Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
General
Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)
Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
Game and game-birds; Hunting
a heavy spike of iron, or of wood burnt and sharpened to a point, and
weighted with a large stone. This, by an ingenious contrivance, is
fastened to the branch of a tree overhanging the animal’s path as it
leaves the water at night to graze, by a rope attached to a catch,
the other end of the rope being brought down, fixed about a foot from
the ground, across the path, and tied to one of the trees opposite.
As the animal presses against the rope the catch is freed, and down
comes the spike. The northerners, who live on the shores of the lakes,
Kamadou particularly, kill them from canoes with spears like harpoons,
which, once firmly fixed, serve to show by their shafts the direction
taken by the wounded beast, and enable the men to follow him and repeat
the attack until, utterly weakened from loss of blood, he is secured
by ropes and drawn ashore. This plan, which seems to me to have its
drawbacks and dangers, is not attempted on the rivers, and I was never
an eye witness of it, even on the lakes; but I have two or three of
the harpoon assegais, and this was the story of the hunting as told to
Livingstone.
On the low Siloquana hills near this we made our acquaintance with
the Tsétsé fly, which we were the first to bring to notice; Vardon
taking or sending to England some he caught on his favourite horse.
They have now been thoroughly discussed entomologically, and I would
only very lightly touch upon them. The _Glossina morsitans_ is a
dusky grey, long-winged, vicious-looking fly, barred on the back with
striæ, and about the size of the fly you so often see on dogs in
summer. Small as he is, two to three will kill your largest ox, or
your strongest horse--for the poison introduced by the proboscis is
zymotic; the victims sicken in a few days, the sub-lingual glands and
muscles thicken, the eyes weep, a defluxion runs from the nostrils,
the coat stares, and in periods varying from a fortnight to three
months death ensues. On examination after death the blood is found to
have diminished wonderfully in quantity, to have become gelatinous
in appearance, and to have parted with its colouring property. You
may plunge, your hands into it and it runs off like tapioca, without
staining them. The vital organs, lungs and heart, are flaccid and
anæmic, but show no further sign of disease. The flesh has a peculiar
glairy appearance. Wild animals are not affected, but all domesticated
ones are, save the ass and the goat, and the calf as long as it sucks.
Man escapes scot free. The flies settle on and bite him sharply, but no
results follow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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