret," says an author, from whom presently we shall frequently borrow, — " I regret to be obliged to destroy agreeable illusions ; but the gorilla does not lie in ambush behind trees to seize with his claws the defenceless traveller. He does not strangle him between his feet as in a vice ; he does not carry away women from their villages ; he does not build for himself a hut of branches in the forests ; he does not march in troops, and in all that has been said of his attacks en masses there is not the shadow of truth."

The reports of travellers were then imbued with exaggerations and errors ; but beyond what was erroneous and improbable, these accounts agree in attesting the existence of an ape distinct from the chimpanzee, larger, stronger, and more dangerous than this latter, and of that there was no reason to doubt.

Attention was then aroused to the subject. It was in 1846 that all doubts ceased.

It happened that at that period an American missionary, the Rev. Dr. J. Leighton Wilson, discovered at

STOBIES OF TRAVELLEES. 6

the Gaboon the skull of a new and extraordinary kind of ape. A narrow cranial cavity, almost wholly behind the orbits of the eyes, and where the cerebral convolutions had left but feeble impression ; jaw-bones of prodigious power, projecting in front, and armed with formidable and deeply rooted tusks ; at the extremities of the eyebrows, on the line of the parietal bones, and at the junction of these with the occipital, were enormous bony ridges ; finally, very large and arched cheek-bones : in a word, all the characters of bestiality carried to excess and united to those of strength without equal among apes : such was this sktdl, which could only have belonged to the Ingena of Bowditch, to the Pongo of Battel. A learned American naturalist, Professor Jeffries Wyman, gave a description of it in 1847 in the '* Journal of Natural History of Boston." The discovery of Mr. Wilson did not long remain isolated, and the anatomy of the new quadrumane, to which Wilson had given the name of Gorilla, became the object of the labours of Kichard Owen in England, of Isidore Geoffrey Saint Hilaire and of Duvernoy in France. The interest still increased when the first white man who had seen a living gorilla face to face had marie known his marvellous stories of the chase.

This white man is an American of French origin, M. Paul du Chaillu.

He embarked, in the month of October, 1855, for the western coast of Africa. His intention was to devote some years to the exploration of the region comprised between two degrees North and two degrees South latitude over the whole space which extends from the coast to the chain of mountains called the Sierra del Crystal. This country is the domain of the gorilla. Many times, during a former excursion in Africa, our traveller had heard of this animal, of his terrible roar, his prodigious strength, and great courage. To reach the gorilla in his haunts, to kill him, and so to enrich science, v/as one of the objects which M. du Chaillu had in view. We are going to see him at the work.

But whilst he is seeking this extraordinary being, let us listen to the stories told by the negroes whilst sitting round their camp fires, as reported by the American author.

n. — Stories of the Negroes.

" My father," said one, ** used to relate, that being one day in the forest, he suddenly found himself face to face with a great gorilla, which barred the way. My father held his lance in his hand; at sight of this weapon the gorilla began to roar. Then my father, frightened, let fall his lance. When the gorilla savr

STORIES OF THE NEGROES. 7

that he was disarmed, he seemed satisfied ; he looked at him for an instant, and then left him and returned into the depths of the forest. My father, on his side, was well content, and pursued his journey."

And the auditors cried with one voice, "Yes, yes, that's it; when you meet a gorilla, let fall your lance, and you will appease him ! "

" Some dry seasons since," said another, ** a man, after a violent quarrel, disappeared from my village. A short time afterwards an Ashira, going into the forest, met there a very large gorilla. This gorilla was the man himself who had disappeared. He leapt on the poor Ashira, hit a piece of flesh from his arm, and then allowed him to go. The unfortunate man returned with his arm all Weeding, and told me of his adventure. I hope we shall not encounter any of these man-gorillas, for they are very wicked heings, and we shall have a terrible time of it. "

The chorus replied, " No, no, we shall not meet with these wicked gorillas ! "

** They believe, in fact," says the author already quoted, "that there are some gorillas of a particular kind which serve as the habitation of the spirits of certain dead negroes. The initiated recognize them by mysterious signs, and, above all, by their extraordinary stature. These gorillas, according to the Indians, can never be taken or killed ; they have also more sagacity and reason than the common animals. In these possessed beasts the intelligence of man is united with the strength and ferocity of the animal.

** Some years ago a man disappeared, carried ofl probably by a tiger, It was said, and believed, that one day, whilst he was walking in the woods, he had been metamorphosed into a hideous gorilla, which the blacks had often pursued without being able to kill, although he continually haunted the outskirts of the village."

Here is another story : —

Some natives encountered, in a field of sugar-canes, a troop of gorillas tying up the canes in bundles to carry them away. They attacked them, but the apes put them to flight, and they lost many men, some killed, others prisoners. A few days after, the latter returned home with their finger and toe-nails torn off.

Two Mbondemos women were walking in a forest, when suddenly an enormous gorilla bestrode the path, and seizing one of the women, carried her off, in spite of her efforts and her cries. The other, trembling with terror, returned to the village and related the adventure.

Naturally, her companion was held as lost. What was the general surprise when, at the end of a few days, she returned home !

" It was a gorilla possessed by a spirit," oried one of the hearers.

STORIES OP THE NEGROES. 9

A gorilla was walking in the forest, when he met a leopard. Both stood still. The quadruped, which was hungry, drew himself up to make a spring at the throat of his enemy, who. immediately commenced a fearful howling. Without allowing himself to be intimidated, the leopard took his leap ; as ill luck would have it, he was caught in the air by the gorilla, who seized him by the tail, and twisted it round and round with such force that it came off, and the animal fled, leaving his appendage in the hands of the gorilla.

Keturned to his comrades, the quadruped had to reply to their questions.

"What has happened?" they asked him. It was necessary to tell the whole story, at which news the king of the leopards howled so long and so strong, that from all points of the forest his subjects came together. Hardly had they learnt the injury done to their brother, than they swore to revenge it, and at once they entered the field in pursuit of the gorilla.

Their search did not last long. As soon as the great ape saw them approach, he tore up a tree, and using it as a club, he whirled it round with an air so menacing, that he held in abeyance the army of his assailants; but at last he grew tired, seeing which, the leopards rushed upon him altogether, and strangled him.

One day, another gorilla was walking out in the forest with his wife and little boy, when he found

10 . THE GOBILLA.

himself suddenly vis-d-vis with an immense elephant, who said to him, —

"Let me pass, gorilla, for these forests belong to me/'

"Oh, oh!" said the gorilla, "how do these forests belong to thee ? Am I not the master here ? Am I not the man of the woods?" So saying, he ordered his wife and his little boy to stand aside. He then broke off a large branch of a tree, and arming himself with it, he so belaboured the elephant that he was killed by his blows, and some days afterwards the carcase of the elephant was found on the ground, and the club lying beside him.

One fact believed by all the tribes who know a little of the gorilla is, that this animal conceals himself on the lower branches of trees, and that when any one passes his ambuscade, he seizes the unhappy wretch with his large and powerful hands, lifts him into the tree, and quietly chokes him.

They are quite persuaded that if a woman about to become a mother, or if only the husband of the woman should see a gorilla, or even a dead gorilla, the woman will give birth not to an infant, but to a little gorilla ! "I have remarked this superstition," says M. du Chaillu, " amongst all the tribes, and only a propos of the gorilla."

But this superstition does not prevent them from eating the gorilla. They carefully set apart the brains to make magic charms. "If we kill a gorilla tomorrow," said a black, " I should like to have a part of his brains for fetiche ^ Nothing can render a man more intrepid than having a gorilla's brains ^or fetiche, ** Yes," repeated the other, " that gives heart for every m. — On the Hunting Ground.

Accompanied by men and women of the tribe of Mbondemos, M. du Chaillu, ascending the second range of the Sierra del Crystal, at length came upon an open space of ground, not far from the sources of the Ntambonny, where once had been established a Mbondemo village. A degenerate kind of sugar-cane was growing where the houses had once stood. Tormented by hunger, the traveller had hastened to gather some of the stalks, but his men drew his attention to a circumstance which gave quite a new turn to his ideas. Here and there the cane was beaten down, torn up by the roots, and lying about in fragments, which had evidently been chewed. The Mbondemos looked at each other in silence, and muttered, " iVyVna .' " that is to say, " Gorilla."

They were, in fact, traces of gorillas, and traces, too, quite fresh. They soon found the tracks of their feet, and there must have been four or five in th« company. From time to time they had sat down to masticate the canes.

**Itwas the first time I had ever seen these footprints," writes M. du Chaillu, "and my sensations were indescribable. Here was I, now, it seemed, on the point of meeting face to face that monster of whose ferocity, strength, and cunning the natives had told me so much ; an animal scarce known to the civilized world, and which no white man before had hunted. My heart beat till I feared its loud pulsations would alarm the gorilla, and my feelings were really excited to a painful degree.

** The women were terrified, poor things, and we left them a good escort of two or three men to take care of them and reassure them. Then the rest of us looked once more carefully at our guns, and the hunt began.

** We descended a hill, crossed a stream on a fallen log, and presently approached some huge boulders of granite. Alongside of this granite block lay an immense dead tree, and about this we saw many evidences of the very recent presence of the gorillas.

"Doubtless they were hiding behind these granite blocks, which it was necessary to surround. The hunters divided into two parties, one taking the right, the other the left, with guns cocked and in hand. The excitement of the blacks was even greater than that of their master. They advanced through the brushwood, which was dense and sombre, though it was broad day. Unfortunately, the circle had been too much enlarged. The watchful gorillas saw the hunters. Suddenly a strange discordant, half-human devilish cry arose, and they beheld four young gorillas running towards the deep forests. With their heads bent down, and their bodies stooping, they gave the idea of men who were flying for their lives. They resembled to a frightful degree hairy men.

" I protest," continues M. du Chaillu, " I felt almost like a murderer when I saw the gorillas this first time. Take with this their awful cry, which, fierce and animal as it is, has yet something human in its discordance, and you will cease to wonder that the natives have the wildest superstitions about these wild men of the woods. They all fired at once, but hit nothing ; then the hunters rushed on in pursuit : they ran until they were exhausted, but in vain. The alert beasts knew the woods better than their enemies, and so made good their escape.'*

So far, then, it was a failure ; but at least M. du Chaillu could boast of having seen living gorillas, and he lost no time in endeavouring to see them again, and more closely.

Some days after this fruitless hunt, the intrepid traveller and his friends the Mbondemos, starting early in the morning, explored for many hours the thickets and least approachable parts of the forest, but without finding the faintest trace of a gorilla, when suddenly one of the men uttered a little ^^ cluck'' with his tongue, which is the native's way of showing that something is stirring, and at the same time M. du Chaillu thought he heard — seemingly ahead of him — the noise as of some one breaking down the branches or twigs of trees. " This was the gorilla, I knew at once, by the eager and satisfied looks of the men.

" They looked once more carefully at their guns, to see if by any chance the powder had fallen out of the pans ; I also examined mine, to make sure that all was right ; and then we marched on cautiously. The singular noise of the breaking of tree branches continued ; we walked with the greatest care, making no noise at all. The countenances of the men showed that they thought themselves engaged in a very serious undertaking; but we pushed on, until finally we thought we saw through the thick woods the moving of the branches and small trees, which the great beast was tearing down, probably to get from them the berries and fruits he lives on.

** Suddenly, as we were yet creeping along, in a silence which made a heavy breath seem loud and distinct, the woods were at once filled with the tremendous barking roar of the gorilla.

'^'Then the underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently before us stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone through the jungle on all-fours, but when he saw our party he erected himself and looked us boldly in the face. He stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight I think I shall never forget. Nearly six feet high (he proved four inches shorter), with immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely glaring large deep grey eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare vision. Thus stood before us the king of the African forests.

" He was not afraid of us ; he stood there and beat his breast with his huge fists till it resounded like an immense drum (its usual mode of ofi'ering defiance), meantime giving vent to roar after roar.

** The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in these African woods. It begins with a sharp bark, like an angry dog, then glides into a deep bass roll, which literally and closely resembles the roll of distant thunder along the sky, for which I have sometimes been tempted to take it when I did not see the animal. So deep is it, that it seems to proceed less from the mouth and throat than from the deep chest and vast paunch.

"His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we stood motionless on the defensive, and the crest of short hair which stands on his forehead began to twitch rapidly up and down, while his powerful fangs were shown as he sent forth a thunderous roar; and now truly he reminded me of nothing but some hellish dream-creature, a being of that hideous order — half man, half beast, which we find pictured by old artists in some representations of the infernal regions. He advanced a few steps, then stopped to utter that hideous roar again ; advanced again, and finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards from us ; and here, just as he began another of his roars, beating his breast in rage, we fired and killed him.

"With a groan, which had something terribly human in it, and yet was full of brutishness, he fell forward on his face. The body shook convulsively for a few minutes, the limbs moved about in a struggling way, then all was quiet."

The body measured five feet eight inches high.

Another day, when out hunting, M. du Chaillu heard a loud rumbling noise, which he took for thunder. Foreseeing a storm, he hastened to seek shelter under some ebony bushes, but he soon perceived that this supposed rolling of thunder was nothing else than the voice of a male gorilla calling the female, who an instant afterwards replied by a more feeble roar. The echo of this terrible voice resounded from mountain to mountain, and the forest seemed to tremble.

Onr traveller immediately slipped a ball into his gun, already loaded with bird- shot, and walked in the direction of the cry.

From time to time the rumbling sound, which the male makes in striking his breast with his large fists, approached him.

He soon heard the cracking of branches, and he saw through the thicket a young tree rudely shaken, and in a few seconds fall to the ground. But perhaps the animal was conscious of danger, for a profound silence succeeded the roaring, and when M. du Chaillu had opened a passage into the thicket, the gorilla had disappeared.

" I am certain,** writes he, " that I heard his roar at a distance of three miles, and the drumming of his arms against his breast at a .mile at least. No words can describe the kind of thunder which it produces.

** On examining the wood where these gorillas were moving and feeding, I learnt for the first time why the canine teeth of this animal, especially of the male, are generally so worn, and I found at the same time astonishing proofs of his strength. Many trees, measuring from four to six inches in diameter, had been broken, and bore the marks of the biting of the gorillas, whose teeth had penetrated to the heart of the tree, in order to extract the pith. It was a hard wood, and I saw well, by the manner in which it had been gnawed, that it was quite needless to attribute to any other cause the singular deterioration which I had remarked in the exterior of the canine teeth of these animals."