BIG GAME – HUNTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13844, 2 September 1908, Page 4

BIG GAME - HUNTING.

S AFRICA AND AMERICA. \g 8. " * AN ADVENTURE WITH LIONS. I FASCINATION OF THE SPORT. Big game-hunting has a fascination for all k sportsmen, though comparatively few are able to experience its pleasures. Remote places have to be sought, at the cost of much time and more money, before the field of big game can be reached, and, I therefore* the sport is one that has "been, and always will be, reserved for men of leisure and comparative -wealth. . Most men can spare an occasional day to have a blaze at the birds, but only one here and x there can spare six months to go and make a bag of lions. And it-is not every roan . who has the money and leisure who wants t to go lion-bagging. He prefers to. see them in a zoo, where they are safe, and £0 is. he. Many sportsmen declare it to be • the ambition of their life to go tiger-hunt- ,:■ ing, but it is not quite so certain they would seize the first available opportunity , to do so. Some of them undoubtedly would—others would prefer to see the hunt , from a balloon. But the fascination that big game-hunting possesses over it* votaries is akin to the passion of the ardent • mountaineer for the mountains. Both ' sports get into the blood, so to speak. And the fascination of big game-hunting extends to people who have never handled a gun in their lives, and who, if they saw a wild beast outside a cage, would lower 1 the world's record for a hundred yards. They, nevertheless, love to hear stories of people who have gone after big game. It stirs their blood, and appeals to their primal fighting instincts. If one cannot go big game-hunting, the • next best thing is to talk to a man who ' has done it. Mr. A- M. Sedgwick, a South African wine merchant, at presentin Auckland, has. He has had big gamehunting in both America and South Africa. 1 If. not a big game-hunter in the sense of having -spent a lifetime after big game, Mr. Sedgwick has had sufficiently varied • experiences in this line to relate an interesting account of them. " Although I was born in Capetown," remarked Mr. Sedgwick, "and' have lived there for 35 years of my life, I was m bound down to my business that I had no time to go far into the interior of that 'country Fig giiine'ehooting till 1906. My extjerience of big game-shooting in South Africa is therefore not very large. My first big game-shooting was in Colorado, many years ago, when Colorado -was a territory. That was in the latter sixties or early seventies. There was plenty of game there in those days—bison (American buffalo}, bears,, black and white tailed deer, and pronghorn antelope. The bison is now extinct, with the exception of those preserved in the Yellowstone Park. He was great- sport, and in the time I speak of there were thousands of bison in Kansas, Colorado, and Texas." Another big game expedition undertaken by Mr, Sedgwick was in 1895, in* the Eoeky Mountains of British Columbia. On account of the severe -winters experienced in th© r Rockies, game is not too plentiful, but it is "big," and well repays the "big" hunter for the incidental hardships of the trip. Mr. Sedgwick and his party got a miscellaneous bag, which included bear. They : also shot big horned wild sheep, the wild goat, or ibex. The ibex affords particularly exciting sport. They and big horn sheep roam on the tops of the highest mountains, above timber level, and the shooter who desires to possess skins of these must be an expert mountaineer, as well as a good shot. Mule deer were also obtained on this visit, and plenty of feathered game. , - -■■;.■■ , "My next experience of any note," continued Mr. Sedgwick, "was in my old haunt of Colorado, 21 years after my first visit, when the buffalo was extinct. I visited, the north-west country of Colorado —Routt County—bordering on Wyoming, about four days' journey by backboard from the Denver and Rio Grande railway. There I got pronghorn antelope, mule deer, and wapiti. The latter is generally called elk, but he is not a true elk. He is one of the largest deer in the world, and very scarce now. I was fortunate enough to get four bulk and a cow had special permission to shoot this number, and on that trip I brought away 15 magnificent heads— mostly deer. Two good specimens of pronghorn antelopes, about eight stags' heads, and five wapiti." • ' IN THE LION BELT. Mr. Sedgwick related an interesting _ account of two trips to the Northern Transvaal, near the maintains south of the Limpopo Ki ver, in 1906. The country there is very wild, all heavy thorn bush, some of which make good-sized trees. It is very difficult for hunters; to find their way through this bush. In this country is found a curious tree, called the cream of tartar* tree, which has an enormous bulk. Que measured by Mr. Sedgwick was 67ft lOin in circumference. The cream of taxtar tree gets its name from the nut it hears, which is about the size of an ostrich egg, and contains a white substance, resembling cream of tartar, which is' an excellent preventative of malariai fever. Mr. Sedgwick spent some time hunting in what is known as "the lion belt," in the neighbourhood of the Brack River. It is called the lion belt because the king of beasts is found ip the country in large numbers. He follows the game about from place to place, and hunts them with great pertinacity. What with being hunted by lions at night, and hunted by sportsmen during the day, South African gam© leads a precarious existence that must be rather trying to the nerves. The lion by no means confines his attention to game. He has a weakness for mule or donkey flesh, as travellers through "the lion belt' have learnt by bitter experience. Travellers who go through the belt are forced to secure their mules or donkey* every night in kraals made of thornbush, to protect the animals from attacks by the great cat. Huge fires are kept blazing all night long, and the baffled lions slink round and round in the darkness all "night long. In the daytime, if the mules in the waggon get the,' faintest scent of a lion I they promptly stamped© into the bush, j frequently smashing the waggon to pieces in their mad flight, * ' . .It is believed by hunters that lions only roar after a full feed. When they are hunting they are silent, so as not to alarm th* game they' are stalking. Lions generally hunt in pairs "with a half-grown cab; sometimes even 'four to six are seen together. It is rare to see one singly; The exception to this rule is the maneating lion, which hunts by himself because he lias to. A lion becomes a man-hunter from force of circumstance—rarely from choice. When a lion becomes too old to hunt with full keenness, the rest of the pack drive him-awav, and he becomes a kind of Ishmael. He lives by tracking down* wounded game, and by visiting kaffir kraals and carrying off cattle. Sooner or later he carries off a kaffir, who is, perhaps, sleeping with the cattle, and thus gets: his first taste of human flesh. After that he frequently becomes a man-eater. FOLLOWED BY LIONS. Mr. Sedgwick had a curious experience on the occasion of his first big : game expedition to the Northern Transvaal. His waggon was followed _, in the';broaa*>daVlight by two full-grown lione and a lioness. This was the only time which Mr. Sedgwick ever saw lions in the daylight;, they almost invariably keep to cover in the day-

time, and hunt by night. These particular lions "stalked" the waggon until they got within about 600 yds of it. Then the driver, who was afraid that his mules would stampede, insisted that fire should be opened on the beasts. Mr. Sedgwick's son wounded one of them, which, with one' tremendous bound, sprang into the thicket adjoining the track, and disappeared from view. The other lions ; followed their companion, and were seen no more. In the vicinity - of the Zand River, some 40 or 50 miles south of the Limpopo, the lions arc in great numbers. Mr. Sedgwick's ' party heard them roaring round their camp » four nights in succession. "We never got i a chance to bag one, though," said Mr. • Sedgwick, "although we put out bait for \ them." The lion's roar must be heard in ! his native haunt- to be appreciated. It is' altogether, more tremendous and awe inspiring than his xoax in confinement. The ' air seems to vibrate with the eound. Among other game secured by Mr. Sedgwick on this expedition, were wildebeeste, sable antelope, koodoo,. water buck, redbuck, and other smaller varieties of the antelope. Mr. Sedgwick and his party also did some crocodile shooting, if crocodile can be described as "game."' Shortly after his arrival in New Zealand, at "the beginning of April, Mr. Sedgwick had three weeks' stag hunting in the ■ Wairarapa district. He secured his limit of four, and the heads were very fine ones, including one "royal," two eleven-opinters, and one ten. Some excellent photographs, illustrative of the sport, and taken by Mr. Sedgwick, appear in this week's issue of the Weekly News. Some other photo- . graphs, taken by Mr. Sedgwick in South Africa, are reproduced in the same issue. ==================