CHASED BY ELEPHANTS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10887, 27 February 1914, Page 6

CHASED BY ELEPHANTS.

A FAMOUS HUNTER’S ADVENTUBES IN AFRICA. Captain Stigand tells of a hunt on the Aberdare Hills in the East African Highlands in 1906. Accompanied by two natives who knew the hills, and three porters, be climbed up the hills by elephant paths till he reacli-ed the bamboo forest. The whole mountain is covered with a network of these paths, and the back t-f practically every spur, ridge, and column is crowned by an elephant road following its highest part. The party had just descended a steep bamboocovered hillside, and were slowly climbing the steep opposite side of the valley, when they heard a noise from the slope behind them, and saw the bamboo moving by some unseen agency. These signs proclaimed the presence ot a herd of elephants. The hunter decided to return. AN ELEPHANT. STAMPEDE.

We had nearly reached the stream at the bottom of the valley, and we could still hear the herd busily feeding up-stream oa out right, when there was a stampede to our left, and we could hear another herd beyond them charging oft, crashing and crackling through the bamboo?. We waited till the sounds had passed away in the distance, and stiil we could hear the crack! crack! of bamboo from our herd feeding undisturbed.

We cautiously made our way up the valley towards them, til! we could locate them by the moving of tbs bamboos. As they were not to be seeen. we circled round to try and get a view, a;id mak down e shootable bull from the hillside above them. As we did this we gave our mind to yet another herd, which went crashing off with such a clatter and crackling of bamboo stems knocking against each other and breaking that wo thought it must disturb our herd, but when we listened we again heard the reassuring cracK ! crack ! showing them to be still grazing. Again we circled round and this time stampeded a kith herd.

We then descsndsed a gentle slope tnwaros our herd. I was with one of the Kikuyu and the old porter.

I could hear a herd coming towards us, having evidently become uneasy from hearing the other one stampeding. I took refoge behind a tree with the Kikuyu as they appeared. They passed at about fifteen y&rds’ distance, cue female or uusizeable male after another, A CONVENIENT TREE,

Now a tree is all right to stand behind when it is between you and the elephant, hut when some are one side and some another, one begins to wish for a tree to grovr up behind one as well as in front. So when about five had passed close by and were standing just behind me, and the remainder of the herd began to come towards my, tree with the intention of passing on both sides. I felt it incumbent on me to make some sort of a demonstration. The next elephant was a young male, who came swinging along straight towards cur tree, and there were others on each side of him, so at about tea yards I planked him in the forehead and he dropped dead, whilst the herd turned and went back the way they had come.

1 was just looking at the fallen elephant and regretting the accuracy of my aim when another herd appeared on the scene. So I ran back to the shelter of my tree, whilst they trooped past at thirty yards’ distance. In the middle of the herd was a sizable bull, but he was surrounded on alt sides by females and young. I got a momentary clear view of bis head and had a snap shot, and he fell. Instantly the rest closed round him, heads inwards, to lift him up with their

tusks, and there was nothing to see but a ring of sterns. I ran out from

my shelter to try and get another shot, but the next moment they had got him on his feet and eurrounded him oa all sides, so that it was impossible to get even a glimpse of him. The whole herd bore down on me.

They were not charging; they were only stampeding, and I happened to he in the direction they bad chosen. I did not wait, but turned to run, and looking over my shoulder saw a perfect avalanche of . flesh bearing down upon me. AND A ROTTEN BRANCH.

As often happens with elephants, they did not go far, but suddenly stopped dead and listened. I looked round, end saw they had stopped, but could not see the wounded male. Just by me was a small tree with sloping trunk and a fork about twelve feet un. I thought that they were unlikely fo coma my way again, but would go off another way now, and that if I could reach this fork I might be able to get a glimpse of the bull over the backs of the others. . . I commenced clambering up this tree as best I could with my r'fis m my hand. There was another wild rush in my direction, and just as they reached within a few yards of my tree I caught hold of a rotten branch, which broke, and I fell heavily to the ground, not mo're than a few yards from the feet of th.e nearest elephant. This strange fruit dropping off the tree so startled them that they swerved away at right angles, and crashed icto the bsmboo, pushing and jostling to get in front of each other. As they could only pass singly between the clomps, and tbey all chose the same two clumps, it was almost half a minute before the last of tiie herd had passed. The hind view of them charging and pushing each other, all trying to get the fame path, reminded me more than anything of a scrum in a Rugby football match. On another occasion, in Nyassaland, Captain Stigand was charged by a young bull elephant. He did not want to shoot it, so got behind a tree as it came, trot ing ap, thinking that it might pass by. But the animal meant business, and the hunter was forced to shoot. The bullet, however, did not reach the biain.

CHASED BY A GALONGWA. The next moment it wis I wL:i was being chased. . . I dodged sharply to my right, thinking that the elephant would pass, and I would get a side shot as he did ec, but I tripped over a fallen tree 1 went sprawling, dropping my rifle and just managed to seize it by the muzzle as the elephant was about to tread on it I then dived bead foremost into the branches of the fallen tree.

I made frantic efforts fco crawl through,, but a Etout branch resisted

my progress, and at the same moment the galongwa (young bull) pushed iu after me and pushed me through the branches to the other side. Two drops of blood from his forehead fell on my shorts, one on the thigh and one on the Knee. Instead of pushing me straight through in front of him, though, he kicked mo sideways. The impetus he gave me bent aside the stubborn branch, and the next moment I found myself sprawling out on h-u.ls and knees on one side of the tree, with rifle still grasped by the muzzle, whilst the elephant was executing a dance and stamping up the ground the other side, five yards from me, evidently thinking I was under his feet. . . I shot him in the brain, dropping him dead. MAULED BY A LION.

Captain Stigaud was once badly mauled by a lion. It was at Simba Station on the Uganda railway, and the burner, after waiting one night for a chance shot, potted a lion-and heard the brute collapse in the grass close to the line.

As the moon had now gone in, it was difficult to see, I went up to the station and got my orderly to bring a lamp I passed the spot at which the lion had fallen, being able to see nothing in the grass. I then returned and could just make ont something lying in the grass. The pointsman, a boy, and a few other station hands, had gathered in a little group on the line by ttie water-tank, whilst the spot at which the lien was lying was perhaps fifty yards on In the dars the body, which was just discernible, appeared a long way below the line. I imagined that I was standing on an embankment. As a matter of fact, I afterwards discovered that tire track was only a foot above the ground level. I thought I would just have a look over the edge, and if the I on sprung I should be able to stop him, especially as he had to spring upwards. 1 approached the edge, and immediaiely the inert mass assumed life, and with a rear sprang on me with one bound. The orderly, who was a few yards behind me, immedi ately retired precipitately. As the lion sprang, I fired into his chest, and ho landed on me, In's right paw over my left shoulder^and he seized my left arm in his teeth. As my left arm was advanced in the firing position, it was the first thing .he met.

The weight of his spring knocked me down, and I next found myself lying on my back, my left arm being worried and my rifle still in my left hand underneath his body. I scrambled round, with my left arm still in his mouth, until I was kneeling alongside of him, and started pummelling him with my right tist on the back of the neck. He gave me a Anal shake and than quickly turned round, and disappeared in the grass a little nearer to the station than I was. I reloaded and covered him, but could not sea him clearly enough to lire. I then passed the spot at whicn he was lying, keeping my rifle pointed towards him. I could not see him in the grass, and, thinking him well left alone, continued towards the siation, meeting the admiring audience who had witnessed the scene jmT psst the water tank.