THE PRINCES IN BIG-GAME AFRICA

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 70, 15 December 1928, Page 26

THE PRINCES IN BIG-GAME AFRICA

QUARRY FOR GUN AND CAMERA

The topography and scenery of the territories in which the Prince of Wales and his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, were hunting when news of the King's illness reached them tire peculiarly their own, and utterly tin-, like" the mighty and interminable forests and dense jungles which are the popular conception of all uncivilised Africa. Real forests in East Africa are .quite rare, and one speaks not of “jungle” but of “bush," never more aptly described than by lite Cockney soldier during the W|ir, who, on. being decanted from a- train somewhere on the Uganda railway, inquired plaint tively, “Does this -—- shrubbery e-v tend all the way to thn German border?”

Kenya and Tanganyika possess notable scenery, '- 'Largely volcanic in origin, they can show many beautiful mountains besides the two major eminences of Kilimanjaro and Kenya; highlands as ruggedly beautiful as thoste. of Scotland and eminently suitable, for white settlement, apart from which the country is largely park-like in appearance. Much of it. is vast plains, splashed ~jth scanty bush and dotted with stunted trees, which seem to have been created specially for the convenience of the numerous giraffes which browse comfortably upon their tops. Only a very short journey from the metropolis of Nairobi is necessary to bring the hunter to Africa just as it was a thousand years ago. This is o 01 the great game reserves, forbidden to native and white man alike, where animals roam iu ’almos incredible numbers. Throughout Tanganyika, however, are other regions, not reserves but practically uninhabited, where the fauna is just as plentiful as it ever has been. Such common species as the gnu or wildebeeste —that quaint relative of the buffalo with the head of a horse and antics which make it appear the fool.it is not —zebra, hartebeeste, Grant’s and Thompson’s gazelle, are to be found in herds running into many thousands. The shooting of ordiiigry specimens of these demands little inore than a reasonable amount of patience combined with the- ability to hold a rifle straight, but the acquisition of realjy notable heads is a very different ipatThe Kilimanjaro region-Is a favourite resort of that largest of the antelope, the eland, a beefy, goatdike creature weighing as much as two thousand pounds, and the smaller, though much

more beautiful, fringe-eared oryx, which, with its long, scimitar-like horns, lias been known successfully to give battle to a lion. These, with the graceful little impalla, lire much less numerous than the species already mentioned, yet not to be counted as really rare game, and the royal hunters will be indeed unlucky if they fail to bag examples of each. When it comes to the real prizes ot big-game hunting it is very difficult to forecast what the bag will be. Even in districts where such comparatively rare animals as the renter kudu, roan and sable antelope are known to be fairly plentiful the hunter may seek them for weeks in vain. Buffalo run in great herds in a score of places in Tanganyika, and no shooting safari would properly have fulfilled its mission without bringing to grass one or more of these dangerous brutes. It is best to have a tree easy to climb close at hand when tackling “buff, for, once tlie battle is joined their motto is “kill or be killed.” They pro bably kill more white men than d< any other animals, and the recent death of Mr. Charles Grey is only one irdilitio. to al< ' list in Tanganyika. It' is worthy of note, however, that the men who get killed are usually the" experts rather than the novices. Trailing buffalo, elephant, or lion alone, they sooner or later meet the hundredth chance, that occasion when a title jams, a gun-bearer loses bis nerve, or some other trifling accident leaves them at the mercy of their quarry. “We all get killed if we keep on long enough,’’ said a famous I- ,nter -to a ‘ Daily Mail” correspondent not so very long ago. He died violently - himsJf not long after, and the list of similar tragedies which have since occurred fullv justifies his statement.' The newcomer to the sport, who is never left by himself, takes much less risk. Elephant are fairly plentiful in Tanganyika in certain regions.; One was shot a few weeks back with tusks weighing nearly a hundred pounds each —good ivory in these days. Lions are probably more; numerous in this part of Africa than; in any other. Shooting them by sitting over a bait at night is an easy matter and not much more exeitipg than shooting a sheep. There is, one place, however, where such an enterprise brings rem pleasure and great profit to the communitv. " *.iis is Ndola, the tiny station on the Rhodesian Railway, reached after a voyage on the Chambezi among the hippo and crocodile.