A HUNTER’S RISK

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 September 1934, Page 3

A HUNTER’S RISK

SHORT-SIGHTED BIG GAME, Lecturing on his big game hunting experiences in Africa to members of the Royal Empire Society in Sydney, Mr. Gordon Donkin dealt with lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffaloes. Mr. Donkin, said it cost. £75 for a game license, which entitled the hunter to shoot 39 different kinds of animals. It cost an additional £3O to shoot the first, elephant, and £2O for the second; each hunter was allowed to shoot only two elephants, or five lions in one year. Elephant hunting required skill, courage, and endurance. It was almost impossible to make a kill without experience. The Prince of Wales hunted for three months, and never got one. To face a giant bull for the first time made one tremble, and it was difficult to hold the rifle straight. Once an elephant got hold of a man ho rarely escaped. The animal would smash the man to pulp against the ground or a tree, or would drive ivory tusks through him. A good pair of tusks would realise about £2OO. The elephant and the rhinoceros were extremely short-sighted, and could not see a man beyond thirty yards. It was almost impossible to shoot an elephant head-on, as the animals was protected by a thick chest and four inches of bone in the head. Mr. Donkin said the lion was the fastest living animal over fifty yards; it could travel that distance at 60 miles an hour, but then it lost speed. The lion became a man-killer in his old age, when tho high teeth became worn down and broken.. The prey of the forest then easily slipped away, and the animal found man. the easiest to tackle. A family of lions hunted together. The female would take up a position to windward and the male, guarding the cubs, would roam about roaring in the opposite direction and drive beasts of prey in the direction of the mother lying in wait to make the kill.