BIG GAME HUNTING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 1 December 1925, Page 10

BIG GAME HUNTING.

EXPERIENCES OF LATE ME. TWIGG. INCIDENTS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. An interesting letter, written by the late Mr. W. 11. Twigg not long before the unfortunate accident with a lion in the Mpika country that caused his djeath, has just been received 'fin Auckland. Writing on August 26 from the banks of the Chambezi river, Mr. Twigg said: “We have just arrived back here after a hunting trip up the Luakulu river after buffalo, of which we got four.

“I ran into a very large lioness the last day out, but she was too quick for me, and I didn’t get a shot. She was on the edge of a large swamp, and as I put up the gun. dashed into the reeds. I had her in view for some time after she came out of the other side, as she had to cross several hundred yards of burnt grass before reaching cover She got over the ground at remarkable speed. Hard luck! “There are plenty about, but they always see you lirst. One killed a boy the other day within a few chains of where we are camped. “We pull out to-morrow for Mpika country,' where we expect to be about three months. We are hoping to get elephant and lion. Here, so far, we have got duiker, leitchwe, puku, reed buck, 'sjebra,i and buffalo, etc. We were fifteen days by canoe up the Chambezi' river, and it was very tiring. “This is a great country. I have been bitten by mosquitoes, stung by tsetse fiv, amt jigger fleas dug out of my toes', and I see this morning our ground sheet is full of big holes, the work of white ants. I have had to hop like the deuce from the big red ants, and am just recovering from a touch of fever. Taking all things into consideration we are both in pretty good shape. Although we are up about 4500 feet, it is fearfully hot in the daytime, and you can’t go without a hat one second for fear of sunstroke. “We pay our carriers threepence a day, and give them two pounds of meal (or meat). They take a lot of handling, but we have now got the hang of things. Although they generally have you mad. you cannot help laughing now and again. They cannot lie made to do more than one job. Our tent staff consists of a. cook two cook’s assistants, a tent boy, and then we have a capito (head man), an assistant, gun-bearers, trackers, and astring of carriers. Then there are sundry- wives and a string of toto boys, ' who carry the outfits of the others. When you make a kill, although you may not have seen a native for days, they just drop from the heavens in crowds, and there is not a speck left in a few minutes unless you put your foot down pretty fiimly.