Chapter III (2)

"Taking a good sight for the middle of his shoulder, I pulled
the trigger. This time the gun went off--it was a four-bore
elephant gun, loaded twice over, and the powder thrown in each
time by a Kafir with his hands--and I went off too! I was lifted
clean from the ground, and turning round in the air, fell with
my face in the sand, whilst the gun was carried yards away over
my shoulder. At first I was almost stunned with the shock, and I
soon found that I could not lift my right arm. Besides this, I
was covered with blood, which spurted from a deep wound under
the right cheek-bone, caused by the stock of the gun as it flew
upwards from the violence of the recoil. The stock
itself--though it had been bound round, as are all
elephant-guns, with the inside skin of an elephant's ear put on
green, which when dry holds it as firmly as iron--was shattered
to pieces, and the only wonder was that the barrel did not
burst. Whether the two bullets hit the elephant or not I cannot
say; but I think they must have done so, for he only went a few
yards after I fired, and then stood still, raising his trunk
every now and then, and dashing water tinged with blood over his
chest. I went cautiously up to within forty yards or so of him,
and sat down. Though I could not hold my arm out, I could raise
my forearm, so as to get hold of the trigger; but the shock had
so told on me, that I found I could not keep the sight within a
yard of the right place. The elephant remained perfectly still;
so I got Nuta to work my arm about gently, in order to restore
its power, and hoped that in the meantime the Kafir, whose
shouting had originally brought the elephant to me, would come
up and be able to go and fetch W. No doubt, if I had shouted he
would have come at once, for he could not have been very far
off; but had I done so the elephant might either have charged,
or else continued his flight, neither of which alternatives did
I desire. After a short time, seeing no chance of aid arriving,
and my nerves having got a little steadier, I took my favourite
gun from Nuta, and, resting my elbow on my knee, took a quiet
pot shot. I was, however, still very unsteady even in this
position, but I do not think the bullet could have struck very
far from the right place. The elephant on receiving the shot
made a rush forwards, crashing through the bushes at a quick
walk, so that we had to run at a hard trot to keep him in sight.
He now seemed very vicious, for, hearing a dry branch snap, he
turned and ran towards us, and then stood with his ears up,
feeling about in all directions with his trunk to try and get
our wind.

"Nuta, who up to this day had always been a most staunch and
plucky gun-bearer, now seemed seized with a panic, and refused
to bring me the gun any more, calling out, 'Leave the elephant,
sir; this day you're bewitched, and will surely be killed.'
However, as the elephant was evidently very severely wounded, I
had no idea of giving over the chase as long as I could keep up,
and, after bestowing a few Anglo-Saxon idioms upon Nuta, I again
ran on. The bush now became very thick, and, as the elephant was
going straight away, I could not get a chance of a shot. About a
mile farther on, however, we came to one of those large open
turf flats which occur here and there in the midst of the
sinangas. It was quite a mile square, and perfectly bare, with
the exception of a few large camel-thorn trees, which were
scattered about in clumps. On reaching this opening, the
elephant, instead of turning back into the bush, as I should
have expected, kept his course, making straight for the farther
side, and going at that long, swinging walk, to keep up with
which a man on foot must run at a fair pace. I had now been a
long time bare-headed, exposed to the heat of the fierce
tropical sun, and the kick I had received from the gun had so
much shaken me, that I felt dead-beat, and could scarcely drag
one leg after the other. I saw that I should never be able to
run up to within shot of the elephant, which was now about 150
yards ahead; so, taking the gun from Nuta, I told him to try and
run right round him, and by shouting turn him back towards me.
Relieved of the weight of the gun, and being a splendid runner,
he soon accomplished this, and standing behind the stem of a
camel-thorn tree a long way in advance, holloed loudly.
Accordingly, I had the satisfaction of seeing the elephant stop,
raise his ears, look steadily in the direction of the noise, and
then wheel round, and come walking straight back towards the
jungle he had just left, taking a line which would bring him
past me, at a distance of about fifty or sixty yards. I stood
perfectly still, with Balamoya kneeling close behind me; for,
though elephants can see very well in the open, I have always
found that if they do not get your wind, and you remain
motionless, they seem to take you for a tree or a stump. To this
I now trusted, and as the elephant came on I had full leisure to
examine him. The ground between us was as bare as a board,
except that it was covered with coarse grass about a foot high,
and he looked truly a gigantic and formidable beast; his tusks
were small for his size, one of them being broken at the point,
and I do not think they could have weighed much over 30 lbs.
apiece. He came steadily on, swinging his trunk backwards and
forwards, until he was about seventy yards from where I stood,
when suddenly I was dismayed to see his trunk sharply raised, as
if to catch a stray whiff of wind, and the next instant he
stopped and faced full towards us, with his head raised, and his
enormous ears spread like two sails. He took a few steps towards
us, raising his feet very slowly, and bringing them down as if
afraid of treading on a thorn. It was an anxious moment; he was
evidently very suspicious, but did not know what to make of us,
and had we remained motionless I believe he would still have
turned and walked on again. 'Stand still!' I whispered between
my teeth to Balamoya; but the sight of the advancing monster was
too much for him--he jumped up and bolted. The instant he moved,
on came the elephant, without trumpeting, and with his trunk
straight down. Though very shaky just before, the imminence of
the danger braced up my nerves, and I think I never held a gun
steadier than upon this occasion. As he was coming direct at me,
and as he did not raise his trunk, his chest was quite covered;
there was therefore nothing left but to fire at his head. He
came on at an astonishing pace, and I heard only the 'whish,
whish' of the grass as his great feet swept through it. He was
perhaps twenty yards off when I pulled the trigger. I aimed a
little above the root of the trunk and just between the eyes,
and directly I fired I ran out sideways as fast as I could,
though I had not much running left in me. Looking over my
shoulder, I saw him standing with his ears still up and his head
slightly turned, looking towards me; the blood was pouring down
his trunk from a wound exactly where I had aimed, and, as it was
inflicted by a four-ounce ball, backed by a heavy charge of
powder, I cannot understand why it did not penetrate to his
brain; it had half-stunned him, however, and saved my life, for,
had he come on again, it would have been utterly impossible for
me, fatigued as I was, to have avoided him. After standing still
for a short time, swaying himself gently from side to side, he
again turned and took across the flat. Nuta, seeing what had
happened, instead of trying to turn him again, cleared out of
his road, and, making a large circle, came back to me. Perhaps
it was as well he did so."

Selous now gave up the pursuit without having killed a single elephant, and it was ten days before he could use his arm again.

In November, the rainy season having set in, Selous and Wood returned to Bulawayo carrying 5000 lbs. weight of ivory. Selous bears testimony to the extraordinary abundance of game at this time in South Africa, and gives a wonderful word-picture of the extraordinary collection of animals he saw one evening in October, 1873, in the valley of the Dett.

"First, a few hundred yards higher up this valley than where we
were working, a herd of nine giraffes stalked slowly and
majestically from the forest, and, making their way to a pool of
water, commenced to drink. These giraffes remained in the open
valley until dark, one or other of them, from time to time,
straddling out his forelegs in a most extraordinary manner in
order to get its mouth down to the water. No other animals came
to drink in the pools between us and the giraffes. Possibly some
got our wind before leaving the shelter of the forest, though
the evening was very still. But below us, as far as one could
see down the valley, the open ground was presently alive with
game. One after another, great herds of buffaloes emerged from
the forest on either side of the valley and fed slowly down to
the water. One of these herds was preceded by about fifty zebras
and another by a large herd of sable antelopes. Presently two
other herds of sable antelopes appeared upon the scene, and a
second herd of zebras, and five magnificently horned old koodoo
bulls, whilst rhinoceroses both of the black and white species
(the latter predominating in numbers) were scattered amongst the
other game, singly or in twos and threes all down the valley. Of
course all this great concourse of wild animals had been
collected together in the neighbourhood of the valley of the
Dett owing to the drying up of all the valleys in the
surrounding country, and during the rainy season would have been
scattered over a wide area."[10]

In 1874, Wood, Selous, Mr. and Lieutenant Garden trekked north, intending to hunt on the Zambesi and Chobe rivers. They left Tati on May 6th and approached the Victoria Falls on June 10th, stopping on the way at Daka, where Wood and Selous killed some elephants, and the latter had a somewhat narrow escape from a charging bull which he managed to kill just at the right moment. On June 27th they viewed the wonderful Falls of Zambesi, and Selous, like all other travellers, goes into ecstasies at their beauty and grandeur. Here they encountered for the first time a rare antelope, the pookoo, which gave Selous much pleasure, for it may be said that from this date he commenced his wonderful collection of African mammals. During, and after, 1874, he never failed to preserve and keep for his own collection all the best specimens of big game he shot, then having unrivalled opportunities for getting the finest trophies. This can, of course, only be achieved when animals are abundant. He often lamented afterwards that he did not take more care to get some buffalo bulls of the first quality, for he certainly saw and killed great numbers in those early years, yet he only kept three or four heads of bulls that were in no way remarkable, when he could have possessed the best specimens in existence. When he wanted them it was too late.

At the Zambesi, Wood decided to go eastward to the Gwai, so Selous and the Gardens travelled west into the unknown country of the Chobe. On the first day Selous killed a splendid koodoo bull which he preserved, and shortly afterwards encountered numerous herds of pookoo and other antelopes. The country about the Chobe was in fact about the best for mixed game at this period, and Selous revelled in the wealth of animal life, though he devoted most of his energies to looking for elephants, which were here difficult to kill owing to shifting winds. One day he had quite a little battle with the fierce buffalo cow.[11]

"On again arriving at the open valley mentioned above, I found
it occupied by a large herd of two or three hundred buffaloes,
that had emerged from the surrounding jungle during my absence,
and were now feeding quietly down towards the river for their
evening drink. Though I hardly liked to fire, for fear of
disturbing elephants, some of which might, for all I knew, be
within hearing, yet, on the other hand, I had a strong desire to
secure a nice fat buffalo steak for supper, and at last
forgetting all more prudent resolves, and sympathising with the
feelings of my Kafirs who kept entreating me to shoot them a fat
cow, I took my four-bore elephant-gun and advanced towards the
still unconscious herd, resolved to kill one if possible. Those
that were nearest were about one hundred and twenty yards from
the edge of the bush, beyond which there was no shelter, save
that afforded by a few large scattered goussy trees. However, by
creeping cautiously forward on my hands and knees, I managed to
get within eighty yards or so, when an old cow observing me,
raised her head and gazed steadily towards where I crouched.
There was no time to be lost, as I saw she was thoroughly
alarmed, so, singling out a fine fat cow, that stood broadside
on close beside her, I raised my heavy gun, and taking a quick
aim behind her shoulder, fired. The loud bellow that followed
the shot told me she was hard hit, but I could see nothing, for
the whole herd, startled by the report of the gun, rushed
together in wild affright, and now stood in a dense mass, facing
towards their hidden foe, effectually screening the wounded cow
from my view. In another instant, seemingly satisfied that
something dangerous was near, they turned about and galloped
away across the valley, making for the bush on the opposite
side, and on the dust raised by their many feet subsiding, I
beheld the one I had wounded still standing where she had been
shot, and thought she was about done for; but on seeing me step
from behind a tree, she immediately wheeled round and made for
the jungle.

"When the herd ran together, after I had fired, with several
nasty-looking old bulls in their front, my native attendants had
all retreated precipitately to the edge of the bush (with the
exception of one of the Masaras, who was carrying a small gourd
of water slung on an assegai over his shoulder), or I might have
given the cow another shot with my second gun before she turned
to run. Although evidently severely wounded, she still managed
to get over the ground at a great rate, and entered the bush at
least 100 yards in advance of myself and the Bushman, who were
following at our best pace, the Kafirs carrying my guns being a
considerable distance behind. Just within the edge of the jungle
was one very thick patch, unlike the greater part, covered with
foliage, and behind this the wounded buffalo turned and stood at
bay waiting for her pursuers. Not thinking of this stratagem (a
very common one with both buffaloes and elephants), and
imagining her to be a considerable distance ahead, I ran into
her very horns before I saw her, and she at the same time seeing
me at once charged, with eyes on fire, and her nose stretched
straight out, grunting furiously. Luckily she was not standing
head on, but broadside to me, and so could not come straight at
me, but had first to turn round the bush. This gave me time to
spring through the bushes to one side, as she rushed past, when
she immediately made at the Bushman, who, springing into a
small sapling, just swung his body up out of reach as she passed
beneath. So close was she, that, as the calabash full of water,
which he had been carrying slung on an assegai, fell to the
ground behind him, she smashed it to atoms, either with her feet
or horns, just as, if not before, it touched the ground. After
this she turned and stood under the very slender tree on which
the Bushman hung, looking up at him, and grunting furiously, but
not attempting to butt the tree down, which I think she could
have accomplished had she but tried. At this instant the Kafir
who carried my ten-bore rifle, reaching the scene of action
unperceived by the buffalo, fired at and missed her, on which
she again retreated behind the bush from whence she had first
charged. By this time, however, I had my second elephant-gun in
my hands, and creeping up gave her another bullet on the point
of the shoulder, just as she caught sight of me and was again
turning to charge. On receiving this second ball, she fell to
the ground, and snatching up an assegai, and followed by several
of the Kafirs, we ran in and despatched her before she could
rise. She proved to be a dry cow in splendid condition."

He killed several good bull elephants in the Chobe bush and had some narrow escapes, once nearly losing his life owing to the caps missing fire. What delighted him most was the abundance of other game he saw. He believed the sable antelopes here carried finer horns than in any part of South Africa, south of the Zambesi, and often wished afterwards he had shot one or two, but when he encountered them he was always after elephants, so he did not fire. The best specimen of this grand animal he killed in Northern Mashunaland three years later, and its horns measured 441/2 ins. in length, but he always thought that somewhere in Africa there were greater sable antelopes than this, and one day, in later years, he found in the museum at Florence a wonderful single horn of 60 inches. For years he tried to find out where it came from without success. Now we know it must have been sent from Angola, Portuguese West Africa, for on the Quanza river some remarkable specimens have been obtained, reaching up to 63 inches but it is feared that they are few in number there, and nearly extinct.

Near the Chobe on some marshy flats he found the lechwe antelope for the first time and killed some good examples, and he accurately described[12] the curious movements of these antelopes.

"When first they make up their minds to run, these lechwe buck
stretch out their noses, laying their horns flat along their
backs, and trot like an eland, but on being pressed break into a
springing gallop, now and then bounding high into the air like
impalas. Even when in water up to their necks they do not swim,
but get along by a succession of bounds with great rapidity,
making a tremendous splashing and general commotion. Of course
when the water becomes too deep for them to bottom they are
forced to swim, which they do well and strongly, though not as
fast as the natives can paddle, and in the rainy season, when
the country is flooded, great numbers are driven into deep water
and speared before they can again reach the shallows where they
can touch ground. It is owing to their being thus driven about
and harried by the natives in canoes, I suspect, that they are
so wild, as I don't think they can often have heard the sound of
a gun before."

In September he was very lucky with the elephants, killing five each day on September 4th and September 8th. Altogether he shot twenty-four in 1874.

"During the intensely hot weather in September and October, just
before the rains fall, elephants soon become fatigued if driven
about and exposed to the fierce sun. When they get hot and tired
they insert their trunks into their mouths and draw out water
from their stomachs, which they dash over their breasts and
shoulders to cool themselves; and when the supply of water is
exhausted they will sometimes throw sand over their bodies,
which one would suppose would only make them hotter than they
were before. Though, as I have said, elephants get knocked up
comparatively soon when hunted during the hot weather, yet, as
may be imagined, it is killing work following them on foot at
that season, in deep sandy ground and under a tropical sun, and
with nothing to drink but a very limited allowance of water
carried in a gourd, which soon gets lukewarm from the intensity
of the heat."[13]

On September 11th he made a start for home, reaching Daka on September 26th, after an absence of three months. He then went east to trade at Wankie, where he got 300 lbs. of good ivory. In December he trekked south to the Tati, where he shot his first lion. Thus it was three years before Selous actually shot a lion in Africa--a fact that may seem somewhat strange, but not so much when we consider the nocturnal habits of these animals. I knew a man in East Africa who lived in a district where lions are far more abundant than they were in South Africa, who, though constantly shooting and travelling in lion haunts, had never once seen one of these beasts in the course of several years.

Selous' first lions were evidently of the fighting order, as they always are, when pressed by a mounted man.[14]

"On this occasion, as Dorehill and myself were riding through a
patch of bush, our ears were suddenly saluted with a muffled
growling that we did not immediately interpret. The next
instant, however, Hartebeest rushed forward, pointing with his
assegai, and shouting, 'Isilouan! isilouan!' (lions! lions!). I
saw nothing, but galloped through the bush in the direction he
pointed, Dorehill heading a little to the right. A few moments
later, coming to a more open part, I saw two large lionesses
trotting along in front of me. Upon hearing me behind them, they
both stopped, and standing broadside to me, turned their heads
and looked towards me. Pulling in my horse, I jumped to the
ground, upon which they started off again at a gallop. I fired
at the hindermost one as she ran, and evidently struck her, for
she threw up her tail and gave a loud growl. They now went into
a patch of short mopani bush, beyond which the country was open
forest, with no underwood. At first they trotted out into this
open forest, but the wounded one not seeming to like it, turned,
and squatting on the ground, crept back like a cat, with her
shoulders above her back, and her eyes all the time fixed upon
me, until she reached a little thorn-bush, under which she
stretched herself at full length, and lay watching me with her
head couched on her outstretched paws. All this time the other
lioness was standing in the open, and I was just going to
dismount and fire at her, when, turning towards me, she trotted
a few steps forwards, and then, throwing her tail two or three
times straight into the air, came galloping forwards, growling
savagely. Turning my horse's head I pressed him to his utmost
speed, closely pursued by the lioness. I do not know how near
she got, but her loud purring growls sounded unpleasantly close.
As soon as the growling stopped, I knew she had given up the
chase, and so rode round in a half-circle to get a view of her.
She then trotted to a large mopani tree, in the shade of which
she stood. When I rode to another tree about sixty yards off,
she lowered her head and stood looking at me, snarling savagely,
with her tail held straight in the air. I think that she had
done her best to catch me, as her flanks were heaving like those
of a tired dog, with the exertion of her run. Feeling sure that
she would charge again as soon as she recovered her breath, I
steadied myself and fired from the saddle, but missed her. She
never took the slightest notice of the shot, but continued
snarling and growling. Resting the butt of my rifle (a single
ten-bore muzzle-loader) on my foot, I now reloaded with all
expedition, and fired again, the lioness all this time having
preserved the same position, standing exactly facing me. This
time I struck her right in the mouth, knocking out one of the
lower canine teeth, breaking the lower jaw-bone, and injuring
her neck. She fell to the shot instantly, and lay quite still. I
thought she was dead, but took the precaution to reload before
riding up to her. On my dismounting and walking towards her, she
raised herself on her fore-quarters, when I gave her a ball in
the shoulder which effectually settled her. Dorehill now came up
with the Kafirs. He had seen the other lions, a male and two
females, for there were five altogether, but they had given him
the slip in a patch of thick bush. We now went to look for the
one I had first wounded, but though there was a little blood
under the bush where she had been lying, we could discover no
further trace of her, and the ground being very hard no sign of
her spoor was visible, even to the keen eyes of the Bushmen. So,
after skinning the one I had killed, which was in beautiful
condition, we returned to the waggons."

At Tati Selous received his first letters from home since he left the Diamond Fields three years previously, and after reading their contents he decided to go home, and so turned his face southward on February 1st, 1875.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] There was an exhibition of Baines' collected works at the Crystal Palace some years ago, but few people took any notice of them. Baines published an excellent book "The Gold Regions of South-Eastern Africa" in 1877.

[5] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 15-23.

[6] Finaughty states that in 1867 Jan Viljoen and his party killed 210 elephants in one trip. This is probably the largest bag of elephants ever made in one season.

[7] In this matter Finaughty received powerful support in the evidence of William Judd, possibly the most experienced African hunter now living; he writes: "As for buffalo I consider them far and away the most dangerous game. The difficulty of stopping a direct charge, as they very rarely swerve even to the heaviest bullet--the way they can force themselves through bush absolutely impenetrable to man and the nasty habit they have, when wounded (and sometimes when not wounded) of breaking away, making a detour and charging up again from behind, make them an adversary worthy of the greatest respect. I personally have had more close shaves from these brutes than I have had from all other big game put together--lions and elephants included."

[8] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 84-88.

[9] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 89-99.

[10] "African Nature Notes and Reminiscences," p. 134.

[11] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 120-123.

[12] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 137-138.

[13] "A Hunter's Wanderings," p. 181.

[14] _Ibid._, pp. 187-189.