Evening Star Newspaper, December 2, 1923, Page 76

Buffaloes Amon Thia Is the last of a series of five e _articles giving the ex- rcr of one of the most dis- inguished of American _explorers d natural scientists In pursuit of $he 51g Game or Africa. BY CARL E. AKELEY. HE buffalo is different from any other kind of animal in Africa. A lion prefers not to fight 2 man. He almost never mttacks unprovoked, and even when he does attack he is not vindictive. The elephant, like the llon, prefers to be left alone. But he i3 quicker to at- tack than the lion and he isn't satisfled merely to knock out his man enemy. Complete destruction is his aim. The buffalo Is even quicker than the elephant to take offense at man and he is as keen-sighted, clever and vindic- tive as the elephant. As a mattef of fact the domesticated bull is more likely to attack a man without provocation than any wild animal I know, and those who wan- dered around the bulls on our Western prairies in the old cattie dags on foot probably experienced the same kind of charges one gets from African buf- faloes. Neverthcless, despite all these qual- itles which are almost universally at- tributed to the African buffalo 1 am confident that the buffalo, like the ele- phant and other wild animals, has no instinctive enmity to man. That en- mity, I am sure, is acquired by experi- ence. Such initlation is lke that of a band of elephants T met on the Aberdare plateau that had seen little or nothing of man, and until they learned about men from me, they paid no more at- tention to me than if I had been an antelope. But after T had shot one or two as speclmens, they acquired the traditional elephant attitude. I had a curiously similar experience with buf- faloes. It happened in this way. Mrs. Ake- ley, Cuninghame, the famous hunter, and I had been trying for some time, but with little luck, to get buffalo spe- cimens for a group for the Field Mu- seum at Chicago. We had reason to believe that there was a herd of buffaloes living in the triangle made by the junction of the Theba and Tana rivers. As the buf- faloes would have to water from one stream or the other we felt pretty sure of locating them by following down the Theba to the junction and then up the Tana. From the swamp down the Theba to its junction with the Tana occupied three days in which we saw no fresh signs of buffalo. On the second march up the Tana, as I was traveling ahead of the safari at about midday, looking out through an opening in a strip of thorn bush that bordered the river, 1 saw in the distance a great black mass on the op-a plain which, on farther investigation with the field glasses, 1 was reasonably certain was a herd of buffaloes. * x ¥ ¥ ENDING & note back to Cunning- hame, who was in charge of the safarl, suggesting that he make camp at a hill on the banks of the Tana about two miles ahead of my position and await me there, I started off over the plaln with my two gun- boys. Coming up out of a dry streamn-bed that I had used to con- ceal my approach, I came on to a large herd of cland, and my first fear was that I had mistaken eland for buffaloes. Proceeding farther on, however, we saw a herd of about five hundred buffaloes lying up in a few scattered thorn tri four or five hundred vards away. At first it seemed an al- most Impossible situation. There was practically no cover and no means of escape in case the herd detected us and saw fit to charge. and at that | time my respect for buffaloes led me to be extremely cautlous. We worked around the herd trying to find some place where a safe ap- proach might be made. Finally, see- ng a little band of a dozen buffaloes off at one side on the bank of a ravine which offered splendid protection. we stalked them out but, unfortunately. not ore in the ba desirable as + specimep. Since this was o, 1 tried them out, giving them my wind. then going up where they could see me better. I found that they were quite different either to the Divining Rod Mystery, JFOR countless ages a divining roa in the hands of mystics has supposedly been capable of locating ore deposits and underground streams, but the storles told of its mysterious virtues were long con- sidered by modern sclence as mere remnants of medieval superstition. Discoveries in many flelds have, however, made the scientist more cautious and tolerant in his atti- tude toward phenomena disagreeing with hls ideas. The divining rod has thus been taken out of the scrap heap to which it has long been con- signed and made the subject of many officials tests to solve its mysteries. The solution of the problem seems, however, to be near at hand, experi- ments made by Muller of Zurich showing that the marvelous move- ments are mainly electrical and mag- netlc, though only those endowed with & special sensitiveness will re- epond to them. Jaggi-Perrard, one of the masters of the divining rod, placed himself at Muller’s disposal. The first experi- ment consisted In keeping & brass pendulum or divining rod of whale- bone over a copper plate charged with electflicity. The pendylum would then move back and forth violently under the action of a nega- tive charge and be silenced by a positive charge, and the divining rod was, according to the sign of the charge, deflected in an upward or downward direction. Another experiment was made in order to further examine the sub- Ject’s sensitiveness ta electric charges of opposite signs. A set of glass cups belonging to a galvanic battery was placed before Mr. Jaggl, who, though ignorant of the nature of these cups, found his divining rod to deflect alternately upward or downward on passing over them. Incidentally, these experiments ghow that the human organism, in speclal excitement, will exhibit sensi- tiveness and faculties as yet unsus- pected. The French Academy of Science has also investigated the rod of mystery, appointing a commission to experi- ment with members of the association of so-called “diviners.” In the re- port of the proceedings given by Prof. d'Arsonval, well known through his werk with electrical currents, it was stated that streams and water could be located at a depth of from fifteen to fifty-seven feet with great scouracy, : { herd just as it was entering the thorn i bush and followed hurriedly scent or the sight of man. They - nally moved off gquletly without alarm. i 1 then knew that this herd, like the Aberdare elephants, had had little or no experlence with men, and that there was perhaps less to fear from them than from the traditional buf- falo of the sportsmen. So, going back to the maln herd, I crept up boldly to within a hundred yards of them. They saw me, faced about, closely inspecting me, but with no sign of alarm, It was approaching dusk and in. this great black mass it was difficult to pick out a good pair of horns ex- cept with the aid of glasses. I carefully located a fine bull and then shot, as I supposed, at the one I had located. As I fired the animals bolt- cd, first away, then back toward me. They wheeled, ran halfway between the dead animal and myself, and pass- Ing on about a hundred yards to the right, wheeled about again and stood watching me, the bulls in front, lined up like soldlers, the calves and the cows In the background. On coming up to the dead animal T found, much to my regret, that I had shot a cow and not the bull I had picked out through the glasses. 1 returned to camp feeling that now, at last, from this herd living apparently in the open, we should have relatively little difficulty in completing our series of specimens. On the following morning, much to our disappolntment, our first glimpse of the herd was just as it disappeared in the thorn bush along the bank of the river. IDURING seven days of continual hunting, that herd which had been indifferent and unsuspecting at the beginning, like the elephants, be- came cautious, vigllant and aggres- sive. For instance. on one occasion near the close of the week, after hay- ing spent the day trying to locate the herd, I suddenly came face to face with them just at the edge of the bush at night on my way back to camp. They were tearing along at a good pace. apparently having been alarmed. 1 stepped to one side and crouched in the low grass while they passed me in a cloud of dust at twenty-five or thirty yards. Even had 1 been able to select desirable specimens at this time I should have been afraid to shoot for fear of get- ting into difcuities when they had located my position. I turned and followed them rapidly as they sped away over the hard ground until the noise of their stam- pede suddenly stopped. I then decld- ed that it was best to get to some point of vantage and await further developments. I climbed an acacia tree that cnabled me to look over the top of the bush. Fifty yards ahead I could see about fifty buffaloes lined up in & little open patch looking back on thelr trall. As I was perched in the tree enedavoring to pick out a desirable animal, I suddenly discov- ered a lone old bull buffalo coming from the bush almost directly under- neath me, sniffing and snuffing this way and that. Very slowly, very cau- tously he passed around the tree, then back to the waiting herd, when they all resumed their stampade and made good thelr escape for the day. | One morning I came in sight of the on the trail, until just at the edge of the jungle 1 happened to catch sight of the two black hoofs of an old cow be- kind the low-hanging follage. I stop- ped, expecting a charge. After a few moments 1 backed slowly away uniil| I reached a tree where I halted to await developments. Stooping down, 1 could see the buffalo’s nose and black, beady eyes as she stood mo- tionless. The rest of the herd had gone on out of hearing and I think she was quite alone In her proposed attack. After a few moments, apparently realizing that her plan had failed. she turned about and followed the hord, moving very quietly at first, then breaking into a gallop. On the following day we came up again with the herd toward evening in the same region. As we first saw them they were too far away for us to choose and shoot with certainty. We managed to ¢rawl to a falr-sized tree midway between us and the herd, and from the deep branches picked out the young herd bull uf the group, When we had shot and he had disap- peared into the bush, a calf accom- panied by Its mother gave vs a fleet- ing glimpse of ftself, with the result that we added the calf to our series. The herd disappeared into the bush and after a fey minutes we descend- ed from our perch and inspected the calf, then started off in the direction | the wounded bull had taken, and found him lying dead just & few yards away. This completed the series, much to our great joy, for by this time ve were thoroughly tired of buffalo- hunting. It/ had been a long, hard hunt and oyr safari as well as our- selves were| conslderably the worse for wear. To shoot a half-dozen buf- faloes is a very simple matter und ought to beé accomplished almast any day in Britjsh East Africa er Uganda, but to selept a series of a half dozen that will have the greatest possible scientific vialue by illustrating the de- velopmentf from babyhood to old age, is decided|y different. HESE buffaloes of the Tana coun- try that we found on the plains | of “running | very close quarters in dense jungle. » THE Africa’s Most Deadly and Vindictive “SUNDAY STAR, WAS i HINGTON, D, 'O, DECEMBER 2, [1923—PART 5. Hunters Find That Enmity Toward Man, as With the Elephant, Results From a Process of Education—Terrible Treatment of Victims Has Been Observed—Unusual Difficulties En- ‘countered in Efforts to Obtain Specimens for Exhibition Purposes—Military Form of Defense Is Employed by the Animals—Mingle “AS HE WENT INTO THE AIR, HE GRASPE! ¢ /ith Elephants. D SOME BRANCHES OVERHANGING THE TRAIL.” never go into the swamps, a fact not’ British Bast Africa, while the ani- Happily the gun boy came up in time ! photographing, measuring and pre- only confirmed by observation, but| algo indicated by the condition of the | hoofs. These are horny. round and smooth as a result of traveling on the ! hard agd more or less stony ground of the region. But the tinga-tinga buffaloes bave lived in a swamp for years and spend practically no time | on hard ground, hence the hools mals are perhaps heavier. The buffalo deserves his reputation ' beast. s one of the mwost dangerous of big- ganie animals. His eyesight is goad, he vindietive. knock-out blow or bite, the { keen scent and is vigilant and and yet he was almost stone deaf. While the lion is usually | How he dared hunt elephants or any | satisfied with giving his victim aother big game without the aid of his | buffalo, | hearing I have never been able to con- | e | when once on the trail of man, will (celve, yet he did it and did it well. long. sharp and unworn as a result of | not only persist fn his efforts to find | and ot | walking always In the soft mud water. All this is despite the that these two herds acty come in contact at the edge of the! swamp. may back into the forest at daybres In Uganda, where buffaioes are rec- ognized a® a menace to life and are of no particular value except for food, they are officially treated as vermin and one may shoot as many as he | will. Here the herds had Increased ! to an enormous extent and, because of | i the dense jungles and general inacces- sibility of the country, it was rather difficult to hunt them. While ele- phant hunting in Uganda we fouud | the buftaloes a decided nuisance, fre quently coming onto them unexpe edly while hot on an elephant trafi, | sometimes having difficulty In getting | rid of them, not wishing to shoot or stampede them because of the danger | of frightening away the elephants, to | say nothing of the constant menace into truculent old byl at The buffaloes actually mingle with the elephants, each quite indifferent to the other excepting that on one occasion we found elephant calves | charging Into a herd of buffalaes, evi- dently only in play. buffaloes, who kept at a safe distance ; but did not actually tgke alarm. belng hard-pressed by the young ele- | phants would turn, apparently with the intention of having it out, but denly the buffalo caught him and and came to rest on a sloping hillside, would always bolt before the ele-|tossed him. As he went into the air{which we could approach only by phant could actually reach her. De- | spite the fact that the tecord head, | fifty-four inches In spread, was shot by Mr. Knowles in Uganda, from our | and in the bush apparently rarely or A @general observation, the heads ln[ Uganda run smaller than those of hif, but, when he has once come up|gane out with some boys to with him, will not leave while there 'meat for camp, came upon three old lly | Is a vestige of life remaining in the | buffaloes. in some cases he will not!camp with the news, and Mrs. Akeley Other herds live in forest|leave while there 18 a fragment of the ‘and I started out to join him. Half | country, but come out into the grass- | man remaining large enough to form {way fram camp we were obliged to ilands to feed at night, always going | a target for a buffalo’s stamping ! make a wide detour to avoid an old victim. * X % % HUNTER 1 met once told me of lever, that the buffaloes had passed on an experfence he had with a buf- into same dense bush. falo, which shows in rather a terrible | follow, but suddenly came upon two | way these characteristics of the ani- | rhinos. mal. He and a companion wounded a buffalo and followed it into the long grass. It was lurking where they did | them our wing, for we were not anx- not expect It and, with a sudden ' ious to bring on a general stampede charge, was upon them before they iof the game in the nelghborhood. This The buffalo | turn brought us to the windward of knocked down the man who told me | the old cow and calf that we had first the story and then rushed after his'avolded, with the result that she came The first victim managed | charging up, had a chance to shoot. companion. to climb a tree, although without his gun. By that time the other man was dead. But the buffalo was not satis- fied. For two hours he stamped and ed man in the tree sat helplessly watching. When the buffalo left, my informant told me, the only evidence !ty feet of us. 1 of his friend was the trampled place | ‘where the tragedy had ; pyt the stami on the ground taken place. There is nothing in Af- rica more vindictive than this, a' buffalo for meat. The bullet did The old Sud- even some good sized trees. hunter followed along a path. he grasped some branches overhang- ing the trail. There he hung, unable to get up and afraid to drop down, while the wild bill beneath him charged back and forth, with his long herns ripping at the hunter's legs. | They chased There was another case of an old , we were forced to follow them for an ahout squealing and stampeding the 'elephant hunter in Uganda who shot [hour or more before again coming in Oc- |not kill the animal apd It retreated | they were stampeded by rhinos that caslonally an old cow whose calf was | Into the thick bush where there were | happened to get in our path. At last to save his master by killing the This hunter was an extraordinary | character. He was very successful | One morning Cuninghame, having, shoot He sent a runner back td rhino and calf, but soon caught up with Cuninghame. He reported, how- We started to | We quickly turned to leeward in} order not to disturb them by giving followed by the calf close at her heels, snorting like a lo- comotive. Cuninghame helped Akeley up a convenient tree. He stood at the base of the tree and I at with our guns ready, watching the old cow go tearing past within twen- ‘We continued on the buffalo trail, pede of the rhino had re- sulted in alarming the buffaloes so, that Instead of finding them nearby sight of them; and again twice more the buffaloes evidently became tired of belng chased from place to place erawling on our hands and knees in the grass for a considerable distnce. In this maneuvering it happened paring the skin. * ¥ % ¥ APOUT twepty-five miles to the northwest from the Tana, across the plain on the Theba river, marsh, where a herd of nearly a hun- the provinclal commissioner had defi- nitely said. that we were not to shoot these. We decided, finally, to ask for the privilege, which was granted, but with a warning in the form of an ex- planation—that he had told us not to shoot there because of the dagger in- valved. We found a reed marsh about one by two miles In extent, with, at that time, & foot or two of water in the buffalo trafls that criss-crossed it in all directions. On arriving and while making camp at one end of the marsh Just at dusk, we saw the herd come out on dry land a half mile away— out they returned to cover before we could approach them. In fact, during nearly two weeks that we spent there we saw them come outside the swamp only twice, each time ta return im- mediately. We made several attempts to ap- proach them in the marsh, but found tion to choose our specimens. Also it pede, so we adopted & campalgn of watchful waiting. From the camp at daybreak we would scan the marsh for the snowy cow herons that were always with the buffaloes during the daytime. These would fly about above the reeds from one part of the herd to another, and at times, where the reeds were low, they could be seen riding along perched on the backs of the animals, Having thus located the herd and de- termined the general direction of its movements we would go to a point at the edge of the marsh where it seemed likely that the animals would come out, or at least come near enough to be visible in the shorter reeds. that Mrs. Akeley was able to stalk the best bull, and a few minutes later he was finished off and we were busy It was In this way that we secured the specimen that makes the young bull of the group—and two weeka 1s a| that while it was quite possible to get | Mrs. | up to them, it was out of the ques- | would have been impossible to beat a | { tossed the remains while the wound- ! the foot of another, where we waited. | yetreat in case of a charge or stam- spent there resulted in securing no other specimen. On this ome occa- sion the buffaloes, accompanied by -the white herons, had come to within about a hundred yards of our posi- tion on the shores of the swamp. They were in reeds that practically concealed them, but the young buffalo In question, in the act of throwing Animals up his head to dislodge a bird that had frritated him, disclosed & pair of horns that indicated a young bull of the type I wanted. A heron standing on his withers gave me his position, and aiming about two feet below the bird I succeeded In killing the bull with a heart shot. (Copyright. All rights reserved.) Poultry and Game For People of Paris - PARIS, November 22. HERE i one division of the great Paris Central Markets which s called “the pavilion of poultry and game.” This par- ticular pavilion uses more than 10,000 long tons, more than 22,000,000 pounds, of its speclal provisions every year. When these markets were built, in the fifties of last century, with their twelve pavillons, covering as many street blocks, they gave the first ex- ample of steel construction on a big scale, and they still stand fast. But the number of people in Paris com- ing ta them for daily food is more than four times as great. It is twice as great as it was in the elghties. The war alone brought into Paris more than 1,000,000 refugees from devastated parts of France and from ruined forelgn lands, with other Frenchmen and forelgners to do busi- ness for them, and more than half of these have settred down and remained And it is pretty clear that all these, quite like old Parislans, like to eat chicken &nd hare, not to speak of kid and turkey and goose, all cooked in the best French style.. Until home production and easy transport from other countries began again all France was on short ra- tlons for these favorite foods. Even now the difficulties for eating as one likes are not finished in Paris. On the last day of October this very year the minister of agriculture called to- gether the representatives of the markets' supply of milk, butter and cheese and eggs and, after long argu- ing, induced them to stop sending thelr produce to other countries—at least, until next April, when winter will be over and dear cost of living may not worry housewives as it does now. As for chickens and rabbits, in the first year after the war Paris received from foreign countries only 97,000 pounds of poultry and game to help out the home production, so dimin- ished by the war. Last year Holland alone fed into the maw of Paris 434,000 pounds of such poultry and small game as it grows, and Czecho- slovakia, which was once Bohemia, sent 343,600 pounds. Altogether for- eigners sold with profit to themselves 1,632,400 pounds of poultry and game to Paris. France herself, from her own rapid- 1y recovering production, furnished Paris more than 20,000,000 pounds of these light meats. One single depart- vacation along the Swiss and French frontier. But French chickens are now eaten at home, and mostly in Parls. At present we can buy chicken enough for four persons at one meal —a two and a half pound fowl, with nothing left over, not even its shadow for broth next day—for 20 francs, which is less than a dollar and & quarter. It sound dear in France ” among middle-class people, who have the same income in francs as before the war, when 20 francs meant $4 and bought more than four times as much as now. Profiteers and work- men with high wages are the only ones able now to eat chicken pie. But in France nobody knows how to make a real, honest-to-goodness chicken pie. Chickens are cheap and plentiful in Paris from September to January. Be- fore that season you have to Pay spring-chicken prices, and after it they are old or dear. Geese come in with November and go out with the new year—and they are good stewed and stmmered and pot-roasted in & saucepan with bacon and beans, which is the far-famed ‘“cassoulet” of Toulouse. Turkeys are plentiful only in November and December—for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as it were, and you have to Import your cranberry sauce in a glass. Even If you do that, you will most likely keep also to the French mashed chestnuts with it and crisp bits of bacon or mushrooms. Kid meat, which Americans often take for young venison, and which is too aften eaten gamey or in a sort of pickle, appears chiefly in April and May. Real venison and any large game are always rare and limited by a regulation hunting season, and they are dear, Poultry and game allke have to pay the “octroi” or town dues on entering Paris. This tax list shows the yarie- ty which is offered to families with small money: Woodcock, (bullets of pheasant, thrush, quall fat, like Philadelphia squabs) and lark pay 5 cents, and live rabbit from 2 to 3 cents a pound in these dues to the STE. RLING HEILIG. - Pumps Shoot Water. A PUMP of peculiar ‘construction lifts water by the direct action of exploding gas. in much the same ment of France—the Loiret, in the center, just south of Paris, with less than 200,000 inhabitants—sent 440,000 | pounds of poultry alone, J Tourists remember vividly how all over the continent of Europe chicken | was a sure dish for one of the two {meats in boarding hoi | fixed-price hotel dinner. Or at cer | seasons of the year it was turke In Switzerland it was French turkeys and French “poulets de Bres; Chicken 1s every in | were served. coming i | Washington N extremely Interesting and valuable oil bust portrait of George Washington, painted from life, by one of the notable artists, has been discovered in historic Georgetown, the oldest part . of the city of Washington, where he spent a great deal of his time during the colonial days. The discovery was made by Andrew K. Reynolds, a Washington newspapeér man. : The portrait has caused imuch 'la- terest among art lovers at the Cap- {tal, and has been an heirloom of an old Georgetown family' for nearly a century. It is painted on an oh- long poplar panel, about eighteen by twenty-four inches, and is in an ex- cellent state of preservation. It somewhat resembles the Gibbs-Chan- ning Washington, painted by Gilbert Stuart, and now owned by the Met- rapolitan Gallery of Art of New. York. 2 5 The picture hung in the p: of Chaples Sumner while he, member of Copgress in. 1853, and ig Itterally cquered with marks, of all descriptions. While cleaned and varnished a short time ago the word “Peale” was discov- 7 | saia !that it it was being, {way that a projectile Is driven from cannon. In trials the machine is to have proved so economical is to be tested for use on & large English projcct for draining Lake Mareotls in Egypt. If the tests are successful. pumps which will a | raise a billion gallons of water daily to a h of installe: 8! twenty feet will be planned after the work 1is in progress double the capacity of the pumps first installe thus making the n the largest to stati dred buffaloes was known to live, but | naok in France, as T found in a cheap ! known pumping plant in the world. Portrait Georgetown Heirloom ered on the lapel of the brown velvet' coat and above this the letters “C W,” painted in black in the form of A monogram. On- the chin of the face area IS & number resembling a. pawnbroker's mark, which | reads, “Abo ‘161 98" and evidently: was: placed on the painting for identifica- tion.: On’ the halr fibbon: some ‘one’ has written V18811 Many ! othen: marks' of curiosity eppear on paintings such as” “179%-" & very small engraved figure of a beaver or- rat; and a number of calculations in: percentage and’ division. Thése} marks, however, ‘cam be seen -only under a strong lel another Interesting relic, sampler brought from England about. 125 years ago, but much older than that, poseibly of the sixteenwn ren- tury, as a date of 1674 can be plainly read on I.. (The subject-of the elabo- -{rate petit. point. embroidery is ‘“Noah. - hnd the Ark," and it is in the style of the ltaliap primitives, so)it is mot im- prabaple that it may either have beens made in-Itgly. and brougnt, to England or copled frqm an Itallan picture. The plece of work contains 1,600 stitches to the square inch. ! Discovered at the same time ls. . a framed. -