In Wildest Africa, Vol. 2

Part 1

IN WILDEST AFRICA

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. II

LONDON HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW 1907

Contents of Vol. II

CHAP PAGE

VIII. IN A PRIMEVAL FOREST 319

IX. AFTER ELEPHANTS WITH WANDOROBO 370

X. RHINOCEROS-HUNTING 431

XI. THE CAPTURING OF A LION 470

XII. A DYING RACE OF GIANTS 511

XIII. A VANISHING FEATURE OF THE VELT 550

XIV. CAMPING OUT ON THE VELT 578

XV. NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY UNDER DIFFICULTIES 637

XVI. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAY AND BY NIGHT 657

List of Illustrations in Vol. II

PAGE

Young Dwarf Antelope v

Cormorants vii

Spurred Geese 319

Views of Kilimanjaro 322, 323, 327

River-bed Vegetation on the Velt 331

A Fisherman’s Bag 335

Clatter-bills 340, 341

A Marsh-land View 346

Part 2

Snow-white Herons 347

A Pair of Crested Cranes 349

A Snake-vulture 349

Preparing to Skin a Hippopotamus 352

Hippopotami Swimming 353

Head of a Hippopotamus 357

A Wandorobo Chief 359

Egyptian Geese 364

A Wounded Buffalo 365

Hunting Record-card 367

A Sea-gull 369

A Masai throwing his Spear 370

A Hippopotamus on his way to the Swamp facing 370

Oryx Antelopes 374

Waterbuck 375

Wandorobo Guides on the March 380

A Party of Wandorobo Hunters 381

A Feast of Honey 386

Acacia-tree denuded by Elephants 387

An Oryx Antelope’s Methods of Defence 389

A Dwarf Kudu 390

Zebras 392

Giraffe Studies 392

Zebras on the open Velt 393

Laden Masai Donkeys 397

Pearl-hens on an Acacia-tree 393

A pair of Grant’s Gazelles taking to Flight facing 398

Grant’s Gazelles 402

Part 3

A Good Instance of Protective Colouring 402

Grant’s Gazelles 403, 408, 409

Young Masai Hartebeest 411

A Herd of Hartebeests 414

Hartebeests with Young 415

Waterbuck 415

The Skinning of an Elephant 420, 421

A Missionary’s Dwelling 424

Elephants killed by the Author 426, 427

Some African Trophies 429

Black-headed Herons 431

Rhinoceros Heads 434, 435

An Eland Bull facing 438

An Eland, just before the Finishing Shot 441

An Eland Bull 445

Rhinoceroses, with and without Horns 450, 451

Snapshot of a Rhinoceros at twenty paces 455

Shelter from a Rhinoceros 459

An Emaciated Rhinoceros 461

Specimen of Stone against which Rhinoceroses whet their Horns 463

A “Rhino” in sitting posture facing 464

A Rock-pool on Kilimanjaro 467

Masai Killing a Hyena with Clubs 470

The Moods of a Lion Cub 472, 473

Record of a Lion-hunt 479

A Lion at Bay 483

Studies of a Trapped Lion 485

The Lion ... had dragged the Trap some distance facing 488

Part 4

Carrying a Live Lion to Camp 489

A Captured Lioness 492

A Trapped Lion roaring 493

Flashlight Photograph of a Lion 495

Photograph of a Lion at five paces 499

Hauling a Live Hyena into Camp 501

Hyena Chained up in Camp 505

Masai making game of a Trapped Hyena 507

Specimens of Elephant-tusks 511

Record Elephant-tusks 513

A Store of Elephant-tusks 517

Auk and Auk’s Egg 521

Thicket frequented by Elephants 525

Velt Fires 532, 533

An old Acacia-tree 537

Studies of Elephants in Dense Forest Growth facing 540

Elephants and Giraffe--a Quaint Companionship 544, 545

A Young Lion 549

Study in Protective “Mimicry” 550

Giraffe Studies 552, 553; 558, 559; 564, 565

Giraffes in Characteristic Surroundings facing 568

Head of a Giraffe 569

Giraffe Studies 574, 575

Giraffa schillingsi, Mtsch. facing 576

Crested Cranes on the Wing 577

Hungry Vultures 578

Pitching Camp 579

My Taxidermist at Work 581

Part 5

Termite Ant-hills 583

An unusually large Ant-hill 587

Prince Löwenstein 589

Destroying an Ant-hill with Pick and Shovel 590

Serving out Provisions 592

Bearer’s Wife preparing a Meal 592

Young Baboons in front of my Tent 593

Young Ostriches 593

Marabou Nests 595, 598

Feathered members of my Camp 599

A rather Mixed-up Photograph 601

My Rhinoceros: in the Berlin “Zoo” and on the Velt 606, 607

How my captive “Rhino” was Carried to Camp 612

Carrying a Dead Leopard 612

My “Rhino” and her Two Companions 613

A Young Hyena extracted from its Lair 613

Vultures: On the Wing 618 Hovering over a Carcase 619 Moving away from a Carcase 621

My Pelicans 623

A Siesta in Camp 625

A Strange Friendship 628

“Fatima” Prowling Round 629

Carrying a fine Leopard 631

Killing Game in accordance with Mohammedan rites 633

Cutting up the Carcase 633

A Trapped Leopard 635

The Baboon and the Little Black Lady 636

Moonlight on the Velt facing 636

A Fowl of the Velt 637

Part 6

A River-horse Resort 639

One of the Peaks of Donje-Erok 641

Drawing Water for the March 643

Vultures 645

Flashlight Photographs 648, 649

My Night-apparatus in position 653

A Pet of the Caravan 654

A Baobab-tree 655

Flashlight Photograph of a Mongoose 657

Apparatus for Night Photography 660, 661

Vultures contesting the Possession of Carrion 665

First Dry-plate Photograph, probably, ever taken in the African Desert 667

Photographic Mishaps: Cracked Glass Plate 669 Plate Exposed Twice 673

Telephotograph of Ostriches 677

Photographs of Birds taken at distances varying from 20 to 200 paces 681

Telephotographs of Birds on the Wing 683

Dwarf Gazelle, photographed at sixty paces 684

Jackal taking to Flight, startled by the Flashlight 685

Lioness frightened away from Carcase by the Flashlight facing 688

Aiming at a Pigeon and Hitting a Crow! facing 688

Hand-camera Photograph of a Jackal 689

Photograph of a Jackal taken with my first Night-apparatus 689

Flashlight Photography: my Native Models 691

Flashlight Failures 694, 695; 697, 698

Photographic Studies of Antelopes shot by the Author 699

Jackals facing 702

East-African Antelopes shot by the Author 703

More Antelopes 707

Part 7

Spotted and Striped Hyenas and Jackal 711

A Jackal in full Flight 713

Guinea-fowl 715

Farewell to Africa 716

VIII

In a Primeval Forest

Scenes of marvellous beauty open out before the wanderer who follows the windings of some great river through the unknown regions of Equatorial East Africa.

The dark, turbid stream is to find its way, after a thousand twists and turns, into the Indian Ocean. Filterings from the distant glaciers of Kilimanjaro come down into the arid velt, there to form pools and rivulets that traverse in part the basin of the Djipe Lake and at last are merged in the Rufu River. As is so often the case with African rivers, the banks of the Rufu are densely wooded throughout its long course, the monotony of which is broken by a number of rapids and one big waterfall. Save in those rare spots where the formation of the soil is favourable to their growth, the woods do not extend into the velt. Trees and shrubs alike become parched a few steps away from the sustaining river. The abundance of fish in the river is tremendous in its wilder reaches--inexhaustible, it would seem, despite the thousands of animal enemies. The river continually overflows its banks, and the resulting swamps give such endless opportunities for spawning that at times every channel is alive with fry and inconceivable multitudes of small fishes.

It is only here and there and for short stretches that the river is lost in impenetrable thickets. Marvellous are those serried ranks of trees! marvellous, too, the sylvan galleries through which more usually it shapes its way! They take the eye captive and seem to withhold some unsuspected secret, some strange riddle, behind their solid mass of succulent foliage. It is strange that these primeval trees should still survive in all their strength with all the parasitic plants and creepers that cling to them, strangling them in their embrace. You would almost say that they lived on but as a prop to support the plants and creepers in their fight for life. Convolvuli, white and violet, stoop forward over the water, and the golden yellow acacia blossoms brighten the picture.

In the more open reaches dragonflies and butterflies glisten all around us in the moist atmosphere. A grass-green tree-snake glides swiftly through the branches of a shrub close by. A Waran (Waranus niloticus) runs to the water with a strange sudden rustle through the parched foliage. Everywhere are myriads of insects. Wherever you look, the woods teem with life. These woods screen the river from the neighbouring velt, the uniformity of which is but seldom broken in upon by patches of vegetation. The character of the flora has something northern about it to the unlearned eye, as is the case so often in East Africa. It is only when you come suddenly upon the Dutch palms (Borassus æthiopicus, Mart., or the beautiful Hyphæne thebaica, Mart.) that you feel once again that you are in the tropics.

C. G. Schillings, phot.

VIEW OF MAWENZI, THE HIGHEST PEAK BUT ONE OF KILIMANJARO, TAKEN WITH A TELEPHOTO-LENS.]

C. G. Schillings, phot.

VIEW OF KILIMANJARO, TAKEN AT SUNSET.]

The river now makes a great curve round to the right. A different kind of scene opens out to the gaze--a great stretch of open country. In the foreground the mud-banks of the stream are astir with huge crocodiles gliding into the water and moving about this way and that, like tree-trunks come suddenly to life. Now they vanish from sight, but only to take up their position in ambush, ready to snap at any breathing thing that comes unexpectedly within their reach. Doubtless they find it the more easy to sink beneath the surface of the river by reason of the great number of sometimes quite heavy stones they have swallowed, and have inside them. I have sometimes found as much as seven pounds of stones and pebbles in the stomach of a crocodile.

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