VANISHING WILDS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 23

VANISHING WILDS

A HUNTER'S LAMENT

"Elephant Hunting in West Africa " By Captain W. B. Stanley, C.M.G., and Courtenay Hodgson. London: Geoffrey Bles.

The opportunity is not given to most New Zealanders to be able to hunt elephants, but a certain exhilaration and armchair satisfaction may be gained from reading of the exploits of others who have had the opportunity. Captain Stanley and Courtenay Hodgson have tho happy knack of being able to present their adventures in a very vivid and readable form, hence "Elephant Hunting in West Africa" is decidedly stimulating. They give much interesting information about shooting elephant and hippopotamus in Sierra Leone and Gambia, and also give much new detail about other and lesser known wild animals, such as the buffalo, antelope, hartebeeste, wart-hog, and kobus kob. Besides records of actual chase and slaughter, the authors present interesting descriptions of cannibal societies and other phases of African life. Particularly fascinating is the account of the bringing up of the baby elephant Peter, with whom Plunket methods seem to have succeeded admirably. Anyway, Peter, who figures in several of the excellent photographs scattered throughout the book, is now a healthy adolescent in the London Zoo.

There is a tinge of regret in what the authors say about the contrast between the old conditions and the new in Equatorial1 Africa. "The White Man's Grave, on (lit, is becoming tho White Man's Sanatorium. For women have recently discovered tropical Africa. Yes, women push along tho beaten track from one district post to another, under escorts provided by nervous district officers who are so wrought up by the unexpected sight in their exile that they frequently weep tears of pure gin. Tenderly handled, they are returned F. 0.8. and write chatty books with all the punctuation left out. West Africa is being opened up in a haze of Rachel powder, with a rattle of lip-sticks. Women are going there, but the question arises, Is West Africa ready for them? There are those who would say that tho answer is in the niggertive. "Of recent years a beam of limelight has descended upon tropical Africa. Publicity, advertisement, is now its portion. The Empire posters are the most beautiful that have ever been designed. There are boards for the development of Africa. Education is in the air: natives are taught metaphysics while they are still scratching their craw-craw. Even the chimpanzees in their airy fastnesses have heard rumours of the dole. But there is a good bit of the Wild still left in West Africa. There- are still places where the bonnet of a motor-car has not nosed in, where the exhaust of an aeroplane has not been heard; bungalows whose floors have never felt the pressure of patent instep supporters; silences that have never been profaned by the finch-like twitterings of newly-married wives; camp-beds that show nothing ■ but a masculine impression; store-rooms and verandahs that have never known a duster.

"There are even areas where great elephants still move freely, forcing their mighty bodies through the wall of vegetation, careless of man and all his works; areas where herds of game still feed unfrightened' and unscathed. But a change is coming. The selfeffacing big-game hunters slink shamefacedly from the scene. On the washing line where once hung our faded shorts appear flimsy garments that would shock our sensibilites did we turn a backward glance. But we do not. We plod on, hoping that we may yet find a bit of the tall uncut left to us for sanctuary." H.W.M.