EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT IN UGANDA.

North Otago Times, 3 September 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT IN UGANDA.

'.- :■' ' f " ' ' • . I •'Bx-Presldent in the ! course of his story of bis big-gamo ; ■ hunt in Uganda.which he is relating ■■to'the "-Dally Telegraph'' under the' -title ;of " A Sportsman's Paradise," i ;.. describes what is, in his opinion, the | ■' most ..interesting railway journey in. ■the world.. " It was. Governor. Jack•■spn'a , special train; and in. addition ;tp : his:party and ;ours there < was only ■ Selous, and we ; travelled with the utmost ' comfort, through a naturalist's wonderland...... The locomotive was: fitted with a comfortable seat across the cow-catcher,.and on this, except at meal-times, I spent most. of ■ the hours of day-time, usually in company with Selous, and often: with, Governor Jackson, to whom the ter-'

■titory and the game were alike familiar, The first afternoon we did not see many, wild animals; but birds abounded and the scenery was both j beautiful and interesting. A black- '■ and-white. hornbill, feeding on tjie track, rose so late that we nearly caught it with our hands; guineafowl and francolin, and occasionally bustard, roße near by,; brilliant rollers, sun-birds, bee-eaters, and .wea-ver-birds flew beside us, or sat unmoved among the trees as the train passed. In the dusl'l wo nearly ran over a hyena. (A year or two previously the train did actually run over a lioness one night, and the conductor brought in her head in triumph, In fact, there have occasionally been mishaps ■ such as could only happen to a railroad in the Pleistocene I) The very night we went up there was an interruption in the, telegraph service due to giraffes having knocked down some of the ( j wires and a pole in crossing the ' [track, and elephants have more than once performed tho same feat. Two or three times at night, giraffes havo been run into and killed; qnce a rhinoceros was killed, the engine being damaged in tho encounter; and on other occasions the rhino has only just left the track in time, once the [ beast being struck and a good deal hurt, the engine again being some- ' what crippled." j

■ " Nest morning we were in the game country," continues the ex- • President's narrative," and as we s:sat on the seat over the cow-catcher • it was literally like passing through a vast zoological garden. Indeed no such railway journey can be taken on ■ any other line in any other land. At i one time we passed a herd of a dozen or so great giraffes, cows and i calves, cantering along through the open woods, a couple of hundred !■ yards to the right of the train. Again, still closer, (our waterbuck i cows, their big ears thrown forward, stared at us without moving until i we had passed. Hartebeests were [ everywhere; one herd was on the tracti and when the engine whistled [ they bucked and sprang.with ungainly agility and galloped. clear of the i danger. A long-tailed, straw-colour-ed monkey ran from one tree to an--1 other. Huge black ostriches appeari ed from time to time. Once a troop of impalla, close by the track, took fright; and as the beautiful creatures fled, we saw now one and nowan- , other bound clear over the high , bushes. A herd of zebra clattered aI cross a cutting of the line not a hundred yards ahead of the train ; the whistle hurried their progress;' but only for a moment, and as we passed they were already turning round to gaze. The wild creatures were in their sanctuary, and they knew it. Some of the settlers have at times grumbled at this game reserve being kept of such size; but surely it is

one of the most valuable possessions j the country could have. The lack of ( . water in parts, the prevalence in other parts of disease harmful to both civilised man and domestic cattie, render this great track of country the home of all homes for the wild creatures of the waste. The protection given these wild creatures is genuine, not nominal; they are i preserved, not for the pleasure of the few, but for the good of all who choose to see this strange and attractive spectacle; and from this [ nursery and breeding-ground the overflow taps up the stock of game in the adjacent land to the benefit of the settler, to whom the game gives freshtfmeat, and to the benefit of the whole country, because of the attraction it furnishes, to all who desire to visit a veritable happy hunt-ing-ground." " But the lions now offer and have always offered," says Mr. Roosevelt, " the chief source of unpleasant excitement. Throughout Bast Africa the lions continually take to maneating at the expense of native tribes, and white hunters are continually being killed or crippled by them. At the lonely stations on the railroad the two or three subordinate officials often live in terror of some fearsome brute that has taken to haunting the vicinity; and every few months, at some one of these' stations, a man is killed, or badly hurt by, or narrowly escapes from, a prowling lion," In this connection Mr. Roosevelt considers the most thrilling book of true lion stories ever written is Colonel Patterson's "Man-eaters of Tsavo." Colonel Patterson was one of the engineers engaged some ten or twelve years

back, in building the Uganda Bailway. "He was in charge of the work," we are told, " at a place called Tsavo, when it was brought to a complete halt by the ravages of a couple of man-eating lions, which, - | after many adventures he finally kll- ; led. At the dinner at the Mombasa I Club I met one of the actors in a ! blood-curdling tragedy which ■ Colonel Patterson relates. He was a German and, in company with an Italian friend, he went down in the special icar of one of the English -railroad : officials to try to kill a man-eating lion which had carried away several \ [people from a station on the line, i 'They put the car on a siding. As it! was hot, the door was left open, and ' the Englishman sat by the open I window to watch for the,lion; while,' jthe Italian finally lay down on the ! floor, and r the German got into an | upper bunk. Evidently the English-' man must have fallen asleep, and-the i i lion seeing him through the'window,' j entered, the carriage by the door to j i get at him. The Italian waked to find the lion standing on him with j its hind feet, while its fore-paws were' on the seat, as it killed the unfor- j tunate Englishman; and the German j my informant, hearing the disturb-' ahoe, leaped out of his bunk. actually ' on to thp hack of the lion. The man e?ter, however was, or.cuplml onlv "- : tb his nrev; Hnldlni; the hodv \<\ s nniMtl) be forced, his way'nut iliroiurli the window-sash, and mml*. his meal iiwl'lrturtari, but a couple of i jwdii from tfej raHwaj wri^o,' 1 '