Wild Animal Trapping.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 11, 16 March 1910, Page 42

Wild Animal Trapping.

By

A. W. Rolker.

Author of ** Babies of the Zoo,” etc. Illustrated by George Varian.

THE business of the modern wild animal dealer is much like that of a stock raiser or a seeds merchant or dry-goods man or an/ Other tradesman —he takes his orders from the thirty-two points of the comgrass, and sends his agents, or trappers,

to the ends of the four quarters of the globe to fill the commissions. These sturdy, courageous hunters, braving fevers and privations and unafraid of man, •fceast, or devil, penetrate lands and wiljilernesses where no white -man’s foot has Stood before. They reach into Nature’s storehouse of forest, swamp, and jungle, •Snaring, hunting, trapping and kidnapping the strange wild captives seen in %mr menageries. The work of these adventurous men, who sometimes enlist entire villages of savages to aid, is an initeresting chapter, being an account of jthe earliest history of the different species iff our wild beast friends. Among the easiest victims of the wild animal trapper of to-day arc the very Species commonly supposed the most Clangorous—those most fascinating of all beasts, the big cat animals. Jl’irr.e was when even those miracles of Strength and agility, the tawny lion and ii.s faithful mate, were betrayed into pitJalls and, snarling and broken-hearted, Svere ignominiously jounced from the interior toward the eoast, hundreds of miles over ruts and stones, in rude wagons drawn by scores of howling, yelling Kaffirs. But in .these days the experienced i'Jtnapper rarely tries for adult beasts. Bake the stock raiser he looks upon a grown pair of lions as his assets—not to be slaughtered unless in the necessity of self-defence, nor to be taken at risk of death in captivity—but to supply himat intervals with fine young whelps, (Strong, sturdy, and with all the hardiness, intelligence, and inborn grandeur (that as a rule make the forest-bred lion a more valuable brute than his captiveborn brother. In fact, so impertinent are some of these trappers that, when they learn of evidences of the stork hovering over a lion home, they calmly settle themselves at the nearest village and await not only the coming of the fuzzy princes, but even the time when experience tells they may ibe kidnapped. With but little chance of failure these cubs may be reared. Neither wagons nor hosts of savages are required to transport them. Cuddling close, sleeping Tniu-.h and consulting goat’s milk through ■ubber-nippled bottles, they may bo carried in arms or in baskets throughout an Overland journey of a thousand miles or more, whither desrtroying civilization has driven the noble beasts during recent years of inroad.

To steal a litter of lion cubs is not so difficult a feat as might 'be supposed. In the heart of the deepest, darkest tangle of cane, thorn, and bushrope the lion

mother has worked a clearing and scratched and gathered a nest of leaves and grass upon which to ’bed her young.

Here the yellow babies lie, huddled and mewing, or sprawling over one -another in kitten play, while the anxious mother, fawning close beside her magnificent lord and master, lies, chin on forepaws, eyes closed and ears alert and twitching. Not

in the wide world, it would seem, was family ever so protected. And ye;, safely hidden in a thicket to leewar , where no wind can carry the strong, human scent recognisable almost t >

every warm-blooded creature except man himself, the trapper is hard at work. Beside him is a .pair of Kaffir hunter-. with hits guns and repeating rifles, an I

hour after hour the men sit silently until the lion parents, unsuspicious of impending danger, depart to hunt thcii-me-al. Often, as a preliminary, the ma' - lion lowers his nose toward the ground and emits that terrifying, reverberating bass roar that strikes panic to th.hearts of all living things within earshot and startles them to a betraying flight—the very object of the roar, it i i supposed. The crack of a dried twig sounds sharply; scarcely more than a« i r wafted by a sudden breeze the brush and (bushes rustle and part, and with kingly head uplifted and nostrils scenting, the magnificent monarch steps, soft-padded and noiseless, through the thicket, followed by his regal spouse. One hour, two, and even three may pass before the lions have struck down itheir buck; and the kidnappers, making sure only that the formidable beai-i s have gone, move to their robbery. On hands and knees, creeping and crawling as only experienced hunters can, nois less and ever ready for sudden attack, the men progress through the maze o ! cane and vine and bush, until they eom<to the thicket where the young oneis 1 asleep. They may be kittens, with eye scarcely more than open, and may b’ picked up and bagged before they can stagger away on tiny legs. Or, themay be four-weeks-old whelps, lively an 1 frisky, showing their inborn hatred o’ man by spitting and trying to scratch when picked up in arnns. Four, fiv - even six young lions may be gathered uh in this way to bo borne to the neares 1 station and raised in captivity, while out of the depths of the jungle, deeo ’nln the nigiht, roll the rumbling challenges of the bereaved parents.

Frequently it ha-npens that the cubs are grown so tall that the family hsi* loft its lair, and the lithe, yellow mother, at

this stage often deserted by her mate and more alert and ferocious than ever, emerges, grim, gaunt, and sinewy, her sturdy cubs playing and tumbling about her. If such a family is located, unless the mother is trapped by pitfall, she must be killed either by the white man’s bullet or by a hurricane of the Kaffirs’ assagais before a desecrating hand may rest upon her babies, who, the protectress dead, are easily run down and roped or snared.

How a lion is eaught by pitfall is best told in connection with the trapping of tigers, those magnificent, huge, orange-black-striped felines that equal the lion in size, strength, and agility, and certainly excel him in ferocity, elegance of form, grace of movement, and splendour of skin. Infinitely more blood-thirsty

and daring than the lion, the adultcaught tiger is less proud and sensitive Mian his magnificent half-brother and

less apt to die owing to captivity. Ftae this reason, and because of facilities fog safely transporting these heavy, mighty beasts to neanby seaports, the monarch of India is frequently trapped even, when full-grown. Into the heart of tihe tiger district th® intrepid hunter plunges, news of his coming mysteriously flying ahead of hint from village to village, where natives* are only too anxious to decry the cattlekilling marauder. But how to capture one of these suspicious, treacherous, seven-hundred-pound catis and cage him or else lead him through a hundred on more miles of jungle, is a problem that ■might puzzle any one but an East Indian or a wild animal trapper. The trap, known as a “pitfall,” is excavated within convenient distance of the tiger lair, and near a watering place, where footprints betray where the animal drinks. Not far from here, in the densest tangle of cane and creeper thicket, where no sunray ever pierces, lies the culprit in ills forbidding home. The dry, brown grass is pressed and matted where he has stretched himself. Dark orange hairs, short and shiny, shed from the gorgeous coat, lie thickly here and there, Skulls and bones, delicate and thin, stout and heavy, are strewn about. In a corner is the rust-red mark where the most recent victim—a bullock, judging by the horns —was dragged. The trapper sits', rifle across knees and eyes and ears strained for a surprise, while two brown men sink the “pitfall” wherein the beast will be decoyed to hurl himself. Down goes the huge, bottle-shaped hole, ten ■feet deep, ten feet in diameter at the base and seven feet across at the surface 1 , while a third native weaves cane and bamboo into network to cover the gaping mouth of the trap. A kid with a stone tied to an ear is secured to the middle of the frail cover, which is then shoved across the opening. Tortured by the weight of the dangling stone, and frightened because of loneliness, the unfortunate kid bleats piteously as the men withdraw. Far into the jungle the mournful sound penetrates almost incessantly—for hours, sometimes for several day before the lazy slayer stirs. Then he comes, noiseless as a shadow. The thickest cane, through which it seems only a hare could squirm, the lithe, magnificent ■beast pierces without the rustling

of a leaf. Guided by sound and scent he approaches nearer and nearer, white belly to the ground. Whether attacking man or beast, his attack is a surprise and a spring. He could advance in the open and outdistance even the fleetest' buck in a few bounds; Ibut this is not the nature of the beast, even when attacking a tethered kid. Crouching low, nervous quivers running across his speeklessly groomed skin, and eyes gleaming, he aims. A crash—the great' body describes a long, wide arc, and with a snarl he lands on.his prey, dashing headlong, kid, network and all, into the dark pit. Surprised, frightened, and maddened, the trapped brute unreasonably fights right and left, tearing the kid, splintering the fatal network and attacking the walls of the pit. . When his first fury is expended he espies the opening overhead. With all the experience and cuteness and wonderful agility •of the beasts of his family, he estimates and tries to spring out of the hole; but the overhanging walls lend no . foothold, the feat being even more difficult than that of a man jumping out of a hogshead. Again and again the animal springs, bringing down elawfuls of dirt and stone, until he. begins to be exhausted, and, snarling, paces his narrow prison, seeking an exit.

But a tiger in a pitfail is a tiger only half-caught. The problem is to pull him out of his predieament and to market him. Often, especially in pitfalls Klug for lions, a gigantic mousetrap is placed in the pit, so the animal falls directly into the stout cage, when the doors relentlessly snap after him. In that case, trap, captive, and all are simply pulled out of the pit, the animal having caged itself. But the East Indian prefers a more spectacular method for noosing . his tiger. A net of rattan ropes, stout' beyond all tearing and ten feet Square, is thrown into the pit, and the itiger, frenzied with the sound of voices and the mysterious tiling thrown at turn in semi-darkness, attacks it furious-

ly, biting and tearing. One after another, his paws poke through the meshes and lie rolls and tosses and jumps and squirms, anvd car-splitting snarls and

angered cat-cries, becoming more and more tangled with every attack, and lighting more desperately as the coils tighten about him, until he lies still, having bound himself head and paw. Then the tiger trapper descends into the pit and passes ropes and slings around the splendid body, which is hauled to the surface, and, oftenest, lifted into a cage on wheels. Generally, th£ net is then severed and the tiger unbound, while the cage trundles to market. If the captive is an extraordinarily vicious beast, however, he remains fettered until locked in a permanent cage. Frequently a tiger is actually led to market. A rattan collar having been woven around the beast's neck, a pair of twentyloot ropes are attached to the opposite sides of this. Then each rope is manned by hunters who while proceeding pull against each other in continual tug-of-war, the tiger being fits powerless as if riveted in the middle of an iron bar.

Nearly every device for trapping the lion and the tiger is used in catching the other cat animals—that most treacherous and cunning of all night prowlers, the black panther, pitch-dark, sleek, smooth, glossy, and yellow-eyed—his near relative, the stealthy, yellow, black-spotted leopard of Asia and Africa • —and his taller, more powerful and more dangerous counterpart of South America, the jaguar. Most' jaguars are caught while babies by the natives either by kidnapping, or by killing their mother in the midst of her cubs. But in one respect at least the trapping of a half or three - quarter grown jaguar presents even more difficulty than the capture of lion or tiger. Less powerful and formidable and daring than those great brutes, the jaguar makes up this deficiency with the most surprising caution and cunning. In Dutch Guiana, S.A., in the midst of a profusion of deer and tapir and of all description, I have known these royal beasts to hunt only when at a distance of miles from their lairs, presumably to prevent tracking to their strongholds. To capture a jaguar an oven simpler contrivance than the pitfall is employed. This is the huge live-mouse-trap before mentioned for use in catching lions and tigers. Young trees four or five inches i i diameter are felled, trimmed, and cut into six-foot lengths, then sharpened and » riven two-feet into the ground to form the bars of the trap, which when comp'eted will form a cage just wide enough for the animal to stand up in. Then the bars are notched and secured with crossbars and roof-bars. A gate, weighted with one or two hundred pounds of roek s and boulders, is suspended, so that when the jaguar grasps the bait—a monkey or a small dog—a catch is released and the beast has caged himself.

Caught in thw narrow prison, where the captive barely finds room to turn or laise a paw, he is incapable of fight, and ears thrown back, lips drawn upward and snarling, he crouches in an attitude of fury, raking with a paw through the liars to grasp his tormentors with outstretched dagger like talons. The transfer into a permanent cage of steel is simple. 'Pho cage, door open, is set and la.died against one side of the trap, the bars of which are eventually pulled out; so the jaguar, scenting liberty, darts into his new home, which is loaded on a bullock or donkey cart.

Interesting though the work of the wild animal trapper is while hunting the big felines, at best it is retail compared to hunting expeditions when white men enlist entire Kaffir villages to scour the deserts and jungles of Africa for one of the big “drives,” by which are caught zebra, giraffe, buffalo, antelope ami many species of deer often seen in our menageries. Preliminaries to this extensive hunt, in which from 15(H) to 2000 Kaffirs participate, often require weeks of preparation. An enormous circular stockade, ten feet high and a mile in diameter and equipped with a huge, V-shaped entrance, opening one or two miles across from point to point, is erected. Like an endless black snake, the regiment of hunters threads through the wilderness. travelling hours into the heart of the hunt-ing-ground, where the line of men is turned to a gigantic horseshoe, tour or five miles across the open ends. Stumbling, breaking and crashing through t-ha thicket, the human drag-net advances, sweeping everything in front into the stockade. So dense is the vegetation that only now and then a glinqise of the startled game may be seen. Fragile and graceful, a herd of a hundred antelope appears in the distance, dashing for dear life over a knoll in the fateful direction. The long, slim necks of giraffes may be discerned towering high above the cane and grass, the fleet-footed animals racing at breakneck with a herd of startled zebras trampling a wide swath, mown like a road. Everywhere, as if pursued by (ire, the wild creatures flee at the mysterious, terrifying din from 2000 savage throats and th * clanking of shields and spears by as many pairs of knotty arms. And finally, as the van of the drive enters the arms of th el V and the fleeing beasts may bo seen, the racket is increased a hundredfold. Antelope, eland, deer, buffalo, giraff*. zebra, ostrich, ami even a rhinoceros or two, may be seen running in panicky fright amid hyenas, jackals, leopards, and even lions, the beasts forgetting common enemies in the Hight for life which is ott all. Running at top speed, swinging shields and spears and yelling like lemons, th« Kaffirs close in. driving the laggards into

the opening, while the animals behind crowd those m front into the huge circle, where there is a North's ark of confusion. On and on drive the Kaffirs-. Here a buffalo or a jaguar realises the trap ahead, and turn* on his pursuers, but a shower af assegais or the creek of a white man’s rille ends the dispute. and the ebony drivers, panting and (.ripping sweat, rush onward, leaping over beasts crushed or maimed, until the last is In the stockade.

Time was when the Kaffir killed every creature so trapped. But in these days the white man has taught his black brother to be provident, and those beasts required by the trappers are lasooed 1 , whilst the largest ones of use to the Kaffirs are speared or shot, the rest of the captives being released. As might be expected, among the most dangerous animals to capture are those huge beasts, the pachyderms; and one of the most difficult of these to get is the three ton, waddle-legged picture of stumpy awkwardness, the hippopotamus, or giver horse. To capture, cage, and transport one of these giants up and down hill, over roeks and stones, and fallen tree Strunks, through hundreds of miles of Virgin forest, is manifestly imprax-tieab'e. It is the baby "hippo.” the chubby, pink, bumpy faced little calf which the trapper kidnaps after a momentous duel with its anxious, solicitous mother.

/ ’About the surest way of catering one •f these calves is by the speetacater native method of harpoonreg the eofonsal parent, which, arointed and in it* element, is one of the moat formidable antagonist* among wild animate. The expedition cadeists of five or six eannes. each containing .two hunters ami a harpooner, the former to propel ths vessel and to guido and look after the rope once the man with the tenor, standing in the bow, has hurled his murderous weapon. The harpoon is a ponderous thing. The shaft, of hardwood, is ten or twelve feet long, terminating in a onefoot, iron, spear shaped head' supplied with a cruel barb.

Not a word is whispered; not even the •wish of a paddle is hoard as the Hoot drifts toward the nnanepieiowa animals. The sounds of the grunting, snorting and Bplashing giants come from ahead. Like so many water rnunded rocks. the wet, dark backs of the benstn become visible, and ever and anon on* of these disappears to rise at a considbrable distance.

Diving from tfio broad neck of a big eow, a queer little caricature of a liippoJotamus may Is? seen as, frightened, it urn pt into the water. The mother is a

marked victim 1 . On glide the canoes, their naked, black crews worked to the highest pitch of excitement. The boats enter the midst of the herd which, heads submerged, is still unconscious of danger. Steadily the nearest canoe bears down on the cow. The harpooner arises cautiously. tall and sinewy, and steadies his lance. Not until the frail craft almost touches the thick skin does he let drive. Then with every ounce of might he sinks the point of the forty-pound lance deep into the boast’s back and drops into his seat to paddle. A rush, a splash, and up comes the huge, dripping head of the wounded hippopotamus with a squeal of pain and fright, while the water- reddens anil the shouts and yells of the men mingle with tire startled cries of the other “hippos” as splashing they flee in alarm. The cow dives to- the river bottom, darting right- and left to free herseif of the iron so relentlessly fastened in- her thick hide, and like whalingmen playing a whale the blacks pay out the rope or haul in stock in the long-drawn-out fight of tiring out the immense creature. Rarely at this stage does the row attack. With- a snort of fright she darts off, churning the dark water white, emitting squeal's of pain and towing the boat at surprising pace in a. vain effort to escape. Not until after an hour or more of bleeding and the moat violent' exertion does strength fail and fight begin.

With hfnodehof eyes. month wste open, head- uplifted. and the groat forefeet churning the water Like paddHv wheefe •< » small steamer, the cow suddenly turn* short tn the* attack. One root of the frightful head- nr • single thnwt with a tusk, and a canoe hr tipcat, swte tarn ent, bottom stove in, or Iwnken mtn halves, while the infuriated animal Seines the floundering men, emnehiug- them to pnlp between the dull broad grinders of its tremendous jaws- a frightful death wlueh overtook Gustave Hagen back, brother of the well-known animal deafer and trainer. Often the attack is so vicious that the rope, fastened to a buoy, must he thrown over linn rd while the men* flee, picking up the buoy only after thw ucaet has exhausted herself, durting hack an-l faith, diving and b’emling. bleeding, bleeding. Am the Iwaot fails the end of the rope is taken ashore, a •’ turn’’ in taken arnund a tree, and steelt is hnnlnd in on the struggling animal until it is brought into shallow water where, for the first time exposing a vital shoulder, a well-aimed shot or a shower of assegais brings the fine cow down. Then the baby which, frightened out of its wits, has been floundering and squealing in its mother's wake,

is picked up, eaged, and borne to the hunter’s headquarters, where for six or eight months it is fed on goat’s milk until obi enough to be sent oversea, the idol of hundreds of sight-seers.

Strange though it may seem, one of the easiest trapped animals is the largest, most powerful, and most intelligent of them all —the elephant. In India, the home of the elephants seen, in our menageries, as many a» one hundred and twenty of those ponderous, gray, lumbering beasts have been trapped at the same time; while captured herds, numbering flirty, sixty, and even eighty —* bulls, cows, and calves —are the rule rather than ’the exception.

The most spectacular and ingenious method of hunting eicphanis is by kheddah or stockade, used by the governs meat elephant catching stations in India. The sight of a hunting party from one of these stations is an inspiring one, even as an army moving to the front. In the van are the dozen or score of koomkios—those biggest, tallest, and most majestic high-caste elephants, on whom will fall the brunt of the battle. Stripped of every supevfiuone strand, the fine beasts lumber th-m.rglv the jnmgle, trunks swaying, tasks glistening, white-tterMnerl maAmvte sitting astride the ponderous necks. Behind th<* koomkies follow as many low-caste ele-

phant.* —beasts of burden, laden with ropes, axes, shovels, picks, and the hundred and one implements needful to an army of 1.200 or 2.000 brown Waters who follow afoot, armed with horns, tom-toms, matchlock guns, and other ear splitting instruments. And yet this extraordinary gathering is not all. Miles ahead, in the maze of jungle, a hundred of th* most skilful trackers have been at w-ork for weeks Ideating a herd to notify the chief elephant catcher where to set out. At the appointed place the head tracker and the catcher meet, and as the expedition nears the game all is silence. For the time even the koomkies and the pack elephants are left behind, and only the beaters are led to the front.

Gantiously, with hardly a betraying sound, and as only East Indian bushmeii can tread their way through thicket, the men, armed with their horns and tom- toms, press forward through cane and creeper and underbrush, jumping rocks and fallen tree trunks, and travelling in a mile-diametcr circle until the herd of scrawny, ill-fed, grass and nnid-plastered giants has been surround? ed. So silently and quickly do these

trained men work that not until alrmvtg the last link in the chain has closed do the huge, shy brutes scent trouble, become restive, lumber right and left, and rend- the stillness with their sealpraising trumpet sereama Thoroughly startled, the animals investigate and the herd of hillocks forges ahead, drawing nearer and nearer a point in the eirele, when suddenly, as though sprung out of the ground, an unearthly din of howls and yells and cries, accompanned by the racket of home and tom-tom*, sends the beast's sewrvying in the opposite direction*, where presently they meet the same experience. Absurd though it may seem, this aggregation of might and strength, which could override an enemy ten times as strong as the puny tormentors, is held in cheek by a circle of fear. Again and again, the line is assailed, the fine, naturally doeile brutes becoming more and more puzzled with each repulse until after hoars of fruit leas effort they baddie close n» the centre of the circle, an excited, frightened, animated avalanche, requiring the most careful nursing for fifty or sixty miles through the broad forests to prevent stampeding over the human chaff.

If a herd happens near a former fcheddah, the elephant.* are carefully driven into the big stockade, where they are overwhelmed by the koomkies, one after another. But oftenest the stockade is built around the encircled animals, this sounds of picks; sNovela, axes, saws, and fallen tree# enduring day and night by, the wei.nl orange Itemen of the beaters’ fires, who thus hold the ticaats within the circle until the monstrous fence of free trunks rears ten feet or more high. Even this profeetinn would he; as nothing were one of the beasts left to try Ms strength.; fast outside the sfoekade a fine* of heaters is maintained to keep

watch with- the terrifying din* of Mank charges and tom-toms so soon as a point in the stockade is threatened.

Only who® the test spile has been driven or set, the real saplWwe begins with- the k-oomkiiee, those splendid rascals who once roamed the jungle themselves, aml who take vfaifae delight in poshing, shoving, hutting, prodding and fadfying their former colleagues iut® si»bm.tewon. Taff, majestic, and seif-relten-t, the fine awiuvals stride into the arena grided by their mft.howts, each beast bearing from six to ten nwtive eiepitewt eatehere, who cling tlo> the hack of their mounts by a; network of ropes which enables them, to descend to work or to ascend out of danger, like so many monkeys. Bor it is a eu-riows fact thwt only rarely WiH an elephant attack a man mounted on another elephant. Generally, the koomkies are made to work in pairs. The sight of six pairs of efaphwnts sirmi'ltaneously at work capturing a half-dozen struggling trurri peifing mates is an imposing one. Like a pair of animal potreemea arresting a prisoner, the great beasts sidle alongwrrfle a victim, take him between them*, and jostle and squeeze and worry him, tail first, toward' a tree. Through a cloud of dust the huge bodies of tho hunters and the hunted are made out. Grunting, trumpeting, and fflpreafiteg, hulls, rows, and ealvev lumber in- endless eon fusion. Into the thiek oi the fight the koonvhiev th-ruet themselves, en-

couraged by shouts and cries of their jwahowte. Above this babel of nfases, the splintering of the stockade, a volley ot shot and savage yeifa of the header# tell of an attempted escape. Vet i» tho midst of IJvfa apparent chaos all « order*. Every man i» at hie post. Hera, a Mg hull has turned at bay, prodding with tusks and wildly fa»hmg with python trunk; there, « cow is being pwshed and jostled and' shoved backward, while her frantic calf wwddhm, trying to help the wnfortunnte another. If two etephwatu arc not enowgh< to crowd her, a third Mitts her into direetion with his fore-

head. Every inch is contested by the herculean fighters, rm til nearing a stout tree or stiwwp the little brown elephant catchers slide from their mouevts to the ground, crawl under the ponderous bellies and shutting, kicking feet, slip cable slings .about a hind foot and take a tarn round a tree. Baek staggers the victim, butted, prodded and bullied farther and farther, the men taking up slack until the great, grey leg is tied hard and fast against the tree where the captive is left, struggling and panting in despair, Co sea the herd fettered, one after another.

The taming of these animate, naturally so docile and intelligent, io comparatively a simple matter. For a week the big prisoners are left night and day with the tame efephanto, and with native keepers who water the strangers, feed them, befriend them with sugar fan the flies off bheir thick and yet smufa

tlve hides, and talk and even sing to them, as only East Indians can work themselves into the grace of elephants. At the end of that time the fine beasts are ready to be led home, chained between two other animals, to begin life anew, to imbibe the first principles of civilisation, and to live happy ever afterjvard.

The capture of only one other species belonging to the big pachyderms remains to be described—that of the ponderous yet fleet and agile savage of viciousness, the rhinoceros. As in the case of its near relative, the hippopotamus, it is impracticable to transport this active 5000-lb beast through virgin wilderness to the sea-coast —at least, until some railroad opens the heart of the continent. It is the mother with a little calf that is wanted, and that, unfortunately, must be killed before the baby may be stolen. How, occasionally, a “rhino” is rounded up has been described, but' nowadays the beasts are becoming too scarce, even in Abyssinia, tlie favourite 'home of the animals, to figure on supplying the market, unless by direct hunt. In fact, so rare are these interesting creatures, that some species are supposed extinct. However, in Abyssinia, as well aS in many other countries, natives have learned to anticipate the coming of the white trappers, and frequently this ferocious beast, capable of impaling a horse with a single blow, is laid low and robbed of her calf by the crude weapons of the savage. Three hundred dusky hunters, armed only with assegais and huge twohanded swords, take part in the hunt. Deep into the wilderness, skirting rivers and swamps where the “rhino” loves Ito wallow in mud, the trapping expedition penetrates until recent spoors and the deep, wide track of the big beast and the footmarks of her calf are struck. Stealing forward the hunters advance, stealthily inclosing the two animals in a circle. The snapping of twigs (marks the spot where the cow is plodding beside her calf, and the breaking of cane and brush is heard as the little one moves about noisily, while with a grunt of contentment the c-ow splashes into a wallow, only to struggle to her feet with incredible speed. The tiny rhinoceros-birds, those faithful little feathered guardians who, sitting on the backs of these pachyderms, feed on parasites and in return give alarms of danger, are fluttering uneasily. And now the wonderful scent of the poor-sighted cow forewarns. Down goes the big, overhanging lip toward the ground. The dangerous horns are tilted forward. Brush, cane, and bushes crack and with remarkable agility and frightful . impact the beast charges doggedly, snorting and grunting with rage, and tearing all in her path. Straight to the nearest hunter she charges. The trained savage jumps aside, and with yells and cries cif excitement the hunters bear down as the cow -turns to charge, this time at a group of men who draw the beast’s attention. Like down in a gale the men scatter, some knocked prone as the mighty body brushes by. But another group of tantalizers is ahead, and as the fierce cow charges—“hough!”— a, sword (strikes against a hind leg just above the foot, and with a snap a tendon

parts, making the limb uaeless. Limping on three legs, the cow turns like lightning but —■“hough!”—a second snap and the crippled animal stands rooted to the spot, at the mercy of her enemies, who a little later track the frightened calf and transport it to captivity to await the coming of the white man, the wild animal agent, who pays in silver, in glass beads, in gaudy calicoes and copper Wire.

One of the most interesting captures the wild animal trapper snakes is that of the crocodile —that dreaded, voraciors, mran-eating river hyena which infests Asia and Africa. In North Africa,

where this long, squatty, black, hornhided creature of mouth and teeth attains a length of twenty-two feet, native hunters catch the frightful antagonist with their hare hands.

During the cold season, when the tepid waters of the blue-gray rivers have been nipped with the chill of night, the long, yellow-eyed faces of the monsters appear on the surface of the water and lazily the endless, knotty-skinned animals drag themselves high up on the sand-hills to sleep and bask in the warm sun. Sprawling over one another in heaps, like tangled tree trunks, the saurian® lie for hours without the least sign of life—ready victims for the trapper; for on land this beast is but a timid, cowardly creature until attacked. Only then the vicious, mighty animal, handicapped by fighting -out of its own element, develops a mine

of boundless fury. Impelled by the lowest order of intelligence, which once aroused knows no fear, the animal flings itself at the enemy, never ceasing (attack until the last breath of its wonderfully tenacious life has been exhausted.

Drifting down river on rafts, the crocodile trapper and a score of native hunters noiselessly approach the shore to intercept the flight -of the slumbering reptiles into the river. From afar, by means of field-glasses, the victim has (been singled out. Nolt until the rafts grate upon the sand are the semi-torpid beasts amused. Wild, fierce squirming, the shuffle of scurrying feet and dragging bodies, and with mouths wide open, squatty legs scraping and long tails dragging, tach is in flight, scrambling and sprawling and splashing in full retreat headlong over embankments into the river. Only the flight of tihe victim lias been intercepted. Armed with long poles the hunters prod and beat the crocodile, which realizing that its only safety is in the river refuses to be driven inland, while the men aim simply to goad the reptile to attack.

(Sweeping wide arcs with its monstrous, death-dealing tail, the infuriated saurian darts forward, only to meet a blow across the nose that would fell a bull. But. life takes hold of every bone and shred and fibre in the monster’s body, and the injury but maddens to further attack, while the hunters fight in

what Seems a most reckless manner. Still, always barring the threshing, tenfoot tail that would bring down an ox like a trip-hammer, there is little danger (from the crocodile ashore. A man could (outrun the reptile and. its frightful battery of conical, needle-pointed teeth that would snap one in halves like a pipe-

stem. Prodding, butting, and beating, the unequal fight is continued for a half hour or an hour—until, with the first show of exhaustion, a terrific blow across the (broad, hideous head momentarily stuns the fighter. In an instant, then, the hunters are on top of the beast, sitting astride the body, lying across its tail, and pinning every inch of the her culean frame to the ground, while in a twinkling the trapper has slipped ropes about each ankle, draws the legs back, and secures them around the body, ren dering the reptile practically helpless. A rape is slung around tiie wide open jaws and these are drawn -together and tied shut, -while with every lash of the big tail the unfooted monster rolls over and over until, eelf-exhaUßted, he -lies still. Alien the poles are stretched alongside the -anima! and its two-bun-dred-and-fifty or three-lnindred-pound body rolled upon them-and lashed around and around and—there lies one of the fiercest of all menagerie captives, trapped and harmless as a baby.