One day's hunting, which Mr. Roosevelt describes, shows what the
country was like, how full it was of all kinds of animals. Leaving
camp at seven in the morning they were out altogether over fifteen
hours. They were after a lion, so did not look for other game. They
soon passed some zebra, and antelope, but left them alone. The country
was a dry, brown grassland, with few trees, and in some places seems
to have looked like our Western prairie. At noon they sighted three
rhinoceros, which they tried to avoid, as they did not wish to shoot
them. Of course, in such circumstances it is necessary to do nothing
to disturb the temper of the animals--stupid, short-sighted beasts--or
else in their anger or alarm, they will blindly charge the hunter, who
then is forced to shoot to save himself from being tossed and gored
on that great horn. There was a hyena disturbing the other game, and
as these are savage nuisances, Mr. Roosevelt shot this one at three
hundred and fifty paces. While the porters were taking the skin, he
could not help laughing, he says, at finding their party in the center
of a great plain, stared at from all sides by enough wild animals to
stock a circus. Vultures were flying overhead. The three rhinoceros
were gazing at them, about half a mile away. Wildebeest (sometimes
called gnu) which look something like the American buffalo or bison,
and hartebeest, stood around in a ring, looking on. Four or five
antelope came in closer to see what was happening, and a zebra trotted
by, neighing and startling the rhinoceros.
After a rest for luncheon, they went on, looking for lions. Two
wart-hogs jumped up, and Mr. Roosevelt shot the biggest of them. By
this time it was getting late in the afternoon; time for lions to be
about. At last they saw one; a big lioness. She ran along the bed of
a stream, crouching so as not to be seen in the failing light. The
two hunters rode past and would have missed her if one of the native
followers had not sighted her a second time. Then Roosevelt and the
other hunter left their horses, and came in close on foot. This is
perhaps as dangerous as any hunting in Africa. A man must be cool and a
good shot to go after lions; sooner or later almost every lion hunter
either gets badly hurt or gets killed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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