The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 21, 1906, Page 1

Olre o/ laaplrier -Of -the - [1;'0,00 @g{lfdfllf Tale of 2n Exciting Hunt in the South \frican Haunts of Frirnan h S D o r Horse, v % DRAGGING A DEAD HIFPPO CRo080000000000000000000050000050000009) Drummond MacGavin, Berke- tennis champlon of the class of '04 and undefested coast champion up to the time kis dephriure about a sgo for a trip around the world, has been taking on mew bonors. But this time it has not beem with the temnis $ rmcquet on smooth California courts, but with rifie in hand stalking the great river horse, the hippopotamus, under the burning sun of South Africa. After gradusting from the State University last year young Mr. MacGavim wstarted to see Japam, Ceylom, India and to- finally pass through Londom om his way back to California. Ar- riving in London, he had been there barely a week when he recelved = fisttering offer from Freschvilie, the leading of year out Southern AR ALE A AAAA AR A, oo I S I I B N A I o I N N N B I S A e A A SR i a i nl mining expert of England, to # o with a mining expedition to £ the Zambesi River, morth of ¥ the Victoria Falls, He me- % at omce. # ng expedition treked % into the heart of some of # the wildest country of South 3; Africa, and when It was K through with #Ms work and 8 ready to return it decided to % ®pend a4 week in the delights (21 of ¥ killing. In ome £ pool men killed four- R teem stamuses. Drum- 3 mond Gavin did his share # of the killing and the follow- ? Wmg mccount was written with % the erack of the big rifies and 2 £ the @eath groans of the great z) beasts still fresh in his ears: :z 2 s oo s000000005000000000000000005555) 1ped on the banks of e River, on our way back to Broken Hill, this past week having been given up to sport. And' sport we have had. As yet I am unable to claim any buck for sy rifie, nor can I safely claim game of y kind for it. Yesterday, however, with the use of & heavier rifie I managed to kill two bippopotamuses, so you see 1 have ghattered the “‘goose-egg” with & vengeance. But let me go back to our TOWARD THE SHORE, ¢ ¢ departures from Bwava Mkubwa and re- cite our experiences. We got away from Bwava Mkubwa et 2:30 p. m. on August 25, but only trekked six miles that afternoon, remain- ing at a trader’s camp over night. We covered twenty-eight miles the following day—a very long trek for machilla trav- eling. A chap named Weldon (a young Englishman who is out here after a for- tune or trying his hand at trading) joined us, undertaking to lead us to where we should see plenty of game. On Wednesday we reached the Kapue River about noon, etopping - there. for several hours while Mr. Frescheville and Weldon sttacked scattered bands of reed bucks (a specles of water buck), with enough shoot- ing to make the rest of us believe we were getting an echo of an attack on Port Arthur. Though usually good shots, they were both “off”” that morning, for thelr twenty-five shots merely wounded a few beasts, and.we had to smile and enjoy tinned meats for another meal. No hippo belng “in evidence” at that portion of the river, we started down stream, and cove 3 S DRUMMOND MacGavir A3 CHANPION TENRTS ered about five miles before encamping for the night Again Frescheville and Weldon tried their luck and brought in a puku, which was served up in royal style that very evening. After covering but two miles on Thurs- day morning we reached a deep pool in the river where some negroes reported having seen two hippo. So we stopped. Negroes were sent to the upper and lower ends of the pool to intercept the hippo should the brutes attempt to pass up or down’ stredm. The pool was about 600 yards long and from 60 to 80 yards wide. The filve members of the party—Mr. F., Mr. Davey, Weldon, Jeff and myself— took up posts of 10 yards or so, sitting in'the rhade of the bamboos and thickly leaved trees that border the river, and keeping & keen lookout for the poor hippo, with rifles ever ready. The hippo is an amvhibious animal, I believe. It epends its days in the deep pools of these African rivers, oceasionally basking on a sand bank, but never entirely leaving the water. At nights, however, it goes up on - the banks of the river and eats. In fact,’ LLCH-AND DRy J3(78 78 THE BRUIE IFRAr MEASURED ‘Hippopotamus means ‘river horse.” I ‘am not sure of this,-as I have no dic- tionary handy. It makes a sound similar to & horse’s snorting every time it rises to the surface to breathe, which it must do' at’ intervals of between two and ten or fifteen minutes. The hunter thus has s hippo will go several miles from fts river in search of food. Its diet consists of the tender leaves ‘of trees, grass and roots. Its “‘spoor” or trail is easily fol- lowed, as the great feet leave clear im- pressions in the ground. But what chlefly Interested us was its daytime customs in deep pools, for we were there with mur- derous intentions and Weapons. to await his opportunity. Only the upper portion of the head of the animal comes out of the water, showing the snout, eyes and ears (ears, which by the way are ridiculously small), and after being fired does not show his head again for a long period. Thus, in order to get in a shot, one must be extremely quick at aiming 13/2 FEET FROIM SNOUT IO 192 OF 7L, and firing. - The only vital portion of this elusive target is between the eye and ear (and, of course, including those two or- gans), for a penetrating shot within that radius goes through the brain. The hide and bone of the hippo are both very re- sistant materials. & Our shooting has exploded one theory, namely: that solid bullets (lead encased in nickel) are necessary for hippo shoot- ing. It has always been thought that the skull was too tough for “soft-nosed” bul- lets. Mr. Davey shot one hippo with a “goft nose.” The bullet had such tremen- @Gous velocity that it penetrated the hide and bone on one side of the skull and passed through the brain pan- (without leaving a trace of the lead in the brain). penetrated the bone on the other side and ‘was_found in the hide on the far side of the head. Of course, a heavy charge of powder is necessary to produce such speed. I cite this one case in particular, for we wished to see the effects of the shot. No doubt the hippo was killed by soft nosed bullets. After the first shot on the first day’s shooting the two beasts in the pool went up and down stream and every one would thus get opportunities “to shoot. One was killed with a single shot; but the other, an enormous bull, kept rising for two hours before a final shot settled him. This bull, when landed, measured two feet nine inches from snout to ‘crest and 10 feet 6 inches from crest to tipof tail, or a total length of 13 feet § inches. Across the snout it was one foot nine inches. Its jaws widespread from ¢ tip to tip measured three feet ten inches. The thickest hide was 1% fnches. Two hippo was the total of that first day. We remalinued there another day while the ne- groes cut up the meat and dried it. The two animals, by the way, must have representéd about flve toms (at least) of meat and bone. The following day (yesterday) we reached a second _pool. THe others were stalking sdme sumpala on a wide “vie!” or “dambo” (as the negroes call the open spaces) when a boy came dashing up to me wild with excitement; he pointed to the river and sald *“Foo-boo” (not sure of the orthog- raphy) which meant h T sent Mm on to the other members of the party while I went to the pool and saw two er three heads appearing now and again. The animals wers going down stream, so I fired & shot to turn them around and sent boys to the upper and lower ends of the pool. Socon the other hippe hunt. ers turned up and we took up positions at intervals. Well, thdt pool wag alive ‘with hippo, for at the end of the morning we could count fourteen small islands floating in the water; it was a perfect -slausigen; though we did not realize it at first; the meat was not wasted, for all the neighboring villagers wers sent for and they responded with a will. Of these fourteen, I kil least two—two of which I am absolutely certain. One rose within an hour after it was shot—an un- uaual thing, for often they remain under for eight or ten hours; the other I saw die; I got In & shot and then It com- menced to make a dreadful commotion. Its head went down and it went plowing around in the water in all directions. It “turned turtle” so that all its legs wers out of water at one time. It then stopped kicking and sank In quite shallow wates from which the boys easily hauled it ashore. It was impossible to tell pre- cisely how many beasts each person shot, but every one “scored.” \ Not the least Interesting and novel part of the hippo shooting is the land- ing and cutting up of the monsters, fol- lowed by the distribution and drying or smoking of the meat. What a howl- ing. excited mob of negroes. When a dead hippopotamus comes to the sur- face the noise commences and goes on in increasing volume until dark. About & dozen or twenty doys plunge into the water with ropes made of bark twisted into numerous strands. These they tle to the hippopotamus’ forefeet and head and drag it through the water to a sultable landing place. Here more ropes are tied on to the “mountain” and then eighty or a hun- dred negroes push and haul it and shout and sing while dragging their load up the bank inch by Inch. Now a rope breaks and ten or twelve ne- groes fall back on one another, causing a universal howl; It quiets down for & minute or two while new ropes are tied on, and then the chorus breaks forth once more. After & “long puill and a strong pull” poor hippopotamus is lying on its back high and dry Then comes the appetiaing and artistis “cutting up,” but this I must pass by —it might spoil your appetitss and § know it rather lessens mine even te think of it. The meat is all placed In ome huge pile—a perfect “kopje” of it—and Is then distributed. The maschilla teams are called up one at a time and they each get a leg and some odds and ends. Then the carriers come forward in lots of twelve ar fifteen and they are given legs or ribs. The kitchen boys, who have charge of the d&istridution, have already set aside chofse bits. Finally every negro in camp is bappy and busy ' cutting the meat into strips, then laying these strips om tables bullt of branches, under which smoke fires. These strips of meat are watched all night long, being turned over when fairly well smoked. When all smoked it 1s done up into bundles of various shapes and sizes and is car- ried along on “trek,” each day increas- ing In aroma. Altogether we will have & lasting Impression of our hippe massacre all the way to Brokem Hill —in fact, until we get rid of this let of negroes.