Evening Star Newspaper, January 27, 1929, Page 89

Shooting for the Basket BY TOM F. Former Oregon State College Star and Now Coach .0of Basket Ball at State Teachers College, San Diego, Calif. YOU MUST FIND THE “HAPPY MEDIUM” 1IN SHOOTING FOR THE BAS| McMULLEN KET. Having learned to advance the ball on the basket ball court by means of passing and dribbling, the next thing that you naturally must do is shoot for the basket. It goes without saying that &00d shooting is important, for all your offensive efforts will be useless unless Yyou can complete them by scering. Every man on your team should be able to shoot, and shoot well. The first shot to learn is the chest shot, which is made from the same position as the chest pass. The ball is gripped in the way I described in an earlier article, and the elbows are kept close to the body, which is partly crouched. One foot should be ahead of the other and | player | players will be much more skillful with | right hand in order to keep your body | shot with none of the bad points. Even if you miss hitting the basket cleanly, this shot gives you the greatest chance of hitting the backboard 6r the rim and going in by “luck.” Give your shots the amount of arch shown on this path and you will get the best and most con- sistent results. One-Hand Shots. A moment ago I said that you should always shoot for the basket and not the backboard, but there is one important exception, and that is the dribble-in shot from the side of the floor. This.is a one-hand shot, and you should learn to make it from either side, being care- ful always to keep your body between the ball and your guard, so that he cannot spoil the try. Do not attempt to put spin on the ball in this shot, but bank it directly on the backboard. | In making the dribble-in shot from the front do not shoot for the board, but for the basket itself. Lay the ball up there as though you were placing it on a shelf, and don’t give it any English. This is one of the shots in which a | tall player has a big advantage over a shorter one. One other thing: Occasionally a can make a one-hand shot equally well with either hand, but most their right hands. Therefore when making the dribble-in shot from the left side it will be necessary for you to turn your body just as you shoot with your between the ball and the guard. This will be readily done after a little prac- | tice. Making Practice Interesting. In fact, D. C, JANUARY 27, 1999_PART T On Roosevelt Trail in East Africa|[WITHTHEPUZZLEEDITOR Dan Streeter has previously told how the. fever of adveniure seized him in middie life and seni him on_Roosevelt's trail to hunt big game in British East When Le arrived at Nairobi, the heart ‘of “the biz-game country. ready for action, he found an up-to-date ¢ with good hotels. a countr a- teur explorers” took him under its wing and arranged for him to motor with his 13-vear-old son out to a farm.' from which base he could go after lions, ele- phants, buffaloer and things. BY DANIEL W. STREETER. AIROBI faded into the distance. The road was good. It was not place, and hot—at the bottom of the Rift Valley. “After a fortnight down there, we'll | g0 up-to-the Nzoya River for a week or | so after waterbuck and lion, if any.” “Yes,” I said. That's the only com- ment I could make at the moment. (Six weeks later, when it was all over, we ar- | ranged terms.) A boy entered with coffee and cake. “Just a little appetizer before dinner,” said Mrs. Leathers, The strength we gained from this light nourishment | moved us to unpack the car and settle (down. Then I called my son aslde. | ~ “Now attend to what follows,” I told up and down and waved my arms to let them knew that I was not an antelope. But they took it only as a symbol of reciprocal insanity and jumped up-and down and waved their arms back and then shot their guns off at me again. The sayings of famous men in tense moments flashed across my mind— “Don’t give up the ship!" “More grape, Capt. Bragg!" “Don't fire until you can see the whites of their eyes!” They seemed so comforting and meaty. I pictured myself stretched on the sward riddled with bullets and remarking, “Please pass the sponge cake,” or some 't simple phrase that would ring down the | centuries. Then Flint blew a whistle. The round-up was over. And that is the last round-up I ever attended or ever expect to attend. * % ok k "THE conversation at lunch turned on the question of what a’safe coun- try Africa was to live in. One and all these natives lauded their adopted land in this connection. To be sure, Smith had just died of fever; Jones had just} been gnawed by a lion: Terwhilliger had | Jjust been stepped on by an elephant; a | buffalo had just tossed Barnes 20 feet | into the air. | Such things as these only proved the | rule to these men, and while I was| willing to admit from what I had seen and heard that Africa was doubtless a safe place, it looked to. me as though | on our “heels again. THE BUFFALO SUDDENLY BE- CAME CLEARLY VISIBLE, BUT, ALAS, TOO LATE. FOR IN THE WINK OF AN EYE IT HAD VAN. ISHED AND WITH IT MY CHANCE FOR FAME AS A MARKSMAN, venom. There, bent in every concelv- able attitude that romantic fancies could dictate, trailed at least 60 peo- ple; Flint, Gregg, the ‘whole adult male population of Elgayo Village, tapcring into an adolescent section, succceded by a juvenile and an infantile class, and finally the muling babes, dear, toddling, little mischiefs, smelling like decomposed lobster salads. “What kind of a show do they think this is?” I asked Gregg. “IHere, in per- fectly good faith, I have been making an ass of myself stalking this buffalo hing—unconscious and innocent, whiie 60 pair of gummy eyes have been waiching my antics. I ‘tell you right now there’s not enough privacy in Africa to suit me. I've never been more stared at in my life.” “It is.a bit thick—quite,” said Flint. ‘They can’t follow us like that.” And | with violent, threatening gestures he drove this 1ill-assorted rabble back a hundred yards. All was well until we started forward, when at once tuev were It was like trying to shake off a sheet of fly-paper. At length Flint selected a lik>!; -looking candidate and slapped him soundly with the flat of his hand. This rec..ved the full indorsement of Musswa. It also! gradually removed this unwieldly human tail to the remote background. Ak e In & very short time now Mr. Groundhog will be poking his head out and looking for his shadow, and on whether or not he sees it will de- pend how long Spring will be in com- ing. This week we present this great weather prophet himself in our cross word puzzle. THE GROUNDHOG. ‘The definitions are: Horizontal. 1. Southern State (Abr.) 3. A Spring flower. 5. Girl's name. 6. Greek letter. 8. What the groundhog looks for. 10. Track. 11. Limb of the body. 12. A preposition. 13. Yes (Spanish). 14. Agriculture (Abr.) 15. What the groundhog often sees falling. . Vegetables a groundhog likes to eat. Vertical. . An animal weather prophet. . What this animal breathes. . A hotel. . A continent (Abr.) . Pretense. . The season the groundhog forecasts. . Near. . A beast of burden. . Respectful fear. . Either. . Within. “ae L e Do you know what a Word Series is? It is made up of words arranged so that the last letter of the first word is the first letter of the second, and the last letter of the second is the first letter on the third, and so on. With this explanation, see if you can form a series as follows: Something used for fastening, then a large animal. a word meaning long, something for lighting, ve::;s, and something used for cutting w s Here’s a picture puzzle that should be easy for you. GUESS THESE THREE FLOWERS fifz 4. Reverse a word for boast and get clothing; reverse an animal and get a black substance: reverse a conjunc- tion and get a vat. Answers. 1. Cross word puzzle solution. 2 ‘Wire — elephant — tall — lamp — W. poems—sa 3.-Jonquil, tulips and pansy. 4. Brag, garb; rat, tar: but, tub. the death rate was about one apiece all around. From this moment I decided to be IT was with difficulty we found a fresh spoor, and then it was a long stern chase before we came up with its orig- one of. the Roman roads of | him, “You're a man now; a licensed England, framed in its hedges, | big game hunter. Section 56 of the | Notacs ‘I cannot emphasize W.iN 2 k g ON THE FRONT DRIBBLE-IN |Tano pert of iy nce. of Dractice, und | SHOT LAY THE BALL UP THERE AS THOUGH YOU WERE PLAC- o l\(;, 1T 0\ A SHELF. i about eighteen inches distant from it. Take a position that is natural for you, and one in which you are gracefully and easily balanced. The chest shot is made wrists and arms giving the power. | There is no exaggerated spring of the body, which takes time and throws you off balance. The ball is simply pushed toward the basket from the chest po- sition, with very little twist or “English” on it. The chest shot is the hardest of all basket ball shots to guard, and should therefore be carefully learned by every player. It should form the basis of all tries for the basket from any dis- tance out on the floor. It is, of course, a two-handed shot. Shoot for the Basket. Now perhaps you are wondering whether to shoot for the backboard or for the basket itself. You have seen many players do both, and perhaps some do one thing at one time and an- other thing on the next shot. However, | when shooting from the floor it is al- ways best to shoot directly for the basket and not for the board. | One of the most important points abous shooting is brought out in the | accompanying diagram. Note the three with the | in no part of the game is the statement | “Practice makes perfect” truer than in | shooting. Having once learned the proper way to shoot, you simply must | keep everlastingly at it to acquire real skill and accuracy. Sometimes, of course, this constant practice may become monotonous, but there are various ways of making it more interesting. One of these is basket ball golf. Mark out sixteen po- | sitions on the floor with chalk, some- what as shown in the diagram. Each player then tries to make a basket from | each pesition, which corresponds to a hole on a golf course, and the player scoring from all sixteen in the fewest number of shots is the winner. “Par” on the course should be about 32, but it is possible to make it in sixteen | shots if ‘you never miss! { You are probably familiar with the ‘game in which players alternate shoot- ing a long shot and a follow-up shot, | counting three points for the long and | one for the short shot. The player first | scoring twenty-five points wins. This game will also add interest to your shooting practice. possible paths that the ball may take | from the player’s hands to the basket. | On the top course the ball mekeas a high arch in the air, and in order to count | must hit the circle of the basket cleanly and fairly. This is a pretty shot when it is made. but it isn't made often enough to be eflective, Now notice the lowest path. have seen players shoot this that the ball goes swift and low, s ng over the front rim of the 1 hitting the backboard. Bu am will show you that making a score in this way is very difficuit. Now note the middle pet.i, which is the correct one. With this you most of the good points of the h THE STORY ‘There are many kinds NZla—m dextrose, maltose, levul . glucos:, fructose, sucrose—but when you think of sugar, the sort on your kitchen table and the sort with which you are most familiar, yoy are thinking of th- last, sucrose, or cane sugar. Familiar and cheap as it is, much labor has #b2en expended in its manufacture | before it reaches you and many a mile has it traveled before it appeared in your home. Sugar cane, from which most of the commercial sigar is manufactured, grows only {n tropical and semi- tropical countries—the southern part | of the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, Cuba, the Philip- pines, Hawailan Islands, East Indies, i | t i i rts of Africa, India—and it grows as | 1l, leaved stalks. to heights varying from 10 to 15 feet. When these stalks are cyt through a thick. julcy pulp is revealed, which. on ' being squeezed, ylelcs 8 sweet, sticky fluld, its sap. It is this sap which contains the sugar and which is the basis of commercial sugar. When the sugar stalks are ripe, they are cut down and fed into a series of steel rollers which squeeze out the sugar sap, leaving the stalks almost dry. ‘The clear fluid is ‘collected in lai ns heated by steam pipes. This heat- ing clarifies the sap and brings to the Suslace certain impurities which must | sugar is then allowed to dry and to | traveling, nor how far it had gone. | discovery of America navigators began istern of the -ship into the water. i knots tied in it at regular intervals. As f would remain stationary behind it and be removed. The purified juice is then | hoiled to a grain in vacuum pans. It is | then sent into centrifugal machines, | machines which separate the sugary syrup from the molasses. The pure crystallize and is ready for the mnarket. It reaches us in a variety of forms, cither in lumps, as crystals, in powder form or crystallized on strings in the form of rock candy. ‘While cane sugar grows ifi most warm countries, by far the greater part of it, and the best ouality, comes from the istand of Cuba, and Havana, its capital, is the world's greatest sugar center. Nautical Miles. . Have you ever wondered why the speed of a ship is reckoned in knots, rather than in miles per hour? Most people have. and the explanation is a very'interesting one. It is rather startling to think that Christopher Columbus had absolutely no way of telling how fast his ship-was But about a hundred years after the to use a “log.” This log was a picce of wood which was tossed over the Attached to it was a long cord, with the -ship sailed on the piece of wood & sailor standing on the. ship would let the line attached to the “log” run out through his hands.. By counting the nor a Route National France, fading away into the distance i in Africa. between its rows of poplars, nor did it | X even approach one of our State roads | mother’s affairs; here, they're your own. of Western New York, winding through | See that they get such attention as they fringes of “hot dog” stands—but {t was | deserve.” They did. From then on, he | kets. | tage since the days when Queen Vic- it led “‘back there.” “One might imagine himself mator- ing almost anywhere but in Africa,” we thought. We were over.-enthusiastic, however, for soon we were riding over “a plain road.” - We. began to labor heavily. - Ours was a small car, almost entirely surrounded by baggage. we hit a pebble the springs- reversed themselves. We had brought along all of our | equipment except our dinner coats and store clothes, which had been deposited in the trunk room of the Norfolk Hotel. “We'd be delighted to keep them,” said “Aunty.” “We always do," and led us to a large room. It was an amazing room. filled with a bizarre_collection of personal -belong- ings. There were ancient dusty trunks, scarred and mutilated by years of battle against superior forces; weird musical instruments, swords, antiquated . mu There_were clothes of every vin- foria was a bride, antique boots that had done much marching up and down in the world, officers’ tin trunks and a few valises like ours, virginal-looking and innocent. “It’s been here for years—some of it,” Aunty volunteered. “They- leave it here, then :go off and never come back. Those we know about. Others vanish. We never can tell if they're jus | coming back. So we keep on keeping-it As a rule when they do come baek th look like different people.” Cheered by this thought, we along, scattering the fumes of bumped half- | burnt gasoline far and wide over the equatorial landscape. Ahead of us drove a man named Gregg who was tak- ing his bride out to the farm, to which we were going. * k ok k¥ WE passed Lake Naivasha, at one time the earthly paradise of Paul Rainey. A dozen years ago a howling wilderness—now tame, and with barely a bleat left in it. We thundered through Gil Gil over a track baked hard by the sun of 15 degree south. Soon we would know the worst about this Equator busi- ness. Gil Gil did not detain‘us. Tt'con- sisted of one wide street and a bad smell. It was a sheep town. We forded streams romantically, immersed in water to our withers. ‘For two days we trav- eled, and then, on the plateau 100 miles from Nairobi, we were suddenly in the midst of game. In a large, dry swamp, between’ one and two thousand head chewed medita- tive cuds. The ubiquitous zebra, harte- beest, topl, oribi, reedbuck and warthog slepped forward, each in turn, to' ex- press his resentment at our intrusion. It was dark when we picked our way to the top of a small bluff, to surge down into an open space, vaguely sur- rounded by low buildings. It was the farm. z From a low stone building emerged'a group of people with lanterns. Imme- center of a storm of ‘weicome. . They were home &t last. “There was Leathers. owner of the farm: his wife; Flint, their son-in-law, and his wife, to tell-them so, But, if it was home to Gregg, to us it was only another strange environment. We stood on the ‘outskirts of this groun of fricnds, and listened to the dogs howl. At'length Gregg stepped back suddenly and trod on me. a1sy “Oh. yes," he exclaimed. “Here are a pair of lads who want to go hunting. ‘Thev . have *‘sonie ' very ' nice-looking clothes, 25 pounds of epsom salts,.and a lot of policemen’s whistles. What can you do for e g J5 PR R Flint sat down'next to-me on the in- We rocked for a few mo- number of knots in the cord that slipped through his fingers in & certain period of time, he was.then able to figire the speed.of the ship. Now the B that string ute equaled the miles per hour that the ship was travel- It is easy to see, therefore, how to be used as & e { nickname of the nautical mile. On modern steamships, of course, the speed is judged by instruments that vecord closed ments- in’ silence.. Then hé said: " “So yols want a little shooting? Well; I guess Txget your s by the Buomsing.. 1 the your guns morning. - afternoon we'll take the dogs ‘out for warthog.. - The “next day—Sunday— we'll send a ‘chit’ to the neighbors and have a ‘drive.’ ‘Monday we'll take an ox-wagon, half a dozen boys and do & short farm called ‘Hobson’s’ Choice. see, that brings us to next Friday week. That Saturday we’ll start for the Elgavo It staggered under its load. Every time | Sometimes they're killed in hunting ac- | | cidents. diately Gregg and his bride were. the! of | Pencal Code says so. Moreover, you're At home, the back of your ears and important neck arcas are your a reasonable road. an open road, and gave me no trouble whatsoever on this | Then, dragging rearward like a futfle | score. He completely ignored them. i | | E dined at 7. It took no time| to appreciate that Mrs. Leathers | | was a hospitable lady, the type of lady | who, if one did not partake at least three times of each course, put it down at once to weak health and threatened medicine. It placed one in a terrible dilemma. After dinner we played a rubber of bridge. At 9 o'clock Mrs. Leathers served a light collation of milk and cake. “I don't like to see people go to-bed on | | an empty stomach,” she said. . At 6 am. I was roused by a native | boy. and flooded with tea. At 8 we breakfasted, and it was a | .breakfast such as men demand as an | inherent right in the great open spaces | —coffee, tea, porridge, ham, eggs. oribi | steaks, bread and jam. Incidentally, and | | to dispose of these gastronomic matters | once and for all, our next meal did not | take place until 11 o'clock, when a | light collation of coffee and cake was served, with pie as a side dish. Until 1 p.m. our digestive tracts were | permitted to lie fallow. Dinner was then served; the kind of dinner calcu- lated to restore the vital force of mus- cular fibers that had been driven hard— soup, meat, potatoes, vegetables, pastry, coffee. ‘Then, for an hour, we indulged | in “shut-eye.” At 4 o'clock there was | a good sound tea; at 6, coffee and cake: at 7, dinner. It was a culinary cycle that’ would have strained the capacity | of a vulture. | Mr. Leathers sent “chits” to several neighbors, inviting them to assemble at his home Sunday morning for a “drive.” These drives took place at spasmodic in- tervals—in fact, whenever any one felt moved to organize one. Each guest brought his own “boys” with him, and | on such an occasion 200 vociferous | savages might squat in the host's back | vard like-a pack of beagles eager to ! have thelr leashes slipped. On this particular “drive,” Flint acted as mas- ter of the hounds. We set out blithely about 10 o'clock, seven guns strong. A dry swamp or “flel.” 200 yards in width, was sclected after a walk of some miles. The “boys” deployed into a line that stretched straight across it: entering its tall, dry grass, they wended their invisible way down its length, beating .the matted vegetation with shlolrt sticks, and uttering whoops and yells. Dividing into two groups, wé proceed- ed along edch edge. As the reedbuck, | bushbuck; .duikers, or what not, broke cover to escape from the beaters, we bombarded them. They were fieet ani- mals, 40 or 50 pounds in weight, and some of ‘the rifie shooting that took place seemed nothing short of phe- nomenal—to me, at any rate. Even my son kilocked them down in their tracks. We drove three “fleis” in this man- ner, with ‘a bag of eight reedbuck and three. bushbuck. = Then we drew out into the open veldt for the final “round- up.”. The boys were marched off in a loose column, with Flint. at the head,: and the guns spread out at intervals of 400 or. 500 yards. This single column was eventually looped around until it { formed a°comple circle almost a mile {in diameter. .. Within the inclosure sev- eral hundred head of game was sur- rounded as it grazed: Then the ring was slowly contracted. | As it narrowed the frightened ani- mals made wild dashes for freedom. "l'hls was the signal for thr opening of | hostilities. =By threes' and fours the game was dropped to earth. The tighter the circle was drawn the more desperate became the rush of the trapped animals and the more erratic the gun fire. Soon’| the circimference. of our circle was so the ground not .10 yards.away from my feet to mb;co'\ne ‘o{ complete fanatic agatnst “form ot e . The worst of it was, once having Started to play, it was impossible to throw down_one's racquet and walk off lh: ;:wrt. That would have been sheer suicide, yards on my right, was deliberately trying to wing me. Everybo* taking shots at me. They seemed to think I was.a reedbuck. I yelled and! careful—even a little more careful than I would be in New York or Paris. The next week we set out for the Elgayo Escarpment after Big Stuff. | Flint, Gregg and I led off, followed by | Nandi trackers in loose formation. tail that had been stepped on and ruined, shuffled the Kavirondos, the traditional burden-bearers. My son was under the weather, so we had ‘o leave him behind. ‘That night we camped at an Elgayo village. As we were taking a leisurely | dinner, four warriors lined up 10 feet away from our table. Flint conversed with them briefly. “They claim they know where the | buffalo are,” he remarked, “and want to take us there in the morning. So, with your approval, we'll start at 4 am.” When we started the whole village was at our heels, from immature in- fants with protruding bellies to ancient | men—mere frames of bone draped with skin. Hunting buffalo seemed a matter of great enticement to these Elgayo: a | festive occasion; an event that palpi- tated with interesting possibilities. “Do they think I'm a matador or something?” I asked Flint. “Why all this _popularity?>” “No, they think they're going to come by some meat,” he answered. “They're not interested in what you do, except | as it leads to carnage and carcasses. Just a word about these buffalo. They're quite dangerous.” es?” I inquired, after a pause. “Go “That's the word,” he answered— “‘dangerous.” It made more impression upon me than if he had delivered a Chautauqua | lecture on the subject. I had read of their -ferocity and cunning, of how, in grassy country, when wounded they looped back on their own trail to wait | for, and unexpectedly annthilate, the hunter phlegmatic enough to follow them. I was given to understand that, as a ghastly climax, they worked qver their victims with hoof and horn until what remained required but a small basket for removal. All this was com- mon knowledge. Now I realized they | were dangerous as well. % Fon an hour we stumbled through the dark. Then, just as the steely blue light threw surrounding objects into dim outline, we halted abruptly to find ourselves in a country of minia- ture hills and hollows, covered with a dense tangle of bush. Save for an | intricate network of game trails, for the most part arched over like tun- nels, it was an impenetrable, matted Jjungle. The trackers removed their sandals, the small circlet of bells worn around an ankle, to prevent them from spear- ing .ea¢h other in the dark, or tail grass, and the small strip of cottoa cloth which. they worg, ‘naively, about their waists. - These preparations, this stripping for action, so to speak, had a most sinister appearance. “You're first,” said Flint, pointing to one of the brush tunnels. He spoke as though it was a distinguished honor. “Follow your tracker closely, and I might add that you'll have to work fast. Buffalo 10 or 20 yards away are hard to see in shadows. I'll be cov- ering you.” A well-olled, shadowy Elgayo slipped into the trail ahead of me, and I was obliged to follow him, bent almost dou- ble, and stepping high like a cat with, walnut shells on its feet, to avoid the ! snaky branches. Thus we proceeded on our quest for buffalo. And now I became awake to the devilish designs of this tracker, Musswa, slipping along so silently in front of me. In the ground beneath our feet were huge circular impressions, maybe six inches ifh -diameter, bisected by e partition of earth moulded by the cleft been stamped but a few minutes pre- viously. It was clear, our object was to liow -them silently untjl-‘we- overtook o thelr progenitor. S, fle‘;lm behirid us, came an awk> ward crashing in the thicket, followed by a couple of coughs and a sneaze. who was.now only a couple of hundred | 10 yards away, arose another kind of | food, our ground sheet crashing—that produced by the vitality. Shaking with rage, Musswa turngd to quell this unspeakable breach the revolutions. of the propeller. Reserve after big game—it's a wild "shof my gun off in.the air and jymped of ctiquette, His glance was full of inator. Just as we seemed to be reach- ing a crisis, there was the. slightest click from the rear, as the metal end of an Elgayo spear tapped a stonc. The crash of the buffalo followed instantly, but it did not move far. For an eternity, we crouched, hardly daring to breathe, then moved forward once .nore. . Three minutes later Musswa was poin' like a bronze bird-dog. His interest lay in some shadows under a bush. To me they were shadows. only K | I could see no living thing. Then, the buffalo suddenly moved. and became cleatly visible, but alas! too late, for in the “wink of an eye it had vanished, and with it my chance for fame as a marksman. The laboriously accom- plished stalk was wasted. Musswa stood biting the knuckle of his forefinger, his lower jaw trembling with vexation. “Why didn't you shoot?” sald Flint. “He stood there as plain as day, begging for it—not over 20 yards.” “Sorry,” T replied, “but I simply can- not see these things. To me they are as invisible ,as disembodied spirits. I don't believe I care for any more phan- tom shooting. For the present, I throw up the sponge on buffalo. : “They're bluish black.” said Flint, “and very difficult to see in the shadows. Next time, it'll be easy.” most optimistic fellow! Save for the trackers, who were not | working on a contingent basis, we were now the only human beings left in the bush. The rabble, that had followed us with so much friendly interest all the morning with nothing but praise on its lips, had vanished like smoke as soon as it became clear that I was a dud. At once I ceased to be of interest. Even the most obnoxious and pot-bellied in- fant turned his back on me. Flint had ordered our camp moved to the River Ndo during the morning, so for the River Ndo we started, cutting cross-lots to the point where we might expect to find the “boy The funda- mental fact of this valley now became heat—heat—heat. It beat down on the parched ground about us, billowing in waves that caused the world to appear as distorted as though viewed in a badly warped mirror, * K K X N the middle of a dense thicket sprinkled with good-sized mimosa trees we came on _unmistakably fresh signs of elephant. There, on a mimosa, about 8 feet from the ground was the spot where one had scratched him- self. It was an epic scratching result- ing in the permanent disfigurement of the mimosa. Beneath the trec the ground gave evidence of where it had stood rocking on the huge columns that served it as legs. Immediately we became tense, ex- pecting the next moment to see 11 feet of gray pachyderm observing us over the tops of the bushes. The trackers left to locate the “ndovu.” They were certain he was not far off. They always are. For an hour we sat there, and slowly leaked away. It was like the in- terior of a fireless cooker. At length Gregg wiped the perspiration from his forehead and remarked: “By jove, I don't believe those rascals intend to come back.” Waves of giddiness were sweeping over me. of any importance at the moment was water; water, so negative when present, yet so conspicuous in its absence; clear, cool water. “I throw up the sponge on elephants, t0o,” I said weakly. “I've lost enough moisture this morning to float a gondola. It has had a serious effect on my metabolism—not to men- tion my wrist watch. I have no more health to waste.” We started through the bush and at length came to the edge of a small bluff and looked down on a muddy trickle— the River Ndo. “Here's where we camp,” Flint re- marked, throwing himself on the ground. “I can't imagine where those black rascals are. They should have hot directl; in the hoof that formed it. For hoof- ! been here an hour ago.” It was 4 p.m., ?5‘,’.&{2‘35,2 m&hv'l: flx? “: i,.\fl ;2{‘,’25 'print it was, incredible as it seemed. |12 hours since breakfast, nearly dinner sary for me to see two bullets plow up | What was more, these fmpressions had | time, and we hadn’t even had lunch yet. . “Ab rate,” I sald, “I drink here, m‘u: oi'"nli mud,” and started down the bank. ¢ “Sorry,” said Flint, “it must be boil- ed first. No doubt this seems cruel, but it's absolutely necessary.” In no time a fire was going, the por- It seemed to me that my son, | Instantly, in front of us, not more than | ters arrived with ' water bottles and had been thrown over -a ridge pole, our beds ‘was | long flight of a huge body of boundless | were up, we had bathed, and were lin- eri over an ‘excellent dinner. 4 "\lvm!nh your approval” remarked Flint, “we'll let He was the | ‘The only thing in the world" the -buffalo rest for al Safer Se (Continued From Fifth Page.) | thate may obstruct navigation and gives medical advice end attention to mem- bers of crews on boats that do not carrv any one qualified to gdoctor. - fact, they do anything-in it will mariner. ‘While they are doing all these ma- rine chores they do not have eyes closed to the whys and wherefores of the phe- nomena about them. Scientific inves- tigation and experimentation are con- stantly being carried on which have been of great value to oceanographic lore. be of assistance to the 'way .up in Greenland around Disko Bay. Ocean currents, the contour of the bottom of the ocean and weather conditions are subjects of research. From formulae that have been de- veloped, together with weather infor- mation, it is possible now for these ex- perts to predict as early as April whether or not the season will be a heavy or a light one in amount of ice. The predictions of the last three years have been within 50 of the actual num- | ber of bergs which appeared—a record worthy of comparison to the far-seeing eye of the Government Weather Bu- reau. From the information which they have compiled they can foretell where an iceberg will be the next day. and | can almost tell where it will be within four or five days. Since icebergs travel from '25 to 60 miles a day, this re- quires some experienced prognosticat- ing. As many as 70 of these beautiful but dangerous masses have been sighted from the bridge of a ship at one time. ‘Tables show that icebergs run in cycles. The years 1909, 1912, 1914 and 1921 were big ones. when the number was more than “extra heavy.” In the first two years there were more than a | thousand. There were less than 100 |in_1910, 1916, 1917 and 1924. By experimentation these specialists have discovered what are the only ef- fective methods of dealing with the stolid, solid, floating bodies. For in- stance, it has been found that icebergs can be dynamited, but that the results are negligible. It is possible to damage them with gunfire, but neither is that a worth-while undertaking. The nat- ural elements, sun and warm water, have been proved to be the only effec- tive ice-destroying agents. The mammoth chunks of gleaming ice that take on many beautiful forms under the sculpturing of the sun were once huge cliffiike formations up in the regions that are supposed to be the estate of Santa Claus. In that land during the breaking-up season there is a constant pandemonium like heavy gunfire as the ice slides at an angle down to the sea and is cracked off when the buoyancy of the water press- es upward. Actually rather dingy upon closer inspection, they bear traces of having come from the earth. Some even have streaks of dirt like dark frosting in a cake. Arctic birds follow the ice island. * ok X % 'WO cutters of the Coast Guard are assigned to the international ice patrol. The Mojave and the Modoc were given the task last year, alter- nately relieving each other every 15 days during the season from March through the latter part of June. Although derelict destruction was authorized at the first Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, it was not undertaken as part of the international project. The two cutters assigned to 1 navigation. but in addition the Coast day or so, and in the morning try our luck with rhino.” o Lm"&'mn. 1 shown tired of spiritualistic searnces, “You'll ‘see Thino quite easily,” said Flint. ‘The air grew colder, the stars came out in scintillating myriads; far away, near the top of the Kamasia Moun- tains, a pinhead of light flickered from a’natlve village. We turned in. last thing I was conscious of was a wave of sound coming from a va distance to end In three great reverber- ating roars. “What s it?" I asked. “Lion,” said Flint. (Copyright, 1929.) eir power | Icebergs are studied from their origin, | this duty do remove obstructions tol a Travel Guard, under American authority. watches the ocean along the sea and lake coasts. Last year 167 derelicts and other menaces to navigation were re- moved from trade routes, All vessels must. report to the hydro- graphic office - thew sighting of dere- liets or floating debris which may b~ the menace. Sometimes the driftwood structions are then radioed to the near- est cutter to go out'and rid the seas of the menace. Sometimes he driftwood can be located without difficulty, but frequently days, even weeks, must be spent in the search. because these wan- derers, though rudderless, are speedy They drift rapidly from place to place A derclict may first be sighted near Florida, later off New York. then near the Grand Banks, and finally close to the British Isles. The United States cutters do not go far from the coast. but sometimes they are unable to locate a rambling rover before fuel is exhausted, and a second trip is necessary. If the derelict is a waterlogged wood- loaded schooner, it will be towed in rather than be blown into more pieces to endanger marine triffic lanes. The task of getting one of these into port is a real test of seamanship. Any onc who has tried to take part in the tow- ing of a crippled motor on good terra firma can imagine the difficulties of negotiating a waterlogged hulk on the temperamental sea. Aside from me- chanical difficulties there is another, understood from the name given to towing jobs, “the battle of the rats." ‘The skeleton crew which must come In on the wrecks has to wage war on the rodents which infest and overrun the forsaken vessels. If the roamer is the steel hull of an oil-carrying freighter which has been swept in a sudden blaze of flame, it is destroved by gun-fire. Blowing up wreckage with TNT, is quite a task. It is necessary to know just where to place mines in the most vulnerable parts. The work may take days. Div- ing gear is sometimes used, and often the seamen must swim around to place the charges. Vessels which have gone down in shallow enough water for the masts to s silent signals of tragedy must d. for they are a menace to pleasure craft and other small ships which hug the coast. Imagine what happens if a ship going through the water at 25 knots crashes into floating wreckage. Although it is impossible to estimate how many li and how much money have been saved by this marine housekeeping, it is easy to see that many accidents are pre- vented. Although because of the very perfec- tion of the operation of the ice patrol it will not need an important place in this convention, which is to unravel tangles and coil new cordage strong enough to be of service to the world, it will be necessary to have some discussion of the future growth of that branch of the international pact. “The rules of the road” are another subject which has diminished in im- portance as they have increased in efficiency. Because they are well estab- lished and are satisfactory generally they will not demand a great deal of at- tention. However. they have a place in a‘ conference which deals with safety at sea. —_ . . Riddles. Take these riddles to school with you, and try them on the brightest friends you have. Perhaps it would be fun to have some questions that these “stars” couldn't answer: 1. When & pig loscs his home, what does he do? 2. How did Jonah feel when the whale swallowed him? 3. What is 1t that is cut at both ends and made longer? 4. Why is a steel trap like smalipox? 5. Why are some men like umbrellas? Answers. 1. Ties a knot in his tail and calls it 1 a pig-sty (pig’s tie). 2. Down in the mouth. 3. A ditch. 4. Because it is so catching. 5. Because they have . so many ups and downs. ' t