In Wildest Africa, Vol. 1

Part 1

IN WILDEST AFRICA

From a Photograph by Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.

C. G. Schillings]

IN WILDEST AFRICA

BY C. G. SCHILLINGS AUTHOR OF “WITH FLASHLIGHT AND RIFLE IN EQUATORIAL EAST AFRICA”

TRANSLATED BY FREDERIC WHYTE

WITH OVER 300 PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR’S NEGATIVES, TAKEN BY DAY AND NIGHT; AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

VOL. I

LONDON HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW 1907

Preface

I never dreamed that my book With Flashlight and Rifle--alike in its German and its English and American editions--would receive everywhere so kind a welcome, or that it would make for me so many new friends, both at home and abroad.

I have been encouraged by this success to give a fresh series of my studies of African wild life and of my “Nature Documents,” as Dr. Ludwig Heck has designated my photographs, in the present work.

I should like to express my gratitude once again to all those who, in one way or another, have furthered my labours in connection with these two books, especially to Dr. Heck himself and the other men of eminence and learning whose names I mentioned in my preface to With Flashlight and Rifle. A complete list of all my kind helpers and well-wishers would be too long to print here. I am deeply indebted, too, to the many correspondents--men of note and young schoolboys alike--who have written to me to express their appreciation of my achievements. Their praises have gone to my heart. I owe a special word of thanks to President Roosevelt, who smoothed the way for my book in the United States by his reference to me in his own volume Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter. I take the more pleasure in discharging this debt in that I had long derived intense enjoyment from President Roosevelt’s masterly descriptions of wild life and sport in America. President Roosevelt has always been one of the foremost pioneers in the movement for the preservation of nature in all its forms, and has made every possible use of the resources placed at his disposal by his high position to further this end.

This new book of mine is in form a series of impressions and sketches, loosely strung together; but it will serve, I hope, indirectly to win over my readers to the one underlying idea--the idea upon which I harp so often--of the importance of taking active steps to prevent the complete extermination of wild life.

Like With Flashlight and Rifle, this supplementary work can claim to stand out from the ranks of all other volumes of the kind as regards the character of its illustrations. All those photographs which I have taken myself are reproduced from the original negatives without retouching of any kind. Every single one, therefore, is an absolutely trustworthy record of a scene visible at a given hour upon the African velt by day or by night. I insist upon this point because herein lie both the value and the fascination of my pictures.

In his introduction to the English edition of With Flashlight and Rifle Sir Harry Johnston declares that that work was “bound to produce nostalgia in the lines of returned veterans”; I trust that In Wildest Africa will bring also to such readers a breath from the wilderness awaking in them memories of exciting experiences on the velt. Above all, I trust that its appeal will be not to grown readers alone, but that it will have still stronger attractions for the coming generation.

A preface should not be too long. I shall conclude with the expression of the hope that I may be able presently to secure a new collection of “Nature Documents.”

C. G. SCHILLINGS.

C. G. Schillings, phot.]

Contents of Vol. I

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE SPELL OF THE ELELESCHO 1

II. FROM THE CAVE-DWELLER’S SKETCH TO THE FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH 88

III. NEW LIGHT ON THE TRAGEDY OF CIVILISATION 107

IV. THE SURVIVORS 139

V. SPORT AND NATURE IN GERMANY 179

VI. THE LONELY WONDER-WORLD OF THE NYÍKA 204

VII. THE VOICES OF THE WILDERNESS 283

Part 2

List of Illustrations in Vol. I

PAGE

Frontispiece--Portrait of the Author.

Lion Study v

Young Dwarf Antelope vii

Armed Natives ix

Black-hoofed Antelopes xi

Gulls xiii

A Giraffe Photograph 1

My “Boys” organising a “Goma” 2

Bearers indulging in a Bath 3

A Masai ol’ moruan (old man) 4

Group of Masai 5

A memento mori of the Velt 9

Dwarf Gazelles on the Velt 11

Masai Herdsmen 13

Young Masai Dancing and Singing 17

Bearers on the March 21

Transport Bearers in Difficulties 21

The Author being Carried across a Swamp 23

How Mules and Asses are got across a River 24

Two of my Wandorobo Guides facing 24

A Halt of my Caravan on the Velt 25

Masai Warriors 29

Group of Masai 33

A Party of my trusty Companions 37

Bearers making their way through high grass 41

The Caravan on the March 45

Part 3

A Herd of Zebras taking Refuge from the Heat of the Midday Sun facing 48

Flamingoes on the margin of a Lake 49

Flamingoes flying down to the Lake margin 53

Alfred Kaiser in Arab costume 55

Group of Gnus 58

Nile Geese on the Natron Lake 58

A Herd of Grant’s Gazelles 59

Crested Cranes and Zebras 59

A Camp on the Velt 63

Native Settlement on the Pangani River 67

Group of Eland Antelopes 72

A Herd of White-bearded Gnus 73

A Masai Dance 77

A Herd of White-bearded Gnus (i) at close quarters; (ii) a more distant view; (iii) they show their disquiet; (iv) they decide to retreat facing 80

Effects of Heat and Mirage 81

A Hot Day in the Great Rift Valley 85

Group of Masai 87

Prehistoric Sketch on a Fragment of Ivory 88

Old Picture of a female Hippopotamus 91

An old German Picture of the Giraffe 93

Hottentot Hunters: a sketch of two hundred years ago 95

Ancient Egyptian representations of Giraffes and other animals 97

Sketches of Animals made by the Bushmen 99

Black-tailed Antelopes running through high grass 101

Bearers on the March 103

A Rhinoceros moving through velt grass 107

Three large Gorillas shot by Captain Dominick 115

Troop of Lions in broad daylight 121

Part 4

Herd of Elephants in South Africa, by Harris 127

Group of Wild Animals at Hagenbeck’s zoological gardens 133

Young Grant’s Gazelles 139

’Mbega Monkeys 140

A ’Mbega facing 142

East African Wild Buffaloes 143

Modern Methods of Taxidermy: Setting up a Giraffe 146-149

Male Giraffe Gazelle 150

Dwarf Antelope 152

Giraffe Gazelles 152

Snow-white Black-hoofed Antelope 153

New Species of Hyena (Hyena schillingsi) 153

Dwarf Musk Deer 158

A Pair of Guerezas 159

Black-hoofed Antelope 164

Giraffe Gazelle and Dwarf Antelope 165

Head of an African Wart-hog 168

Nest of Ostrich’s Eggs 169

Drying Ornithological specimens 174

Group of Author’s Trophies 175

Women of the Rahe Oasis 177

Egyptian Geese in a Swamp 179

The Nyíka: a Bird’s-eye View facing 200

Oryx Antelopes 204

A Velt Hillock 205

The Summit of Mount ’Ngaptuk 207

A Look-out Place 211

Black-hoofed Antelopes 216, 217

Part 5

Black-tailed Antelopes 222, 223

Masai Hartebeests 230

Giraffe Gazelle 231

Grant’s Gazelles facing 234

Grant’s Gazelles 237

White-bearded Gnus and Zebras taking Refuge from the Midday Sun facing 240

An old Acacia 244

A typical Landscape 245

Hungry Vultures 249

Flamingoes in Flight 252, 253

Storks on the Wing 258

Storks gathering for Migration 259

Remains of Rhinoceroses 261

Crested Cranes in Flight 264

Vultures and Marabous 265

Herd of Waterbuck 270

Oryx Antelopes 271

Grant’s Gazelles 276

Hartebeests near the Western ’Ndjiri Swamps 277

Map of a Day’s Movements and Observations 279

Flamingoes on the Margin of the Natron Lake 281

A Francolin perched on a Thorn-bush 283

Flight of Sandfowl 287

Zebras and Gnus facing 292

An Alarum-turaco 295

Nest of Weaver-birds 301

A Shrike on the Look-out 309

Brook with an Underground Channel 315

Part 6

The Spell of the Elelescho

On the afternoon of January 14, 1897, a small caravan of native bearers, some fifty strong, was wearily making its way across the wide plain towards its long-wished-for goal, Lake Nakuro, which was at last coming, into sight in the far distance. The appearance of the bearers and their worn-out clothing showed plainly that the caravan had made a long journey. And so it was. Weakened by fever, I was coming from the Victoria Nyanza in the hope of making a quicker recovery in this more elevated district. As is the way when one is convalescent, life seemed to me something doubly beautiful and desirable now that, after lying seriously ill for weeks, I was recovering from the fever. I had been all but despaired of by the English officers who had kindly taken care of me, Mr. C. W. Hobley and Mr. Tompkins, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. I had caught the disease in the marshes of the Nyanza and in my tramp through the wild Sotik and Nandi country, then unexplored or very little known. During the last few days our march had once more been imperilled by hostile tribes, the rebel Wakamassia, but this danger was all but past now that we were entering the uninhabited region of the Nakuro, Elmenteita and Naiwasha Lakes, in the district known to the Masai as En’aiposha.

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