MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 17, 4 January 1927, Page 6

MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS

HUNTING THE WHITE LION. EXPLORING BELGIAN CONGO. Fabled animals—oae a lake monster, “twice as big as a hippopotamus”—are to be sought by an expedition of six Englishmen, which s starting shortly for unexplored areas around the great lakes in the north, east section of the Belgian Congo, Africa (writes the Sydney “World’s News”). Other objects of the expedition. which will be led by Colonel H. F. Fenn. D. 5.0., an ex-officer who has spent seven years in big game hunting in Central Africa, are to film for the first time the gorilla in its natural home, and to secure for the Natural History Museum specimens of the rare blue-gorilla, besides other animals which have never been seen bv white men. The country to be traversed varies fro mrich plains ti the snowcovered heights of extinct volcanoes. In the Ituri Forest, Which is near Lake Edward, the bush of bamboo scrub is so dense that no progress can be made without the. aid of a race of pigmies, who are notoriously unfriendly to strangers. Unexplored territory near Lake Kivu, where the inhabitants are cannibals who have never been subdued by the Belgian., will be traversed and hunted. “I anticipate that the most thrilling and fascinating part of the expedition,” Colonel Fenn said io a “Daily Express’’ representative recently, “will be our attempt solve the long-existing problem of certain unknown species of animals which the natives say live in these areas. The most remarkable is called the irizema, which native reports state to be a white animal like a largo lion and spotted like a leopard. Prince William of Sweden, who undertook a shooting trip to districts near territory which we shall visit, heard of this supposed animal. “Another animal whose supposed existence 1 hope to prove is a monster type of hippopotamus, which is believed to live in Lake Edward. English, hunters and all the local tribes declare that thi s animal exists, and that it resembles a cross between a hippopotamus and a rhinoceros. but is twice the size of these. “Native hunters often report the existence of a dwarf elephant called the ‘yiva,’ which, they say. inhabits the mountains and there is an old legend of a four-tusked elephant reputed to exist in these regions. We shall have anything from six months to a year in which to explore th» area where discoveries are most likely to be made.”