CURIOUS HEADGEAR.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 2211, 5 September 1910, Page 7

CURIOUS HEADGEAR.

In the first portion of the third of the articles to the "Daily Telegraph" describing the incidents of his big- | game expedition in Uganda, ex-Presi- ! dent Roosevelt, after giving some amusing particulars of the native bearers, etc., accompanying him, treats his readers to a graphic description of the killing of his first rhino, which was quite an exciting experience, and with the failure of a shot would have proved disastrous to the intrepid hunters. "Next morning," he says, "we started for another water-hole at the rocky hill of Bondoni, about eight miles distant. Camp was broken as early in the day as possible. Each man had his allotted task, and the tents, bedding, provisions, and all else were expeditiously made into suitable packages. Each porter is supposed to carry from fifty-five to sixty pounds, which may all be in one bundle or in two or three. The American flag, which fiew over my tent, was a matter of much pride to the porters, and was always carried at the head, or near the head, of the lina of march, and ' after it in single file came the long I line of burden bearers. Their head- ' gear varied according to the fancy lof the individual. Normally it was , a red fez, a kind of cap only used in hot climates, and exquisitely designed to be useless therein, because it | gives absolutely no protection from • the sun. But one would wear a skin cap ; another would suddenly put one or more long feathers in his fez ; and another, discarding the fez, would revert to some purely savage headj dress which he would wear with ; equal gravity, whether it were, in ' our eyes, really decorative or merely I comic. One such head-dress, for in- ! stance, consisted of the skin of the J top of a zebra's head, with the two j ears. Another was made of the skins Jof squirrels, with the tails both I sticking up and hanging down. AnI other consisted of a bunch of feathers I woven into the hair, which itself was ' pulled out into strings that were j stiffened with clay. Another was really too intricate for description, I because it included the man's natural j hair, some strips of skin, and an empty tin can." "The following morning," Mr. Roosevelt continues, '"I rode out with Captain Slatter. We kept among the hills. The long drought was still unbroken. The little pools were dry, and their bottoms baked like iron, and there was not a drop lin the watercourses. Part of the I land was open and part covered with i a thin forest or bush of scattered mimosa trees. In the open country were many zebras and hartebeests, and the latter were found even in the thin bush. In the morning we found a small herd of eland, at which after some stalking, I got a long shot and missed. "The morning was a blank ; but early in the afternoon we saw the eland herd again, and though I could not get a good chance at the bull I finally downed a fine cow. It was about nine miles from camp, and I dared not leave the eland alone, so I stationed one of the gun-bearers by the great carcase and sent a messenger into Heller, on whom we depended for preserving the skins of the big game. Hardly had this been done when a Wkamba man came running up to tell us that there was a rhino on the hillside three-quarters of a mile away, and that he had left a companion to watch it while he carried us the news. Slatter and I ; immediately rode in the direction I given, following our wild-looking J guide, tho other gunbearer trotting i after us. In five minutes we had ! reached the opposite hill-crest, where j the watcher stood, and he at once i pointed out the rhino. The huge ; beast was standing in entirely open : country, although there were a few ! scattered trees of no great size at ! some little distance from him. We left our horses in a dip of the ground I and began the approach. So little j did he dream of our presence that I when we were a hundred yards off !he actually lay down. Walking lightly, and with every nerve keyed up, we at last reached the bush, and I pushed forward the safety of the double-barrelled Holland rifle which I was now to use for the first time on big game. As I stepped to one side of the bush so as to get a clear aim, with Slatter following, the rhino saw me, and jumped to his feet with the agility of a polo pony. As he rose I put in the right barrel, the bullet going through both lungs. At the same moment he wheeled, the blood spouting from his nostrils, and galloped full on us. Before he could get quite all the way round in his headlong rush to reach us, I struck him with my left-hand barrel, the bullet entering between the neck and shoulder and piercing his heart. At the same instant Captain Slatter fired, his bullet entering the neck vertebrae. Ploughing up the ground with horn and feet, the great bull rhino, still" head towards us, dropped just thirteen paces from where we stood. This was a wicked charge, for the rhino meant mischief, and came on with the utmost determination." If it had been a lion instead of a rhino, Mr. Roosevelt believes his first bullet would have knocked all the charge out of it ; but the vitality of the huge pachyderm was so great, its mere bulk counted for so much, that even such j a hard-hitting rifle as his double j Holland—than which he does not believe there exists a better weapon for heavy game—could not stop it outright, although either of the wounds inflicted would have been fatal in a few seconds. |