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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #54922 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54922)
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-Project Gutenberg's In Wildest Africa, vol 1 (of 2), by Carl Georg Schillings
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: In Wildest Africa, vol 1 (of 2)
-
-Author: Carl Georg Schillings
-
-Translator: Federic Whyte
-
-Release Date: June 16, 2017 [EBook #54922]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN WILDEST AFRICA, VOL 1 (OF 2) ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Greg Weeks, Kim, Wayne Hammond and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-IN WILDEST AFRICA
-
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _From a Photograph by Nicola Perscheid, Berlin._
-
-_C. G. Schillings_]
-
-
-
-
-  IN WILDEST AFRICA
-
-  BY
-  C. G. SCHILLINGS
-  AUTHOR OF “WITH FLASHLIGHT AND RIFLE IN EQUATORIAL EAST AFRICA”
-
-  TRANSLATED BY
-  FREDERIC WHYTE
-
-  WITH OVER 300 PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR’S
-  NEGATIVES, TAKEN BY DAY AND NIGHT; AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-  VOL. I
-
-  LONDON
-  HUTCHINSON & CO.
-  PATERNOSTER ROW
-  1907
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: LION STUDY.]
-
-Preface
-
-
-I never dreamed that my book _With Flashlight and Rifle_--alike in its
-German and its English and American editions--would receive everywhere
-so kind a welcome, or that it would make for me so many new friends,
-both at home and abroad.
-
-I have been encouraged by this success to give a fresh series of my
-studies of African wild life and of my “Nature Documents,” as Dr.
-Ludwig Heck has designated my photographs, in the present work.
-
-I should like to express my gratitude once again to all those who, in
-one way or another, have furthered my labours in connection with these
-two books, especially to Dr. Heck himself and the other men of eminence
-and learning whose names I mentioned in my preface to _With Flashlight
-and Rifle_. A complete list of all my kind helpers and well-wishers
-would be too long to print here. I am deeply indebted, too, to the
-many correspondents--men of note and young schoolboys alike--who
-have written to me to express their appreciation of my achievements.
-Their praises have gone to my heart. I owe a special word of thanks to
-President Roosevelt, who smoothed the way for my book in the United
-States by his reference to me in his own volume _Outdoor Pastimes of an
-American Hunter_. I take the more pleasure in discharging this debt in
-that I had long derived intense enjoyment from President Roosevelt’s
-masterly descriptions of wild life and sport in America. President
-Roosevelt has always been one of the foremost pioneers in the movement
-for the preservation of nature in all its forms, and has made every
-possible use of the resources placed at his disposal by his high
-position to further this end.
-
-This new book of mine is in form a series of impressions and sketches,
-loosely strung together; but it will serve, I hope, indirectly to win
-over my readers to the one underlying idea--the idea upon which I harp
-so often--of the importance of taking active steps to prevent the
-complete extermination of wild life.
-
-Like _With Flashlight and Rifle_, this supplementary work can claim to
-stand out from the ranks of all other volumes of the kind as regards
-the character of its illustrations. All those photographs which I
-have taken myself are reproduced from the original negatives without
-retouching of any kind. Every single one, therefore, is an absolutely
-trustworthy record of a scene visible at a given hour upon the African
-velt by day or by night. I insist upon this point because herein lie
-both the value and the fascination of my pictures.
-
-In his introduction to the English edition of _With Flashlight and
-Rifle_ Sir Harry Johnston declares that that work was “bound to produce
-nostalgia in the lines of returned veterans”; I trust that _In Wildest
-Africa_ will bring also to such readers a breath from the wilderness
-awaking in them memories of exciting experiences on the velt. Above
-all, I trust that its appeal will be not to grown readers alone, but
-that it will have still stronger attractions for the coming generation.
-
-A preface should not be too long. I shall conclude with the expression
-of the hope that I may be able presently to secure a new collection of
-“Nature Documents.”
-
-  C. G. SCHILLINGS.
-
-[Illustration: YOUNG DWARF ANTELOPE.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES.]
-
-Contents of Vol. I
-
-
-  CHAP.                                                             PAGE
-
-  I. THE SPELL OF THE ELELESCHO                                        1
-
-  II. FROM THE CAVE-DWELLER’S SKETCH TO THE FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH     88
-
-  III. NEW LIGHT ON THE TRAGEDY OF CIVILISATION                      107
-
-  IV. THE SURVIVORS                                                  139
-
-  V. SPORT AND NATURE IN GERMANY                                     179
-
-  VI. THE LONELY WONDER-WORLD OF THE NYÍKA                           204
-
-  VII. THE VOICES OF THE WILDERNESS                                  283
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: GULLS.]
-
-List of Illustrations in Vol. I
-
-
-                                                                    PAGE
-
-  _Frontispiece_--Portrait of the Author.
-
-  Lion Study                                                           v
-
-  Young Dwarf Antelope                                               vii
-
-  Armed Natives                                                       ix
-
-  Black-hoofed Antelopes                                              xi
-
-  Gulls                                                             xiii
-
-  A Giraffe Photograph                                                 1
-
-  My “Boys” organising a “Goma”                                        2
-
-  Bearers indulging in a Bath                                          3
-
-  A Masai _ol’ moruan_ (old man)                                       4
-
-  Group of Masai                                                       5
-
-  A _memento mori_ of the Velt                                         9
-
-  Dwarf Gazelles on the Velt                                          11
-
-  Masai Herdsmen                                                      13
-
-  Young Masai Dancing and Singing                                     17
-
-  Bearers on the March                                                21
-
-  Transport Bearers in Difficulties                                   21
-
-  The Author being Carried across a Swamp                             23
-
-  How Mules and Asses are got across a River                          24
-
-  Two of my Wandorobo Guides                        _facing_          24
-
-  A Halt of my Caravan on the Velt                                    25
-
-  Masai Warriors                                                      29
-
-  Group of Masai                                                      33
-
-  A Party of my trusty Companions                                     37
-
-  Bearers making their way through high grass                         41
-
-  The Caravan on the March                                            45
-
-  A Herd of Zebras taking Refuge from the Heat of the Midday
-    Sun                                             _facing_          48
-
-  Flamingoes on the margin of a Lake                                  49
-
-  Flamingoes flying down to the Lake margin                           53
-
-  Alfred Kaiser in Arab costume                                       55
-
-  Group of Gnus                                                       58
-
-  Nile Geese on the Natron Lake                                       58
-
-  A Herd of Grant’s Gazelles                                          59
-
-  Crested Cranes and Zebras                                           59
-
-  A Camp on the Velt                                                  63
-
-  Native Settlement on the Pangani River                              67
-
-  Group of Eland Antelopes                                            72
-
-  A Herd of White-bearded Gnus                                        73
-
-  A Masai Dance                                                       77
-
-  A Herd of White-bearded Gnus
-      (i) at close quarters;
-     (ii) a more distant view;
-    (iii) they show their disquiet;
-     (iv) they decide to retreat                    _facing_          80
-
-  Effects of Heat and Mirage                                          81
-
-  A Hot Day in the Great Rift Valley                                  85
-
-  Group of Masai                                                      87
-
-  Prehistoric Sketch on a Fragment of Ivory                           88
-
-  Old Picture of a female Hippopotamus                                91
-
-  An old German Picture of the Giraffe                                93
-
-  Hottentot Hunters: a sketch of two hundred years ago                95
-
-  Ancient Egyptian representations of Giraffes and other animals      97
-
-  Sketches of Animals made by the Bushmen                             99
-
-  Black-tailed Antelopes running through high grass                  101
-
-  Bearers on the March                                               103
-
-  A Rhinoceros moving through velt grass                             107
-
-  Three large Gorillas shot by Captain Dominick                      115
-
-  Troop of Lions in broad daylight                                   121
-
-  Herd of Elephants in South Africa, by Harris                       127
-
-  Group of Wild Animals at Hagenbeck’s zoological gardens            133
-
-  Young Grant’s Gazelles                                             139
-
-  ’Mbega Monkeys                                                     140
-
-  A ’Mbega                                          _facing_         142
-
-  East African Wild Buffaloes                                        143
-
-  Modern Methods of Taxidermy: Setting up a Giraffe              146-149
-
-  Male Giraffe Gazelle                                               150
-
-  Dwarf Antelope                                                     152
-
-  Giraffe Gazelles                                                   152
-
-  Snow-white Black-hoofed Antelope                                   153
-
-  New Species of Hyena (_Hyena schillingsi_)                         153
-
-  Dwarf Musk Deer                                                    158
-
-  A Pair of Guerezas                                                 159
-
-  Black-hoofed Antelope                                              164
-
-  Giraffe Gazelle and Dwarf Antelope                                 165
-
-  Head of an African Wart-hog                                        168
-
-  Nest of Ostrich’s Eggs                                             169
-
-  Drying Ornithological specimens                                    174
-
-  Group of Author’s Trophies                                         175
-
-  Women of the Rahe Oasis                                            177
-
-  Egyptian Geese in a Swamp                                          179
-
-  The Nyíka: a Bird’s-eye View                      _facing_         200
-
-  Oryx Antelopes                                                     204
-
-  A Velt Hillock                                                     205
-
-  The Summit of Mount ’Ngaptuk                                       207
-
-  A Look-out Place                                                   211
-
-  Black-hoofed Antelopes                                        216, 217
-
-  Black-tailed Antelopes                                        222, 223
-
-  Masai Hartebeests                                                  230
-
-  Giraffe Gazelle                                                    231
-
-  Grant’s Gazelles                                  _facing_         234
-
-  Grant’s Gazelles                                                   237
-
-  White-bearded Gnus and Zebras taking Refuge
-    from the Midday Sun                             _facing_         240
-
-  An old Acacia                                                      244
-
-  A typical Landscape                                                245
-
-  Hungry Vultures                                                    249
-
-  Flamingoes in Flight                                          252, 253
-
-  Storks on the Wing                                                 258
-
-  Storks gathering for Migration                                     259
-
-  Remains of Rhinoceroses                                            261
-
-  Crested Cranes in Flight                                           264
-
-  Vultures and Marabous                                              265
-
-  Herd of Waterbuck                                                  270
-
-  Oryx Antelopes                                                     271
-
-  Grant’s Gazelles                                                   276
-
-  Hartebeests near the Western ’Ndjiri Swamps                        277
-
-  Map of a Day’s Movements and Observations                          279
-
-  Flamingoes on the Margin of the Natron Lake                        281
-
-  A Francolin perched on a Thorn-bush                                283
-
-  Flight of Sandfowl                                                 287
-
-  Zebras and Gnus                                   _facing_         292
-
-  An Alarum-turaco                                                   295
-
-  Nest of Weaver-birds                                               301
-
-  A Shrike on the Look-out                                           309
-
-  Brook with an Underground Channel                                  315
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: A GIRAFFE PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN IN THE SHIMMERING LIGHT OF
-THE VELT.]
-
-I
-
-The Spell of the Elelescho
-
-
-On the afternoon of January 14, 1897, a small caravan of native
-bearers, some fifty strong, was wearily making its way across the wide
-plain towards its long-wished-for goal, Lake Nakuro, which was at last
-coming, into sight in the far distance. The appearance of the bearers
-and their worn-out clothing showed plainly that the caravan had made
-a long journey. And so it was. Weakened by fever, I was coming from
-the Victoria Nyanza in the hope of making a quicker recovery in this
-more elevated district. As is the way when one is convalescent, life
-seemed to me something doubly beautiful and desirable now that, after
-lying seriously ill for weeks, I was recovering from the fever. I
-had been all but despaired of by the English officers who had kindly
-taken care of me, Mr. C. W. Hobley and Mr. Tompkins, to whom I owe
-a debt of gratitude. I had caught the disease in the marshes of the
-Nyanza and in my tramp through the wild Sotik and Nandi country, then
-unexplored or very little known. During the last few days our march had
-once more been imperilled by hostile tribes, the rebel Wakamassia, but
-this danger was all but past now that we were entering the uninhabited
-region of the Nakuro, Elmenteita and Naiwasha Lakes, in the district
-known to the Masai as En’aiposha.
-
-[Illustration: MY “BOYS”--BODY-SERVANTS AS DISTINGUISHED FROM
-BEARERS--AMUSED THEMSELVES AT MOSCHI BY ORGANISING WHAT IS CALLED A
-“GOMA.”]
-
-Endless undulating, expanses of grassy country, unadorned by a single
-tree, had made our last days of marching not too pleasant. Now there
-was a marked downward incline of the grass-covered plateau; it
-gradually changed to a barren plain of volcanic origin, and the view
-extended over the wide glittering lake.
-
-Filling a far-stretching hollow, and lost to view on the horizon, it
-lay at our feet, a welcome sight.
-
-[Illustration: MY BEARERS LOST NO OPPORTUNITY OF INDULGING IN THE
-ENJOYMENT OF A BATH.]
-
-The camp was pitched beside a parched-looking ’msuaki tree on the banks
-of a brook which at this time of the year was a turbid torrent pouring
-itself down towards the lake. Some time before, bush and grass fires
-had raged in the neighbourhood and destroyed the old grass, and here,
-it would seem, a heavy rainfall had conjured forth for us a new carpet
-of grass that was fresh and luxuriant. The remarkable luxuriance of the
-grass lands in the district had already been specially noticed, and
-compared to the richest pastures of the Swiss Alps, by the discoverer
-of, and first traveller in, this region, Dr. G. A. Fischer, an explorer
-who, alas! so soon fell a victim to the climate.
-
-Fischer--in 1883--was the first to visit the neighbouring Lake
-Naiwasha. How the situation has changed since then! At that time, and
-thus only twelve years before I first camped there, the warlike Masai
-still held these wide uplands as absolute masters.
-
-[Illustration: A MASAI _ol’ moruan_ (_i.e._ OLD MAN) ANSWERING MY
-QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ELELESCHO PLANT.]
-
-Oscar Baumann, an explorer who did good service, was one of the first
-to traverse their inhospitable dominions. It was some years after
-Fischer’s journey that Baumann made his way into the region of the
-Nile sources, during his famous expedition to legend-haunted Ruanda
-(now better known to us through Dr. Richard Kandt’s researches). I
-made his acquaintance at the Austrian Consulate at Zanzibar. He, also,
-was snatched away in his early years by the Sphinx of Africa, the
-treacherous climate.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    MASAI _ol’ morani_ AND TWO YOUNGER MASAI IN MY CAMP. THE
-    TYPICAL COSTUME OF THE WARRIOR DIFFERS CONSIDERABLY FROM THAT
-    SHOWN IN THE ILLUSTRATION AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER, WHICH
-    REPRESENTS A MASAI ALREADY INFLUENCED BY CIVILISATION.]
-
-His journey, only a few years before my stay here, cost his numerous
-and strongly armed caravan hard fighting with the natives. And now I am
-camping here with a few men in an unfortified camp!
-
-Fischer was quite convinced that he could not venture upon his
-exploring journey without the support of the Mohammedan trading
-caravans, but he had finally to start alone with 230 bearers. Yet,
-notwithstanding all difficulties, he successfully accomplished his
-task. But how different from those of to-day were the circumstances
-under which a journey was made into unknown Masailand at that time!
-The Masai warrior was then still sovereign master in his own land; he
-was still “Ol open l en gob” (“Lord of the land”) in the full sense of
-the word. And all the chivalrous poetry that has been so pathetically
-brought home to us by the fate of the North American Indians, was also
-not alien to his warlike character. Then came the moment when he had to
-face the firearms of the Europeans. His fate was sealed, like that of
-the lion and the leopard.
-
-Then, too, tribute had to be arranged for on all sides. Not only some
-of the petty chiefs in the neighbourhood of the coast, but the Masai
-too, must receive costly payments. Thus, for example, Dr. Fischer had
-to hand over to the chief Sedenga at ‘Mkaramo on the Pagani River, to
-obtain permission for the passage of his caravan, 100 pieces of cloth,
-each six yards long, an axe, 100 leaden bullets, one ten-pound keg of
-gunpowder, two large coils of brass wire, and eight pounds’ weight of
-artificial pearls!
-
-Only two kinds of caravans were known to the Masai, slave caravans and
-trading caravans, which busied themselves with collecting the coveted
-ivory tusks. The Arab traders knew how to combine the two objects: the
-slaves, the “black ivory” of the trade, were forced to carry the white
-ivory down to the coast.
-
-The strength of these trading caravans, well equipped with firearms,
-always amounted to several hundred men; but under certain circumstances
-these numbers were considerably increased, so that caravans of a
-thousand men or even more were not rare. It took Fischer long months
-to recruit his caravan. The bearers did not like to undertake the
-dangerous journey with the first white man who started for that region.
-The jealousy of the Arab traders was also at work. They feared that the
-channels of the ivory traffic, which they carefully kept secret, might
-be revealed.
-
-The German explorer carried through his expedition under the greatest
-difficulties. He returned home only to succumb soon after to the
-extraordinary hardships he had endured.
-
-Fischer’s researches were of special importance in connection with
-the ornithology of Masailand.[1] His journey gave to science some
-thirty-six hitherto unknown species of birds. Such a result must
-indeed command our respect, when we consider the difficulties with
-which the traveller had to contend, and especially when we remember
-that his available resources were comparatively trifling, beside, for
-instance, the abundant help that was at the disposal of the English
-explorers of the same period. The Geographical Society of Hamburg
-rendered him the service of making the execution of his plans possible,
-and for the same object Fischer expended all the money he had earned
-in the active practice of his profession as a doctor on the island
-of Zanzibar. He saw the activity he had devoted to the service of
-scientific ideals richly rewarded by the results he obtained. And then
-he had soon to succumb to the treacherous climate. But if his life was
-cut short, how quickly the power of the Masai warriors was broken, the
-very power that had so harassed him, and made his journey so difficult
-and dangerous. That terrible scourge, the cattle plague, probably
-introduced from India, suddenly destroyed the greater part of the herds
-of the Masai, and at the same time blotted out vast numbers of the
-Masai themselves from the list of the living.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A _memento mori_ OF THE AFRICAN VELT.]
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-[Illustration: DWARF GAZELLES ON THE VELT. IN THE EDDYING WAVES OF
-DAZZLING LIGHT ONE COULD NOT KEEP ONE’S EYES OPEN FOR MORE THAN A
-SECOND AT A TIME.]
-
-The fates of these pastoral people and of their property (the countless
-herds of cattle) were so closely bound together, and these warlike
-herdsmen had become so dependent on their droves of cattle, that once
-these were ruined they could not survive, but died in a few days of
-famine.
-
-In the lapse of little more than a year the cattle plague and the
-Black Death had swept over the Masai uplands. Hungry vultures hovered
-over scenes of horror. The herds of cattle fell under the strange
-pestilence. Agonised by slow starvation, the herdsmen followed them
-to death. I have often found lying together, in one narrow space, the
-countless white bleached bones of the cattle and the skull of their
-former owner. It would be an old camping-ground, with its fence of
-thorns (zereba) long rotted away, and it was now a strangely impressive
-Golgotha. These heaps of bones, still to be seen in 1897, were soon
-after dissolved in dust and scattered by the winds.
-
-Where are the Masai of those days?
-
-Suddenly they stand boldly before me, as if they had sprung up out of
-the ground! It is no illusion. But why do my bearers show no fear?
-Why does no uproar break out in the camp?
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-MASAI HERDSMEN.]
-
-It is plain enough that no one troubles himself about the appearance of
-these figures, for they come, not threatening and demanding tribute,
-but conscious of the overpowering might of the European. True, a few
-months ago, not so far from my camp, their warriors surprised and
-destroyed a caravan of nearly a thousand coast folk. But, generally
-speaking, they do not care to have to reckon with the superior weapons
-of Europe. They even accept some food from me. And in this matter
-they are not so dainty as they used to be in former times, when the
-warriors--obedient to strict dietary laws--lived only on the meat and
-milk of their herds. Of course, here we have to deal with only a small
-number of them. Yonder, on the wild uplands, there still live a not
-inconsiderable number of Masai, who having saved their herds, or got
-them together again, keep as far away as may be from the Europeans and
-their uncanny weapons.
-
-The Masai warriors, with their wives, children, and herds, seem to
-me to be fit accessories for this desert landscape. In the evening,
-dances amuse us till late in the night, and many a wordy skirmish
-breaks out as some of my bearers who, thanks to former journeys,
-have some knowledge of the Masai tongue, gossip with these nomads of
-the wilderness. The coast folk think themselves high as the heavens
-above the “savage” Masai. The Masai warriors, in return, despise the
-burden-bearing coast folk, count them as “barbarians,” and scornfully
-call them “il’meek.”
-
-But the times have changed, and so it comes to pass that my people
-too join in the dance, which lasts late into the night: that songs
-of the warriors and the women--“‘Singolioitin loo-‘l-muran” and
-“Loo-‘ngoroyok”--ring out through the darkness, the chorus finding a
-manifold echo with its oft-repeated “Ho! He! Ho! Na! He! Hoo!” It is a
-“Leather Stocking” kind of poetry, and indeed the redskins of the New
-World and the Masai here in Dark Africa seem to me alike. The former
-had to yield to civilisation, the same fate awaits the latter.
-
-No one had the least anxiety about the night. We quietly allowed the
-Moran[2] to bivouac near the camp. Our march through the wild highlands
-of the Wasotiko and the Wanandi had deadened our sense of such dangers.
-We could have no forebodings of the fierce struggle lasting for years
-that was yet to come between the English troops and those peoples, or
-imagine how warlike and skilled in self-defence they were. The presence
-of hundreds of spear- and club-armed warriors in the camp had become
-an almost daily experience, and great was the surprise of the English
-officers, later on, when they heard that the great caravan, which I
-had joined, had had the good fortune to pass through these districts
-without any fighting.
-
-For me my serious illness had all at once interrupted the austere and
-wild delights of this life of the march and the caravan. But I had now
-become doubly responsive to the joys of travel amid light and air,
-freedom and endless space; doubly responsive also to the changing
-impressions derived from my week of marching through lonely primeval
-forests, bamboo thickets, and grassy plains--scenes in which, as my
-friend Richard Kandt, the discoverer of the source of the Nile, so
-strikingly remarks,[3] every plant, every stone, seems to cry out again
-to one in the vast solitude but one word: “The desert! the desert!”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-YOUNG MASAI DANCING AND SINGING NEAR MY CAMP.]
-
-In the early morning hours of January 15 there was a light continuous
-rainfall. A short march of only two hours brought us to our camping
-place on the shore of Lake Nakuro.
-
-Far away extended the panorama of the lake, which lay before us filling
-its hollow bed, with its banks at this season of the year yielding
-fresh pastures to numberless herds of wild animals, and its waters
-affording rest and food to countless members of the feathered tribe.
-I had hardly ever seen greater numbers of the pretty little dwarf
-gazelles (_Gazella thomsoni_, Gthr.). Thousands and thousands more
-of these graceful creatures showed themselves on the fresh, green,
-grassy meadows of the lake margin, or scattered over its pebble beds of
-obsidian, augite, and pumice-stone. Wherever one turned one’s gaze it
-fell again and again upon these beautiful gazelles, which in many ways
-reminded one of wild goats at pasture, and were so strangely trustful
-that they often allowed the spectator to come quite close to them.
-Marked as are the colours of its hairy covering, the dwarf gazelle
-does not stand out boldly from the background, whether this be a plain
-blackened by bush-fires, or the mere bare ground, dun-coloured and
-brown, or land covered with soft green grass. But how clearly defined
-are its brown, black, and white, when we look closely at the hide of a
-specimen we have secured, or see it in a museum.
-
-Darker spots in the distance far away from us we take to be larger wild
-animals. The field-glass shows that they are hartebeests, and a great
-number of waterbuck; and still farther off there is a moving mass that
-shimmers and is half lost in the glare of the morning sun. There are
-zebras, and yet more zebras, moving like living walls! Strange effects
-of light actually give us the impression of something like a wall or
-rampart, made up of the living forms of the zebras--the deep shadows
-they throw come out black, their flanks are lighted up in the dazzling
-sunshine, and they shimmer with all colours and with ever-changing
-effect.
-
-Here by the lake we have the characteristic mark of the wilderness:
-dwarf gazelles and zebras, zebras and dwarf gazelles in greater and
-greater multitudes! Wherever the eye glances it falls upon these
-two species, and the numerous waterbuck and Grant’s gazelles, and
-the hundreds of hartebeests, are in a sense mere points of relief
-for the sight amidst these vast crowds. Bathed in the shimmering
-light this multitude of animals mingles together. Wherever I make my
-appearance there is for awhile movement in the mass of wild creatures,
-which otherwise are grazing quietly. I have long since left the
-camp a considerable distance behind me. I am following One of the
-rhinoceros--or hippopotamus--tracks leading to the lake margin,
-lost, so to speak, in this multitudinous animal life, and once more
-I have the feeling of finding myself, as it were, in the midst of a
-vast flock of sheep, and the impression that all the creatures about
-me are not “wild beasts,” but rather tame domestic animals that have
-been driven out here to graze on the pastures under the supervision of
-a herdsman.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    BEARERS ON THE MARCH. THE FIGURE ON THE RIGHT IS AN
-    ILLUSTRATION OF THE WAY IN WHICH THEY SOMETIMES RELIEVE THE
-    STRAIN ON THEIR SHOULDERS BY CARRYING THEIR LOAD AT ARMS’
-    LENGTH OVER THEIR HEAD. A HUNDRED PACES A MINUTE IS AN AVERAGE
-    RATE FOR A HEAVILY LADEN BEARER.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-TRANSPORT BEARERS IN DIFFICULTIES.]
-
-[Illustration: THE AUTHOR BEING CARRIED ACROSS A SWAMP.]
-
-The mass of animals surges and undulates to and fro. Some old bulls
-of the heavily horned hartebeest species seem to have undertaken the
-duty of sentinels. They stand apart fixed and motionless, watching
-attentively the strange appearance of the approaching man, and then
-make away in a long striding gallop, with heads bent well down, to
-increase the distance between themselves and the suspicious object,
-ready all the while to give the alarm signal for a general stampede
-by loud snorting. In this district we do not find the flat-horned
-hartebeest of the Kilimanjaro (_Bubalis cokei_, Gthr.), but the species
-named after its discoverer, Jackson (_Bubalis jacksoni_). Long and
-stately horns distinguish this variety of a remarkably formed species
-of antelope, which is widely distributed throughout Darkest Africa.
-To my great delight I succeeded in bringing down a specimen of a much
-more interesting species, Neumann’s hartebeest[4] (_Bubalis neumanni_,
-Rothsch.), then only known by one or two examples.
-
-[Illustration: HOW MULES AND ASSES ARE GOT ACROSS A RIVER.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-TWO OF MY WANDOROBO GUIDES.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    A HALT OF MY CARAVAN ON THE VELT. ON THE LEFT CAPTAIN MERKER,
-    THE EXPLORER OF THE MASAI COUNTRY AND THE GREAT AUTHORITY ON
-    THE RACE; NEAR HIM, WEARING A TROPICAL HELMET, STAFF-SURGEON
-    KÜNSTER, WHO LATER SERVED IN THE SOUTH-WEST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN.]
-
-Overwhelming in its vastness, its rich variety of colour, form, and
-movement is the picture of animal life thus displayed.
-
-Moving along the hollows of the plateau hour after hour, looking out
-from its ridges, now with the field-glass, now with unaided sight,
-I find the whole grassy expanse covered with these wild creatures.
-Hundreds and hundreds more of zebras alternate with larger or smaller
-herds of Grant’s gazelles. Near them, but keeping apart, and all around
-them the dwarf gazelles are swarming. Here and there one sees the
-proudly uplifted head of a stately waterbuck, adorned with splendid
-branching horns, and not far off his hornless doe, both of them in
-form and action greatly reminding one of the stag, of our northern
-lands. Occasionally the eye catches sight of splendid black-plumed
-cock ostriches here and there on the plateau. They watch the traveller
-carefully, and are accompanied by their mates, which are very much more
-difficult for the eye to make out owing to their plain grey plumage. On
-all sides there are whole herds of brown hartebeests grazing, resting,
-or making for some more distant spot with their characteristic long
-striding gallop. And now one suddenly comes upon a herd of giant eland
-antelopes, brownish yellow, and adorned with white cross-stripes.
-Conscious of their mighty strength, there is not much shyness about
-them; but they know not the danger they run from the long-range weapon
-of the European.
-
-Think of all this animal life, bathed in the fulness of the tropical
-sunlight! All depths and shades of colour play before our eyes.
-Strongly cast shadows, ever changing with the position of the sun,
-alter again and again the whole appearance of this world of life, and
-from minute to minute it presents new riddles to any one who has not
-had years of experience in the wilderness. When the glittering light
-of the midday hours is tiring and confusing the sight, one often can
-hardly tell for certain whether it be a living multitude stretching
-out in the distance before one, or whether the play of the sunlight is
-imparting a semblance of life to scattered clumps of thorn bushes.
-
-Four rhinoceroses which I now descry moving across the plain in the
-distance, and a flock of ostriches which I can plainly make out
-with the field-glass, change shape and colour so often that it is
-astonishing to see them. According to their movements and position with
-respect to the sun they appear to be of a blending blue and grey, or
-intensely black, and then again almost invisible and the colour of the
-earth, but always changing, always different from what they were the
-moment before.
-
-To realise all this one must in fancy place oneself in the condition
-of exaggerated susceptibility to nervous excitement that results from
-the intensity of the light, together with the climate, and the unusual
-degree of hardship. All this produces the greater effect because one
-has to do one’s work in solitude and loneliness, and is cut off from
-all interchange of ideas with one’s fellows.
-
-Here, where the flora makes so poor a display, the fauna is abundant.
-What a sight it affords for the ornithologists!
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-MASAI WARRIORS, ARMED WITH THE LONG SPEARS WHICH HAVE COME INTO USE
-WITH THEM DURING THE LAST GENERATION OR TWO. IN FORMER DAYS, ACCORDING
-TO HOLLIS, THEY USED SPEARS WITH SHORTER BLADES.]
-
-Amongst the herds of zebras our European stork together with its
-smaller African cousin, the Abdim stork, is stalking in hundreds
-over the plain hunting for locusts. In company with the storks I
-saw also great flocks of the handsome crested crane engaged in the
-same occupation. Or they rose in heavy flocks over the valleys with
-loud and strangely discordant cries. Under the scanty shadows of the
-mimosas the splendid giant bustards take their stand at midday, erect,
-solemn, stiff-necked. At this time they are not very wary, but in the
-coolness of the morning and in the evening hours they soon get away
-to a safe distance, either running with their quick mincing step, or
-spreading their strong pinions for a short flight along the ground.
-Their smaller relative, _Otis gindiana_, Oust., rose before me in the
-air, often throwing somersaults on the wing like a tumbler pigeon.
-There is hardly any other bird of its size that has such a mastery of
-flight. Sea-eagles circled by the margin of the lake uttering their
-beautiful clear-sounding cries. Heedless of their presence thousands
-of splendid rose-red flamingoes soared up into the deep blue dome
-of the sky, or lined the margin of Nakuro, like a garland of living
-lake-roses, in company with great flocks of ducks, geese, and waterside
-birds of many kinds. Out of the clumps of acacias, and from between
-the thickets of ‘msuaki bush by the lake, guinea fowl and francolins
-rise, strung out in clattering flying lines, and in the morning hours
-handsome sandfowl that have come from far-off regions of the plateau
-sail by the margin of the lake. Altogether an overwhelmingly rich
-picture of warmly pulsating life and activity! The sight of it all is
-indeed quite capable of impressing one with the idea of flocks of
-wild creatures that have been completely tamed; and once this idea has
-suggested itself, the impression is so strong that for many minutes one
-can believe in it!
-
-Amidst all this wealth of “wild” life, which here seems hardly to
-deserve the name of “wild,” it is much easier to understand how
-primitive man in other continents gradually secured domestic animals
-for his use, from the vast range of choice thus presented to him.
-
-But a strange feeling comes over the observer when he remembers that
-out of all this wealth of animal life the African has never been able
-to link one single creature permanently to himself. He obtained his
-cattle and also his goats and sheep from Asia. The camel may be left
-out of account, for its connection with the human race is lost in the
-mystery of primitive times. We may say that the fauna of Africa has not
-given a single species to the group of our domestic animals. It is sad
-and humiliating to reflect that the men of to-day cannot accomplish
-what was done in the dim past--granted that it took endless ages in the
-doing.
-
-There were times, as I have said, when I could not get rid of this
-impression of _tame_ herds of animals. And this was all in a land, and
-a district, that left one nothing to desire in the way of primitive
-wildness. What, then, must it have been in early days when man was
-not yet waylaying the beasts of the wilderness, or at least had not
-yet employed the poisoned dart and spear, the pitfall and the snare?
-It must have been a veritable Garden of Eden. But here, far and wide,
-there is nothing to be seen of man, only something that evokes
-conjectures as to his former presence.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-GROUP OF MASAI, SHOWING THE HEAVY IRON ORNAMENTS WORN BY THE MARRIED
-WOMEN. IN THE BACKGROUND, ONE OF THEIR HUTS, PLASTERED OVER WITH EARTH.]
-
-For suddenly from a height I notice a number of large mounds, formed
-of stones, such as only the hand of man could have built up. Under the
-secure protection of these masses of rock--rough hillocks of heaped up
-stones--men, who were once chiefs and elders of the Masai, sleep their
-everlasting sleep. Their resting-places have been so placed that they
-are not visible from any considerable distance, but are hidden away
-in the hollows of the ground. Out there in the wilderness, beneath
-the bright blue sky, these simple old monuments speak to me most
-impressively of the mighty harmony of everlasting change. As chance
-will have it, I find not far from the graves a human skull shining
-brightly in the sunlight and resting on a projecting rock. It must
-have lain here very long, as if keeping a look out on the old tomb of
-ol ‘loiboni, the departed “wizards” of the Masai. The empty eye-holes
-stare at the ancient grave.
-
-But this symbol of the least is not obedient to the spell of death
-that whispers here all night long, for it has had to give shelter and
-protection to the rearing up of new life. As my hand grasps the skull,
-now brittle with decay, a family of mice takes to flight from inside
-of it. They had set up their home in this bony palace, and built their
-nest there.
-
-And as if the Masai, resting probably for centuries under these heaps
-of stone, had left their herds to me, once more there surges around me
-this sea of animals. Near at hand they are sharply defined against the
-ground, but farther off in the glittering light they grow indefinite.
-How the whole flood of life contrasts with the grim volcanic barrenness
-of the landscape!
-
-At this moment my impression of vast shepherd-guarded herds is deepened
-by the sudden appearance of some spotted hyenas, scattering among the
-volcanic pebble beds, and then running away over the plain, and seeming
-to play the part of the shepherds’ dogs.
-
-But where are the herdsmen of all these herds? Immediately there comes
-an answer to my question. Yonder, by the margin of the lake, in the
-distance, I see little wreaths of smoke rising. The idea they give me
-of herdsmen on the watch is to be quickly dissipated by a report, not
-a loud one, followed by puffs of powder-smoke that vanish quickly in
-the air. The shooting does not disturb the animals that surround me.
-But then the report is hardly audible, the little puffs of smoke barely
-perceptible to the eye. I must find out who is disturbing the peace. It
-is perhaps a caravan making for the Victoria Nyanza. For we are upon
-the new “road” to the lake--a road which is indeed still in the region
-of projects, but which soon will be plainly marked with railway metal.
-
-The smoke puffs appear at markedly regular intervals and as quickly
-disappear. I cannot understand it. For a long time I keep my attention
-anxiously fixed on these proceedings, all the while hurrying towards
-this remarkable apparition. At last my field-glasses enable me to
-descry a man, who from time to time drops on one knee to take aim.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A PARTY OF MY TRUSTY COMPANIONS.]
-
-What in the world is he after?
-
-As we draw closer, I am extremely surprised at seeing that the man does
-not allow himself to be in the least disturbed in his proceedings. Now
-his bullets begin to whistle unpleasantly near me. I fire in the air,
-once, twice.... Now his attention is attracted, and simultaneously I
-perceive a number of dark objects near the marksman. They seem to be
-his companions, black men, and squatting on the ground.
-
-From the background there emerge now great numbers of such objects--it
-must be a large caravan.
-
-The distance between us is diminished so that one can see plainly....
-Now we can shout to each other.... At last I learn that the hunter is
-marching with his long caravan of bearers to the great lake. He has
-been putting out all his exertions to shoot some wild animals. But
-although he has many surprisingly interesting hunting adventures to
-tell of as the result of his three months’ march from the coast to
-this point, that task seems to have been beyond his powers! With a
-well-aimed shot he has stretched on the ground just one single dwarf
-gazelle!!
-
-After shaking hands, he bewails the fact that he has a rifle that
-shoots so baldly. He says its system is absolutely worthless,
-especially against wild animals.
-
-Our fleeting acquaintance is broken off in a few minutes. He is the
-first newly arrived European that I have met for a long time, but I
-have not too much sympathy for this class of sportsmen. So my new
-acquaintance goes off, still blazing away freely. He has been urged on
-by my information that his camping and watering, place for the day
-is a long way off, and that the borders of the lake seem to me to be
-fever-haunted.
-
-A queer kind of shepherd, in truth, for these wild herds! I fear
-he would be very like a wolf, or rather--to be zoologically and
-geographically precise--a leopard, in sheep’s clothing!
-
-Again I was alone; the disturber of my peace had not frightened away
-the animals. So, as I was regaining strength rapidly, I decided to
-halt here for a few days. This meant having to provide for oneself in
-the most primitive way, for I was short of some of the most necessary
-provisions and supplies. But in such conditions the decision was not
-difficult to take. I shall not easily forget the days I spent there.
-
-The plateau of the volcanic lakes Naiwasha, Elementeita and Nakuro,
-standing nearly 6,000 feet above the sea, presents to the spectator all
-the austere, stern, and strange charm peculiar to the Masai uplands.
-
-Some ten years have gone by since that expedition of mine, and all
-is now changed. Up to that time only the natives had lived in these
-districts. Few Europeans had penetrated into these solitudes; but now
-a track of iron rails links the Indian Ocean with the Central African
-Lake basin, and the shrill whistle of the locomotive sounds in the
-equatorial wilderness. Wherever the influence of the railway extends,
-the Masai, whom I then learned to know, have disappeared. Reservations
-have been assigned to them, like the Indians of North America.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-BEARERS MAKING THEIR WAY THROUGH HIGH GRASS.]
-
-My former companion on my travels, Alfred Kaiser, describes, not
-without a certain feeling of sadness, how he saw them once more,
-not long, ago, under these new conditions, already to a great extent
-changed by European influence--and changed in a way that was not at all
-to their advantage. Using, instead of the beautiful Masai dialects,
-some mangled fragments of English, they scornfully refused objects of
-barter that were eagerly coveted ten years ago, and insisted on coined
-money. They no longer wore their native ornaments, but were dressed in
-European second-hand clothes. In a word they were stripped of all the
-wild and primitive beauty that had once distinguished them.
-
-It is a hard fate, when a rude aboriginal people is all of a sudden
-brought into touch with those of a high degree of civilisation.
-
-As the former lord of the land[5] was deprived of his rights, so the
-same fate, more or less, befalls the splendid animal world that lends
-its charm to these solitudes.
-
-But then--ten years ago! I had been given back to life after sharp
-suffering, and all that I was now allowed to see in such rich abundance
-spoke to me in a more than ordinarily impressive language, a language
-that seemed to me to have an enduring charm.
-
-And how clearly must this language have sounded in the times of the
-primitive past!
-
-So we may here attempt a picture of the wild life of the lake margin
-in former days, on the lines of the sketches I have already traced out
-of the life and activity of the wild herds of the plateau, as I still
-could see them....
-
-Out of the many memories of those days, that still work on me like
-magic, there is one above all that has a special meaning, for me:
-“Elelescho!”
-
-But what is “Elelescho”? the reader will ask. “Elelescho”[6] is the
-name of a peculiar plant, perhaps it would be more correct to say a
-bush, that has in many ways set its mark on the flora in the very
-heart of the Masai region. Ranges of hills covered with silvery-leafed
-Elelescho, the spicy smell of Elelescho, the water at the camping place
-redolent of Elelescho--and also, in consequence, tea, coffee, cocoa
-tasting of Elelescho--that is a memory that remains fixed firmly in
-one’s thoughts of this home of the wild herds and of the Masai. It Was
-these disappearing nomads who gave the bush its beautiful name.
-
-Possibly the musical sound of the name has not a little to do with
-reconciling us in memory to the plant. For the bush itself has in
-process of time monotonous effect not very to the senses, but for
-this very reason all the stronger and more enduring. Its character is
-connected by strong links of memory with our experiences of those days,
-and the sound of its name awakes rose-coloured recollections. For just
-as it is not given to man to remember exactly the nature of intense
-bodily pains, so fancy, looking backwards, kindly blots out much that
-was hard and little that was pleasant in the life we have led. Thus
-it is that this strange bush, with its silver-grey leaves and aromatic
-odour, is capable, as hardly anything else is, of awakening in the mind
-of the traveller a kind of nostalgia--nostalgia for the wilderness, to
-which he is drawn by so much of beauty and of hardship. We have gained
-very little by learning that botanists recognise our plant as one of
-the Compositæ, and name it _Tarchonantus camphoratus_, L. It is to be
-found also in other parts of Africa; and Professor Fritsch reported,
-as early as 1863, that he found it growing in Griqualand, then still
-an unsettled country, where it was called the “Mohatla.” It would be
-a pity if its beautifully sounding Masai name were not preserved for
-future times, and I must do my best to save “Elelescho” from such
-oblivion.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-THE CARAVAN ON THE MARCH.]
-
-One must have learned the word with its sweet-sounding pronunciation
-from the lips of a proud, handsome, slender Masai warrior in order to
-understand how so seemingly slight a thing can imbue one’s impression
-of a whole land.
-
-The Elelescho is as prominent in those regions as the oak and beech
-or fir in Germany, or as the juniper, the heath, and the broom, and
-has the same influence on the landscape. But it has a greater and
-deeper influence upon the imagination, because it so dominates those
-solitudes, that to him who has long travelled in them the mere memory
-of it evokes a vivid picture of their once familiar aspect. The strong
-scent of the Elelescho plant leads the Masai to wear the leaves of the
-bush as a decoration round their ears for the sake of its perfume. It
-belongs thus to the plants that because of their scent are used as
-ornaments by warriors and maidens: “Il-käk ooitaa ‘l muran oo ‘n----
-doiye ‘l---- orôpili.”[7] So there pass before us Masai maidens, and
-Masai warriors decked with Elelescho leaves and Elelescho branches,
-and received with sympathetic smiles by the caravan leaders--who,
-however, unlike the Masai, think very little of it. Very simple and
-naïve are the relations of these natives with nature around them. Only
-the obvious, the actually useful, comes into their thoughts, and for
-my black companions the Elelescho always recalls only memories of poor
-desert regions of the waste--regions in which they must often endure
-hunger and suffer many hardships. Far different is the influence of
-the Elelescho region on my feelings. For me this bush is symbolically
-linked with the plunge into uninhabited solitudes, with self-liberation
-from the pressure of the civilisation of modern men and all its haste
-and hurry.
-
-We wish to feel once more, and to give ourselves up fully to, the spell
-of the Elelescho--the charm of the Elelescho thickets, that are also in
-South Africa in the lands about the Cape the characteristic mark of the
-velt, now so lonely, but once alive with hundreds of thousands of wild
-herds.
-
-A wonderful night has come on.
-
-The moon--in a few days it will be at the full--sheds its beams in
-glittering splendour over Lake Nakuro.
-
-The little camp is soon wrapped in silence. The weary bearers sink into
-deep and well-earned slumber. Only the sentries, pushed far out, are
-on the alert. It was but a few days since the rebel Wakamassia
-hillmen were a source of danger to us, and nightly precautions are
-not yet forgotten. The moonbeams flicker ghost-like over the lake.
-Night-jars give forth their songs close to the camp all round us.
-Strange sounds and cries ring out from the throats of the waterfowl
-on the lake margins, and not far away one hears the snorting of the
-hippopotami. Jackals and spotted hyenas prowl round the camp, betraying
-themselves by their voices. The hyena’s howl and jackal’s wailing bark
-mingle strangely with the deep bass note of a bull-hippopotamus. Here
-in the wilderness there is hardly any sound that is louder than the
-mighty voice of these giants of the water.[8]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A HERD OF ZEBRAS TAKING REFUGE FROM THE HEAT OF THE MIDDAY SUN.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-FLAMINGOES ON THE MARGIN OF A LAKE. THEY MUST BE VERY LONG-LIVED BIRDS,
-SOME OF THEM NOW LIVING IN THE COLOGNE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS HAVE BEEN
-THERE THIRTY YEARS.]
-
-A strange feeling came over me. Amid all the ever-varying sensations of
-the last year my capacity for enjoyment, my sensitiveness to outside
-impressions, had been developed and enhanced. A short time since I was
-between life and death, struggling with the treacherous infection of
-fever. Now I was well. I was breathing the air some three thousand feet
-higher than the place where I lay ill near Victoria Nyanza. I was again
-in a region whose vast volcanic solitudes contrasted strongly with its
-abundance of highly developed organic life, and exercised a strange
-influence upon me.
-
-Is there such a place as Europe? Is it possible that thousands of miles
-away there is a centre of civilisation whose teeming millions would
-fain imprint their image on the whole earth, and even lay covetous
-hands on this far-off wilderness, and that in time this must happen?
-
-A world of which I myself am a unit! How strange that I can delight
-so deeply in all this wild charm! And how quickly the wishes of men
-change! A while ago, in the long nights of fever, I had but one
-desire--that my heart, my heart alone, should not be buried in a
-foreign soil, but be taken back to the Fatherland.
-
-And now, only a few weeks after my recovery, how different seems to me
-all I may hope for from Fate, and how much more complex, how much more
-difficult to accomplish!
-
-I yield myself up entirely to the spell of the wilderness, to the mood
-of the night.
-
-That was ten years ago, before the Europeans had banished it--when it
-ached on the senses like the nocturne of some great tone-poet. But I
-know well that to-day it is no longer in existence; Lake Nakuro is now
-only a lake like any other, and the railway whistle wakes its echoes.
-
-That night the spell must have been exceptionally strong. It seemed to
-me as though I were under some charm, as if I were carried back into
-the far-off times. There came before my mind much of what the lake
-had seen in the long vanished past. The lands around me heaved and
-quaked. Mighty earth-shaping forces were doing their work. I seemed to
-see before my eyes what happened here in primeval times--how volcanic
-forces, strange, boundless, and terrible, had built up and given
-form to the country around me here, destroying all living things, and
-yet at the same time preparing the conditions for the hotly pulsating
-waves of life of later days. In my mind I saw pass before me wondrous
-mighty forms of the animal world of the past, long since extinct.
-Then--suddenly I started up. What was that?
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-FLAMINGOES FLYING DOWN TO THE LAKE MARGIN.]
-
-[Illustration: ALFRED KAISER (IN ARAB COSTUME).]
-
-A loud trumpeting ran in my ears! Elephants! Were there still extant
-such herds of elephants as those that I saw coming down there to the
-lake to drink, rolling themselves in the mud of its banks, and openly
-making friends with the hippopotami? Just as in the daytime I had
-noticed the different kinds of antelopes and the zebras, so here I saw
-again the elephants and hippopotami living their life close together,
-moving round or beside each other without fear or hesitation. The
-herd, numbering many hundred heads, was guided to its drinking-place
-silently and slowly by its aged leader, a female elephant of most
-exceptional size. Many young elephants were there in company with their
-mothers. Some very little ones, only a few weeks old, played with their
-comrades, or knowingly imitated the movements of the older animals in
-the water, while the old ones took care to prevent the tender young
-creatures from taking any harm.
-
-But it all seemed somehow impossible! Veterans among the most
-experienced black elephant-hunters had assured me that such huge
-herds were not to be met with. And if I saw aright in the shimmering
-moonlight, what a great mass of hippopotami were moving about there
-before me! And now, paying, no attention to the elephants that were
-peacefully bathing farther out in the muddy water, they clambered on
-to the land, and began to graze like cows on the bank among some more
-of the elephants. It was exactly the same friendly relation that
-I had seen between the dwarf gazelles and the zebras during the day.
-Could I be only dreaming? Such a multitude of huge creatures here close
-to my camp--it could hardly be a reality!
-
-[Illustration: GROUP OF GNUS. HARTEBEESTS IN THE BACKGROUND.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-NILE GEESE ON THE LOW BANK OF THE NATRON LAKE (LAKE NAKURO). DWARF
-GAZELLES IN THE BACKGROUND.]
-
-[Illustration: A HERD OF GRANT’S GAZELLES.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-CRESTED CRANES AND ZEBRAS.]
-
-And now I perceived that a second herd of elephants, some hundreds
-strong, was approaching the water. In a straight line these still more
-giant-like colossi came down to the lake margin--all of them, as I
-now clearly perceived, bulls with mighty tusks, and amongst them some
-quite enormous tuskers, obviously patriarchs of the herd, and carrying
-some hundreds of pounds’ weight of ivory that glittered afar in the
-moonlight.
-
-The two herds greeted each other with their curious cries, difficult to
-describe, and then the newcomers began to bathe and drink.
-
-My attention was especially arrested by some of the elephants, clearly
-visible in the moonlight, keeping apart from the rest. Standing
-together in pairs they caressed each other with their trunks, while
-the enormous ears which are such an imposing decoration of the African
-elephant stood out from their heads, so as to make them look larger
-than ever.
-
-My wonder increases! Numerous herds of giraffes, hundreds strong,
-come down to the lake, and this, too, not far from the elephants, and
-without any fear.
-
-And now there is again a new picture! A herd of innumerable buffaloes.
-With their great formidable heads turned watchfully towards the
-rest of the crowd, they too are coming for a refreshing bath. Their
-numbers still increase. It is a sight recalling, surpassing even, the
-descriptions given by the first travellers over the velt regions of
-Cape Colony.
-
-How did all this accord with the reports I had received of the scarcity
-of elephants? with the destruction of the buffalo by the cattle
-plague? With my own previous experiences? The most authoritative of my
-informants had assured me that in this district the elephant was to be
-found very rarely, the buffalo hardly ever!
-
-Suddenly with mysterious swiftness the night is gone, and the day
-breaks. I search for and find the tracks of my giant guests of the
-night. I had made no mistake. Monstrous footprints are sharply
-impressed in the mud, the ground looks as it had been ploughed up,
-and in the midst of the plain, not very far from the lake, there are
-actually hundreds of mighty elephants standing near some ol-girigiri
-acacias. As I begin to watch them, they suddenly become restless. In
-their noiseless way they make off at an extremely quick rate, and soon
-disappear behind the nearest ridge.
-
-Round about me I see herds of zebras, hartebeests, and wild animals of
-all kinds in vaster numbers even than those yesterday. The deep bellow
-of the wild buffalo breaks upon my ear. I can see long-necked towering
-giraffes in the acacia thickets. The snorting of numerous hippopotami
-sounds from the lake. Some of these burly fellows are sunning
-themselves on its margin; and quite close to them several rhinoceroses
-are grazing peacefully in the midst of their uncouth cousins.
-
-I am surprised, too, at seeing a troop of lions disappearing into the
-bush, after having made a visit to the water. They are so close to
-me that I can plainly see by the shape of their bodies that they are
-going home after having had an abundant repast.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A CAMP ON THE VELT.]
-
-The behaviour of my people puzzles me. I had no opportunity for
-questioning them as to why they were not more impressed by this
-unexpected spectacle, for my attention was suddenly arrested by the
-appearance of a lengthy caravan of bearers, that seemed as if it had
-emerged before my eyes from the trampled ground. There is new life
-and movement among the herds of wild animals. Slowly, defiantly, or
-in swift-footed fear, each according to its kind, all these wonderful
-creatures seek safety from the approaching crowd.
-
-A robust negro marches at the head of the caravan. He carries a white
-flag inscribed all over with texts from the Koran. Hundreds of bearers
-come steadily in. Each carries a load of nearly ninety pounds’ weight,
-besides his cooking gear, sleeping-mat, gun and powder-horn. At regular
-intervals grave-looking, bearded Arabs march among the bearers. Two
-stately figures, riding upon asses and surrounded by an armed escort,
-are evidently the chiefs, and a great drove of asses with pack-saddles
-laden with elephant tusks brings up the rear. Very quickly the numerous
-party establish their camp, and I now remark that hundreds of the
-bearers are also laden with ivory. It is clearly a caravan of Arab
-ivory-traders.
-
-After the usual greetings--“Sabal kher” (“God bless thee”), and “Salaam
-aleikum,” questions are asked in the Swahili language: “Habari ghani?”
-(“What news?”) I now learn that the party of travellers set out some
-two years ago from Pangani on the coast to trade for ivory in the
-Masai country. I am surprised to hear the Arabs tell how, although
-theirs is one of the first caravans that have made the attempt, they
-have penetrated far into the inhospitable and perilous lands of the
-Masai. Their journey has been greatly delayed, for they have had to
-fight many battles with the Wachenzi, the aborigines of the districts
-through which they marched. “But Allah was with us, and the Unbelievers
-had the worst of it! Allah is great, and Mohammed is his prophet!”
-
-Every one set busily to work. In the turn of a hand the camp was
-surrounded with a thorny zereba hedge, and made secure.
-
-And now I had personal experience of what has passed, times without
-number, in the broad lands of the Masai;--armed detachments from the
-caravan started on raids for far-off districts. The timid Wandorobo,
-that strange subject tribe of the Masai, brought more and more ivory
-to the camp to sell it to the traders, after long and obstinate
-bargaining. It was remarkable how clever were the people of the caravan
-in dealing with these timid wild folk, and how well they knew how to
-gain their confidence.[9] This confidence, however, was not made use of
-in trade and barter for the advantage of the natives. But thanks to the
-methods and ways of managing the natives, as the traders understood
-them, we saw that the wild folk were quite satisfied, and this was the
-main point.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-NATIVE SETTLEMENT WITH PALISADE AND ZEREBA (HEDGE) ON THE MIDDLE COURSE
-OF THE PANGANI RIVER. (PROTECTIVE CHARMS ARE PLACED OVER THE GATEWAY
-AND IN FRONT OF IT, IN THE FOREGROUND OF THE PICTURE.)]
-
-But what patience is required in trade of this kind! A white man could
-never develop such Oriental patience. Again and again a tusk would be
-endlessly bargained over, till at last, often after days of chaffering,
-it passed into the possession of the caravan. The natives were of
-course bent on getting the tusks, sooner or later, into the camp. At
-the very outset they had sent in a most exact description of them, and
-then envoys from the caravan had to go and inspect them, often at a
-distance of several days’ march from the camp.
-
-Every day a great number of Masai warriors appeared in the camp. Men
-belonging to many kraals, owners of great herds of cattle, camped near
-the lake. There were not infrequent skirmishes, especially at night
-time. The young warriors, the Moran, made attempts at plunder, and were
-beaten off with broken heads. But, on the whole, this hardly disturbed
-the good understanding. “It is their testuri (custom),” thought the
-experienced and fatalistic coast folk, and they accepted it as an
-unavoidable incident of the trade. But festivals were also arranged,
-with dance and song. In the still moonlit nights the strange chant
-rang out in a high treble far over the plain, and sounded in the rocky
-hills, and festivity and rejoicing reigned among the warriors, the
-girls, and the women.
-
-But by day one saw their busy life displayed, all the bucolic poetry
-of grazing herds of cattle with their spear-armed herdsmen. There was
-a great deal to be done, and in each and every task the Masai girls
-and women showed themselves, like the men, excellent guardians and
-attendants of their herds.
-
-In the neighbourhood of the Masai kraals the wild animals of the plain
-mingled freely with the tame cattle of the Masai, knowing well that the
-Masai folk would not shoot them. The wild animals were exposed only to
-the attacks of the Wandorobo. But these latter bore themselves very
-shyly in the presence of their over-lords, the Masai, and went off to
-far distant hunting grounds, so that the wild animals were hardly ever
-disturbed by a hunter.
-
-The young Masai warriors also began to devote themselves to hunting
-for ivory. With great courage, and often with no small display of
-dexterity, they killed a large number of elephants, allured by the
-high prices offered by the caravans. But they kept the beautiful
-tusks carefully hidden, buried in the earth till the moment when they
-had successfully arranged a sale. The buried treasure was easy to
-conceal. At the place where the tusks were put away the grass was set
-on fire and burned up over a considerable area, and then no eye could
-distinguish the slightest indication of the buried treasure.
-
-The Elmoran also made use of a method of hunting which is employed in
-other parts of Africa, namely, to slip quietly up to an elephant, and
-with a single powerfully delivered sword-cut sever the tendon Achilles.
-But few indeed were daring enough to attempt this, and these were
-strong, brave, and well-trained warriors. Such an exploit won for them
-high respect among their comrades of the clan.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-ELAND-ANTELOPES RALLIED IN A GROUP BEFORE TAKING TO FLIGHT.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A HERD OF WHITE-BEARDED GNUS. IN THE BACKGROUND ONE OF THE
-CHARACTERISTIC HILLS OF THE MASAI UPLANDS.]
-
-While the Masai warriors thus took their share in elephant-killing, and
-the Wandorobo stuck to their long, trusted poisoned darts and poisoned
-spears, the caravan folk attacked the elephants with powder and iron
-bullets,[10] and slew whole hecatombs of them.
-
-“Nowadays,” the leader of the caravan told me, “the chase is easier
-and less dangerous, and your firearms also give the man from the coast
-the power of hunting and killing the Fihl (elephant). For example, you
-know, sir, that my half-brother, Seliman bin Omari, is not a practised
-hunter. And yet, believe me, he and his people have brought down many,
-many elephants.”
-
-But his banker on the coast, the Hindoo Radda Damja, certainly never
-hears one word of any elephant being killed by Seliman’s people:
-
-“No one is so clever as he is at knowing nothing about elephants when
-questions are asked. The ivory is always something traded for with the
-natives, far, far away in the interior,” he adds, with a cunning wink.
-“The main point is that we all get pembe (ivory), and he gets plenty of
-it! I would like to work the business as he does, but, sir, I am not so
-clever in preparing amulets, and moreover, I don’t know as much as he
-does of the ways of the elephant.
-
-“But it’s a pity that in all parts of the country the ivory is becoming
-very scarce, so one has to be going always farther into the interior,
-and one must try to find new ivory districts.”
-
-Thus my Arab informant talked a long time with me. He told me much that
-was interesting and much that was new to me. He told me of caravans
-that had been massacred, cut off to the last man by the natives in
-remote districts: and again of caravans that had been not one or
-two,--no, as long as six years on the march, that had buried a lot of
-ivory and gradually got it down to the coast. Time counts for nothing
-here, for the people--that is to say, those who are not slaves--receive
-only the one lump sum agreed upon for the journey, no matter how
-long it lasts. His friends, with caravans mustering many hundreds,
-had carried hundreds and hundreds of barrels of gunpowder into the
-interior, they had sought everywhere for new districts abounding in
-ivory, and the result had been the slaughter of the elephants on all
-sides. Nevertheless he had not much to tell me of men having enriched
-themselves by this trade. However, this did not apply to the traders
-on the coast, who advanced the money. These lent money to the caravan
-leaders, who went into the interior, at the high rate of interest usual
-in the East, and thus became rich men. They had, of course, also many
-losses. It happened not seldom that one of their debtors was “lost” in
-the interior, which means that he simply did not come back, but chose
-to pass the rest of his life in exile. And in that case it would be a
-difficult matter for the creditor to take proceedings against him.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    A MASAI DANCE--THE PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS THE PLAITED QUEUE WORN BY
-    THE YOUNG WARRIORS (EL MORAN), WHO LEAP AS HIGH IN THE AIR AS
-    THEY CAN. THE YOUNG WOMEN, WHOSE HEADS ARE CLIPPED COMPLETELY
-    BARE, SING AND DANCE ROUND THEM.]
-
-Then my informant told me how many of the elephant hunters still living
-had been carrying on their business already for a long time before any
-Europeans whatever thought of making a prolonged stay in the country.
-He told me also much that was interesting about the old trade routes
-extending far through Africa, and even to the Congo. He had friends
-and relatives who had already traversed these routes many times, and
-journeyed from the east coast even to the Congo, long before any
-European traveller. Many of the people of his caravan were able to tell
-from memory each day’s journey as far as the Congo, and give exact
-information about the chiefs who held sway in each district, and the
-possibility of getting supplies of various kinds of provisions, such as
-maize, millet, bananas, or other products of the country.
-
-I cannot exactly say how long he had talked with me about elephants
-and elephant-hunting, about the ivory trade, and many other things.
-I only know one thing--that after some time his talk became more and
-more difficult for me to understand, that I strove in vain against an
-ever-increasing weariness, and that at last I saw neither the Arab nor
-the caravan--in a word, saw nothing more, felt nothing more.
-
-I fell into a deep sleep in which, in my dreams, I had a lively
-argument with some Europeans, who would not believe so many elephants,
-buffaloes, and other wild animals had formerly been here, and who kept
-on objecting strongly that it was impossible that all this could have
-been the case so short a time ago.
-
-When I woke up again I found myself in my lounging-chair, a primitive
-piece of furniture of my own construction. My black servant stood
-before me, and asked me if I would not rather go to bed.
-
-I rubbed my eyes--it had all been a dream, then; the spell of Elelescho
-must have inspired me with it. How foolish to yield to this spell! But
-men will perhaps so yield to it when all this has become “historical”
-and the Masai and their lives and deeds have, like the Redskins of
-America, found their Fenimore Cooper.
-
-Then may the spell of the Elelescho exert its rightful power; then may
-it make famous the slender, sinewy, noble Masai ol-morani as, amidst
-his fair ones, his “doiye,”[11] he leads the song-accompanied dance
-as he goes out to war, and reigns the free lord of the wilderness!
-But to-day he bears on his brow the significant mark of an inexorable
-fate--that of the last of the Mohicans.
-
-The spell of the Elelescho has departed from Lake Nakuro, once so
-remote from the world.
-
-The lake is no longer remote.
-
-Iron railway lines link it with the Indian Ocean. Vanished from it is
-the spell that I once felt both waking and sleeping; gone is the poetry
-of the elephant herds, the Masai, the Wandorobo, and the caravan life
-in all its aspects; gone all that I saw there. The traveller, if he
-would learn to know the primitive life and ways, whether of men or of
-the animal world, if he would know the primeval harmony that speaks
-to him in an overpowering language peculiar to itself, must press on
-into the wilderness farther away from these tracks. This harmony,
-whose special character is day by day disappearing, day by day is in
-an ever increasing measure destroyed, cannot be recalled under the
-new, the coming system, the system that abandons itself to
-restlessness--that, in a word, which we call modern industry, modern
-civilisation.
-
-[Illustration: A HERD OF WHITE-BEARDED GNUS AT CLOSE QUARTERS.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A MORE DISTANT VIEW OF THEM.]
-
-[Illustration: THEY SHOW THEIR DISQUIET BY SWINGING THEIR TAILS.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-FINALLY THEY DECIDE TO BEAT A RETREAT.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-EFFECTS OF HEAT AND MIRAGE.]
-
-To-day one may perhaps read in the _East African Gazette_ that Mr.
-Smith, the railway engineer, favoured by extraordinary luck on a
-hunting expedition, has seen one solitary bull elephant not far from
-Lake Nakuro! This is something quite out of the ordinary, and Mr.
-Smith is to be congratulated. Unfortunately his efforts during many
-years to have even one young East African elephant sent to London have
-been without any result. A young animal is no longer to be found. In
-the same number of this newspaper, under another heading, we read the
-report that the export of ivory this year by the Uganda Railway has
-been utterly disappointing; the quantity carried has been terribly
-small, hardly worth mentioning!
-
-I had a talk lately with a travelling companion who had spent some time
-with me in the wilderness ten years ago, and who had just revisited
-those distant lands, availing himself of the railway. Alfred Kaiser, a
-widely travelled man, recalled to me the life we had lived together,
-when there was yet hardly a trace of European influence among the
-people of the interior by Lake Victoria. In memory we saw again the
-inhabitants of then hardly known Sotikoland receiving us mistrustfully
-on their frontier, thousands strong. Their glittering spears sparkle in
-the morning sun; chiefs, ministers, and court ladies of the Wakawiróndo
-appear in camp in most primitive costume; club-armed warriors regard us
-with the most open distrust; cowry shells and artificial pearls form
-their costume and are used as their money; sudden attacks and fighting
-are quite in the order of the day.
-
-And now, only ten years later, Kaiser has seen the Masai at Lake
-Nakuro, English-speaking caricatures of civilisation.
-
-A feeling of something like resentment comes upon the traveller who has
-had to pay toll for his journey with the ceaseless sweat of his brow,
-when he thinks that now any one can reach Lake Nakuro in a few days
-from the coast. It is true that the over-anxious globe-trotter is kept
-in check by only too well justified fears of the treacherous malaria
-and the sleeping-sickness that has made such terrible progress of late.
-Otherwise the railway journey from Mombassa to the Victoria Nyanza, and
-then down the Nile to Cairo, would be a much-travelled route.
-
-I have tried to describe, in brief outline, the rapid, unwelcome change
-of our time, the result of European civilisation forcing its way in. As
-I describe things, so they were half a century ago, and even yet ten
-years ago, when I stayed by the shores of Nakuro, and no railway had
-yet been made there.
-
-To-day one can no longer find the old spell of the Elelescho there, or
-anywhere else where the white man has penetrated.
-
-The traveller probably sees only a shrubby plant.
-
-It covers many a ridge, and the lonely plains of the uplands, and
-sends afar its spicy perfume. The botanists call it _Tarchonantus
-camphoratus_, L. They class it among the Compositæ.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A HOT DAY IN THE GREAT RIFT VALLEY.]
-
-But here it can no longer exercise any spell.
-
-That has flown far, far away, into the interior. There, where the white
-man has not yet come, it still prolongs its existence.
-
-How long, yet will it be before it has entirely departed?
-
-[Illustration: GROUP OF MASAI--THE WARRIOR ON THE LEFT DRESSED IN A
-COSTUME IMPROVISED OUT OF A COLOURED BED QUILT.]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: ONE OF THE OLDEST “NATURE DOCUMENTS” FROM THE HAND OF
-MAN. PREHISTORIC SKETCH OF A MAMMOTH ON A FRAGMENT OF IVORY.
-
-  (From L. Reinhardt’s work _Der Mensch zur Eiszeit in Europa_.)]
-
-II
-
-From the Cave-dweller’s Sketch to the Flashlight Photograph
-
-
-The mysterious charm of wild nature, undisturbed, almost untouched, by
-the hand of man,--the charm inherent in all that I have in mind when I
-talk of “the spell of the Elelescho”--explains the keen and profound
-interest with which my pictures of animal life were received at home.
-
-In these days, when even electricity has been harnessed by men, there
-is a feeling that the knell has been sounded of all that is wild,
-be it man or beast. And however unpretending and inadequate the
-little pictures might be that I had won from the wilderness, yet all
-nature-lovers felt that they had here before them authentic, first-hand
-records revealing secrets which the eye of man had never before looked
-upon, or had had but scant opportunity for studying.
-
-These pictures were the first to show really wild animals in full
-freedom, just as they actually live their life on velt and marsh-land,
-in bush, forest, air, and water. They showed nature in its unalloyed
-reality, and therefore a peculiar stamp of truth and beauty must have
-imprinted itself upon them. They came, too, as a surprise, for in many
-points the hitherto accepted representations of the animal world and
-those given by my photographs did not agree.
-
-Mere subject counts for so much in a picture with most people that
-it takes them a long time to appreciate a work of art the subject
-of which does not at the first glance appeal to them. This applies
-peculiarly to my African photographs. It is not a very easy matter
-for the eye to grasp the movements of the varying forms of animal
-life in their natural freedom. Often their appearance is so blended
-with their surroundings that it requires long practice to distinguish
-the individual characteristics of each, the fleeting graces of their
-momentary aspects.
-
-I could not, therefore, help feeling a certain apprehension that every
-one would not at once be able to understand and decipher my pictures in
-my book, _With Flashlight and Rifle_. It is necessary when one looks
-at them to understand, in some degree, how to read between the lines;
-one must make an effort to grasp their more elusive features; in short,
-one must devote oneself to the study of them with a certain gusto, a
-certain intelligence. There was a further difficulty arising from the
-fact that the illustrations could be reproduced only by a process in
-which unfortunately much of the finer detail of the originals is lost.
-The use of the process, however, was necessary for various reasons.
-
-There can be only two ways of securing the best possible result in
-the execution of pictures of such subjects. The ideal method would be
-for heaven-sent artists, after years of study, to give us works of
-this class, and combine in these masterpieces the strictest truth with
-the finest craftsmanship. But this requires a thorough study of each
-separate species of animal seen from afar and at close quarters--and
-how is this possible, seeing that one gets only momentary glimpses?
-The other method is that of photography, the picture on the negative,
-which can claim the advantage of documentary accuracy, and at the same
-time leaves a certain scope for the artistic sense of the operator. So
-the greatly improved photographic methods of to-day can step in, at
-least as a substitute and makeshift, in the absence of works of art
-such as the genius of one man may give us. Considering the extreme
-difficulty of taking portraits of living animals in their wild, timid
-state, such pictures can only in a few instances lay claim to technical
-photographic perfection. But at least so far as my own taste goes, a
-certain lack of sharp definition in the picture (often deliberately
-sought for in taking other objects) is not only no disadvantage, but is
-even desirable. As a confirmation of this idea of mine, I may mention
-the opinion of an American journalist, who declares that my picture of
-a herd of wild animals given on page 327 of _With Flashlight and Rifle_
-to be the most perfect thing of the kind he has seen, and the most
-pleasing to him, and compares it to the work of a Corot.
-
-[Illustration: PICTURE OF A FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUS FROM LE VAILLANT’S BOOK
-OF TRAVELS, PUBLISHED MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.]
-
-It must be noted that _if the animals are drawn so as to stand out
-separated from the landscape which is a needful accessory of the
-picture, and brought forward into the foreground in an obviously
-selected pose, they must appear unnatural to the eye of the expert_.
-Such pictures cannot fail to give an unnatural impression, for in the
-freedom of the wilderness the animal world never presents itself in
-this way to the eyes of man. In their full significance as masterpieces
-of nature, all the various aspects of the animal world are first
-manifested to us in close connection with their environment. It has
-been a keen satisfaction to me to find that many world-renowned artists
-have appreciated warmly the beauty of these photographs, and have
-given expression to this feeling. I have been told, for instance--what
-I myself had already noticed--that numbers of the pictures, especially,
-those showing birds on the wing, bear a great resemblance to certain
-famous works of Japanese painters[12] of animal life, works that seem
-to dive into the secrets of nature. It has been brought home to me,
-indeed, both by hundreds of letters and thousands of opinions expressed
-in conversation, that the pictures have excited almost universal
-interest, and that my labours have not been in vain.
-
-Fully to enjoy the peculiar beauty of such photographs of living wild
-animals, the best way is undoubtedly to see the pictures considerably
-magnified by means of the magic lantern. On account of the special
-character and strangeness of most of the objects shown, I have the
-lantern slides lightly tinted. This colouring can be done without
-in the least altering the picture in its details, and its object is
-merely to secure greater effectiveness. Approval from all sides,
-both from artistic circles and from the public, satisfies me as to
-the correctness of this proceeding. Only in this way do photographic
-pictures shown by transmitted light produce the full impression of
-beauty and naturalness; they seem to transport the spectator directly
-to the far-off wilderness.
-
-There must be some good reason for the widespread interest manifested
-in these pictures of the life and ways of animals, some of them still
-so little known, and all of them living in remote solitudes. It seems
-to me that the cause is deep-seated--that deep down in the heart of
-the highly-cultured civilised man there are involuntary yearnings after
-the sensations of wild, healthy, primeval nature. The progress of
-mankind from the so-called barbaric stage to the highest civilisation
-has been accomplished in so short a time, in comparison with the whole
-period of man’s existence, that it is easy to understand how such a
-longing may survive. In every man there must be something of this
-craving for light and air and primeval conditions.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Camelo-pardus feu Giraffe._
-
-A GERMAN PICTURE OF THE GIRAFFE DATING FROM ABOUT TWO HUNDRED YEARS
-AGO.]
-
-“The conflict of man with the animal world,” says Wilhelm Bölsche,
-“has passed away unsung and uncelebrated. The civilised man of to-day
-has hardly a recollection of the endless lapse of time during which
-mankind had to struggle with the beasts of the earth for mastery.”
-Let us for a few moments turn our gaze backwards to that far past.
-In epochs that the learned date back by hundreds of thousands of
-years, we find attempts made by the cave-dwellers to execute artistic
-representations of nature as they saw it. The artist of prehistoric
-times set to work with his rude instruments to draw in merest outline
-on a smooth rock-face, on a tusk taken in the chase, or on some such
-material, the things that had particularly attracted his thoughts or
-stimulated his efforts. Specimens of these primitive works of art
-have been handed down to us. In the first place there are pictures of
-animals, scratched upon ivory, and notwithstanding all their crudeness,
-sketched with sufficient ability to enable us to-day to recognise with
-certainty the objects which the artist tried to depict. Such sketches
-scratched on ivory, showing various kinds of animals (some of them now
-extinct) and forming the oldest documents of the animal-sketcher’s art,
-have been found in the caves of the south-west of France, in the old
-dwelling-places of the so-called “Madeleine” hunters of La Madeleine
-and Laugerie Basse. The museum at Zurich also possesses similar
-primitive documents from the Kesslerloch cave, near Thaingen, in the
-canton of Schaffhausen.
-
-[Illustration: HOTTENTOT HUNTERS--A SKETCH DATING FROM 200 YEARS AGO.
-
-    (Some South African tribes actually hunt the lion on foot with
-    javelins, and I have myself more than once observed the courage
-    of the East African natives in similar circumstances.)]
-
-It is indeed not surprising that the cave-dweller of those days took
-his models from the ranks of the animal creation. All his thoughts
-and efforts were directed to the chase; he had no resources but in
-this pursuit, and he had to carry on, day and night perhaps, a
-fierce struggle for existence with wild beasts. One can thus follow
-the development of the human race through the course of time from the
-primitive sketches of beasts down to our own days, in which it has
-been reserved for the hand of man to execute masterpieces inspired
-by genius, and in which man makes the sun to serve him in depicting
-and preserving representations of all that lives and moves, creeps
-and flies. By means of the sketches of animals laboriously scratched
-on pieces of ivory by the Cave men of Southern Europe, we make the
-acquaintance of the long-haired prototypes of the living elephants
-of to-day. These animals were the most coveted big game in Europe.
-Clearly recognisable sketches of reindeer tell us that a climate like
-that of the northern steppes prevailed at the time; others of horses
-show that the wild horse was then to be found in Europe; those of the
-aurochs prove the existence of that animal. There is a remarkably close
-resemblance between the style of all these drawings and that of the
-rude sketches made by the Esquimaux of our own day. Some such Esquimaux
-sketches of animals on walrus tusks, at the most a hundred years old,
-are to be found in the Berlin Ethnographical Museum. Interesting,
-too, are the sketches of giraffes from the hands of ancient Egyptian
-artists. They show us that the artist of those days in drawing animals
-allowed a loose rein to his fancy and imagination. Thousands of years
-must separate these representations of animals from the sketches of
-Asiatic wild life which Sven Hedin discovered at Togri-sai-Tale near
-Lôb-nor. They are scratched on bright green slate, and depict yaks,
-wild asses and tigers, and the hunting of them with bow and arrow.
-They appear to be of the same kind as the animal-sketches made by the
-South African Bushmen, discovered by Fritsch in the year 1863. These
-cave pictures show us various members of the fauna of Cape Colony,
-which has already been to so great an extent exterminated. During
-the period of the Middle Ages a more perfect style of representing
-animals was gradually evolved, but even about the year 1720 we find
-representations that are inaccurate to an incredible extent, and,
-indeed, so recently as the early part of last century, one sees in
-the travels of the French naturalist Le Vaillant, in the picture of a
-female hippopotamus, a proof that the development of animal-drawing had
-as yet made little progress.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    ANCIENT EGYPTIAN REPRESENTATIONS OF GIRAFFES AND OTHER ANIMALS.
-    (THE BIRD AT THE TOP ON THE LEFT IS PLAINLY RECOGNISABLE
-    AS THE SHOE-BILLED STORK--_BALAENICEPS REX_. NOW IT SEEMS
-    ONLY TO BE FOUND IN THE MARSHES OF THE UPPER NILE. I HAVE TO
-    THANK PROFESSOR HOMMEL OF MUNICH FOR THESE ILLUSTRATIONS,
-    WHICH ARE TAKEN FROM “MONUMENTS ET MÉMOIRES DE L’ACADÉMIE DES
-    INSCRIPTIONS ET BELLES LETTRES.”)]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    SKETCHES OF ANIMALS MADE BY THE BUSHMEN. (DISCOVERED IN SOUTH
-    AFRICA BY PROFESSOR G. FRITSCH IN THE ‘SIXTIES, AND REPRODUCED
-    BY HIS KIND PERMISSION.)]
-
-But what a difference in drawing and technique has come about in less
-than a hundred years! One need only compare the pictures of those
-times with the works of our own days, to be convinced that, besides
-artistic execution, there is now an increasingly exacting demand for
-the precise truth. Indeed, one of the first points to be insisted on
-is that photographic pictures _shall not be altered, worked up--in
-word, in any way “retouched.”_ Only on this condition can they really
-claim to be--that which in a special sense they ought to be--_true to
-nature, absolutely trustworthy “nature-documents.”_ This distinguishes
-the photograph from works of art executed by the hand of man, which
-must conform to each individual conception of the artist.
-
-It is a hard saying that the modern cultured man is becoming,
-continually more and more estranged from nature. But in this matter
-let us take the standpoint of the optimist, who says to himself that
-there must be a reaction--a conscious, deliberate return, which indeed
-will represent the result of the highest stage of culture. There is
-an increasing perception of the existence in our home landscape of an
-ideal worth, that we have not yet been able sufficiently to estimate.
-To-day already there is a movement on all sides, and the demand is
-heard, ever stronger and clearer, for the protection of the beauties
-of nature. We must protect Nature in the widest sense of the word. And
-even if, in the stern progress of evolving civilisation, much that
-remains in the treasury of primitive nature must be destroyed, we shall
-be able long to preserve and rejoice in much else.
-
-[Illustration: A SMALL HERD OF FEMALE BLACK-TAILED ANTELOPES RUNNING
-AWAY THROUGH HIGH GRASS.]
-
-And here come into play the healthy desire of man in his primitive
-state, the cry for light and air, and all the beauty of nature. It
-is hardly a hundred years since we in Europe learned to value the
-landscape beauties of unspoilt nature. English writers of travels a
-century ago still spoke of Switzerland with aversion; it was for them
-a horrible, dismal mountain country. And it is easy to understand how
-man in his hard struggle for the necessaries of life regarded, and was
-forced to regard, nature around him as on the whole unfriendly and
-menacing. But since those times there has been a change for the better,
-even though it cannot be denied that many men require very specially
-adjusted spectacles to enable them to enjoy this or that beauty of the
-nature around them! Thus the landowner feels a pleasing satisfaction
-at the sight of his cornfields. And yet these cornfields are hardly
-anything else but an artificially formed bit of bare velt, on which at
-certain times a short-lived vegetation grows up, whilst at other times
-the naked soil presents itself to the eye--uninviting, stripped of all
-adornment, arid and empty. Thus, too, the man who loves wine feels
-that well-cultivated vineyards are a beautiful sight; but it may be
-doubted whether he would do so if, say, only cotton-pods grew on the
-vines! In ancient times, as Humboldt shows, with the Greeks and Romans,
-as a rule, only country that was “comfortable to live in” was called
-beautiful, not what was wild and romantic. Yet Propertius[13] and many
-others praise the beauty of nature left to itself, in contrast with
-that which is embellished by art. Then we have a long way to travel
-through the Middle Ages, when the Alps are described to us as “dismal”
-and “horrible,” till we come to the nature-studies of Rousseau, Kant,
-and Goethe. At first there were very few to sympathise with them.
-Their view gradually prevailed, in spite of many backward eddies. Thus
-Hegel had only one impression of the Swiss Alps, that of a performance
-tiresome on account of its length--a judgment not far removed from that
-of the Savoyard peasant who declared that people who took any interest
-in snow-covered mountains must be insane.
-
-On the other hand, we find in Eastern Asia, and especially among the
-Japanese, from the earliest times, the most ardent love for nature, and
-there even the poorest knows how to adorn his home with flowers, and to
-turn the beauty of the landscape to similar account.
-
-A great part of the interest felt in natural beauty is perhaps to
-be traced to extraneous considerations. On the other hand, here in
-Germany we see most of our people full of feeling for our glorious
-forests and for our German scenery in general. We have to face the
-prospect, however, of a silenced countryside--a countryside without
-song or music.[14] That is a matter for anxiety. Insects, birds,
-quadrupeds, life and movement should be a part of the landscape. This
-idea should continue to attract more and more adherents. German thought
-and feeling are altogether in unison on this subject, and it is to
-be hoped that the cry for the protection of the beauties of nature,
-for the preservation of the plant and animal worlds, and all that is
-picturesque in our native landscape, may continue to find expression.
-The League for the Preservation of the Homeland in Germany gains daily
-new supporters.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-BEARERS ON THE MARCH.]
-
-Men like Professor Conwentz and many others have been working for years
-in this direction, and carrying on a most successful propaganda. This
-action for the preservation of the Homeland, taken in the highest and
-broadest sense of the word, must tend to evoke and foster the love of
-nature and its beauties in ever wider circles.
-
-In other countries, too, steady progress is being made towards the
-same goal, and the importance of these considerations has long been
-recognised. In England and in America a way has recently been found to
-give practical effect to the idea of the protection of the beauties of
-nature by measures well calculated for this end. In this connection,
-too, a refined æsthetic culture is gaining ground. I do not at all
-close my eyes to the difficulty of regulating the conditions bearing on
-this matter. But in this connection we must not shrink from decisive
-measures. Those who come after us will be the first to prize and esteem
-these measures at their full value.
-
-What I have here described as something to be desired and worth
-striving for at home must also hold good for the whole world--the
-preservation of all that is characteristic, all that belongs to
-primitive nature, wherever it is to be found.
-
-The beauties of nature are most abundant, and in our time they are
-all--all--threatened with destruction and in need of protection. Where
-we can save and preserve any of them, our hands should not remain idle.
-
-But where this is not possible, let us secure “nature-documents,”
-paintings, representations of all kinds as true to life as may be.
-
-In this way we shall, at least, save for future ages memorials of
-enduring worth, for which our children’s children will give us thanks.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    A RHINOCEROS MOVING SLOWLY THROUGH THE GRASS OF THE VELT--TAKEN
-    WITH THE TELEPHOTO-LENS AT A DISTANCE OF 120 METRES, AND
-    WHERE THERE WAS NO COVER. THE ANIMAL LOOKED REMARKABLY
-    LIKE AN ANT-HILL. ON ITS BACK ONE SEES A BIRD--(_BUPHAGUS
-    ERYTHRORHYNCUS_, Stanl.)--HUNTING FOR TICKS.]]
-
-III
-
-New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation
-
-
-Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, says in
-his lately published work, _Out-door Pastimes of an American Hunter_:
-“The most striking and melancholy feature in connection with American
-big game is the rapidity with which it has vanished.”
-
-He makes a critical investigation of this disturbing fact, and he
-most strongly advocates restrictive laws and the establishment of
-reservations for wild animals. He puts himself at the head of every
-effort directed towards the protection, as far as may be, of the animal
-world and of wild nature, and shows by word and deed how even in a
-brief period remarkable results can be obtained in this direction.
-At the same time, on every page of his striking work, the President
-shows that he is in favour of the practice of the chase within proper
-limits, and thus he by no means takes the side of extreme partisans in
-this matter. His efforts are of the greatest service to the cause, and
-will no doubt have extremely valuable results in the United States,
-where, owing to its peculiar circumstances, the natural treasures of
-the country were, till very lately, recklessly wasted.
-
-The establishment of the Yellowstone National Park was largely the
-President’s work. In this vast territory no shot may be fired. It forms
-an inviolable national sanctuary, within whose boundaries life of all
-kinds is safe. Several similar reservations are already established,
-or their establishment is projected. Strict protective laws have been
-some of them brought into operation throughout the States, and some
-of them gradually extended to various districts according to their
-circumstances. Whole tracts (as, for instance, Alaska) have been closed
-for years by law against the hunter. In short, a period of thoughtless
-ravage has been followed by an era of self-control with a swiftness
-that no one would ever have expected under the conditions prevailing in
-America.
-
-The facts I have noted give one something to think about. When in
-such vast regions of the world measures of this kind are found to be
-necessary, there must have been strong grounds for them. And, in fact,
-primitive nature and all its glories were in as serious peril in the
-United States as in many other parts of the world. The cutting down
-of enormous stretches of forest, and the destruction of the stately
-representatives of the animal world, went on at giant speed in the
-United States. The almost complete extinction of the splendid American
-bison, that once roamed in millions over the prairies of the United
-States, is one of the most startling facts illustrating the destruction
-of wild animals through the introduction of civilisation. This fact had
-no slight influence in procuring the enactment of severe measures.
-
-In a land like the United States such measures are possible,
-advantageous, and practicable. In other countries, too, which are in
-a settled condition, similar regulations have everywhere come into
-force of late years. Thus, for instance, the remnants of the fauna of
-Australia are now protected by stringent laws. But quite different,
-and much more difficult, are the conditions of the problem with regard
-to Africa. There, more than anywhere else, the time has come for
-protective regulations. But how can these measures be enforced, however
-well they may be thought out? We must keep before our eyes the terrible
-example of the disappearance of the animal world of South Africa, as
-the result of the extremely rapid spread of civilised life. We can now,
-with the help of statements made by trustworthy writers, survey the
-various phases of this utter destruction of animal life during the last
-century, and so form an idea of what awaits other parts of the Dark
-Continent.
-
-Powerful voices have been raised of late in favour of the preservation
-of African wild life, and this especially in England. In this respect,
-Mr. Edward North Buxton is most prominent in pressing for thorough
-measures of protection for the African fauna, throughout the wide
-possessions or spheres of interest of the British Empire. In England,
-too, many strong pleas have been made in support of the view that
-even relatively speaking noxious animals should not be deprived by
-man of the right to a certain amount of protection. Thus Sir H. H.
-Johnston, the former Governor of the Uganda Province in Central
-Africa, says in his preface to the English edition of my book _With
-Flashlight and Rifle_, that in his opinion the weasel, the owl, and
-the primitive British badger of the existing fauna ought not to be
-entirely sacrificed to the pheasant--a beautiful enough bird, but,
-after all, one that must always remain an “interloper”; that the egret,
-the bird of paradise, the chinchilla, the sea-otter,[15] and such-like
-creatures are “æsthetically as important,” and have the same right
-to existence, as a woman beautifully dressed in the spoils of these
-animals. Good pioneer work in this direction must result from the
-noble-hearted resolve of the Queen of England to put herself at the
-head of the “Anti-Osprey Movement,” organised to save the royal heron
-from threatened extinction.
-
-There can be no doubt that the complete extermination of any species of
-animal must excite in the mind of a reflecting man a sense of injustice
-and wrong; and that this complete destruction of certain species can
-only be to the interest of all men in general when such animals, of
-whatever kind they may be, are entirely noxious and quite useless.
-No epoch in the world’s history can be set in comparison with ours in
-so far as it has been the witness, in the course of a few decades, of
-almost daily progress and improvement in connection with industry,
-culture, and the whole field of human knowledge. And, moreover, no
-epoch has been so penetrated with the great thoughts of progressive
-humanity. The continual employment--in ways that are ever more adroit,
-ever more complex--of all the resources offered by nature to man,
-seems at the same time to blind him to certain grave misdeeds that he
-is actually perpetrating every day. These great crimes against the
-harmony and order with which nature surrounds us--crimes that it is not
-easy to make any amends for--are the disfigurement and poisoning of
-watercourses, the pollution of the air, the laying waste of a portion
-of the plant world (namely, the forests), and the extinction of some of
-the animals that live with us.
-
-We do not shrink from the most _reckless_ exploitation of those forests
-that have come down to us from the primeval past--the vast stores
-of coal buried deep in the bosom of the earth. The expert can now
-calculate with certainty that in a few hundred, at the very farthest
-in a thousand, years these stores will be exhausted. When it comes to
-this, the triumphant progress of industrial science will no doubt give
-us some substitute, perhaps even something better; but no technical
-knowledge, no science, can ever give us back anew those highly
-developed organisms of the plant and animal world which man to-day
-is recklessly sweeping out of the list of living things. They cannot
-restore to us the green woods and their animal life. We preserve with
-punctilious precision every vestige of the art of the past. The older
-the documents of earlier historic times are, the more eagerly they
-are coveted, the more highly they are valued. Our collectors gladly
-pay the largest sums for an old papyrus, an old picture, an object of
-decorative art, or a marble statue. And, as has been rightly remarked,
-what warrant have we that some new Phidias, some new Michael Angelo,
-some new Praxiteles will not arise, and give us something of as high
-value as these, or even much more perfect? Unreservedly to deny this
-would be the same thing as to give the lie to the progress of the human
-race.
-
-But the same man who, in this respect, acts so reverently, so
-conservatively, looks on with folded arms while treasures are
-destroyed that ought to be guarded with special affection and care, in
-these times when the great value of all natural science is so fully
-recognised.[16]
-
-We organise, at an extremely high cost, expeditions to survey and
-explore far-off regions. We sink into the greatest depths of the sea
-our cunningly devised trawl-nets, and study with ceaseless diligence
-the smallest organisms that they bring up into the light of day. We
-consider the course of the stars, and calculate with precision their
-remote orbits. We daily discover new secrets, and have almost ceased
-to feel surprised at each day bringing us something new, something yet
-unheard of. Much that is thus done to secure the treasures of the past
-_might equally well be done in coming years. But much that we neglect
-to do can never be made good_, for we are permitting the slaughter,
-up to the point of extinction, of the most remarkable, the most
-interesting, and the least known forms among the most highly organised
-of the creatures that dwell with us on our earth!
-
-An example that appeals to us with terrible force is that of South
-Africa (taking the country in its widest limits), a region now so
-largely peopled by Europeans. There has been an almost complete
-disappearance of the larger animals that once lived in their millions
-on its wide plains. If one studies the trustworthy narratives of the
-earlier explorers, one reads that, hardly a century ago, it was not a
-rare sight to see in one day a hundred, or even a hundred and fifty
-rhinoceroses, hundreds of elephants that showed little fear of man,
-and countless antelopes; and one asks oneself, How can it be possible
-that all this abundance of life has vanished in so short a time? A
-specimen of the “white” rhinoceros, which in those times was still
-living in large numbers, is in our day worth a small fortune; it is to
-be found _in no museum in Germany_, and is simply almost impossible to
-obtain. This former abundance is now known only to few, and these only
-specialists engaged in studies of this kind. But to them it is also
-plain and terribly certain that, where the like conditions come into
-being, the same process that was at work in South Africa will produce
-the same results.
-
-There can be no doubt about it. In a hundred years from now wide
-regions of what once was Darkest Africa will have been more or less
-civilised, and all that delightful animal world, which to-day still
-lives its life there, will have succumbed to the might of civilised
-man. That will be the time when the fortunate possessors of horns and
-hides of extinct African antelopes, and the owners of elephant tusks,
-skulls, and specimens of all kinds will be selling all this for its
-weight in gold. And no one will be able to understand how it was that
-in our day so little thought was given to preserving as far as possible
-all this valuable material in abundant quantities at least for _the
-sake of science_, instead of sacrificing it wholesale to the interests
-of trade, and to the recklessness of the new settlers in those lands.
-For these men, who have to struggle hard with the new conditions of
-life and its necessities, can scarcely act otherwise than heedlessly
-and short-sightedly. They will always take possession of a district
-before settled conditions are introduced, and before the Government is
-in a position to enforce the observance of its regulations, however
-well-intentioned these may be. So it will come to pass that it will
-suddenly be found no longer possible to provide European collections
-with even a pair of specimens of the mighty elephant, or to procure
-other large animals for exhibition in these establishments. And this
-will be the case not only with regard to the larger species, but the
-same thing will happen to all others.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A SCENE IN THE CAMEROONS (GERMAN WEST AFRICA), SHOWING THREE LARGE
-GORILLAS SHOT BY CAPTAIN DOMINICK. (PHOTOGRAPH SUPPLIED BY CAPTAIN
-DOMINICK.)]
-
-The Queen of England has lately expressed the wish that no lady shall
-come into her presence wearing osprey plumes in her hat. This act of
-hers should be most heartily welcomed, for the bird world is being
-destroyed in a way of which only a few experts have any idea. If our
-ladies only knew that whole species of birds have become extinct,
-thanks to the fashion of wearing hats trimmed with birds’ feathers,
-doubtless they would no longer pay allegiance to this destructive
-fashion. The massacre of birds is carried on in some such way as
-this. The leading firms agree to make this or that bird fashionable.
-It is thus that the death-sentence of many rare species of birds is
-pronounced. The traders scattered all over the world give the hunters
-who engage in this kind of business directions, for instance, to bring
-in osprey feathers. And how are they obtained? The royal heron, a
-timid and beautiful bird, is not easy to stalk. But the businesslike
-hunter knows what to do. He simply kills the herons in thousands and
-thousands _at their nesting-places_. Love for its offspring brings
-the beautiful creature within range of the gun-barrel of the lurking
-hunter, who kills thousands of the birds in cold blood when they are
-gathered together in the breeding season. Countless thousands must be
-killed, countless thousands more of young helpless nestlings, bereft
-of the parent birds, must starve to death before enough of these
-little plumes has been collected to make a load heavy enough to be put
-on the bearers’ shoulders. And now the dealers of the whole civilised
-world lay in a stock, so that full provision may be made for a form
-of fashion-mania that may probably last only a few months. Even in
-the farthest swamps of America, in the lands beyond the Caspian, and
-wherever the royal heron breeds, one can follow the bird hunter, and
-see him at his horrible and murderous work. The end is everlasting
-silence. A rare species is soon utterly destroyed. In the last
-century alone about two dozen species of birds became extinct. And in
-these days nearly a dozen more species of birds are threatened with
-extinction! According to the Reports of the Smithsonian Institute this
-is notably the case in America with regard to quite as many species.
-The wonderful birds of paradise are going; the latest “trimming” for
-the hats of American ladies, these dwellers in remote islands of the
-Southern Seas are to be threatened in a more serious degree, and
-probably to a great extent exterminated. Everywhere we have the same
-lamentable facts! It is certainly high time to interfere effectively.
-I myself think that the best results would follow from appeal to all
-noble-minded women.
-
-In Africa I have already observed an example of the disappearance of
-one species of bird[17]--every European takes a lot of trouble to get
-possession of some of the much-prized marabou feathers. Now, as long
-ago as the year 1900, at London, as a member of the International
-Conference for the Protection of Wild Animals, I did my best to obtain,
-at least on paper, some measure of protection for the marabou. This
-bird had not only quite won my heart by its extraordinary sagacity,
-but for the same reason it was a general favourite even in the times
-of classical antiquity. My efforts were in vain. And this will mean
-nothing more or less than the extermination of a large and handsome
-bird, which is comparatively easy to hunt down, and the rate of
-increase of which is exceptionally small.
-
-From all these points of view the support of the “League for the
-Protection of Bird Life in Germany” is to be warmly recommended. In
-England these reasons have brought about the formation of the
-“Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire,” which
-devotes itself to the protection of animal life in general throughout
-the world-wide British dominions.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-XXIX. FELIS LEO, THE LION.
-
-    ONE OF CORNWALLIS HARRIS’S SKETCHES, SHOWING HOW HALF A CENTURY
-    AGO NUMBERS OF LIONS WERE TO BE FOUND TOGETHER IN BROAD
-    DAYLIGHT IN SOUTH AFRICA. I HAVE SEEN SIMILAR GATHERINGS IN
-    EAST AFRICA, NOTABLY ON JANUARY 25, 1897. HARRIS’S SKETCH SHOWS
-    THE GREAT DEVELOPMENT OF THE MANE IN THE NOW NEARLY EXTINCT
-    SOUTH AFRICAN LION, A CONTRAST TO THE ALL BUT MANELESS LIONS OF
-    EAST AFRICA.]
-
-Let us now follow a little more closely, under the guidance of English
-writers, the process of the extermination of the South African animal
-world. This lamentable work was completed very rapidly in the course of
-only something like a hundred years. From numerous English authorities,
-as well as from the publications of the Society already named, I
-have been able to ascertain that the last “blaauwbok” was killed by
-the Boers in Cape Colony about the year 1800. From extant sketches
-of this wild animal, it appears that it was a smaller species of the
-splendid horse-antelopes still to be found in other parts of Africa.
-During the following seventy-five years the extermination of several
-other kinds of animals was systematically carried out; and exactly
-eighty years later the last quagga, a kind of zebra (_Equus quagga_)
-was killed by the Boers. In England there is only one single specimen
-preserved, and that in a very poor condition. It is to be found in the
-British Museum. A further sacrifice to the advancing Europeans was the
-giant, wide-mouthed, “white” rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros simus_, Burch.),
-a mighty creature, that formerly ranged in thousands over the grassy
-plains of South Africa. The length of a horn taken from one of them is
-given as 6 ft. 9 in., English measurement! Even as late as the year
-1884, a single trader was able to pile up huge masses, small hills,
-of these rhinoceros horns by equipping some four hundred tribesmen
-of the Matabele race with guns and ammunition and sending them out
-rhinoceros-hunting. Now it is difficult to get even a few specimens of
-this animal for the museums, and they are almost worth their weight in
-gold. Information lately obtained seems to indicate that a very small
-number of these mighty beasts, probably not more than thirty-five in
-all, are still living their life in the midst of inaccessible swamps
-in Zululand and Mashonaland, in a district that, on account of its
-deadly climate, is almost closed to Europeans. However, the Government
-of Natal has, I am pleased to say, made the killing any animal of this
-species, without legal permission, a crime to be punished by a fine of
-£300.
-
-An English officer, Captain (afterwards Sir) William Cornwallis Harris,
-is an authoritative witness as to the extermination of wild animals in
-South Africa in 1836, though it must have been going on for a long time
-before that without any written record. The Boers must have slaughtered
-hecatombs of wild animals, though up to that date we have no first-hand
-written evidence on the subject.[18] Their proceedings were precisely
-of the same character as the events that have occurred in our own day
-in connection with the destruction of the elephant, the rhinoceros,
-and other animals throughout Africa. This destruction goes on silently,
-and only a few men who have a special knowledge of the circumstances
-bring some information about it to the world at large. The rest keep
-silence, and mostly have good grounds for so doing.
-
-The descriptions given by Harris, Oswell, Vardon, C. J. Anderson and
-their contemporaries give some idea of what enormous multitudes of
-wild creatures then wandered over the plains of South Africa. We are
-inclined to underestimate the abundance of the fauna of earlier epochs.
-The process of animal-destruction by the hand of man has been going on
-from immemorial times. For thousands of years man has been continually
-pressing the animal world back more and more, and it has had to give
-way in the unequal struggle. This process has been going on so slowly
-and so imperceptibly that it is only by the scanty remnants left
-from earlier times that we can form some estimate of the wealth that
-has disappeared. These are no empty fancies. All the lonely far-off
-islands of the world’s seas, the little visited Polar lands, and all
-the uninhabited steppes and wildernesses give us evidence of this. Not
-only from the lips of Cornwallis Harris, but also from some of his
-contemporaries, we have descriptions of the former abundance of wild
-life in the Cape districts of South Africa. At that time the country
-was, in the literal sense of the word, covered with countless herds
-of Cape buffaloes, white-tailed gnus, blessbock, bontebock, zebras,
-quaggas, hill-zebras, hartebeests, eland-antelopes, horse-antelopes,
-oryx-antelopes, waterbuck, impallah-antelopes, springbocks, and
-ostriches. Herds of hundreds of elephants were to be seen. Every marsh,
-every river-bed, was literally overcrowded with hippopotami. All other
-kinds of animals that are now so scarce, such as the large and handsome
-kudu, and all the different kinds of small wild animals, were to be
-met with in vast numbers. Although since the year 1652 South Africa
-had been to a continually increasing extent occupied by the Boers,
-all these wonderful things had managed to survive in rich profusion
-up to the moment when, about a hundred years ago, the great war of
-extermination began. Various causes contributed to bring this about:
-the increasing numbers of the settlers, their continual penetration
-farther and farther into the interior, and, above all things, the
-improvement of firearms.
-
-The natives, although very numerous in South Africa, had, as happens
-everywhere, left the animal life of the country in its abundance to
-the Europeans, who were overrunning the land in increasing numbers. It
-was reserved for these to bring the war of extermination to an end in
-a short time. Truly a melancholy spectacle!
-
-Wilhelm Bölsche describes all this in fitting words:[19] “In Africa,”
-he says, “a wonderful drama is to-day unfolding itself before our eyes.
-It is the downfall of the whole of a mighty animal world. What is being
-destroyed is the main remnant of the great mammalian development of
-the Tertiary period. Once it spread in the same fulness over Europe,
-Asia, and North America. Now in its last refuge this most wonderful
-wave of life is rapidly ebbing away. Everything contributes to this
-result--human progress, human folly, and even disease among the animals
-themselves.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    SKETCH OF A HERD OF ELEPHANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA, BY HARRIS.
-    IT GIVES AN IDEA OF THE ABUNDANCE OF ELEPHANTS IN THE CAPE
-    DISTRICTS SIXTY YEARS AGO. THIS EXPLORER’S SKETCHES GIVE A TRUE
-    PICTURE OF THE LANDSCAPE AS WELL AS OF THE ANIMALS.]
-
-To give an example: Through the trifling fact that we have ivory balls
-for billiards, the African elephant goes to destruction. The individual
-cannot stop this; but what he can do is to secure more material for
-each special branch of science before the door is closed, and to once
-more observe in their primeval surroundings the last elephants, wild
-buffaloes, giraffes--those last living vestiges of the Tertiary period.
-
-But above all, the sketches of Le Vaillant, a French explorer, who,
-about 1780, set out from Cape Town on his travels into the interior,
-are of great importance for our study of the former abundance of animal
-life in South Africa. They are all the more interesting for German
-readers because he traversed part of what is now German South-West
-Africa, and gives in his book an account of its condition at that
-time. He, too, tells of absolutely incredibly great multitudes of
-wild animals; on the banks of the Orange River he comes upon great
-herds of elephants and giraffes, and he cannot find enough to say
-of the astonishing wealth of animal life. For those who know German
-South-West Africa, his narrative is of special interest. He formed
-collections which he brought back with him to his native country, and
-to all appearance is a fairly trustworthy authority, though at the same
-time, like many contemporary and later travellers, here and there he
-makes assertions that are clearly unwarrantable. For instance, in one
-place he tells how he once rode a zebra, that he had wounded, for a
-considerable distance, back to his camp.
-
-Some fifty years later, at the period of the journeys of Captain
-William Cornwallis Harris,[20] as I have already remarked, the same
-conditions prevailed, with regard to the abundance of wild animals,
-as in the days of Le Vaillant. It was almost a daily experience for
-the traveller to be molested by lions. The Vaal River then teemed with
-hippopotami. What is now the site of Pretoria was inhabited by a number
-of rhinoceroses, that were absolutely an annoyance to the explorer:
-“Out of every bush peeped the horrible head of one of these creatures.”
-Of the neighbourhood of Mafeking he tells us that the gatherings of
-zebras and white-tailed gnus literally covered the whole plain; that
-with his own eyes he had at one time seen at least fifteen thousand
-head of wild animals! In another place he tells us of an absolutely
-overwhelming spectacle. He saw at the same time more than three hundred
-elephants; to use his own expression, the plain looked like one
-undulating mass.
-
-William Cotton Oswell, whom I have mentioned in my earlier work, and
-who died as lately as 1893, knew the countries of South Africa in
-the days of Livingstone, and gives the same account of them as his
-predecessor Harris. He once came upon more than four hundred elephants
-gathered together in one herd on the open velt. Unfortunately, like so
-many others, he published very few sketches.
-
-Gordon Cumming, a traveller well known to the German public through
-Brehms’ _Tierleben_, has also left us sketches of those days that
-corroborate the descriptions given by his contemporaries. He tells
-how, in the year 1860, a great drive was organised in the Orange
-Free State in honour of the Duke of Edinburgh, afterwards Grand Duke
-of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The number of wild animals driven together by
-the natives, which included zebras, quaggas, gnus, cow-antelopes,
-blessbock, springbocks, and ostriches, was estimated at five-and-twenty
-thousand. The number killed on this one day was reckoned at about six
-thousand animals, and a number of natives were trampled to death by the
-herds of wild beasts.
-
-At this time there were still Europeans in South Africa who made
-elephant-hunting their ordinary business. Now there are neither
-elephants nor indeed any other kind of wild animal in numbers worth
-mentioning in these once rich hunting grounds. They have all been
-killed off in the course of a hundred years. Where once hundreds of
-thousands of gnus lived their life, there are now only a few hundred
-specimens carefully preserved and guarded. And the same is the case
-with all other wild animals. Many species are gone completely and
-for ever. _A similar process will go on slowly but surely throughout
-the whole of Africa, wherever civilisation penetrates. There is only
-one chance of the beautiful wild life of Africa being permanently
-preserved, and that lies in the hunters themselves consenting to
-protect and spare it._
-
-It has been rightly remarked by such a competent authority as A. H.
-Neumann (who is, moreover, one of the most experienced of English
-elephant hunters) that the continued existence of many wild African
-species is not incompatible with the progress of civilisation. He
-points out that we can only reckon with some degree of certainty on the
-effective preservation of wild animals, where not only reservations
-have been established for them, but where also a considerable amount
-of control can be exercised over both Europeans and natives. In his
-opinion, for instance, a mere regulation forbidding the shooting of
-female elephants is impracticable: “I should like,” he says, “to see
-one of those who have drawn up such a regulation come into the African
-bush, and there show us how we are to distinguish between female and
-bull elephants in these impenetrable thickets.”
-
-In the British colonies in Africa reservations for wild animals have
-been established with most successful results. Those of British East
-Africa, the Sudan and Somaliland, and finally of British Central
-Africa, taken together, have about five times the area of the Victoria
-Nyanza.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Shillings, phot._
-
-    GROUP OF WILD ANIMALS AT HAGENBECK’S ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS AT
-    STETTINGEN, NEAR HAMBURG. THE ANIMALS LIVE IN OPEN SPACES
-    ARRANGED TO REPRESENT THEIR NATURAL SURROUNDINGS, AND THE
-    SPECTATORS ARE PROTECTED BY WIDE TRENCHES AND GRILLES. HERR
-    HAGENBECK IS SEEN ON THE LEFT.]
-
-By means of reports made as carefully as possible by the district
-authorities, estimates have been obtained of the numbers of existing
-wild animals. In the laying out of the reservations the very migratory
-habits of the African fauna have been taken into consideration as far
-as is practicable, and by strict protective regulations of various
-kinds most satisfactory results have been secured. In the Transvaal
-Colony, too, a reservation has been marked out in the Barberton
-district between the Olifant River and the Portuguese frontier. Any
-one shooting in this reservation without a permit is liable to a fine
-of £100, or six months’ imprisonment. There is a very interesting
-official report as to the wild inhabitants of this reservation. “It
-contains one old rhinoceros (with shot-marks on its hide), a small herd
-of elephants, a considerable supply of ostriches, from five to nine
-giraffes, a satisfactory quantity of gnus, and also of ‘black-heeled’
-or impallah-antelopes, two or three small herds of buffaloes, several
-herds of zebras, numerous waterbuck and kudus, and a small number of
-horse-antelopes. On the other hand, whether oryx-antelopes and eland
-are still to be found there appears to the author of the report in the
-highest degree doubtful.”
-
-However, in the extensive reservations that have been established
-in other British possessions in Africa, and especially in those of
-the Sudan, a large number of the beautifully formed dwellers of the
-wilderness still live their life, and this must be a delight to the
-heart of every sportsman.
-
-It is to be hoped that through thus establishing “sanctuaries” (as the
-English call them), with the consequent supervision, a means has been
-found of protecting the indigenous wild life of Africa, as well of
-America, for a long time to come.
-
-In German colonies, too, efforts are being made to preserve, as far
-as possible, the native fauna. The more our views can be made clear,
-the more complete the survey of this difficult subject can be made
-by the combined experience of many experts being gradually brought
-to bear together upon it, the sooner may we anticipate satisfactory
-results from this co-operative action. For years I have been following
-with close interest everything connected with this question, and my
-wide correspondence with officers, officials, and private individuals
-warrants me in concluding that on all sides there is an energetic
-movement in progress. Of course, we have to face serious difficulties
-in such a campaign. Thus it seems, according to numerous and
-trustworthy reports, that the attempt to establish Boer settlements in
-the Kilimanjaro district in East Africa has had, and still is having,
-very fatal results for the once splendid wild life of that region.
-And, indeed, it is no easy matter to reconcile a colony of Boers--the
-people who have already made such a clean sweep of the wild life of
-South Africa--to the preservation of the fauna of the country. One
-can see how difficult the regulation of these matters is for the
-authorities.[21]
-
-We must not forget also that, as a result of the wonderful improvements
-in firearms, the problem of the protection of wild animals presents
-itself to-day in quite a different fashion from that of the days of the
-hunters of fifty, or even of twenty-five years ago.
-
-But it is not the individual hunter whose interest lies in sport
-or science[22]; it is not the man who brings us the first knowledge
-of many of the inhabitants of the wilderness, and first arouses our
-interest in them; it is not such as these who should be regarded as
-the destroyers of the fauna of a foreign land. Rather this is the work
-of all those powerful influences that everywhere combine to this end
-during the introduction of civilised life. It has indeed been already
-proposed, in all seriousness, by some men of science to completely
-extirpate the wild animals of East Africa, in order thus to circumvent
-the tsetse fly and other minor pests that may perhaps communicate
-disease from the wild to the tame cattle. And this, too, before it
-can be said with any certainty whether these cases of infection do
-not arise only from a number of very small animals which it would be
-impossible to exterminate!
-
-Our most important task is now to obtain an accurate knowledge of the
-fauna of foreign lands. For this purpose we must collect materials
-which will render the study of this wild life of other lands possible
-to our scientific institutions; which will place them in a position to
-give to a wide public an idea of all these rich treasures, and thus
-awaken an intelligent love for them in the hearts of the pioneers of
-civilisation.
-
-And then we must devise practicable measures of protection. This
-is a wide field of labour. The hunter himself must take in hand
-the intelligent preservation of the wild animals. The measures of
-protection must be suited to the varying conditions of the wide hunting
-grounds of foreign lands, and must not be considered only from the
-stay-at-home point of view.
-
-This is not to be done by mere laments over the extermination of wild
-life, or even by merely putting limitations on the enjoyment of the
-chase by the individual hunter. On the contrary, a beneficial result
-can be obtained only by all European travellers in those countries
-interchanging their experiences, collecting material, and exerting
-themselves to the utmost and in concert to devise measures that will,
-as far as may be, put a stop to the threatened extermination.
-
-This is a great and noble task.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: YOUNG GRANT’S GAZELLES ON A BLACK-BURNED STRETCH OF
-VELT.]
-
-IV
-
-The Survivors
-
-
-To learn to know anything with precision, to devote oneself to it
-and master it in its smallest details, one must generally make its
-study a labour of love. So the spread of more exact knowledge of
-the manifestations of nature around us must go hand in hand with
-the awakening of love for them and for the splendours they present
-to our view. And with this increasing impulse towards research and
-knowledge must come the desire to prevent as far as possible the rapid
-destruction of fauna and flora. Public opinion, in truth, has begun to
-range itself on the side of these much menaced glories of nature.
-
-We have to observe and investigate. We have to get together some small
-portion of the vast material that is often so uselessly squandered,
-in order to employ it in the service of special branches of science,
-and to make some closer knowledge of these things accessible to every
-one. We have to establish great collections formed on a definite plan,
-and everywhere to save as much material as possible for scientific and
-educational purposes, so long as it can still be done. “If these ideas
-could be brought home to the right quarters, millions would be made
-available for this object,” writes one of the most learned specialists
-in these matters. Our zoological gardens and museums are already doing
-their best, but they are hampered by the want of pecuniary resources.
-Whilst the largest sums are freely provided for the purchase of
-antiquities, there is a dearth of means for doing what is necessary to
-save the treasures of our vanishing fauna while there is still time!
-
-[Illustration: GROUP OF ’MBEGA MONKEYS, WITH THEIR WHITE-COATED YOUNG
-(FIRST DISCOVERED BY THE AUTHOR).]
-
-[Illustration: LETTER FROM PROFESSOR P. MATSCHIE, THE LEADING AUTHORITY
-ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAMMALIA OF GERMAN EAST AFRICA.]
-
-Other countries, America for instance, set us a glorious example. There
-you see public collections formed, affording panoramas of animal life
-so splendid, so beautiful, and planned on such grand lines, that the
-love of nature must be lighted up in the hearts of all who visit them.
-
-What can be saved of these disappearing treasures must suffice for all
-time, and must in part at least be preserved in fire and thief-proof
-“zoological treasuries,” for it will be impossible to obtain such
-things again in the future, no matter what efforts may be made. Thus a
-great and difficult task presents itself to our museums. We can rightly
-require of them that they shall not merely exhibit the principal
-species of the animal world, but that they shall also preserve
-specimens of the most striking representatives of our still surviving
-fauna that are likely soon to become extinct. And these specimens
-must be guarded by all the resources of art and science against light
-and any other influence that might injure them. For such a far-seeing
-policy posterity will be grateful to us.
-
-It seems, however, as though some unlucky star presided over the
-collecting of the larger species of the animal world. Let any one
-devote himself to these special pursuits and objects, and even if he
-win thereby the approval of experts and of wide circles of the public,
-still a certain odium will seem to attach to him. Obviously he
-must kill a certain number of animals, that are often _quite unknown_
-till then, and in almost every case have been _hardly studied_ at all,
-in order that he may add them to the collections belonging to his
-native country. He gains the gratitude of science and of the learned,
-but he has to encounter the prejudices of others. People think that
-they are justified in throwing upon him, the scientific collector, the
-reproach of being an exterminator.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A ‘MBEGA (_COLOBUS CAUDATUS_, Thos.)]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    THREE NEW VARIETIES OF EAST AFRICAN WILD BUFFALOES: _BUBALUS
-    SCHILLINGSI_ Mtsch. spec. nov., FROM THE MIDDLE PANGANI, LAKE
-    DJIPE MOMBASA; _BUBALUS NUHAHENSIS_, Mtsch. spec. nov., FROM
-    UPOGORO, ’NDEMA, ’MBARAGANDU AND THE UPPER RUAHAIS; _BUBALUS
-    WEMBARENSIS_, Mtsch. spec. nov., FROM THE TSHAIA MARSHES IN THE
-    SOUTHERN WEMBERE STEPPE. THE ILLUSTRATIONS SHOW HOW GREATLY THE
-    FORM OF THE BUFFALO’S HORNS VARIES IN DIFFERENT DISTRICTS, AND
-    GIVE A PROOF OF THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIONS FOR
-    EACH SEPARATE REGION.
-
-I have to thank Professor Matschie for the two lower illustrations.]
-
-Those who speak thus completely forget that it was through the material
-thus placed before their eyes that they themselves obtained their very
-first knowledge of these beautiful creatures; that till then they
-hardly took any interest in such things; and that it is only by means
-of knowledge secured in this way that regulations for the preservation
-of these beauties of nature can be devised.
-
-Let us suppose that every museum and scientific collection in the
-world were provided with a series of specimens of all the varieties
-of the animal world that are now most seriously threatened with
-extinction; let us further suppose that each of these institutions
-secured, besides, duplicate series of the hides and skeletons of each
-species. To make a striking comparison, all this, beside the wholesale
-destruction of the animal world of which we have to complain, would be
-like a week-end sportsman perhaps killing one hare during his whole
-life compared to the millions of hares killed every year in Germany.
-
-If a species is already reduced to such a state that the taking of a
-few hundred, or even a few thousand, specimens for scientific purposes
-will exterminate it, we may say generally that, even without this
-proceeding, it is inevitably doomed to extinction. But the wretched
-egg-collecting by youths, for instance, is quite a different matter.
-Certainly there must be a great deficiency, when continually, year
-after year, wood and meadow are searched for birds’ nests by thousands
-of boys. This is obvious, and thus the rarer species are threatened in
-their very existence.
-
-[Illustration: MODERN METHODS OF TAXIDERMY: SETTING UP.]
-
-[Illustration: ONE OF MY SPECIMENS IN THE MUNICH MUSEUM.]
-
-[Illustration: THE COMPLETED SPECIMEN IN THE MUNICH MUSEUM (_GIRAFFA
-SCHILLINGSI_, Mtsch.).]
-
-[Illustration: ANOTHER OF MY SPECIMENS IN THE STUTTGART MUSEUM.]
-
-Great stress ought always to be laid upon the point to which I have
-here called attention, and I can appeal to every expert on the subject
-for confirmation of my opinion.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDY OF A MALE GIRAFFE GAZELLE (_LITHOCRANIUS
-    WALLERI_, Brocke) SHOT BY THE AUTHOR. AN EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL
-    AND RARE SPECIES, FIRST SEEN BY THE AUTHOR IN GERMAN EAST
-    AFRICA IN 1896.]
-
-I think that I have earned a special right to speak on this matter.
-For the last fifteen years I have hardly ever carried a gun when
-at home in Europe; I have refused the most pressing invitations to
-shooting parties; and I have sought pleasure only in the sight of our
-native wild animals, which I know so well, and in secretly watching
-and observing them. But in the midst of a yet unstudied foreign fauna,
-of which we still know little or nothing, where there is question of
-first obtaining some scanty knowledge oneself, and forming collections
-for definite scientific research--in the midst of an animal world of
-this kind I would not hesitate to shoot even large numbers of each
-species. For there would be good reason for not merely securing
-well-developed male specimens, as the hunter does, but also females
-and young animals in all the various stages of growth and colouring.
-This must be obvious even to a child, and no one will deny to science
-the right so to act, at least in those regions of Africa which--in
-comparison with India and other countries--are still untouched by
-civilisation, and which therefore, in their primitive unchanged
-condition, afford us doubly interesting results. Now supposing one has
-got together large collections, and has been so fortunate as to succeed
-in bringing them down to the coast and home to Europe. A collection
-of insects or of the lower animals may pass without remark; but woe
-to the slayer of the larger species of wild animals! These come under
-the description of “beasts of the chase,” and now a peculiar kind of
-bacillus quickly develops--the bacillus of “hostility to the hunter,”
-which, introduced into Europe from the tropics, finds here, too, a
-fostering soil. Let me be allowed to endeavour to find a prophylactic
-against this bacillus in these essays. I have already often laid stress
-upon the facts that such great quantities of the skins and feathers
-of birds are exported for the purposes of fashion, that by this trade
-whole species are threatened with extinction; that every individual
-European is allowed, without any hindrance, to send home his trophies
-of the chase--trophies which, with only a few exceptions, can have
-hardly any value for science; above all, that the extermination of the
-elephant in Africa is being carried out before our very eyes for the
-sake of his ivory; and that all this is held permissible. But let one
-make collections for scientific purposes, and scrupulously hand over
-every skin, every hide, with the horns and skull belonging to it, all
-carefully labelled, to some museum at home, and, according to widely
-expressed opinion, he is greatly to blame for the destruction of animal
-life.
-
-[Illustration: DWARF ANTELOPE IN THE CARLSRUHE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    GROUP OF GIRAFFE GAZELLES (IN THE AUTHOR’S POSSESSION) PREPARED
-    BY ROBERT BANZER OF OEHRINGEN. THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS SHOWN IN
-    ITS CHARACTERISTIC ATTITUDE WHEN BROWSING ON TREES OR BUSHES.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    GROUP, ALSO PREPARED BY BANZER, SHOWING A SNOW-WHITE
-    “BLACK-HOOFED” ANTELOPE, ATTACKED BY A BLACK SERVAL AND TWO
-    OTHERS.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    A SPECIMEN OF THE NEW SPECIES OF HYENA DISCOVERED BY THE
-    AUTHOR IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA (_HYENA SCHILLINGSI_, Mtsch.,
-    NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON).]
-
-Happily in recent years our colonial collections have been considerably
-augmented. An extraordinarily large quantity of material has been
-forwarded to the Berlin Natural History Museum, amongst others, by
-officials, private individuals, and members of the garrisons abroad.
-Hence valuable results have been obtained for the zoology of these
-regions. Amongst the satisfactory results of the ever increasing
-activity in the zoological exploration of the Dark Continent are
-surprising and repeated discoveries of unknown species of animals,
-such as the Okapi (_Ocapia johnstoni_) and a black wild hog, till now
-completely unknown (_Hylochœrus meinertzhageni_, Oldf. Thomas). With
-the help of these collections, Professor Matschie, dealing with the
-mammalia, and Professor Reichenow with the birds, have succeeded in
-establishing the fact that each separate region of the Dark Continent
-possesses its own characteristic fauna. And most important conclusions
-with regard to the distribution of animals have thus been derived from
-these great systematic collections. My friend Baron Carlo Erlanger, the
-well-known African traveller, and the only one who has ever traversed
-Somaliland from end to end, though unhappily cut off by an early death,
-was able to confirm these theories, with reference to the countries
-he explored, by the ample collections he systematically formed. The
-whole science of zoology in relation to geography has been turned on to
-new lines of research, and has given the most important and most
-valuable results. Everything should be done to support efforts of this
-kind.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    DWARF MUSK DEER, (_NESOTRAGUS MOSCHATUS_ VAN DUBEN) FROM THE
-    AUTHOR’S COLLECTION IN THE BERLIN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    A PAIR OF GUEREZAS (_COLOBUS CAUDATUS_, Thos.). THIS LIFELIKE
-    GROUP WAS PREPARED BY THE SKILLED TAXIDERMIST KERZ, OF THE
-    STUTTGART MUSEUM.]
-
-But in this department it is to all increasing extent the duty of our
-German museums to promote a knowledge of and an interest in the animal
-world of far-off lands by the display of ample collections, so arranged
-as to convey instruction. There has already been gratifying progress in
-this respect, but it is clear that for the development of these ideas
-we need more extensive, up-to-date buildings for our collections and
-museums. Other countries, especially England, and above all America,
-are far in advance of us in this matter. Our zoological gardens have
-the task of putting the _living_ animal world before us. Happily we are
-doing this by far-sighted methods. To the Zoological Gardens of Berlin
-belongs the credit of having, to a continually increasing extent,
-arranged a display of the animal world in appropriate surroundings,
-and with reference to systematic classification and to its relations
-with geographical distribution and ethnological science, so far as
-one can assume the connection or companionship of certain species
-with man. There we see the disappearing species of wild cattle
-housed, each according to its peculiar character, in enclosures that
-are strictly true to nature, and artistically designed. Thus, for
-instance, the American bison--now hardly to be obtained for its weight
-in gold is shown in surroundings that remind us of the North American
-Indians, these also a disappearing race. The ostrich-house takes us
-back to the land of the Pharaohs, of which the ostrich was once a
-characteristic inhabitant, as well as the ichneumon, the crocodile,
-and the hippopotamus. Then the class of rodents is brought before
-us in almost poetical surroundings, that seem quite to justify the
-German animal stories of the Middle Ages, and that are calculated to
-produce quite a different effect on the mind from that of a stiffly
-arranged exhibition of the regulation type, especially in the case of
-the rising generation. But on account of the difficulty of securing
-and maintaining certain species, and their shortness of life in close
-captivity, our zoological gardens can only properly carry out their
-programme so long as it is possible for them to continually renew their
-stock of animals.
-
-On the other hand, the museums are all the more responsible for setting
-before our eyes the various species of animals even long after these
-have become extinct, and they must do this by means of works of art
-executed by the hand of man, masterpieces of taxidermy.
-
-And by masterpieces of taxidermy I mean artistic groups of “stuffed”
-animals that will, as far as may be, show us their life and action,
-their ways and habits. In former times this work was left to the
-so-called “animal-stuffer.” He took a hide, filled it out with some
-material or other, and then, so far as he could, gave it the appearance
-of a quadruped or a bird. Thus one sees a stuffed hippopotamus of this
-good old time which looks, not like such an animal, but like a gigantic
-sausage. One sees stags or antelopes that somewhat resemble the wooden
-toys associated with the Christmas boxes of my childhood, and not the
-particular species of animals which they are intended to represent--in
-short, wretched caricatures with neither beauty nor fidelity to
-nature.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPE IN THE CARLSRUHE MUSEUM.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-GIRAFFE GAZELLE AND DWARF ANTELOPE IN THE CARLSRUHE MUSEUM.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-HEAD OF AN AFRICAN WART-HOG SHOT BY THE AUTHOR.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-PHOTOGRAPH OF AN OSTRICH’S NEST, JUST AS IT WAS FOUND. THE BIRD’S
-TRACKS MAY BE SEEN IMPRINTED ON THE SAND. THE DARK SPOTS ON SOME OF THE
-EGGS ARE PATCHES OF SAND.]
-
-Nowadays, however, more than this must be done--the best must be
-insisted on. Instead of the “stuffer,” the artist must come upon the
-scene. Using the methods of the sculptor, he can artistically fashion a
-form that will be true to life, and clothe this form with the hide or
-skin. Happily by these means we now find such works of art exhibited in
-ever increasing numbers, not only in museums abroad, but also in the
-public collections of our own country. But as yet this new department
-of artistic activity is not generally as well understood as it should
-be. It is still far too little valued.
-
-What labour has to be devoted to the artistically correct setting up
-of even one single large mammal in a museum--for instance, a giraffe!
-First the animal must be hunted down in the wilderness, and its
-hide carefully prepared. Then, if it has been brought home in good
-condition, there follows a second laborious preparation, and finally
-the setting up. The difficult building up of the framework, and the
-work upon the giant beast till all is complete, require the labour of
-nearly a year. The very first conditions for the success of the whole
-are great patience, knowledge, and an ideal that is both artistic and
-true to nature.
-
-Our illustrations show, in its various stages, the progress of the
-setting up of one of the giraffes I collected in Africa. It is easy to
-understand that besides artistic and scientific ability for the correct
-moulding of the form, various complex manipulations are required before
-the giant beast again stands before us as if “reawakened to life.”
-
-I have further tried to show by illustrations of another giraffe, and
-of a series of antelopes, down to the tiny dwarf antelope, how under
-the hand of the artist the animal world can be made to rise up again,
-as if waked anew to life.
-
-All our larger museums ought to exhibit the most important and most
-prominent representatives of the animal kingdom modelled in attractive
-groups in their natural surroundings.
-
-In America it has become the custom for private individuals to place at
-the disposal of the zoological institutions extensive collections and
-large sums of money. With this help they are able to produce artistic
-work, true to nature, works of art, the consideration of which gives
-the spectator an insight into the life and habits of the animal world
-of his native land as well as of foreign countries. Unfortunately this
-custom has hardly yet been introduced amongst us.
-
-My native city of Frankfurt[23] can claim the honour of possessing,
-in the time-honoured Senckenberg Institute (now transferred to a new
-home), a museum founded by private effort and private interests, where
-one may see collections formed for exhibition, that may be pointed out
-as models of their kind.
-
-The collector of such things can partake of no greater pleasure than
-he experiences when, making a tour of the museums of various places
-at home, he sees awakened to new life the wild creatures he formerly
-observed and laid low in far-off lands. So I could not deny myself the
-pleasure of adding to this book a number of pictures of animals and
-groups of animals which I secured in the wastes of Africa, and
-which are now set up in various museums. These are trophies that must
-allure every sportsman. It is of course not so easy a matter to secure
-them as it is to hack off without any trouble the antlers or horns of
-some wild animal that one has shot.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-DRYING ORNITHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS FOR MY COLLECTION.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    GROUP MAINLY COMPOSED OF THE AUTHOR’S TROPHIES IN THE CARLSRUHE
-    MUSEUM. IN FRONT, BELOW, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, WATERBUCK, GRANT’S
-    GAZELLE, BOEHM’S ZEBRA, YOUNG ELAND; AND ON THE RIGHT A YOUNG
-    OKAPI (_OCAPIA JOHNSTONI_) FROM THE CONGO STATE, THE GIFT OF
-    THE KING OF THE BELGIANS.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-WOMEN OF THE RAHE OASIS IN A BANANA GROVE.]
-
-Paintings, true to life, from the hands of artists, photographs taken
-directly from life, and finally these groups _awakened, as it were, to
-a new life_, are the means that can, and should, exert an educating
-and informing influence, so that all the beauty of this department
-of created nature may not be accessible only to a few learned men,
-but be open to all in general. If to an ever increasing degree this
-object finds support in influential circles, we shall thus obtain what
-must be somehow obtained. In the presence of the progress of industry
-and civilisation no one can indeed permanently prevent by protective
-measures the disappearance of certain species, even though we may hope
-to still delay the process of extinction by suitable regulations. But
-on this ground the duty that I have already indicated becomes more
-clearly imperative upon us. Its fulfilment cannot fail to be rewarded,
-in the case of all who take part in it, by the only true satisfaction
-that is given to mortals, the feeling of having done all that was in
-any way in our power to do.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: EGYPTIAN GEESE IN A SWAMP.]
-
-V
-
-Sport and Nature in Germany
-
-
-Not by far-away Lake Nakuro alone has “the Spell of the Elelescho”
-lived. It has lived, and still lives, all over the world; only that it
-goes by other names, and is linked with other symbols.
-
-In the brief summer of the Polar regions, battling with the snow
-and ice and the long night, it lives in the few stunted willows and
-the scanty reindeer-moss. It can only be fully understood where
-the ungainly walrus, the mighty Polar bear, coloured like his own
-snowfields, and the herds of fur-adorned musk oxen and reindeer give
-life to the wilderness, and millions of sea-birds cover the cliffs, or
-wheel shrieking through the air. To all these creatures the appearance
-of man in these wide regions is so strange and unaccustomed that they
-show no fear of him, and even come hurrying up from all sides to look
-curiously at this strange new being.
-
-In the high mountain regions of Central Asia, too, this spell survives,
-associated with the flocks of those timid creatures the primitive
-wild sheep, with the graceful wild goats, with the stately ibex,[24]
-and with the life and movement of the countless huge bears of the
-mountains, and with a strange flora that I myself have never looked
-upon, but of whose existence I am as persuaded as of that of the spell
-itself.
-
-It is to be found in the jungles of India, whence the tolerant natives
-have never driven it out. They have not expelled the animal world from
-its paradise. There in the region of the lotus-flower the spell may
-perhaps be recognised on still, moonlit nights.
-
-It survives everywhere: in the Australian bush, in the New and the
-Old World, on all islands, in all rivers and waters, in the life and
-movement of the waves and depths of the ocean, so full of secrets
-everywhere; in a word, where man has not yet driven it away.
-
-Once it lived everywhere in Germany, and even to-day it is still to be
-found in many places. It has its being where the mighty elk made its
-home on moor and marsh-land, and our forefathers hunted the aurochs and
-the bison in the primitive forest. To-day it is associated with the
-edelweiss and the chamois in the Alps; it has its being in the oak and
-beech woods, and where the green current of the Rhine flows down, or
-where the stag sends afar his cry of challenge to his rival, and the
-huntsman makes his way over the moor.
-
-There one still experiences the spell of the Elelescho. But everywhere,
-all over the world, everywhere in our Fatherland, it once lived and
-held sway.
-
-We may hope that the intimate and beautiful relations that the German
-sportsman establishes between himself and nature in his Fatherland will
-for a long, long time be handed down from generation to generation,
-and thus result in the maintenance and preservation of the noble old
-spell of the woodland and the wilderness. The ideal of _true German
-sportsmanship_ has been developed in as high and full a sense as that
-of _fair play in sport_ in England.
-
-Both of these ideals will be judged in unfriendly fashion only by those
-who regard them from a distorted point of view. The English ideal of
-sport is winning the world to itself; the German ideal must do the same.
-
-Coming from a good German school of sport, I consider myself fortunate
-in having learned to know the wonderful animal world of Africa. There
-is no doubt whatever that I must ascribe to the influence of this
-school the fact that my accounts of what I had experienced and seen met
-with such an appreciative reception both at home and abroad.
-
-How wonderful is the chase in Germany! The primitive attraction for the
-chase must be a part of every man. One need only once have seen the
-excitement that seizes upon a gathering of thousands if on a sudden a
-hare or some other wild creature comes into sight. At such a moment,
-almost without exception, every one of them is on the move, without
-the least reflection, and even notwithstanding the consciousness that
-in no case can he himself secure the prize. It is the call of a strong
-impulse deep rooted in men. But in our Fatherland how grandly and
-nobly what we mean by “true sportsmanship” has developed out of this
-primitive instinct!
-
-A certain kind of organisation of the business of the chase must have
-been in existence even in primeval times. Those who have made a study
-of this department of the life of nomadic hunters in many lands tell
-us that tribes and groups of families hunt only in well-defined areas,
-and as they value their lives do not venture to pass these boundaries.
-I have learned the same thing by my own personal experience of the
-Wandorobo and other nomad huntsmen of the African plateau. It must
-therefore have been the case everywhere, from the times when primitive
-men, the cave-dwellers, began their struggle with the mighty beasts of
-primeval days, down to our own times, when the chase is more and more
-regulated till at last it becomes the exclusive property of the owner
-of the land.
-
-As a consequence of this right came measures for game preservation both
-against the interference of the stranger sportsman, and as regards the
-wild creatures themselves. Increasing knowledge taught the hunter that
-he could not kill more than a certain number of wild animals without
-extirpating them entirely in his district.[25] Hence grew up our
-complex game-laws of to-day, and the general feeling that our hunting
-grounds should be used in as intelligent a way as possible. In Germany
-this problem has been solved to a remarkable extent. German sport has
-an important influence on the welfare of the people. Great numbers of
-our people are strengthened in body and mind by the chase, and, thanks
-to it, considerable sums of money are added to the resources of the
-country folk.
-
-According to a moderate estimate there are now in Germany upwards of
-half a million sportsmen. Each year they kill about 40,000 head of red
-and fallow deer, about 200,000 roebuck, 4,000,000 hares, 4,000,000
-partridges, and 400,000 wild ducks, in all some 25,000,000 kilograms
-(over 50,000,000 lb.) of wild game, of a value of 25,000,000 marks
-(£1,250,000), and forming nearly one per cent. of the total meat supply
-of Germany. The game leases bring in about 40,000,000 marks annually
-(£2,000,000).[26] But these very sportsmen, who every year kill such
-a large quantity of wild animals, must at the same time be protectors
-and guardians of this same animal life! Strange as it may seem, many
-species of wild animals would have been long ago extinct if there were
-no sportsmen. For imperative reasons, the hunter must at the same time
-undertake the part of protector.
-
-_But this idea ought to be to include a great deal more than is now the
-case._ As I have already said, no nation has known so well how to form
-a beautiful and poetical ideal of the chase and the spirit of sport as
-the Germans have done. But it is not to be denied that this perfect
-development, even in its very completeness, has in a certain sense
-become one-sided, in so far as sportsmen restrict their protection and
-guardianship to certain species of animals; one-sided, too, inasmuch as
-to a certain extent they regard their mission from the point of view
-of a close corporation. In this there is a certain advantage, but also
-a certain amount of danger now that, as a result of the rapid progress
-of civilisation, changes are introduced in every department of life so
-much more quickly than in earlier times.
-
-Huntsmen and fishermen desire the complete extermination of all kinds
-of animals that they consider to be a cause of injury to their sport.
-The result is the destruction of many kinds of animals that are
-beautiful in form and constitute an ornament of the landscape. By the
-same kind of reasoning sportsmen, in their capacity of landlords and
-forest owners, ought to demand the extermination of the wild animals
-that obtain their food from field and forest. Naturally sportsmen do
-not want this, but they should, as far as may be, let themselves be
-guided by higher points of view. This is the case already in many
-instances. For example, as an instance of zealous game supervision
-inspired by scientific principles, we have lately had to welcome a
-valuable idea of Forest Commissioner Count Bernstorff. According to
-his plan, small labels that will not annoy the animals (the so-called
-“Game marks”) are attached near the ears of young roebucks and red
-deer. Thus their resting-places, their movements, their growth, can be
-carefully observed.... We are, therefore, actually living in a time
-when to a certain extent each individual head of game is numbered!
-
-Interesting and valuable as such measures may be, should we not
-extend our loving care also to the animals that, though they are not
-reckoned as game, yet adorn and give animation to the land we live
-in? Some great landlords have given a bright example of progress in
-this direction. Thus in Hungary there are sporting estates on which
-wolf and bear are not completely exterminated, and in Germany estates
-on which the fox is spared to a certain extent. The result has been
-to the advantage of stags’ antlers and bucks’ horns on the estates in
-question. English landlords allow a free home to a pair of peregrine
-falcons or eagles, so as not to allow these beautiful birds to be
-completely extirpated.
-
-From these examples it is clear that there can be various opinions as
-to the view generally taken with regard to “predatory animals.” If
-there is not merely a selfish protection for game animals, but also
-protection for the other mammals and birds, we shall thus preserve
-from extinction some of the glorious forms of the realm of nature,
-and prevent their being sacrificed to narrow interests. There is food
-for thought in the fact that (as I have often had occasion to observe
-in Africa) in primitive countries there is to be found an astounding
-abundance of animal life. _Since prehistoric times man has been
-engaged in hunting with his simple weapons without, on the whole,
-very much diminishing the number of animals._ A striking proof that
-the destruction of wild life is the work of the Europeans themselves,
-and of the native hunters carrying firearms under their authority,
-is afforded by the fate of the North American buffalo, the whales,
-walruses, and seals of the frozen seas, and finally by that of the
-elephant in certain districts and of the South African fauna taken as
-a whole.
-
-We should not therefore act so rigorously in the proscription of our
-so-called “predatory” animals. Yet, for instance, my near neighbour,
-Freiherr H. Geyer von Schweppenberg, has lately shown that our pretty
-water-hen (_Gallinula chloropus_, L.) can do a great deal of damage to
-grass and corn.
-
-In South Africa what are called “poisoning clubs” have been organised,
-which aim at the extermination of “noxious animals” by poison. The
-use of poison ought to be entirely forbidden by legal enactments,
-with the exception, perhaps, of its administration for scientific
-purposes. The strychnine canister--the use of which ought only to
-be allowed, and that in exceptional cases, to those who are making
-scientific collections--is now making its appearance everywhere all
-over the world. I have had news from the most distant countries of its
-employment, unhappily with far too great success.[27] It is already
-some time since the last _Lammergeier_ of the German hill districts
-fell a victim to it. It is thinning to frightful extent the numbers of
-the bears in Eastern Asia and other countries, though these are quite
-harmless to man. But in our Fatherland a completely organised “poison
-business” has grown up, which is a very serious matter.
-
-I should like also to advocate strongly the legal prohibition of the
-use of pole-traps, to which all our owls and birds of prey fall victims.
-
-If we go on as we are going, the time cannot be far distant when we
-shall have to strike out of the list of the living several interesting
-members of our native fauna. In North America, in recent times,
-the following species, amongst others, have some of them become
-extinct, others extremely scarce: the Californian grizzly bear
-(_Ursus horribilis californicus_), the San Joaquin Valley elk, or
-wapiti (_Cervus nannodes_), Stone’s reindeer (_Rangifer stonei_), the
-prongbuck or pronghorn (_Antilocapra americana_), the Pallas cormorant
-(_Phalacrocorax perspillicatus_), the Labrador duck (_Camptolaimus
-labradorius_), the ivory woodpecker (_Campephilus principalis_), the
-scotar (_Aix sponsa_), several other species of birds, and finally the
-American woodcock. This last falls a victim chiefly to professional
-hunters, who are accustomed to kill it by hundreds in its winter
-quarters.
-
-“This list could perhaps be extended,” Mr. R. Rathbun, the Secretary
-of the Smithsonian Institute (whose kindness I have to thank for this
-information), adds at the end of his letter.
-
-His communications have also been of special interest to me because
-they awoke in me old recollections. In the ‘forties of the past
-century my father received a letter from North America in which he
-was informed that on ground over which the New York of to-day extends,
-one could shoot in a single day hundreds of woodcock. I myself, in
-my young days, used to take care of a beautifully coloured parrot,
-of a kind that since then has been almost extirpated, and is hardly
-to be obtained any longer. _Connurus carolinensis_ is the name of
-this beautiful species of parrot, which also appears on the list of
-extinct animals of North America. There, too, men have begun to give
-strong practical expression to the movement for animal protection. In
-sanctuaries like Yellowstone Park there is complete protection for
-all animal life, including beasts of prey, and the bears have become
-so tame that they allow visitors to come within a few paces of them.
-Count E. Bernstorff, who received permission to shoot one of the few
-bisons still preserved in the State of Wyoming, says “One might take
-the way in which the animal life of America is protected as an example
-in securing still better preservation for the survivors of the primeval
-wild life of Africa. One must acknowledge that the Americans and their
-noble President, a brave sportsman, are now doing all that is possible
-in this matter.”
-
-President Roosevelt, in fact, has come forward manfully in the lists
-as a champion of widely extended protection for all the beauties of
-nature, and especially of the animal world. He endeavours by his words
-and writings to work effectually for these great and noble ideas, which
-bring to all men delight, profit, and contentment.[28]
-
-Brought up in the school of German sportsmanship, I had later on to
-change completely my view as to our distinction between “noxious
-animals” and “beasts of prey.” The African wilderness swarms with
-_beasts of prey_, and yet also swarms with _useful wild animals_.
-The waters of Africa teem with the _fish destroyers_, and also teem
-with _fish_. We should not therefore act so short-sightedly and
-pedantically. We should not be so eager to hunt down the last fox,
-the last pine-marten. The nesting-places of herons and cormorants are
-becoming ever fewer; the places where the handsome black tree storks
-build in our German Fatherland can almost be counted on the fingers
-of one hand; and the same is nearly true of the nesting-places of our
-rarer birds of prey.
-
-The killing of a wild cat has already become an event; it is the same
-with the eagle-owl.
-
-Out of the mass of literature of recent date bearing on the subject, I
-take a single book. In a very readable essay, _Der Uhu in Böhmen_, Kurt
-Loos shows that only a few years ago this interesting and beautiful
-large owl (_Bubo maximus_) was to be found making its home to the
-extent of some fifty pairs in thirty-five districts of Bohemia; now
-only eighteen pairs are living there, in ten districts. The author
-demands protection for the surviving pairs of owls, as natural objects
-that should be preserved, and he makes out a strong case for his
-proposal. Röntgen-ray photographs are among the illustrations of this
-interesting work, and they suggest that in times when one can do one’s
-work with such excellent appliances, there is all the more reason for
-avoiding the thoughtless neglect of legacies left to us by Nature from
-the days of its primeval beauty.
-
-Numerous other examples of the rapid disappearance of certain species
-in our Fatherland might be quoted here. Unfortunately we have, on the
-whole, very little right to reproach the people of Southern Europe
-on the subject of their custom of carrying on a systematic massacre
-of birds; for we ourselves are always trapping thrushes and larks,
-and there is the shooting of the woodcock in spring. There can be no
-doubt that, if we would give up this spring shooting of the woodcock,
-this bird, which has so won the heart of the German sportsman, would
-breed abundantly in our forests. On sporting estates in the wooded
-hills in Baden I have had occasion to observe this bird nesting; and
-it is to be regretted that German sportsmen, who in other matters
-obey the customs of the chase with such scrupulous conscientiousness,
-do not spare this bird in the spring-time, although they are thus
-extirpating from their hunting grounds a bird that breeds in the
-woodlands of our country. The North American woodcock is in process
-of extinction, for it also is not spared by sportsmen in its breeding
-grounds, and it is just as little in safety from them in its winter
-quarters. It is thus one of the disappearing birds of North America,
-whilst our European woodcock is not so much exposed to harm from
-systematic pursuit either in its partly inaccessible northern breeding
-grounds or in its winter abode. But it is indeed difficult to abolish
-old, deep-rooted practices that are no longer abreast of the times.
-“Che vuole, signore?--il piacere della caccia!” was the reply of
-an Italian to a tourist who remonstrated with him on the subject of
-the extraordinarily widespread destruction of doves by means of nets
-in Northern Italy. The same answer would probably be given by the
-monks[29] of certain islands of the Mediterranean, who, keeping up an
-old custom, kill countless multitudes of turtle-doves during their
-migration. These are their favourite dainties, and they also export
-them largely in a preserved state. So, too, it will be a difficult
-matter to obtain from German sportsmen the complete abandonment of
-their pleasant spring campaign against the woodcock. Through the very
-interesting experiments of the Duke of Northumberland, who had marks
-put upon numbers of young woodcock, it has been ascertained that large
-numbers of them undoubtedly spend the whole winter in England. Now, if
-Professor Boettger and Wilhelm Schuster are right in their conclusions,
-drawn from similar observations, as to the return of the conditions of
-the Tertiary period, and if the species of birds they observed used at
-an earlier date not infrequently to winter with us, a more extended
-protection for the woodcock ought, at any rate, to be introduced.
-
-The continual levying of contributions on our colonies of sea-gulls,
-to the injury of a great number of the other species of birds that
-inhabit our sea-coasts, should also be greatly restricted. If this
-is not done we shall witness, within a period already in sight, a
-lamentable extermination of our shore- and sea-birds. And how grateful
-for protection many species show themselves! Wherever it is extended to
-them they enliven the landscape in the most pleasing way. So, too, it
-has been found that certain species of gulls have adapted themselves to
-a kind of nocturnal life in the neighbourhood of our great commercial
-ports.
-
-I may here mention as standing in special need of protection, and as
-wonderful adornments of our German landscape, whose preservation should
-find an advocate in every thoughtful man--the buzzard, the kestrel, the
-hobby-hawk, both our varieties of kite, the crane, the heron, the white
-and the black stork, the crested grebe, the water-hen, and the coot.
-All these enliven and embellish the landscape to a conspicuous extent,
-and should not be sacrificed to selfish interests.
-
-I knew an old gamekeeper, a native of the March of Brandenburg, who
-throughout the course of a long life had been taking care of a shooting
-estate, which had grown up with him, so to speak. He protected _his_
-wild creatures, and was delighted at having a colony of storks’ nests
-and a group of badger burrows in _his_ woods. For long years he was
-able to preserve a primeval oak, the largest in the whole district,
-which in the year 1870 he named the “King’s Oak.”
-
-To-day no birds of prey breed any longer on this estate; the primeval
-village of badgers is in ruins, and irreverent hands have cut down
-the “King’s Oak.” But the old man, now that his time of service has
-expired, never sets foot on the estate, though he is passing the
-evening of his life in the neighbourhood.
-
-That was a man who had innate in him a just and reverent feeling for
-the preservation of the beauties and glories handed down to us from the
-far past, and who loved, and, so far as it was possible, guarded these
-wonders of nature.
-
-Let us once for all throw overboard the sharp distinction between
-“noxious” and “useful” animals, and within certain limits let us
-protect the whole world of animal and plant life. This would be the
-noblest form of game preservation, in the widest sense of the word.
-
-I venture to dwell upon these ideas here, knowing that they are shared
-by a large number of men and women. Amongst our German game-preserving
-associations we have societies that have rendered great services to the
-protection of our native wild animals. An extension of these useful
-efforts to the protection of all our native fauna and flora in general
-is most certainly called for by the greatly altered conditions of our
-time. We are gradually coming to a period when every individual wild
-animal will be registered by specialists and indicated in a list! And
-we are also gradually approaching in our sporting estates the ideal of
-extensive, well-kept gardens, in which no touch of wild nature will any
-longer be left.
-
-I appeal once more to the authority of President Roosevelt. He
-expresses the opinion that it is now not so much the question of
-preserving great supplies of any one species as of maintaining the
-primitive beauty of the forest in its wild life.
-
-I think with pleasure of my youth, when, at a time when my father,
-in union with other game-preservers, founded the _Jagdschutzverein_
-(“Association for the Protection of Game”) of the Rhine Province, I
-had the opportunity of making myself acquainted with the old state
-of things in this department. My native district, the Eifel, still
-sheltered boars, eagle-owls, wild cats, and many other rare animals
-living in wild freedom. The ear of the boy learned to know and to love
-every cry of our native fauna. Roosevelt rightly remarks that many
-of the cries of American animals, such as the hoot of the owl, are
-_falsely_ described as unpleasant. He who knows them well comes to
-love them, and would not like to miss them from the general concert
-of animal sounds. Here in Germany, too, we have evidence of this to a
-gradually increasing extent.
-
-The German sportsman ought to give a shining example to those of other
-lands in this matter of the protection of _all_ the dwellers in his
-hunting grounds. To his care is entrusted _the whole German fauna_ in
-its widest extent. To secure the preservation of this splendid work of
-nature here in Germany is an enterprise that will earn the gratitude
-of every lover of nature, the thanks of millions of men. The German
-sportsman, as the chosen guardian and keeper of the wild life of his
-native land, must also become the protecting lord of all its animal
-and plant life; he should maintain his own estate in its primitive
-condition to the fullest possible extent. But to his estate, in a wider
-sense, also belongs the velt of German Africa, still so rich in wild
-life. Here, too, the German sportsman should take up the position of
-guardian and protector.
-
-The well-known English writer Clive Philips-Wolley says that happily
-the old English sporting spirit is not dead; that the farthest and
-wildest hunting grounds of the world, a visit to which demands the
-greatest energy and courage, are still sought out by men of the English
-race, as in earlier days. England owes a great part of her colonies
-to men, eager for enterprise, who as hunters penetrated into unknown
-wildernesses; and the English hunter has, thanks to his courage and
-determination, always played a great part among strange peoples. The
-reckless conduct of travellers in far-off countries and among strange
-tribes is often sufficient to give a _whole nation_ a bad character
-in the eyes of these people, while a right bearing may make it appear
-worthy of their admiration. Philips-Wolley further points out that the
-taking of “big bags” of game in far-off hunting grounds[30] should not
-be considered merely from the point of view of stay-at-home people,
-but from the point of view of those who have special knowledge of the
-districts in question.
-
-The time has passed when far-off lands were secured in this way.
-But I would wish for the German sportsman that he may, so far as is
-possible, visit the splendid hunting grounds that he can now find in
-the German colonies, and there become familiar with the chase in forms
-that our homeland can no longer offer to him. The more brethren of the
-green-coated guild go abroad nowadays, and bring us tidings of the
-fauna and of the hunting grounds of the German colonies, the more will
-our knowledge of this difficult subject be enlarged, and we shall be in
-a better position for working out practical protective regulations for
-the preservation of these splendid hunting grounds.
-
-And what a deep charm for the hunter there is in pursuing the chase in
-such regions! It is true that circumstances have so greatly changed
-in a few decades of years that the old hunters--say those of fifty
-years ago--would probably not be able to take the same deep delight in
-the sport of to-day that they felt in their own time. It was quite a
-different matter to go out to meet the dangerous wild beasts of Africa
-with the simple weapons, the muzzle-loaders, of that time. True, the
-African hunters, whom Professor Fritsch made acquaintance with in Cape
-Colony about the time of the ‘sixties, already possessed long-range
-weapons. They used “small-bore rifles” firing an elongated bullet that
-carried up to 1,500 yards. These rifles were fitted with ivory sights
-and silver sighting-lines, for shooting at night. A hunter named Layard
-was at that time famous in Cape Colony for having brought down an
-ostrich at 1,750 yards!
-
-Let us follow for once the wanderings of a hunter in East Africa,
-and give ourselves up completely to the charm of such a sporting
-expedition. No one is better fitted for making himself acquainted with
-lands that are remote, difficult of access and unhealthy, than the
-sportsman, who, even in such tracts of country, can find enjoyment.
-Besides the greater or less delight that the chase itself affords, much
-besides that is beautiful and desirable will present itself to him.
-
-When he has got his caravan together he enjoys in the first place the
-feeling of primitive untrammelled life in the wilderness. We see,
-indeed, how amongst those who belong to the most highly developed
-of civilised nations, even in our own days, the need of some dim
-reflection of this life makes itself plainly felt. Thus, especially in
-America, we see how many dwellers in cities spend some days out ill the
-woods and prairies, in order to enjoy there for some time under the
-tent the pleasures of camp-life.
-
-In a land which, like Africa, harbours all kinds of dangers, we must
-leave all hesitation behind us. In fact, the charm of danger must be
-an attraction to the huntsman. He has to justify the confidence of
-his followers and of his comrades. The natives who come in contact
-with him will by his bearing and conduct form their judgment of all
-his compatriots, and of his native land as a whole. So there imposes
-itself on him the duty of regarding himself as _a representative of
-his nation_. Though he is justified, if it comes to that, in defending
-his life even by bloodshed, he will nevertheless seek, as far as is
-possible, to enter into friendly relations with the native tribes. In
-many districts of Africa the European will traverse, with altogether
-superior weapons in his hands, countries whose inhabitants still fight
-with nearly the same weapons that were borne by prehistoric tribes.
-But notwithstanding this, he must remember that his superiority rests
-chiefly on the prestige that the European possesses in presence of the
-black man. But this prestige will not suffice, especially at night, to
-keep off all attacks. It is therefore necessary that proper precaution
-should be the rule. This is in the long run not such an easy matter,
-for generally in the midst of apparent peace no one will think of the
-possibility of an attack. But it often takes place without warning; and
-thefts at night will also sometimes happen. In short, the middle course
-between necessary precaution and needless nervousness is not always
-easy for the traveller to hit upon.
-
-But all this, to a great extent, adds to the charm of that wild caravan
-life. There is something endlessly alluring in thus going out into
-the open country with all one’s belongings, pitching one’s camp by
-some pleasant place where there is water, and under shady trees, and
-wandering, free as the birds, wheresoever the desire or wish of the
-moment leads one. Of course, if no shady trees are to be found, if the
-water tastes strongly of natron, or looks more like pea-soup than clear
-spring-water, if swarms of mosquitoes annoy one in the night, and flies
-and other insects in the daytime, all this must be put up with as a
-part of this wild life. Free as the birds, we can indeed choose our
-way, but with the everlasting restriction that it lies where water is
-to be found, and that we can secure supplies.
-
-But with a little good-humour one can get over all this, especially if
-one keeps before one’s eyes the fact that there are many worse things
-here, such as malaria, dysentery, and all the other numerous tropical
-diseases with which these lands are so lavishly supplied. But we could
-not find greater enjoyment in the primitive beauty and charm of this
-wilderness, even if all this were not so.
-
-It is true that the hunter in Equatorial Africa cannot obtain such
-splendid trophies as the stag’s antlers, that marvellous structure
-built up by an animal organism, and, according to Röhrig’s striking
-researches, renewed again year after year in about eighteen weeks.
-But instead there beckon to him other prizes--the mighty horns of the
-buffalo, the heavily knotted horns of the eland, the strong spiral
-horns of the two species of kudus, the variously shaped horns of the
-cow-antelopes, the sword-like horns of the oryx-antelope, all the
-beautiful variously shaped antelope and gazelle horns, and many others
-that make most delightful trophies, and will be still more highly
-valued the more sportsmen go to these distant countries, and the more
-these treasures, often so difficult to obtain, are understood. The
-mighty weapons of the elephant, that glitter white in the sun, the
-uncouth horns from the head of the rhinoceros or the tusks of the
-hippopotamus, the head of a giant crocodile bristling with teeth, the
-plain and yet so eagerly coveted hide of the King of the Desert, and
-the glaringly variegated skin of the leopard--all these are souvenirs
-and trophies that have the greatest charm for the hunter; of the
-greatest charm and value if he himself has taken them, and not merely
-(to use the sharp words with which Roosevelt scourges such practices)
-contracted for their capture. The German sportsman must contend for all
-these trophies against certain unsportsmanlike elements, such as the
-Boers, who unfortunately seem to be now exterminating the wild animals
-on Kilimanjaro; but they belong to the sportsman much more than to such
-as these. German hunters should not hesitate to take by sportsmanlike
-methods their fair share of the stock of big game, and in this way,
-as has long been the case in India and Ceylon, a code of customs of
-the chase will grow up in the German colonies, suited to the special
-circumstances of the country. In a publication by Captain Schlobach,
-that is well worth reading, it was recently stated that the military
-posts at Olgoss and Sonjo on the Masai uplands were continually at
-starvation point, and, in default of other supplies, had often recently
-been provisioned entirely with the spoils of the chase.[31] What would
-not German sportsmen (who contribute such large sums to the colonies)
-have given to be able to shoot these wild animals, and at the same time
-to help to spread in our colonies the ideals of the chase as understood
-in Germany, and to assist in the general recognition and success of
-German sportsmanship!
-
-Our knowledge of the animal world of foreign lands is gradually
-increasing to such a satisfactory extent that not only do we find a
-general interest taken in the wild life and the hunting grounds of our
-colonies, but we shall also be in a position to introduce adequate
-measures of protection for this beautiful fauna.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-THE NYÍKA: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW.]
-
-In our colonies much has been lately done towards clearing up the
-hitherto hidden secrets of animal life. But if one remembers how
-many different opinions there are, even amongst authorities at home
-in Germany, with regard to many of the questions relating to our
-home fauna, one will pass a more lenient judgment on the many sharp
-controversies about matters of this kind in the tropics.
-
-But nothing of value is to be hoped for from controversial strife over
-divergent theories. All men who have acquired expert knowledge on these
-difficult matters should rather unite in a common task, and strive by
-co-operation to obtain some adequate result.
-
-In the wide British colonial possessions in Africa very extensive
-reservations have been established, in which no one is allowed to harm
-the animals. The practice of making exceptions in favour of certain
-officials has not been found to answer, and has been given up. So now
-wide districts of British Africa rank as animal sanctuaries.
-
-In German Africa, too, the authorities have tried, as far as they can,
-to obtain useful results by similar methods. Unfortunately serious
-events of many kinds are daily contributing to the diminution in
-numbers of the fauna of German Africa. Thus the war in South-West
-Africa is sweeping away the still surviving stock of wild animals as
-with an iron broom.
-
-In the face of all this, all parties concerned should take their
-share in common action. Our museums should be provided with the
-necessary material. Even if our knowledge of the African fauna has made
-sufficient progress, it further concerns us to exert an educating and
-informing influence on every pioneer of our colonies, so that he may
-not come in contact with that beautiful animal world in utter ignorance
-of it. Unfortunately we are still greatly wanting in this respect.
-However, in recent years a great amount of material has been placed
-at the disposal of the museums by our colonial officers, officials,
-and private individuals. Many of them have even made important
-contributions to our special knowledge of the animal world.
-
-But now, whether it is a question of tracing out the hidden and unknown
-life and ways of that equatorial animal world that has come into our
-possession, or of investigating the customs and languages of races that
-are barely discovered, or of tracking the horrors of tropical diseases
-and the germs that excite them and becoming master of that miniature
-world of life with the lens and the microscope, or of going into the
-wilderness as a sportsman--the men who devote themselves to all these
-pursuits will be led onwards by that spell, whose name the reader
-guesses, the spell of unchanged primeval conditions and untouched
-nature!
-
-May as many as possible of our German sportsmen go forth into our
-tropical possessions and yield themselves up to this spell! That which
-in our hunting grounds at home speaks to their hearts in the rustling
-of the oak and beech woods and on familiar moors and fields, they will
-find in a far higher degree in that far-off wilderness under the German
-flag. Returning home, may they, working in unison, and by mutually
-supplying what each may lack, bring into existence some splendid
-memorial of the joys of German sport.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: ORYX ANTELOPES TAKING TO FLIGHT.]
-
-VI
-
-The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyíka
-
-
-The endless wilderness of the Nyíka presents to the traveller so much
-that is strange, beautiful, and wonderful that at times his senses
-become wearied of these changing impressions of travel, and a longing
-comes over him for the familiar scenes he has learned to love at home.
-
-As though in giant characters written on its rocks, the Nyíka tells
-us of the conditions and the life of the past and at the same time of
-everyday actualities, giving us its message as well by its snow-covered
-volcanic peaks as in the footprints and tracks of the mighty creatures
-that wander through it. It is a difficult undertaking to reconstruct
-in fancy all the splendours that must once have presented themselves
-to the eye in this region. But nevertheless I will tell of what I have
-looked upon in the past,--of the many beautiful sights that linger in
-my memory and rise up like the shadows of a mirage,--of the delightful
-manifestations of its moving life, coming and going on hill and in
-valley, as strange, wondrous, and unfamiliar forms reveal themselves
-to the astonished spectator.
-
-[Illustration: A VELT HILLOCK. THE SOLITARY TREE WAS FULL OF NESTS OF
-WEAVER-BIRDS.]
-
-The mystery of a deep harmonious influence belongs to the mighty
-wilderness. It reveals itself in its full beauty to him who has
-strenuously acquired a love for it by making a long sojourn in it and
-paying to it the tribute it demands.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-A stony wilderness extends endlessly on all sides, and the sight ranges
-without limit over the expanse that loses itself in mist and cloud. A
-barren stony sea, as far as the eye can reach!
-
-But it is not the velt or the African desert that lies below us as we
-rise one moment a hundred yards above the surface of the earth and
-the next three hundred yards and more. It is the sea of houses that
-form the capital of the German Empire.... In a few seconds the view
-takes in all the full extent of the mighty city, and then, as if in a
-dream, what we have just seen disappears from our sight. Borne by a
-breeze, of which we are hardly aware, our balloon sweeps towards the
-Baltic Sea.... It is a strange feeling thus to enjoy, thanks to our
-lofty point of outlook, an extended view far over the level March of
-Brandenburg with its teeming population all below us, a view which,
-old as the world is, has been vouchsafed to few mortal men. The city,
-with all its human life and activity, lies far below us. Its roar and
-tumult, that strange voice of the stony sea, has died away. We begin
-to make a long journey only a few hundred feet above the surface of
-the earth. Later on we rise, sailing through banks and clouds to a
-height of nine thousand feet above the earth, but before this higher
-ascent we have time and leisure to take a bird’s-eye view of “all that
-creeps and flies.” What an outlook over forest and plain! As we fly
-over them, horses grazing in paddocks, cattle on the pastures, for a
-moment suggest to me an illusion of the African velt peopled with its
-wild life. The eye, again and again fascinated by this prospect as a
-whole, can hardly grasp the details. Now our course is over endless
-open heaths, over moors and woodlands. The fleet-footed red deer,
-frightened by the drag-rope, look up in astonishment and stare at the
-strange monster, not knowing whither to turn in flight from such a
-menacing apparition. How the strange monster was a few hours later
-within a hair’s breadth of burying us in the waves of the Baltic Sea is
-another story....
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ’NGAPTUK, ABOUT 6,000 FEET HIGH. THE
-    CLEARNESS OF THE AIR MAKES IT LOOK AS IF THE ASCENT COULD BE
-    QUICKLY MADE, BUT IT IS A WORK OF SEVERAL HOURS. I CLIMBED IT
-    IN 1899--THE FIRST ASCENT BY A EUROPEAN. IN THE RAVINE RUNNING
-    UP ON THE LEFT I FOUND SEVERAL ELEPHANTS. IN THE DRY SEASON
-    THESE HILLS ARE THE RESORT OF NUMBERS OF RHINOCEROSES.]
-
-How many hundred times, after I had gone back to the Dark Continent,
-have I wished for such a lofty observatory, an airship that would
-bear me over velt and desert, and from which I could fathom all the
-secrets of the animal world of the tropics, instead of having to travel
-toilsomely, fettered to the earth, often merely making step after step
-automatically in the blazing heat of the sun. When one day such a wish
-as this is fulfilled, that animal world in its beauty and splendour
-will have to a great extent passed away....
-
-I must, therefore, content myself with lofty observatories of another
-kind, that are not unfrequently to be found in the Masai uplands,
-in the form of numerous hills and rock masses. These afford splendid
-views and pictures of the animal creation to the spectator who waits
-patiently on their summits for hours and days, and has the help of
-good optical instruments. What life and activity displays itself there
-before our eyes under favourable circumstances! Though the wilderness
-may appear a desert solitude, bare and empty of all life, let only a
-few hours go by and the sun change its position a little, and already
-one sees movement under the trees and bushes that have been till now
-casting deep shadows. Then with measured steps, prudently regardful
-of their safety, all kinds of animals come forth to graze. We see the
-different wild species appearing, at first a few individuals, and soon
-in greater or smaller herds.
-
-How far the eye carries in this clear transparent atmosphere, and what
-a wide tract of country we are able to overlook! In this tropical
-brightness, after weeks and months, and even years, I could not get
-rid of the perplexing illusion as to distances. The tract of country
-that my sight could command seemed always much less extensive than it
-really was. And again, we were continually being misled by shimmering
-reflections of the air, so that we took gnus for elephants, ostriches
-for rhinoceroses, zebras for wild asses, and we might even hold to our
-mistaken view for a considerable time. He who wants to watch the living
-animals in this way from a lofty point of observation, must be able to
-keep on persistently for hours. Thus only will the scene piece by
-piece become familiar to him. Thus only will all the moving life below
-him very gradually combine into one splendid and intelligible picture.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-ONE OF MY LOOK-OUT PLACES ON THE PLATEAU BETWEEN KILIMANJARO AND MOUNT
-MERU.]
-
-On the way to my look-out hill I pass thousands of the tracks made by
-wild animals.
-
-At the very outset, the traveller from northern lands sees a most
-surprising sight in those hundreds of thousands of tracks made by wild
-animals, and faithfully preserved for weeks and even for longer periods
-in the dry season on the plains of Africa. The giants of the animal
-world leave behind them their mighty footprints, often for nearly
-a year, holes in which a man will sometimes break his leg. But the
-footprints of the smaller animals also last a long time on velt and
-plain. And the language of the wilderness rises to a most effectual
-appeal to our senses when these tracks are associated with the marked
-tarry scent of the waterbuck in the bush, the breath of the great wild
-herds on the plain, the strong scent left by elephant or rhinoceros in
-the primeval forest and in the sultry thickets, and the scent of the
-buffalo among the reed-beds.
-
-There is often a chaos of tracks, a wild maze of paths trodden flat
-as a barn-floor, crossing each other, and then again uniting, so that
-the idea of tame herds, mentioned before as at times suggested, can no
-longer hold good.
-
-To-day we have again waited patiently to see the wilderness gradually
-come to life in the hours of the afternoon. And we have not been
-disappointed.
-
-Out from the shadows of scattered groups of trees there march
-great herds of the white-bearded gnus, that remind one so of small
-buffaloes. Slowly they make their way to the more open grazing ground
-and disperse themselves over it. But careful watch is kept by a few of
-them--the bulls that lead the herds, experienced old fellows! Under
-their guardianship the herd feels itself perfectly safe. There is
-also an unusually large drove of the wonderfully graceful impallah
-or black-tailed antelope. What a remarkable contrast is presented
-as the herds mingle together! The gnus, strongly built, haughty in
-their bearing, conscious of their strength against all animal foes,
-stand out wonderfully amongst their almost too graceful comrades, the
-impallah-antelopes. We can plainly distinguish that the females and
-those that are accompanied by young ones keep more together, while the
-bucks of the impallah-antelopes keep apart and look after their safety.
-
-Now a dark black mass slowly separates itself from a large group of
-trees. It is followed by several forms that do not so easily catch the
-eye. Our field-glasses tell us that a small flock of ostriches has come
-to mix with the wild species already noted. Now there are perhaps well
-over three hundred head of these three kinds of wild animals united
-together in one gathering. They are used to come together in the most
-friendly way, without apparently taking much notice of each other. For
-a long time the sight of these creatures, all so different, holds us
-fascinated. But our optical instruments must restlessly explore the
-distance for new sights of the animal kingdom; and at the same time
-there are even better instruments of investigation at work--the
-eyes of my black companions.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-HERD OF BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A HERD OF BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES PHOTOGRAPHED AFTER STALKING THEM WITH
-THE CAMERA FOR HALF AN HOUR.]
-
-“Pharu, bwana!” now whispers one of my men, and points cautiously with
-his arm down to a certain point on the plain. His caution, however, is
-not necessary, for it is at a distance of at least a thousand yards
-that his sharp eyes have distinguished the outlines of two almost
-invisible rhinoceroses that are moving slowly through a group of
-acacias. What an effect that word “pharu” has upon me! For once more
-there has come close to me one of those strange, mighty beings that
-really belong to a time long passed, and which, like the elephant,
-the giraffe, the zebra, the gnu, and a few other forms, lend to the
-wilderness the charm of primeval days. Naturally still stronger is
-the effect of the cry of “Tembo!” on the hunter and the watcher amid
-such scenes. “Elephant!” This name electrifies even the weariest
-traveller. But when the word is “Twigga!” (“Giraffe!”)--even here in
-Europe the strange, slender-necked creature, moving in some acacia wood
-all flooded with the sunlight, comes up bodily before me--bodily and
-plainly to be seen, but alas, only in imagination!
-
-After trying for a minute, I succeed in getting the massive creatures
-sharply defined in the middle of the field of my glass. But the clear
-view of them is something that comes and goes. Several times it
-looks as if the velt had swallowed them up; then they suddenly come
-into sight again, being specially visible to the eye when they show
-themselves sideways. Seen from front or rear, particularly when at
-rest, they are all but invisible. We are in luck; the rhinoceroses are
-ambling towards us, and come nearer and nearer, slowly following the
-line of some hollows in the ground.
-
-Now, borne on strong pinions, and brightly illuminated by the sunbeams,
-one of the great bustards cuts through the sea of air, and sinks down
-into some low ground far away below us. This is not an unusual sight in
-the late hours of the afternoon, and soon after we see not only some
-more of the same species, but also three other bustards of a smaller
-and commoner species that is more active in flight. It is the _Otis
-gindiana_, which I have got to like so much on account of its charming
-gambols on the wing, that must be a pleasure to every lover of birds.
-At this time of day it carries on this strange tumbling in the air, and
-if the day is hot and dry it makes for the neighbourhood of the water,
-or in any case for certain hollow places of the velt that provide
-it with at least a certain amount of soft vegetable food. Another
-picture! A great flock of splendidly coloured crested cranes wings its
-strong undulating flight and goes away over the hill. I notice in the
-air the striking appearance of the snake-vulture and a pair of the
-nimble-winged Bateleur eagles, the “sky apes” of the Abyssinians. My
-gaze follows them eagerly into the distance.... In what various ways
-the bird world displays its mastery of the realms of air! Our attention
-is riveted now on the quiet gliding flight of the vulture in the
-highest levels of the air, now on the spectacle of a struggle in the
-air between some birds of prey and some ravens or bee-eaters that are
-annoying them. Searching the ground as it goes, the augur buzzard
-(_Butco augur_) wings its flight over the stone-strewn slopes of the
-adjacent hill. Bateleur eagles wheel in graceful circles high in air,
-let themselves fall down for several yards, and then shoot up again
-heavenward. For hours at a time they will carry on their strong-winged
-circling and plunging through the realm of air, apparently without
-effort or fatigue. Various kinds of kites show themselves in their
-oscillating flight, that makes them always so clever at escaping
-the gun; amongst them large numbers of Montagu’s harrier (_Circus
-pygargus_, L.), which at certain times of the year range restlessly
-over the velt. Hawks and sparrow-hawks wing their rapid flight in
-search of prey. In short, every kind and form of bird flight that one
-can imagine! For instance, the proud majestic flight of the larger
-species of vultures is essentially distinct from the heavy flight
-of the small Egyptian vultures (_Neophron percnopterus_, L.), whose
-flight the Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria most aptly described, when
-he remarked that at a distance the bird might easily be mistaken for a
-stork.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-BLACK-TAILED ANTELOPE BUCK PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE BUSH AT A DISTANCE OF
-ABOUT EIGHTY YARDS.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-A HERD OF ANTELOPES PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE BUSH AT FIFTY YARDS.]
-
-It is indeed a great pleasure to follow with the eye all the wondrously
-beautiful types of flight that the African birds of prey present to us.
-The _enormous numbers of birds of prey_, in a land that is nevertheless
-so rich in wild life, ought to suggest some salutary reflections to
-those who, here at home, with such dogged persistence wage war with
-guns and pole-traps against those creatures, which are so great an
-ornament to the landscape. For my part, I would on every point support
-the proposals of experienced men, like Freiherr von Besserer of Munich
-and Dr. von Bocksberger of Marburg, who advocate protection even
-for our birds of prey, at least within the Government domains. “Let
-us try,” says Von Besserer, “still to preserve them at least within
-certain limits. Let us grant them some few places of refuge. Let us not
-arraign them too strictly for every theft, so that future generations
-may also enjoy the spectacle of their beautiful flight.”
-
-And now it seems, as if on some gigantic chess board, move after move
-is being made on the plain below us. We have hardly remarked the wild
-species already noted, when we suddenly find ourselves perplexed as to
-which point we shall first direct our gaze to, which is to attract the
-special attention of our eyes. To our right, two great herds of zebras
-come rolling along, and ever as they move are now plainly visible, now
-almost disappear, as if in regular alternation. To our left, on the
-crest of a ridge that rises there, suddenly sharply defined silhouettes
-appear--again it is a herd of gnus, and this time clearly one that
-numbers at least a hundred and fifty head. While our attention is still
-attracted by this beautiful spectacle, my trusty comrade Abdallah
-suddenly lays his hand upon my arm and, only with a glance of his eyes,
-indicates the little valley that lies stretched out below our feet.
-This time there is good excuse for his caution. For there, looking
-as if they were cast in bronze, two of the wonderfully beautiful
-giraffe-gazelles stand staring up in astonishment at the place where we
-are posted. It may well be that these timid children of the wilderness
-here had never yet been disturbed by the strange sight of a human
-figure. “Nyógga-nyógga!” whispered the lips of my comrade.
-
-It is not often that one has the chance of seeing the nyógga-nyógga at
-such close quarters, and besides, it is extremely difficult to watch it
-without being noticed by it. It is so completely lost to sight in its
-surroundings, and is so extremely timid and watchful, that I have very
-seldom indeed succeeded in observing this splendid animal before it has
-itself remarked my presence. When I succeeded it was almost invariably
-towards evening when it had come out to feed. It is worth while to
-take full advantage of such moments, for the slightest disturbance
-instantly drives it away. And so it was now. It was not long before the
-two nyógga-nyógga, with their long necks stretched out, disappeared
-in the hollows of the broken ground that extended below the place
-where we stood. After this I caught sight of them a few times standing
-amongst the clumps of acacias, timid, surprised, and watchful; then the
-gazelles betook themselves to the protection of the wide velt, looking
-like mere points in the distance.
-
-To me it seems as if the sonorous name that the Swahili language gives
-them, and also the softer name that sounds so sweetly in the mouth
-of a Masai,--“Nanyad,”--best and most fitly express their beauty,
-strangeness, and grace.
-
-Again we turn our attention to all that is going on below us. This
-time it is the rhinoceroses, which have approached to within a few
-hundred yards of my post, that most engage our attention. We observe
-how they nibble here and there at the boughs of the _Salvadora persica_
-and other shrubs, and then again rub their rough hide or their horns
-against the strong trunk of a tree or on a block of stone. They have
-all this time been coming gradually nearer to the herd of gnus that we
-first noticed, and now at last they stand quietly on the level ground,
-only a hundred paces away from the old gnu-bulls which are acting as
-sentinels.
-
-And now it is I myself who am the first to make out with the glass a
-third rhinoceros. “Wapi, bwana?” my companion eagerly asks me, and as I
-point out to him the place on the velt where I have picked the animal
-out, he approvingly confirms my observation with the remark: “Ndio,
-bwana, pharu mkubwa sana” (“Yes, master, a very big rhinoceros!”)
-
-After some time we see that it is an old and unusually large bull;
-he, too, has gradually taken the same line as his two colleagues. Our
-observation proves to be correct, and we also remark before long that
-the first pair of rhinoceroses we had noticed is made up of an old cow
-and her nearly grown up young one.
-
-More herds of zebras and gnus, and small troops of Grant’s gazelles and
-of impallah-antelopes have come into sight, and now they are joined by
-a whole crowd of hartebeests, which so far have kept themselves hidden
-in a side valley of the velt full of thick tall grass.
-
-And now the moving mass of animal life is ever more abundant, more
-varied. I notice in the valley at the foot of my hill a string of
-guinea-fowl; how they hurry and scurry about, flutter up with sounding
-strokes of their wings, and then soon drop down again! And now my
-attention is attracted by a pair of Bateleur eagles, that wheel in the
-air, and enjoy themselves for an hour at a time playing on the wing.
-They probably have made their eyrie not far from this spot.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G Schillings, phot._
-
-MASAI HARTEBEESTS (_BUBALUS COKEI_, Gth.) (THE “KONGONI” OF THE
-SWAHILI, “OL-KONDI” OR “OL-LUDJULUDJULA” OF THE MASAI).]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-GIRAFFE GAZELLE (_LITHOCRANIUS WALLERI_, Brooke) STANDING IN ITS
-CHARACTERISTIC ATTITUDE BEFORE TAKING TO FLIGHT.]
-
-For minutes at a time the cry of the francolin rings out clearly round
-about my post; then again it is silent. My eyes can indeed see animals
-of many kinds, and my sight ranges with restless efforts over the far
-distance; but so far I have looked in vain for a form that is frequent
-and familiar enough in this wilderness--the towering figure of the
-“Twigga.”
-
-Where can the giraffes be hiding to-day? Why have they not come out
-to the still freshly green acacias in the far-stretching hollow to my
-left, where I have already marked their presence for whole days at a
-time?
-
-And yet they are there, only I had failed to distinguish them. At last
-I can make out their strange forms, as they graze there among the
-acacias, and they stand out sharply under the oblique rays of the sun.
-
-What poetry there is in the movements of all the various organisms that
-our eyes behold! Every variety of gait, from the heavy, swinging, and
-nevertheless rapid march of the pachyderms to the graceful speed of a
-pretty gazelle, speaks in a language of its own to him who has become
-familiar with the peculiar movements of this animal world. Just as at
-the outset the strange appearance of an animal one sees for the first
-time makes a surprisingly strong impression on one, so too does the
-great difference in the gait of the various species. But they were
-all soon familiar to me. So now at the sight of the giraffes I feel
-a pleasure and delight in their quaint coming and going, their heads
-appearing and disappearing, there below me in the midst of the green
-bowers of mimosa leaves, high over which my view ranges. What laws must
-be at work here too, by whose operation I am compelled to feel all this
-to be so beautiful, so harmonious, so splendid! I grasp the meaning of
-the words: “Therefore I believe that life will first open its eyes in
-that world of which Goethe said: ‘There is still the life of life, and
-this is only form.’”[32]
-
-What a splendid sight there is from my lofty look-out! the whole of
-this mighty spectacle displays itself almost without a sound that I
-can hear. Only a few voices of birds, but no cry of any other animal
-reaches my ears. But as the breeze rises more and more towards evening,
-there begins in my immediate neighbourhood a strange and beautiful
-concert, that is already familiar to me. And now, as the wind blows
-more and more strongly through the perforated gall-nuts that hang
-on every tree above us, there resounds through the desert silence a
-strange melody, a strange language of musical notes that only the sound
-of the Æolian harp can to some degree represent.
-
-These nut-galls on the acacias are bored quite through, and in many
-cases become the dwelling-places of small ants. If one disturbs them
-by tapping on the outside of their strange habitation,[33] they come
-swarming out to fight with the disturber of their peace! It is not
-so often that their strange ways and doings concern a human being,
-but it comes to pass to-day. The watchful observer takes delight not
-only in the sound of these strange musical instruments, but also in
-the thought that they give shelter to a little world of their own, a
-peculiarly organised little state made up of living beings, just as the
-wide endless wilderness below them is a state with the various larger
-wild animals for its inhabitants.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-GRANT’S GAZELLES (_GAZELLA GRANTI_, Brooke).]
-
-My diary records yet another kind of natural observatory, a giant tree
-uprooted on a wooded river-bank. Here, as it were, in the gallery
-of the wood, the huge trunk felled by the storm-wind offered me an
-inviting seat among its branches, and thence I enjoyed many a sight of
-the animal world around.
-
-There I had a view of the river close at hand, and farther away many
-clearings of the wood, which at this time of the year showed a rich
-display of animal life. The ripening forest fruits had attracted into
-this neighbourhood large packs of baboons. It was good to watch their
-busy activity as I looked down from my observatory, where I sat hidden
-by a thick growth of creeper. Great herds of antelopes, and especially
-waterbuck and Grant’s gazelles, are regularly to be found in these wide
-clearings of the woods. I remember some hours of the afternoon when
-the life of the forest displayed itself here in a way that suggested
-Paradise. I saw at the same time a large drove of the graceful,
-wonderful pallahs, and, grazing in their immediate neighbourhood,
-some twenty Grant’s gazelle bucks which had joined together to form
-a great herd. The antelopes had scattered themselves over part of
-the clearing, feeding on the fresh growing grass there, but all the
-while keeping themselves somewhat apart from the herd of gazelles.
-But they had gradually drawn near to a party of waterbuck which were
-standing under an old shady tree, and now I had an opportunity of
-watching for a long time these three varieties of antelope, all so
-beautiful, yet so different. To my surprise, after some time they were
-joined by nine stately eland-antelopes, whose white side-stripes made
-them wonderfully prominent among the uniformly coloured coats of the
-waterbuck. Amongst these animals some three hundred baboons were moving
-about with a certain careless self-possession. They were all big ones,
-keenly devoted to the hunt for insects, pulling up grass and turning
-over stones. Some of the older individuals meanwhile scrambled up tree
-trunks for a few feet, and thence kept a careful look-out for the
-approach of any possible enemy.
-
-I kept as still as a mouse, knowing well that the slightest movement
-would betray my presence to the timid, keen-sighted monkeys.
-
-Now a numerous herd of zebras moved through the wood and across the
-clearing at a slow, careless pace. As they moved there was a bright
-shimmering of the variegated stripes of the beautiful “tiger-horses,”
-and again they would often be blurred into one uniform grey. They
-mingled with the waterbuck, which took very little notice of them, and
-evidently had known the zebras for a long time. It was wonderful to see
-the proud waterbuck, with their horns, which are at once weapon and
-ornament, and the stallion leaders of the zebra herd all continually on
-the alert watching against their enemies.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-TELEPHOTO STUDIES OF VARIOUS ATTITUDES AND MOVEMENTS OF GRANT’S
-GAZELLES.]
-
-There is a scuttling over the ground, for the little mongoose family,
-that live over there among the ant-hills, are making a sally from their
-fortress. Snake-like in their swift movements, the graceful little
-animals seem to glide along. Yonder two snake-vultures are looking for
-reptiles. Numbers of other vultures and marabous have flown down to the
-margin of the shallow water to bathe and drink.
-
-Into the midst of all this gathering of animals there now come three
-ostriches, making for the fresh green growth along the marshy edge
-of the river-bank, and a number of francolins and guinea-fowl that
-gradually come crowding out of the undergrowth into the clearing to
-feed there. On the sandbank on which I look down as it extends far
-along the course of the river, there are some thirty huge crocodiles
-sunning themselves. I can see several smaller specimens of these
-mail-clad lizards on a flat part of the river margin not far from the
-sandbank.
-
-Yesterday, too, six giant hippopotami paid a visit to this sandbank on
-the primeval river, and left tracks that my eye can plainly see in the
-glowing sunshine; to-day, however, I have waited in vain for them to
-show themselves. But suddenly from the reed-beds on the opposite bank
-of the stream the mighty voice of an old bull comes booming across to
-me.
-
-Over this most peaceful picture of animal life the tropical sun
-blazes, casting deep shadows. At this hour of the day even the voices
-of the birds are generally silent. Only the melodious piping of the
-organ-shrike sounds somewhere near me, and often, too, the cries of one
-or other of the baboons which is being corrected with bangs and cuffs
-by an older member of the pack.
-
-All the various kinds of animals assembled here get on quite peacefully
-together. They often almost touch each other, without taking the
-slightest notice of one another. Even the antelope bucks, adorned with
-dangerously pointed horns, make not the slightest use of their sharp
-weapons against the other species. All the time that I was looking down
-from my lofty seat I saw nothing but peace and good-fellowship. And
-yet how quickly a tragedy might interrupt this stillness and peace!
-The tracks of lions and leopards down there, the crocodiles on the
-sandbank, and the vultures hovering in the air told me that.
-
-Often in this, and in other places, I have gained an insight into
-the life and ways of the animal world, and I have thus passed many
-enjoyable hours. Now one, now another species presented itself to
-my observation, but it was seldom that I saw such a large number of
-different species at _the same time_. But in all cases I have found
-that man is a disturbing element in the midst of such pictures of the
-animal Paradise. Even where I could feel sure that the appearance
-of a white man, a European, was quite unknown to the animals of the
-district, even then the very moment I showed myself the immediate
-result was a panic-stricken flight.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-WHITE-BEARDED GNUS AND ZEBRAS TAKING REFUGE FROM THE MIDDAY SUN UNDER
-THE SHADE OF THE MSUALLI TREE.]
-
-I have still clearly before my eyes the picture that presented
-itself to me as I emerged from the over-growth of creepers on the
-boughs of that uprooted tree. First a shrill cry from the monkeys.
-In a trice the little young ones were clinging to their mothers, and
-with long bounds the whole crowd of them galloped away over the level
-ground, hidden in a cloud of dust, and disappeared on the far side of
-the clearing. There a good many of them halted to look back. Of all the
-animals known to me only the baboons and the spotted hyenas take to
-flight in this way. The spectacle has such a surprisingly strange and
-unaccustomed, almost uncanny effect, that it always recurs to me when
-I think of these animals.
-
-The antelopes follow the example of the fugitive baboons, after first
-rushing hither and thither, right and left, leaping wildly into the
-air. At this moment the impallah-antelopes, especially, make a splendid
-picture. Bounding along as if on springs of steel, they shoot up
-several yards high into the air. Wherever the eye turns it sees the
-graceful forms of these beautiful animals in all possible positions,
-making long bounds, some four feet high off the ground, and in every
-other attitude that one can imagine. But the end of all these splendid
-pictures, each seen for a moment, is a general stampede. Whirling
-clouds of dust in the far distance tell for some time longer which way
-the fugitives have taken.
-
-But it is not every day that such varied pictures, so richly stored
-with the life of the primitive animal world of the tropics, present
-themselves to the traveller. And it needs, too, a trained eye to
-enjoy all the separate impressions in their combined effect, as making
-up one masterpiece of Nature. But often, too, an almost too great
-wealth of beauty gathered together in a small space presents itself
-to our eyes. Thus, more especially, I keep a memory of these small
-idyllic lakes of the wilderness, that are hidden away here and there
-in the Nyíka district, and give a home to a wealth of animal life that
-often seems almost too abundant. We sometimes find one of the most
-interesting species of the larger mammalia, the hippopotamus, living
-here in somewhat narrow quarters, but thus more easily accessible to
-observation than in the great lake basins, where it lives in hundreds
-or thousands, but where also it can much more easily get away from
-the sight of the observer. It is true that one can see numerous heads
-emerging from the water in the distance, one can mark the thin spray
-of water blown from their nostrils, forming numbers of little fountain
-jets that glitter in the sun. But the peculiar life and activity of
-these giants of the animal world goes on chiefly at night, invisible to
-our eyes. In the smaller lakes it is all different.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    IN THE MIDST OF THE VELT IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE GREAT
-    NATRON LAKE I FOUND A SOLITARY OLD ACACIA. THE DISTRICT WAS
-    NEARLY WATERLESS. THE TRUNK OF THE TREE SHOWED THE MARKS OF
-    ELEPHANTS THAT HAD RUBBED THEMSELVES AGAINST IT.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-    A TYPICAL LANDSCAPE WITH ACACIAS AND SCATTERED BOULDERS--THE
-    CAMPING PLACE OF MARAGO-KANGA NOT FAR FROM THE EASTERN ‘NJIRI
-    SWAMPS. NEAR THIS CAMPING PLACE MY PEOPLE SHOWED ME THE ALMOST
-    UNRECOGNISABLE GRAVE OF AN ENGLISH HUNTER WHO HAD BEEN KILLED
-    BY A BUFFALO. I HAD IT PUT IN ORDER, AND MY ASKARI (ARMED
-    FOLLOWERS) FIRED A VOLLEY OVER IT.]
-
-I remember with pleasure a certain gathering of hippopotami in one of
-the lakes that lie hidden away between Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, and
-which were discovered some years ago by Captain Merker. When I saw them
-there were still living in them some hundreds of hippopotami, and it
-was easy to watch their doings in the water. Gathered in herds they
-played about in the water under the bright sunlight, showing little
-sign of timidity. Especially the young ones, that were still going
-about with their mothers, had so little fear that I sometimes saw them
-rising almost completely out of the water. They were also sometimes to
-be seen resting in the sunshine on the sandbanks by the lake margin.
-Some of these lakes were of such small extent that the animals had to
-come up to breathe at a distance of at most only some twenty yards from
-the observer. But all the same they were generally inhabited by quite
-a number of hippopotami. It was then a great pleasure to watch these
-beasts for hours at a time, from the lofty look-out place provided by
-the surrounding heights that rose steeply from the edge of the lake.
-They kept up good fellowship with the crowds of water and marsh fowl
-that give life to these lakes. All these animals displayed themselves
-to the spectator at as close quarters and as plainly as in a zoological
-garden. The rosy red pelicans fishing in flocks of hundreds at a time
-presented the most charming contrast to the uncouth quadrupeds. Even
-now in fancy these lakes come before my sight, lakes that lie far from
-all human ways and doings in a silent solitude. Dark clouds float over
-it. The proximity of the massive and dark Mount Meru often causes a
-cloudy veil to hang over that volcanic plateau with its crater lakes.
-Again I climb the steep cliffs that ring them round, and again my gaze
-sweeps over the level surface of the water. But though there has been
-no decrease in the numbers of the waterfowl that enliven the lakes,
-the hippopotami have, alas! disappeared. I found on the occasion of my
-last journey a small number still there, but I hear from Professor
-Sjöstedt,[34] the Swedish naturalist, who lately visited these lakes,
-that the hippopotami, who had made the lakes their home since dim
-far-off times, have almost disappeared. The Boers[35] have killed
-everything. I came upon one here some years ago who was killing a lot
-of the hippopotami; others have followed up the work of this forerunner
-with more serious results. Attempts to make settlers at home in
-primitive regions are almost always inconsistent with a protection of
-the primitive animal world, even though these animals inhabit lonely
-upland lakes, hidden away in the wilderness, far from human settlements.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Thus in memory picture follows picture.
-
-Besides the harmonies of the wilderness, the impressions of the eye
-are always those that come back alluringly in my recollections.
-However truly the artist may be able to reproduce all these various
-impressions, there is one kind that will always be missing from his
-pictures, namely, all the fleeting _movement_. To take as an
-instance only one out of an abundance of forms, who can reproduce in
-pictures the endless variety of birds, the world of winged life! Every
-day added to my knowledge of these multitudinous flocks, through the
-increase day by day of my bird collection, which I obtained at the cost
-of much labour, and which has been the means of giving to science many
-hitherto unknown species. As I added each new bird to it, I added also
-to my knowledge of these beautiful creatures, as yet so little known,
-and slowly, very slowly I became familiar with them. What splendour
-of forms and colours! In what enormous flocks does the feathered race
-inhabit the wilderness and the primeval forest! The Biblical account
-of the flocks of quails in the desert sounds to us like a legend, and
-yet it is no legend. At times when we too were marching across the same
-kind of ground, there flew past us with a whirr of many wings huge
-flocks of quails, that sought and found their safety in flight. At
-times I have also seen similar flocks of snipe. How long has it been
-since both these kinds of birds appeared in such flocks in our country
-at home?
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-HUNGRY VULTURES NEAR MY TENT ON THE TREELESS VELT.]
-
-The endless variety of form and colour, the movements of the animals
-which the eye perceives under the ever-changing tropical light, that
-shows everything brilliantly and sharply defined, all this taken
-together makes up memory-pictures of a charm that nothing can surpass.
-But he only can picture them to himself who has gone forth and made
-them his own.
-
-The huge sea-turtle comes creeping along, emerges from the waters of
-the Indian Ocean, and makes for the sandhills to lay its eggs there.
-Its giant track on the sand leads me to its nest. To my astonished eyes
-this peculiar track looks as if a ploughshare had torn through the
-ground.
-
-The Indian Ocean, which is the home of this huge sea-turtle, shelters
-also in quiet bays the strange Dugong or sea-cow, and great is the
-surprise of even the natives themselves when from time to time they
-capture in their nets this remarkable creature, which is becoming rarer
-every year.
-
-[Illustration: FORMATION OF A FLOCK OF FLAMINGOES IN FLIGHT.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-FLIGHT OF FLAMINGOES (TAKEN AT SHORTER RANGE. THERE WERE THOUSANDS IN
-THIS FLOCK).]
-
-In the lagoons one sees emerge from the surface the head of a great
-giant snake, a good five yards long, the African python; others I have
-come upon suddenly on the open velt. There are continually thrilling
-moments! It may be that memory conjures up for us the delightful
-fairy-like image of a rare dwarf antelope seen perhaps once only in
-the shades of the forest, a dwarf antelope that, with strange large
-eyes and ears alert, watches one’s approach, and then like a flash of
-lightning disappears in the thickets; it may be that in memory one sees
-the reddish brown, mud-smeared body of a giant elephant emerge from the
-midst of some densely tangled primeval forest; it may be that a tree
-suddenly bursting into bloom yields me a wonderfully beautiful new kind
-of bird, which I grasp in my hand, delighted with its robe of feathers;
-it may be that suddenly the massive giant form of a rhinoceros appears
-before me in the tall grass, unexpected, menacing, standing as if
-chiselled out of stone; it may be that my free gaze ranges without
-limit over the wide prospect, and sees in primitive abundance the
-strange life of the tropics; in every case the impressions received
-seem to the beholder fascinating beyond description.
-
-Monotonous as the surroundings of the landscape may appear to the
-newcomer, poor and barren though the velt may seem to be for weeks at
-a time, yet, enlivened and permeated by the mighty flood of all this
-strange animal life, it has a beauty and a charm whose influence no one
-can escape who makes his way into the midst of it with open heart and
-eyes.
-
-He who looks around him with clear-sighted vision, and tries to see
-more than others, has revealed to him the beauties of Nature in the
-greatest and most wonderful way, and is drawn in the highest sense
-of the word to admiration of them. Here is verified, as Sir Harry
-Johnston says in his preface to my first book, “the old nursery story
-of eyes and no eyes.”
-
-It is thus that I lie for long hours in the wilderness, and observe,
-admire and enjoy. What a wealth of impressions is brought before the
-eyes among these ever-changing, at first strange but gradually familiar
-sights, in the midst of the foreign-looking landscape, bathed in a
-light that has a marvellous influence, and in its full power is almost
-blinding.
-
-Now the dwarfs, and again the giants of the animal world rivet our
-attention. But it is especially the _primeval abundance_, the great
-profusion of large and small wild life, that gives an impression that
-is now delightful, now overwhelming. One must have seen, with the eye
-of the hunter, gigantic old bull-elephants in the primeval forest,
-great herds of rhinoceroses and giraffes in one single day, thousands
-of zebras and antelopes gathered together--one must have felt all this
-profuse wealth of life, to be able to understand its full beauty and
-grandeur.
-
-Yet there are days when one looks around in vain for all this life
-and activity, when, on account of the weather, or some other reason,
-the animals do not show themselves so freely. One must also take due
-account of the extensive periodical migrations of the African fauna.
-_Many an erroneous judgment as to the alleged scarcity of wild life, in
-districts in which other hunters pursued the chase at an earlier date
-with success, is to be thus explained._
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-THIS TELEPHOTOGRAPH OF STORKS ON THE WING WILL GIVE SOME IDEA OF
-THE HUGE FLOCKS IN WHICH THEY START ON THEIR NORTHERN MIGRATION IN
-FEBRUARY.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-WHITE STORKS GATHERING FOR THEIR NORTHERN MIGRATION TO EUROPE.]
-
-But, on the other hand, there are also days when such an abundance
-of animal forms presents itself to our eyes, that the most
-lively imagination can form no idea of all this profusion. On such
-days, I have often wished that one could have a gigantic photographic
-apparatus, an instrument that would be capable of making a record of
-all I saw. But on such days, also, I have more than once made a mental
-apology to explorers whose lives have long closed in death. When, for
-instance, in former years I had looked over the sketches of the late
-Cornwallis Harris, sketches showing the life of the South African fauna
-as he saw it about the year 1837, I more than once had my doubts about
-the correctness of his representations of it. As the result of what I
-myself have seen, I have quite given up such doubts.
-
-[Illustration: REMAINS OF RHINOCEROSES KILLED BY THE BOERS ON THE SHORE
-OF ONE OF THE MERKER LAKES.]
-
-The original sketches left to us by Cornwallis Harris (which I must
-say do not always rise to a high level From the artistic point of
-view[36]) are coloured sketches accompanied by descriptions, and
-show us such multitudes of wild animals that they seem to border on
-the fabulous. For we see in them elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes,
-buffaloes, zebras and antelopes, all gathered together in crowds, and
-thus one inclines involuntarily to the opinion that all these have been
-brought together in one picture merely to give illustrations of the
-various species. But my own observations have shown me that our artist
-is perfectly correct. One sees how necessary it is to make documentary
-records of such observations. The men of a later time, as I plainly
-realise, may be able to place before themselves a picture of all this
-primitive abundance of animal life only with the greatest trouble and
-by means of earnest study of every authority bearing on the matter.
-
-Enormous periods of time must have gone by to develop all the beauty
-and splendour of this so varied and so highly organised life. My
-thoughts range over far distant times. I see, looking so near that it
-seems as one could touch it with one’s hands, one of the mightiest
-volcanoes of our earth gradually unveiling itself and stripping off its
-robe of clouds. The volcanic regions below it remind me of the story of
-how all my surroundings were developed.
-
-Born in fire, and evolved, differentiated, and formed to so much
-beauty, which no hostile hand has yet come to destroy, the scene around
-me is so splendid that my eyes keep ranging over it, more and more
-eager to contemplate all its splendours.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-CRESTED CRANES IN FLIGHT.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-IN A WONDERFULLY SHORT TIME VULTURES AND MARABOUS FLY DOWN FROM AN
-EXTREME HEIGHT IN THE AIR TO FALL UPON ANY DEAD ANIMAL.]
-
-A strange feeling comes over me. I think of all the beautiful spots of
-our old world. They have all been taken possession of under carefully
-devised arrangements and methods, well protected by the eye of the
-law, and often only occasionally open to access, and then on condition
-of payment. But the beauty I am contemplating has now been hopelessly
-abandoned to intruders, who have neither knowledge nor taste nor sense,
-and who are at this moment so barbarously destroying it.
-
-But these thoughts must give way to others that are more pleasant and
-consoling. How wonderful to be able to revel in this wilderness, to
-feel in oneself the influence of all these splendours, notwithstanding
-all dangers and all difficulties, however great! Everything around us
-undulates and shimmers, bathed in a dazzling sea of light. Gradually
-the colouring of plain and hills, the dome of the sky and the whole
-surrounding landscape, changes to duller and less definite tints. The
-sun-illumined air rises in waves from the earth, and the various strata
-of it form an ever-changing chaos of reflected light. Over all there is
-deep peace. A spell that accords with the mood of the moment seems to
-stream down from the dome of the sky over this solitude, lying so far
-from the noisy activity of the world.
-
-All that I here behold has been going on since those far times,
-directed by natural law, in ever-recurring succession. But to-day for
-the first time a member of the complex society of civilisation takes
-delight in this mountain rising amidst all this primeval beauty.
-
-Who could possibly set down this poetry upon paper--the poetry of the
-velt and its wild inhabitants, the moods of East African Nyíka? The
-master of colouring has not yet arisen who could give us a picture of
-these mighty gatherings of wild herds, and of these deserts that seem
-overcrowded with animal forms, that yet live so peacefully together,
-nor can the master of the pen, though he may have been able by his
-words to conjure up some idea of them in the mind.
-
-One who has perhaps felt and enjoyed their spell more than any one else
-is Alfred Brehm. But he has travelled only in regions that had long
-been under the influence of man and his activity. He has only once
-seen the king of beasts, and has never looked upon the giraffe--whose
-beautiful eyes the Arab compares with the eyes of his beloved--and many
-other forms of the African fauna.[37] Nevertheless he has done wonders,
-thanks to his deep feeling for his subject, his intimate understanding
-of it, and his incomparably poetical power of description. He has
-given us imperishable pictures in words that are among the most
-beautiful that have ever been written about Nature. Our old famous
-teacher, Dr. Schweinfurth, has seen and described similar scenes. With
-these two we may rank in equal honour the name of the German explorer
-Richard Böhm,[38] who unhappily lost his life so tragically and at such
-an early age on the shores of Lake Upämba in Southern Urúa, of which
-he was the discoverer. Many others might also be named who were deeply
-influenced by these primeval splendours. But the fauna of South Africa
-has vanished unsung and untamed, before any artist or master of words
-arose to place in a fitting way its beauties on record for all time!
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-TELEPHOTOGRAPH OF A HERD OF WATERBUCK (_COBUS ELLIPSIPRYMNUS_, Ogilb.)
-RUNNING AWAY.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-ORYX ANTELOPES (_ORYX CALLOTIS_, Thos.); “CHIROA” OF THE SWAHILI, “OL
-GAMASSAROK” OF THE MASAI): A MOST DIFFICULT ANIMAL TO STALK.]
-
-Masters of words like Ludwig Heck, by whose skilful pen the life of the
-mammalia has been lately described anew for us in Brehm’s _Tierleben_,
-and like Wilhelm Bölsche, would perhaps have been capable of grasping,
-and reproducing the impressions that the traveller feels in those far
-lands. But they have never trodden these distant countries, and they
-must therefore confine themselves to describing artistically and yet
-truly what they have never actually seen, from ideas based on their own
-clear understanding of the observations of others.
-
-The sun is setting. It is time for me to come down from my hill and
-return to my camp. The sun goes to his rest in flaming splendour, there
-is a glowing radiance of violet and purple light; soon dark night will
-surround me. Thoughtfully I tread my homeward way, with my mind richly
-stored with impressions, but anxious as to my efforts to describe all
-that I have seen, and doubtful as to my success.
-
-“To have passed a thousand and more days, a thousand and more nights
-in the wilderness with a great longing in my heart in some way to
-grasp and make my own all the splendour I have seen and all its charm;
-to have again and again delighted in the beauty of the Nyíka: this
-does not make me capable of reproducing it. And even if after many
-decades of years I could fully comprehend it, I should never succeed
-in reproducing it in its full significance and bringing it home to the
-minds of those who have never looked upon it with their own eyes.”
-
-So runs a passage in my diary.
-
-Descriptions of things similar to those that I have told of in
-inadequate words in these slight sketches of the Nyíka district of East
-Africa may be read of other regions of our earth. The life and activity
-of the Arctic fauna, of those gigantic creatures of to-day, the whales,
-and of the Polar bears, the musk oxen, the wild reindeer, the walruses,
-the seals--those most sagacious creatures--and the life of many other
-animal forms--all these together are waiting for the hand that will
-describe them in word and picture and put on enduring record for all
-time this changing life. Thus only will a new existence be given to
-those forms of life for which the sentence “Vae Victis!” has gone forth.
-
-May the master soon appear who will be able to give us a noble and
-true picture of the East African Nyíka in all its vast proportions.
-For, as the night is now descending on the wilderness, so will an
-everlasting night soon come down upon all the life and movement that I
-have tried so inadequately to describe in merest outline.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-GRANT’S GAZELLES.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-HARTEBEESTS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE WESTERN ’NDJIRI SWAMPS.]
-
-[Illustration: A PAGE OF MY DIARY SHOWING HOW I NOTED MY MOVEMENTS AND
-OBSERVATIONS BY MEANS OF A ROUGH MAP.]
-
-About a century ago the “Twilight of the Gods” (_Götterdämmerung_)
-began for all the wild life of the Cape region of South Africa. Even
-before these hundred years had run out it was ended; this abundant
-flood of life had disappeared....
-
-[Illustration: BATELEUR EAGLE IN FLIGHT.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-LIKE A ROSY RED CLOUD THE FLAMINGOES FLY DOWN ON THE MARGIN OF THE
-NATRON LAKE.]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: A FRANCOLIN PERCHED ON A THORN-BUSH.]
-
-VII
-
-The Voices of the Wilderness
-
-
-The German sportsman knows well the mysterious charm that speaks to the
-listener, when in the woods in spring he hears the note of the woodcock
-and the cry of the ptarmigan, and when in autumn he hears the call of
-the stag to its mate. It must be that the listener is subject to some
-atavistic influence, some impulse rooted in the dim past now quickening
-into life.
-
-Let him who understands this charm follow me through the equatorial
-wilderness, and listen with me to the music of songs and notes that we
-may call the language of the Nyíka. We shall hear it there on every
-side, by day and by night. True, fully to understand this language
-one should have King Solomon’s magic power, which made its possessor
-understand the speech of animals, or like Siegfried have dipped one’s
-hand in the blood of the dragon, and thus have acquired the gift of
-holding converse with the birds.
-
-This much is certain, in the wildernesses of Africa this primeval
-language is still to be heard. In our hunting grounds at home the
-voices of the aurochs, the bison, the ibex, the bear, the lynx, and
-the wolf have been silenced, and many other voices that have belonged
-to the wild open country since primeval days have all but died away. I
-have indeed learned to understand only a few words of this language of
-the wilderness, though I have heard thousands of its sounds. But I may
-be able to tell something about it.
-
-What a strong and deep impression this world of sound makes upon the
-traveller at so many hours of the day and night! Every region, every
-different kind of country has its own characteristic harmony. One does
-not always hear it--it depends upon the season of the year and the time
-of the day, on the changes of weather, and much else. But when one has
-become even to some small extent familiar and conversant with these
-various voices, one enjoys this music-language Of the Nyíka with a
-sense of deep delight and ever growing understanding. Sometimes it is
-most difficult to find out the names of the individual speakers. Often
-they keep very quiet; they seem to be like great vocalists on tour:
-they appear suddenly, and then disappear again for a long time, without
-letting one see any more of them. Then the traveller may often listen
-long, in vain, for the singer--gone without leaving a trace behind. But
-it is not only the soloists that charm us. There is also the combined
-effect of all the voices of nature uniting in one vast impressive
-chorus. This has made such an impression upon me that I shall try,
-so far as my limited powers permit, to describe it to the reader.
-This musical language of the wilderness is in itself powerful, rich
-and impressive, but all this in a still greater degree for him who,
-observing things with the eyes of a seer, knows many of the voices that
-resound in it will not be heard much longer. Although for long, long
-ages, through hundreds of thousands of years, this tumult of sound has
-been heard, these voices, or many of them, will soon be silent victims
-of civilisation! They are going, and with them many of the euphonious
-names of places with which the natives have distinguished every spot,
-but which the Europeans, as they penetrate into the country, feel
-themselves obliged to change.
-
-It may seem that I myself am not quite guiltless of such misdeeds.
-It is true that I named an island, that resort of the wild buffaloes
-in the Pangani River, “Heck Island,” in honour of Professor Ludwig
-Heck. But the island had till then no name whatever. One feels sad, on
-glancing over the map of Africa, to note the degradation of so many
-old traditional names, which is in no way justified, and is a sign
-of the hasty and violent introduction of civilised life. “The Boers
-are not people who think much about natural history,” says a writer
-somewhere. And in fact, through their agency, the euphonious names of
-the various wild species of South Africa are now to a great extent
-already obsolete. They hastily gave vulgar-sounding names of their own
-to the wild animals.[39] Thus the oryx antelope became the “gemsbock,”
-and the cow-antelope, because it was tenacious of life and difficult
-to kill, the “hartebeest.” The gnu, on account of its wildness, was
-called the “wildebeest,” the bustard the, “pauw,”[40] the hyena the
-“wolf,” and the giraffe--incredible though, it may seem--the “kameel”!
-Hand in hand with this went the changing of place-names: so we read of
-“Hartebeests Fontein,” “Olifants River,” “Kameeldoorn,” “Zwartkop,” and
-we have a whole series of unpleasant, and sometimes utterly ugly names
-by the introduction of which the beautiful aboriginal names of various
-places have become obsolete. Thus not only do the primitive inhabitants
-of the land disappear, but their names, too, are blown away upon the
-wind.
-
-Countless are the voices that resound by day in the Nyíka. But by night
-these voices speak still more mysteriously and wonderfully to him who
-listens to them, bringing him into still closer union with nature. From
-the multitude of these voices I choose a few only.
-
-Old memories come back to me! It is in the year 1896. I have just
-landed, and am sitting in my night shooting-encampment by an inlet
-of the sea near Dar-es-Salaam. A concert of the voices of nocturnal
-birds mingles with the sharp buzz of the mosquitoes. Again and again
-one hears a strange cry. Unspeakably sad and monotonous, this peculiar
-sound rings out over the waters of the inlet; in the distance a
-changing answer comes back in response to it.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-FLIGHT OF SANDFOWL.]
-
-I did not then suspect _that it would take me nearly a year_ to be
-absolutely certain that this sound was uttered by an extremely shy and
-restless kind of cuckoo!
-
-This sound of the African night always made the strongest impression
-upon me, and remains indelibly in my memory. All that one heard from
-near at hand, or from the distance miles away, had its origin not in
-man’s voice or in human activity of any kind, but most come from birds
-and beasts to a great extent unknown to us. One had to interpret, to
-conjecture, to build up theories. Often one struck upon the correct
-solution. But often enough, too, the interpretation one accepted proved
-to be false, and then one’s anxiety to find out the true solution,
-aroused anew, was doubly keen. The first time I heard it, I had no
-difficulty in interpreting for myself the cry of the monkeys harassed
-in the night by leopards, a screaming of a kind one cannot easily
-forget, plainly expressing the greatest terror. The first time one
-heard the neighing of the herds of zebras it was much more difficult to
-recognise the sound, and the gobbling cry of the ostrich had at first
-a still stranger effect. But as soon as I had heard the voice of the
-zebras a few times, it was clear to me that the extinct _quagga_ of
-South Africa must have derived its name from its cry. If one puts the
-accent on the second syllable, and pronounces the _g_ softly and deep
-in the throat, one has, as one repeats it, a wonderful reproduction of
-the cry of the zebra as I heard it myself.[41]
-
-What a pity that all this cannot be put on permanent record by some
-such apparatus as a gigantic phonograph! But unfortunately we are still
-a long way from such a possibility.
-
-No one will be surprised at my keeping specially in mind that endlessly
-melancholy cry of the cuckoo in the darkness. How lonely and empty our
-German woodlands would seem without the cuckoo and the cuckoo cry! As
-a matter of fact the African primeval forest _never_ hears the same
-cry that has become so clear to ourselves. Our cuckoo, migrating in a
-few days all the way from the north to the equator, flies in restless
-haste through wood and plain, but _he is silent_. His cry is heard
-only in our country at home. But in the East Africa district of Pori,
-amongst many other cries those of two species of cuckoo are heard in
-rivalry. These are the sickle cuckoo--the “Tipi-tipi” of the Swahili--a
-reddish-brown fellow that flutters in heavy flight everywhere about
-the bush, the reedy bogs and hill-slopes; and the solitary cuckoo
-(_Cuculus solitarius_, Step.), about whose cry I was for a long time
-mistaken. The unceasing, low cry of the former, the sickle cuckoo, if
-it is heard even a few times, can never again be forgotten. It sounds
-like--“Dut-dút--dududu--dut-dút.” One hears it by day and also in the
-darkest night, contrasting strongly with the sharply defined, clear
-note of our European cuckoo, though the latter listens in silence
-to the cry of his cousins all through the winter under the equator.
-This cry seems to me, with its low, dull, softly prolonged tones--so
-different from the louder cry of its northern relative--to be quite in
-keeping with its mysterious tropical home. For the sickle cuckoo knows
-all its deepest mysteries, and no bird ranges so unweariedly through
-the densest thickets and over the most inaccessible regions. In the
-most hidden, solitary, and unknown spots[42] it would come fluttering
-up from the ground at my feet, often startling me. It seemed to me as
-if the bird wanted to call my attention to newly discovered mysteries,
-as its “Dut-dút--dududu--dut-dút” came sounding to me, now here, now
-there, low, soft and melodious, by day under the brooding noonday heat,
-and just the same in the midnight hours.
-
-At night, too, he is seconded, as I have already mentioned, by his more
-timid cousin, with an ever repeated “Kí-kü-kü--kí-kü-kü,” that resounds
-monotonously in the distance.
-
-There is a strange charm in continually hearing these voices again and
-again, without knowing the little singers; and a triumph at last in
-making out which they are.
-
-“During a sleepless night,” said Richard Wagner, “I once went out upon
-the balcony of my window on the Grand Canal at Venice. As if in a deep
-dream the legend-haunted city of the lagoons lay spread out before me
-under the darkness. Out of the soundless silence there came the loud
-call of a gondolier waking up just then on his boat ... then from the
-farthest distance the same call answered back along the dark canal;
-I recognised the old, melancholy, melodious sounds, doubtless as old
-as the canals of Venice and their people. After a solemn pause the
-far-sounding dialogue at last began, and it seemed to me to melt into
-harmony, till the notes heard close at hand and coming more softly from
-afar died away as sleep came back to me again.”
-
-Who could describe in such noble words the impression made upon our
-minds by the spell of the sounds and songs of the nocturnal wildness,
-and all its strange and beautiful music? All that at first is strange
-there, and even alarming, comes gradually to be something one loves
-intimately. Shall I ever be able to listen to it all again? Who knows?
-Let me try then to make some record of what I have so often heard, and
-in these few sentences attempt to give some faint echo of these once
-familiar voices.
-
-We are in the midst of the great forest. Giant podocarpus and juniper
-trunks rise up towards the sky. It is cool and shady all around us
-here; we breathe a moist, and not unfrequently a musty air. The
-sunlight plays only upon the tops of these giants of the primeval
-woods, and can but scantily illumine the almost bare ground below them,
-sending here and there shimmering, dancing rays of light amongst the
-tree-trunks. High overhead the giants arch their branches, interlacing
-them in a vast living roof of green. Only where clearings make a
-break in the mass of trees, a sea of light floods all the ground--a
-flood of light so strong that our eyes, accustomed to the obscurity,
-the mysterious semi-darkness of the forest, are dazzled, and there
-comes to our minds involuntarily recollections of old Bible pictures,
-in which such floods of light are shown streaming down from heaven to
-earth. A confusion of trees, creepers and undergrowth, with amidst it
-uprooted tree-trunks lying mouldering away; the earth black, and often
-marshy; no road or way far and wide, but only here and there the tracks
-and beaten paths made by the elephants and rhinoceroses that have
-roamed the old forest since primeval times.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-ZEBRAS AND GNUS. [p. 292]
-
-Deep silence all around. If the traveller stands still and holds his
-breath, this silence seems to weigh down upon the soul with a weird
-force. At such moments it is as though some vague disaster threatened,
-or something wicked and dangerous were creeping around unseen.
-
-Suddenly, a squealing and chattering. There is a scurry up and down
-the tree-trunks, and again there is a strange sound of spitting
-and growling. Just now there had come over us a feeling such as is
-expressed in Böcklin’s[43] masterly picture, directly inspired by
-nature, _Schweigen des Waldes_ (the “Silence of the Forest”). We had
-almost expected each moment that legends set before us by the power of
-his genius would here become realities; we felt that here one might
-surprise nymphs and dryads. The spell is soon broken. The gnomes of
-the primeval forest, the tree-climbing hyraxes, have scared away the
-silence. Wonderful to say, these dwarfish _hoofed animals_, the nearest
-still surviving relatives of the rhinoceros, are here scrambling up and
-down on the trunks of the venerable trees.
-
-From all sides, from every spot, every direction, there resound the
-same cries, and again there is silence all around us. Here, far in the
-depths of the primeval forest, the bird world seems to have no home.
-But hark! I hear a curious chirping, and I notice on a bare bough
-above me one of the most gloriously coloured of African birds, the
-banded trogon (_Heterotrogon vittatum_, Shell.), which, uttering a most
-peculiar sound, is carrying on its characteristic sport--flapping its
-beautiful wings.
-
-Then loud-sounding trumpet-like notes break on the ear. We hear a
-rushing in the air, and big hornbills with their huge beaks come
-sailing, as I judge by their cries, through the air, and alight on the
-top of a giant juniper (_Juniperus procera_). They, too, fly away after
-awhile; their trumpeting, dies away in the distance, and again there
-is silence all around. Their voices and that of the brightly coloured
-helmet-bird give to the primeval forest of Africa a strange charm that
-is all its own.
-
-But now there suddenly breaks forth a remarkable sound, rising and
-again falling as I listen, a strange music of a most peculiar kind.
-It is the chatter of the colobus monkeys, a sound that cannot be
-described in words. A party of these wonderful creatures seems to
-be in good humour, for their song comes to me in chorus unceasingly,
-and in rising strength. “Murúh-murúh-murúh-rrrrrrmúh rrrrrrmúh-murúh
-quoi-quo-quo-quo-rrrr,” it sounds, now swelling strongly out, now
-gently dying away. These, too, are doomed to death, who now are letting
-us hear their primitive song, that in our days may so easily be their
-death-song; for these monkeys are keenly hunted for the sake of their
-beautiful fur, and their song often betrays them to the hunter, eager
-for their spoils. Some poisoned darts, which I find here with points as
-sharp as needles, and which were once shot with a bad aim at the little
-monkeys, are evidence enough of this.
-
-[Illustration: AN ALARUM-TURACO (_CHIZAERHIS LEUCOGASTRA_) IN ITS PLACE
-OF SAFETY AMONG THE ACACIA THORNS.]
-
-And again I hear the great wood ringing and echoing with the countless
-cries of birds. There was a time, too, when the call of millions of the
-now all but extinct passenger pigeon resounded in North America; so,
-too--and of this I have no doubt--the cooing of the ringdoves was heard
-repeated by thousands of birds in our beech and oak woods at home when
-the acorns and beech-nuts were in season.
-
-On the lonely uninhabited western slopes of the highest giant
-mountain of the German possessions, Mount Kilimanjaro, certain forest
-fruits flourish in profusion. There is heard on every side a strong,
-sweet-sounding dove-note, like that of our ringdove. A handsome large
-species of wood-pigeon (_Columba aquatrix_, Tem.) has gathered in
-hundreds of thousands. The rustle of their wings, as they rise or come
-down in great flocks,mingles with their beautiful calls and cries;
-the ear can hear nothing else. Voice, form, and movement so strongly
-remind one of our own ringdoves that one feels carried away to far-off,
-familiar scenes, and the illusion is helped by the character of the
-Kilimanjaro landscape, which in certain of the higher regions has less
-of a tropical than of a northern aspect. How strange it is; the cry
-of this bird all at once transports the traveller to his own land!
-Truly _there is a magic in sound_. With the poorest appliances, the
-slightest equipment, the creative fancy can in a moment build a bridge
-to the Fatherland. The call of this beautiful dove sounding here on
-every side, its love-inspired circling high in air above the tops of
-the giants of the primeval forest, surrounds it with a dream-picture,
-and makes me suddenly breathe the air of the beech woods. I am in the
-northern woods in springtime; cool and fragrant the northern air blows
-round me. But ah! thousands of miles of land and sea divide me from all
-that, and cool reflective reason counts only on the possibility, not
-the certainty, of my ever seeing my native land again.
-
-And yet this beautiful picture has a strengthening and consoling
-influence. It drives away the trouble of home-sickness--a dismal thing!
-
-I can hear many other voices besides these in the primeval forest. But
-those that impress themselves in the most completely enduring way on
-the memory are the strange cry of the tree-hyrax, the peculiar note
-of the hornbills, that calling of the doves, the remarkable chorus of
-song of the ‘Mbega monkeys, strange beyond all description, and the
-trumpeting of the lord of the primeval forest, the elephant.
-
-Another tone-picture--an early morning at a drinking-place in the
-desert. One could feel the cold in the night, but the quick coming
-warmth of the equatorial sun’s rays has soon roused the animal
-world to active life. There is the cry and call of the francolins
-on all sides. But the chief part in this early concert is taken
-by the thousands of turtle-doves, flying from all directions to
-the water. Everywhere a murmuring and cooing, that the Masai are
-able to re-echo so incomparably in the name of the turtle-dove in
-their language--“‘Ndurgulyu.” As an accompaniment to this, there
-is the rustling and wing-clapping of all the feathered visitors
-at the water. Towards evening, the air in the neighbourhood of a
-much-visited drinking-place is literally filled with these beautiful
-and swift-winged birds. The rustling and beating of their wings in
-rapid flight makes in itself a concert. I not unfrequently came upon
-places that bore the name of the “Doves’ water,” or the “Doves’
-resting-place.” All the various voices of the many species of doves
-that find a home in the Nyíka resound again in the traveller’s ears
-for years after. Whether it be the strange voice of the parrot-pigeon,
-that ushers in the concert with a hollow “Kruh-kruh” and follows it
-up with some remarkable notes, or the melancholy cry of the little
-steel-spotted pigeon that comes to us from the thickets, or the
-strong, loud-sounding love-notes of the already-mentioned _Columba
-aquatrix_, Tem., so like our ringdove, or, above all, the familiar
-sweet voices of the many small kinds of turtle-doves--all these sounds,
-the rustling and fluttering and beating of wings, the living, moving
-picture presented by all these beautiful birds, belong inseparably
-to the essence and being of the Nyíka. When the turtle-doves greet
-the morning with their soft cooing, their call is answered from afar
-by strange guttural tones borne swiftly through the air, sounding,
-like “Gle-glé-lágak-glé-ága-ága,” from the velt-fowl hurrying like
-themselves to the water. Brehm, in his _Leben der Vögel_, has already
-raised a poetical monument to them made up of beautiful lines. But I
-could not picture to myself the morning concert of the bird world in
-the Nyíka without the strange cry of the sand-fowl and the cooing of
-the doves, and the peculiar sound of the beating wings of the velt-fowl
-as they rise in scattered flight from their resting-places,--a sound
-that impresses itself strongly and distinctly on the ear, more than
-that of any other bird I know, as the “Kláck-kláck-kláck” of the rising
-woodcock strikes the ear of the sportsman in Germany.
-
-The wonderful flight of the velt-fowl, their calls and cries, their
-hurry and bustle, afforded me ever new interest. It always seemed to
-me as though the wide wilderness here sent out its lovingly guarded
-favourite children as envoys, with the mission of making it known that
-even now, in this dull, barren time, life has not died out even in
-the most remote deserts. So I see and hear them once more in fancy,
-beautiful, timid, and full of the joy of life. It is thus their
-countless millions enliven the wastes of Africa, as well as the endless
-tundra marshes of Asia.
-
-Deep, long-drawn-out notes, like those of musical glasses, ring in my
-ears. The brooding noonday heat is round me. The sun is in the zenith,
-and hardly another sound is to be heard all around. The wilderness lies
-before me in the hot glowing sunlight as if dead. My weary bearers have
-given themselves up to a dozing sleep, at the place where I have at
-last halted, after a march of many hours with a few companions.
-
-Before me is a miniature mountain-world lighted up by the dazzling
-sunbeams. There is a mass of precipitous rocks, so characteristic of
-the Masai-Nyíka district, that stretches away into the distance. The
-Candelabra Euphorbias spread out their strange forms against the light,
-in grotesque clumps, and seem to me to make themselves one with the
-rocks, whose inorganic character and nature appear to be repeated in
-their characteristic forms.
-
-From out of the midst of this stony wilderness these remarkable notes
-come sounding in my ears. They seem to be mysterious voices of rock and
-stone. The eye searching expectantly for the singer that is uttering
-this bell-like melodious music can discover nothing. And yet the notes
-come from the throat of a bird. It is once more some hornbills that are
-making their song of love and wooing resound in this wilderness. I have
-been able to listen to them for hours, losing myself in dreams, and I
-cannot say why I seemed to identify precisely _these_ bird-voices with
-the voice of the African Sphinx, that legendary Sphinx which has sung
-already to so many, and lured many back again for ever. Thus may the
-songs and voices of the old sanctuaries of Northern Africa once have
-been. Again and again, when I heard it, I had to think of those men
-who, with burning longing in their hearts, went forth into the Dark
-Continent to wrest from it the secrets of its fauna, but had to pay for
-the undertaking with their lives.
-
-A burning glow of sunshine, a dazzling light in overwhelming abundance
-over all the desert waste of rock--and amidst it, again and again, that
-deep, ghostly, metallic note, that directly impresses the traveller as
-though it were the language of the wilderness, peculiarly its own. But
-how can I describe all this in words?
-
-And at a moment like this, as if to heighten the effect, over there the
-voice of the mightiest bird that the earth bears in this our day
-sounds forth. I hear in the distance the ringing cry of a hen-ostrich,
-and I listen to it with attention strained to the highest point.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _C. G. Schillings, phot._
-
-NESTS OF WEAVER-BIRDS ON THE BOUGHS OF AN ACACIA.]
-
-The strange duet has now long died away. But it often comes up to me
-again in the midst of the movement of civilised life and takes me back
-on the wings of fancy to the glorious beauty of the wilderness.
-
-But that uncouth tropical singer is not really needed to conjure up
-this frame of mind. A little unseen _lark_, all by itself, can evoke
-for me the charm of the solitudes of Nyíka as with a magic wand.
-
-How this comes to pass, I will tell the reader. We must make a long
-tour. Now we are in the north, in our native country, in the midst
-of the spring, amongst spreading fields of our German homeland. The
-song of the lark fills the air, and our heart expands to its music.
-We go out upon the open moor. We hear a trilling and quavering
-of another kind, with a strangely sweet touch of sadness in it,
-especially at night--the song of the woodlark. But now let the reader
-follow me to the little island of Heligoland. In the glare from the
-lighthouse, that sends afar its rays,--in this case rays that bring
-destruction,--countless numbers of larks flutter and wheel about,
-bewildered in the darkness of the autumn night, and full of anxiety and
-fear. On a dark, rainy October night thousands of them fall victims to
-the death that lies waiting in ambush for them below this tower raised
-by the hand of man. Their little wings have brought them safe over the
-ocean to the small island. But there one hears no rejoicing song, No!
-there resounds only something like an agonised cry for help from weak
-creatures in the direst peril of death.
-
-Millions of larks fly thus each year southwards and northwards,
-obedient to that mysterious migratory impulse that guides them on their
-way.
-
-The song of the lark and the cry of the lark are very different things.
-To those who know them they mean a song of happy springtime, and a cry
-for help in the night of death.
-
-How comes it that I thus speak of, and have to think of, sounds uttered
-by the birds here at home? Simply because over there, in other lands,
-my fancy so often and so readily imagined the flying bird to be a
-messenger,--a courier for thoughts of home,--and connected such wishes
-and longings with its appearance and disappearance.
-
-In autumn, the noblest of our northern songsters makes its way in
-a few days and nights into the inmost heart of the Dark Continent.
-It disappears again in spring, to return to the north over velt and
-desert, morass, mountain and sea. The cuckoo, that only a few days ago
-could be seen in our northern lands by the eyes of men who knew how to
-recognise it, I see on the African velt, a wandering, fleeting visitor.
-Thus it seems to bring me a greeting, like that brought by our oriole,
-our nightingale, and many other children of the homeland.
-
-No one can be surprised that in these solitudes these birds, and their
-coming and going, are closely associated with our thoughts. It is the
-less to be wondered at seeing that they are all such eloquent witnesses
-to the miracle that these weak creatures with their feeble wings twice
-each year traverse continents and fly safely over seas.
-
-We cannot help thinking of the lark and its spring song at home,
-when in the wilds of Africa we hear its voice; and it appeals so
-impressively to the wanderer in the wilderness, that afterwards it has
-the power of bringing back by its music a picture of the Nyíka in all
-its characteristic wildness. It is a song that has a character of its
-own. When I hear it, if it is in the Nyíka, I cannot help thinking
-of the songster’s frail, weak brethren of Europe, that, following an
-irresistible impulse, are perhaps at this moment meeting their death
-on the little island of Heligoland--obedient to the same instinct that
-sends myriads of their kind each year towards pole or equator. For even
-as the northern song of the lark awakens the soft, poetic spell of
-smiling fields, so, too, the mysterious and still deeply veiled spell
-of the Nyíka can find expression in its wonderful music.
-
-Small, invisible almost, it rises in the air. Soon it is lost to sight
-in the sky. Then suddenly a song that, though so often heard before,
-is still a marvel, comes distinctly on the ear, its notes sharply
-accented and emphasised as if it were _close to us_. There is a sharp,
-rhythmical, clapping sound, as if small laths or pieces of whalebone
-were being rattled together. It comes from that tree right in front of
-us. No mistake about it seems possible. But the eye searches in vain
-for the producer of the sound.
-
-Again and again one is deceived in this way. Who could imagine that
-that little bird far away over there, a hardly perceptible speck on
-the horizon, is producing this strange music? “Knáck! knáck! knáck!”
-again, and yet again, it comes to us ringing out loud and clear. Our
-little invisible songster does not tire of pouring out its strange
-misleading song. It is a kind of love-song of a species of lark, which
-was discovered by Fischer some fifteen years ago and bears the name of
-the naturalist, now long deceased; _Mirafra fischeri_, Rchw.,[44] is
-its scientific name. Its clapping and rattling are undoubtedly part of
-the charm of a journey in certain districts of the Masai-Nyíka.
-
-Even in my tent, in the midst of the comparatively loud noise of the
-busy camp of my numerous caravan, I can hear the clapping, rattling
-voice of this lark. Some hundreds of yards away it flies up into the
-sky, like our own skylark, and hovers about clattering in the air, so
-loudly and distinctly that if I did not know its character and habits,
-I would have been continually looking for it close to my tent. It is
-very hard to quite free oneself from this illusion. One continually
-thinks that one hears the cry of the bird in one’s immediate
-neighbourhood, the sound being produced much in the same way as that of
-the snipe.
-
-And yet another strange voice of a lark resounds in my ears: a
-melancholy, plaintive, soft sound, till now unknown to me and to most
-others. All night long its calls and cries resound about my camp. I
-should never have thought that it was a lark (_Mirafra intercedens_
-Rchw.) that thus made itself heard in the night, as our woodlarks do in
-moonlight nights at home. It was at the cost of much careful research
-that the discovery was made of what bird produced this song.
-
-And the strange voice of yet another bird is inseparable from my
-recollections of the wilderness of East Africa. The xerophytic flora of
-the far-spreading thorny mimosa thickets gives shelter to a privileged
-member of the bird world, which is thus guarded in safety from all
-danger amid their thorny boughs and branches. I refer to a peculiar
-bird, belonging to the group of the Musophagidæ, grey-feathered,
-green-beaked, long-tailed, and adorned with a crest. This strange
-fellow roves about restlessly--a bird about as big as a jay, misleading
-the traveller with his cry in the most curious way. Science calls him
-_Chizaerhis leucogastra_, Rüpp.; the German language has given him the
-name “_Lärmvogel_” (“noisy bird”).
-
-And he has a perfect right to bear his name. There resounds somewhere
-near us, and in a way that completely deceives us, now the barking and
-snarling of a dog, now the bleating of sheep. Following the direction
-of the sound we look to see what produces it, and we find our bird
-hopping about nimbly upon the tops of the thorn-trees and acacias,
-appearing to have no anxiety about the thorny spikes of the branches,
-in which he makes his home. With a cleverness that borders on the
-miraculous he makes his way amongst them, protected by them against the
-attacks of birds or beasts of prey, and in his conscious reliance on
-the security of his dwelling-place, so to say, mocking at all enemies.
-So deceptive are his cries that at first, and especially when I was
-in the neighbourhood of native settlements, I was continually looking
-everywhere for sheep and their shepherds.
-
-Many other typical bird-voices live in my memory. I hear the peculiar
-plaintive cry of the large cormorants that are busy with their fishing
-by the salt lakes of the wilderness, a cry that seems most fitted for
-these solitudes. The mysterious chattering and chirping of the little
-swamp-fowl come to my ear from the shallows and the bushes along the
-banks of silent rivers of the primeval forest, a bird-language so
-strange that the natives believe the birds are conversing with the fish
-in the stream. I hear the cackling of the knowing Nile-geese, that seem
-to be always engaged in conversation; when on the wing, too, a pair of
-them, in their affectionate fidelity, have always some warning, some
-reminder of something or other to call out to each other. Where their
-cry resounds one hears also frequently that of the wonderful, wailing
-peewit; it has a plaintive and melancholy effect on the mind of the
-listener. Far different is the noisy outcry of its brightly coloured
-cousin, a denizen of the thirsty wilderness (_Stephanibyx coronatus_,
-Bodd.). Shrill and harsh the voice of the bird rings out, a watch-cry
-by day and night, and when in bright moonlight nights they fly in
-flocks over the camp. Swarms of these remarkable birds, the police of
-the wilderness in feathered uniforms, flutter around the traveller as
-he approaches. They ruin his attempts to stalk wild animals, and their
-strident screeches, to which all other animals hearken, haunt him long
-after, as also the call and cry of the large, yellow-eyed thick-knee,
-an inhabitant of the loneliest solitudes. But I cannot imagine the
-low shores of African lakes and the sea-coast without the cry of the
-widely distributed sandpiper, which has its home in the far north. In
-winter its low plaintive cry is heard at every step: but even in summer
-the trained ear can distinguish it here and there. These individual
-stragglers from the north are thus to be found during all times of the
-year in this distant country, while the most of their kindred tribe
-have successfully made their way to the Polar lands, their usual
-summer breeding-place.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    A SHRIKE (_LANIUS CAUDATUS_, Cab.) ON THE LOOK-OUT FROM THE
-    HIGH BOUGHS OF AN ACACIA. ITS CRIES WHEN IT SEES A HUNTER ON
-    THE MOVE OFTEN WARN THE ANIMALS HE IS STALKING.]
-
-High over my head the voice of the pretty avocet (_Recurvirostra
-avocetta_, L.), one of the most charming forms of the bird world known
-to us, transports me by magic to the distant and mournful lakes of
-the Masailand wilderness. What the dwarf bustards (_Otis gindiana_,
-Oust.) keep calling out to each other with their continually repeated
-“Rágga-ga-rágga” is not to be discovered. But their cry, which has
-kept the fancy of the natives busy since olden days, is as inseparably
-associated with regions on which the grass grows high, as the voices
-and cries of the sandfowl, the francolins, and, above all, the jarring
-outcries of the guinea-fowl, on the velt. All the manifold voices of
-doves, cuckoos, parrots, hornbills, bee-eaters, shrikes, orioles,
-starlings, finches, weaver-birds, sylvians, and the rest, calling,
-exulting, rejoicing, uttering cries of alarm or complaint, have woven
-themselves into my recollections of happy days and days of toil.
-
-Thus there still rings in my ear the triple note of the yellowish
-green bulbul (_Pycnonotus layardi_, Gurn.), which, like our sparrow,
-is present everywhere, till one almost tires of it. Most curious
-is the friendly play which the handsomely coloured glossy starling
-(_Spreo superbus_, Rüpp.) carries on with a weaver-bird (_Dinemellia
-dinemelli_, [Hartl.] Rüpp) in flights like those of our sparrows. It
-comes back to me all the more vividly when I recall the notes uttered
-by these two birds, which, though such close friends and taking such
-delight in each other’s company, are so distantly related. The curious
-warbling of the honey-finder (_Indicator indicator_, Gm.), which often
-guides the man who follows it to a wild bees’ nest, also easily makes
-a permanent impression on the ear of the traveller.
-
-And there are many other bird-voices that delight any one who takes
-pleasure in sound. When silvery moonbeams streamed over the camp, the
-night-jars (especially _Caprimulgus fossei_ [Verr.] Hartl.) buzzed
-and hummed forth their strange song everywhere around. No matter how
-remote and desolate the wilderness in which the traveller laid down
-his head to rest, these goat-suckers were to be heard. Their voice
-makes a strong impression on us even in our own country in the lonely
-woods, but its effect is much more striking, on the far-off equatorial
-velt. With noiseless soft beating of its wings the bird comes gliding
-past us; its wings almost touch us. When it pours forth its song, its
-monotonous sleepy song, I could listen to it for hours. In the daytime
-it starts up suddenly from the ground here and there in front of you,
-uttering the feeblest of cries, that it is impossible to represent. In
-the next instant it vanishes like some huge moth, and even the sharpest
-eye cannot distinguish it amongst the dry branches and leaves, or
-clinging close to the rocky ground. The song of the night-jar is among
-my most vivid recollections of the bird-voices of Africa.
-
-In the neighbourhood of water, wherever it may be, and in the thick
-undergrowth, wherever the African wilderness extends, you hear the call
-and cry of a peculiar bird-voice. It rings out through the stillness
-with a deep double piping note, that impresses itself in a lasting way
-on the ear. It is the voice of the handsome organ-shrike (_Laniarius
-æthiopicus_, Gm.). These shrikes, which mate permanently, always utter
-this note in such quick succession, one of the pair after the other,
-that at first you think you are listening to only a single bird. This
-beautiful bird-note indicates the proximity of water, and thus it has
-acquired quite a special significance in these countries.
-
-Finally there is no sound from the throat of a bird that I call to mind
-so plainly, or so continually, as the song of the African nightingale
-(_Erithacus africanus_, [Fschr.] Rchw.). I have very frequently heard
-this beautiful song during the months of our winter, in many districts
-round Kilimanjaro. When I heard it unexpectedly for the first time, I
-was most deeply moved by it. Ten years ago I heard it during a day’s
-march in the wooded gullies of the great volcanic mountain, and it
-was most clear and full and beautiful. I never expected thus to hear
-this northern bird-voice in the tropics. Later on, when I was camped
-at a considerable altitude in the primeval forests of Kilimanjaro,
-I was saluted with the cries of northern migratory birds, that,
-wheeling round the mountain, seemed to be flying over its everlasting
-snowfields. It was a strange coincidence in those Christmas days, the
-song of the northern nightingale, and those northern birds of passage
-on the wing under the equatorial sun! It is worth noting that this
-voice of the nightingale was the only genuine northern bird-song
-that I ever heard in Africa. That our nightingale also sometimes
-breeds there is indicated by the discovery of its nest by the late Dr.
-Fischer. But the problem of the extraordinary identity in character of
-this nightingale with its northern sister still awaits solution. Many
-difficult observations will have to be made in order to investigate it
-thoroughly.
-
-What a contrast to this song of our northern nightingale is presented
-by the voices of the hyenas and jackals, the strange cry uttered by
-the leopard, all the sounds emitted by the antelopes, and finally the
-indescribably startling, harsh-sounding bellow of the crocodile!
-
-But neither individually nor collectively can the effect of all these
-voices be expressed in words. They associate themselves with the forms
-of a flora untouched by the hand of man, and the unceasing throb of
-animal life. I think of them all together as a theatre of nature now
-flooded with sunlight, now in the mysterious darkness of night, or with
-glistening moonbeams playing over it. What impresses one so much is not
-merely these individual voices, but the way in which all the myriad
-voices mingle in one mighty chorus.
-
-If this symphony of nature is to be written down, it must be by
-some master who will combine in one marvellous melody these musical
-utterances that are so mighty and impressive, so full of mystery
-and charm, and so often dying away in the deepest and most delicate
-cadences. None of these tones should be missing, no note of them all
-should be struck out.
-
-I should like to set in contrast with this mighty primeval harmony of
-the wilderness the sounds and voices of the modern industrial world,
-which gradually and unwittingly we take to be something natural. He
-who would feel all its greatness and perfection must keep himself far
-away for weeks and months from the screaming whistle he hears on the
-railway, and the howling siren of a steamship.
-
-Then there is the insect world! Those flower-covered bushes have
-attracted a multitude of great droning beetles. They hasten to them
-in heavy flight. On the ground a host of scarabæus beetles are busy
-with their special work. The ceaseless sharp chirps of the cicadas
-sing their continual song. Through all its variations there goes on
-this hum and buzz of the millions and millions of the lower creation.
-And joined with it there ring out the thousands and thousands of songs
-of the birds; the powerful voices of the great mammals bellow over
-plain and bushland, through swamps and primeval forests, over dale and
-hill. The concert of the feathered songsters is suddenly silent, as,
-it may be, the harsh cry of the leopard resounds, or the mighty, dull,
-rumbling roar of the king of the desert thunders over the earth; or
-the trumpet-like cry of the elephant vibrates through the woods; or
-harsh war-cries from human lips, battle-songs of primitive men, are
-heard--but heedless of it all, even at these moments, day and night
-resound the weak voices of all the myriads of lesser creatures of the
-animal world. But he who penetrates into this wilderness must have
-receptive senses to understand the full beauty of it all. For him this
-harmony exists wherever the primitive animal world lives its life.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    ON THE WEST SIDE OF KILIMANJARO I FOUND A BROOK, CALLED BY THE
-    MASAI “MOLOGH.” ABOUT TEN MILES FROM THE WESTERN ‘NJIRI SWAMPS
-    IN THE DRY SEASON IT SUDDENLY DISAPPEARS AMONG THE STONES AND
-    REACHES THE SWAMPS BY AN UNDERGROUND CHANNEL.]
-
-Glorious and grand, too, is the language of Nature when she herself
-raises her primeval voice, associated with no sound of life that we
-can perceive. Thus it is in the hours of storm by night, when on the
-plain, or in the primeval forest, or on the hill slopes, the thunder
-roars round the little camp, and the crackling lightning comes down
-in zig-zags. Then the rumbling thunder, the rushing downpour of the
-water-floods, the roar of the storm-wind, speak with an impressiveness
-that is beyond all description. Then in their hour of death the
-giants of the primeval forest, the mighty, venerable trees, suddenly
-themselves find a voice that strikes loudly on the ear: they groan
-in the embrace of the wind, and under its fury crash thundering to
-the ground. Then, when the earth and the rocks under our feet seem to
-shake, when the powers of Nature are let loose in all their might,
-when weak little man in his small tent, alone in the midst of all this
-violence, listens to the sounds, alone and abandoned like the sailor
-on a frail plank in the midst of a raging ocean, then it is that the
-wilderness sings its greatest, noblest, most wonderful song.
-
-The traveller may yet return to the African wilderness and hear once
-more the voices of the smaller denizens of the wild. The chirping of
-cicadas will lull him to rest, or the buzzing of the mosquitoes forbid
-it. Their chirping and buzzing will bear witness that these waves of
-life roll on untroubled and uninjured by the incoming of civilisation.
-But the greater voices will become rarer and rarer. Soon the trumpeting
-of the elephant, the roar of the lion, the bellow of the hippopotamus
-will be heard no longer.
-
-But to-day one can still hear all these sounds which I have described,
-and which our most remote ancestors listened to all day and all night
-in the ages when there still lived in Europe a fauna very similar to
-that which we find dying out in East Africa. By day and night they go
-forth in trees and thickets, by swamp and reed-bed. The song of birds
-is accompanied by the monotonous deafening chorus of the bullfrogs.
-Even in the traveller’s tent the crickets chirp, and the night-jar
-buzzes and buzzes past it, and tells and whispers of the nightly life
-and movement of the animal world, in its monotonous mysterious song.
-
-A jackal holds a conversation with the evening star. In the dark night
-the deep bass of the hyena is heard; and then it laughs aloud, in a
-weird, shrill, shrieking treble. This laugh, seldom uttered, but when
-heard making one’s heart shudder, is not a thing to forget; on feverish
-nights it plagues one still in memory. No one need jest about it who
-has not himself heard it. He who has heard it understands how the Arabs
-take the hyenas to be wicked men living under a spell.
-
-Now at last the lion raises his commanding voice, and one thing only
-is wanting to the whole nocturnal spell--the noisy trampling of timid
-and harassed droves of zebras and other herds of wild things. But if
-the ground of the velt, hardened by the burning sun, rings once more to
-the thundering hoof-beats of the zebras, the eye fails in the darkness,
-and only our ears perceive by their numberless sounds the waves of
-life that are surging around us; and then indeed the listener comes
-to full consciousness of how rich the animal-language of the Nyíka
-still is.... Nowhere else in the world of to-day do all the voices of
-the wild resound more impressively, and for him who listens to this
-language there is no escape from that mysterious spell--the Spell of
-the Elelescho!
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-
-[1] Cf. Reichenow, _Die Vögel Afrikas_.
-
-[2] _El moran_ = the “young men,” _i.e._ Masai warriors.
-
-[3] Dr. Richard Kandt, _Caput Nili_. (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.)
-
-[4] I gave the skull of this specimen to the Berlin Natural History
-Museum.
-
-[5] As late as the year 1859 the Masai warriors menaced the places
-on the coast between Tanga and Mombassa! Even in the eighties the
-explorers Thomson and Fischer had to submit to their demands. To that
-flourishing period of the Masai belongs the origin of their view that
-even if the Bantu Negro races have cattle, they must have been stolen
-from the Masai, for, as say, “God gave us in earlier days all the
-cattle on the face of the earth.”
-
-[6] According to Hollis, the singular of the word is “O-‘l-leleshwa.”
-
-[7] As Hollis tells us.
-
-[8] The pachyderms seem to feel no ill effects from the natron-bearing
-water; but for men the water of the lake--at least, near my
-camp--proved very unpleasant. Our drinking water was obtained from a
-small marsh near the shore of the lake.
-
-[9] John Hanning Speke, one of the discoverers of the Victoria Nyanza,
-has already remarked that the Arabs know well how to manage their
-slaves, and to tame them like domestic animals; that they are able to
-entrust them with business matters, and send them out of their own
-dominions into foreign countries, without the slaves ever attempting to
-escape from their masters.
-
-[10] The native elephant-hunter--the “Wakua”--use as a rule several
-small iron bullets with a heavy charge of gunpowder.
-
-[11] Singular: en-dito = the young maiden.
-
-[12] Cf. also _Ostasienfahrt, Erlebnisse und Beobachtungen eines
-Naturforschers_, etc., von Dr. Franz Doflein, Leipzig, 1906.
-
-[13] Cf. Friedlander, _Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms_.
-
-[14] In the market of Nice alone, according to official statistics,
-from November 1, 1881, to the beginning of February 1882, 1,318,356
-little song-birds were put up for sale.
-
-[15] Strict regulations have lately been put into force for the
-preservation of the last-named species. But, as the result of the
-merciless persecution to which it has been subjected, the sea-otter is
-all but extinct.
-
-[16] While this book is passing through the press several
-correspondents have sent me an article published by Freiherr von
-Schrötter-Wohnsdorf in the _Monatsheften des Allgemeinen Deutschen
-Jagdschutsvereins_ of August 24th, 1906. According to this article,
-during the year 1906, by ministerial orders, in four of the chief
-forest districts of East Prussia, _sixty-seven head of wild elk_ were
-killed off, though hitherto the few remaining living specimens of
-the elk have been so carefully preserved both on public and private
-estates. This thorough-going course was adopted for the sake of the
-preservation of the woods from damage by the animals. That this should
-have been done in the case of a disappearing species of wild animal,
-hitherto so carefully preserved, and of which private individuals were
-allowed to shoot only male specimens, is in open contradiction with
-those views as to the necessity of protecting the rarer beauties of
-nature, which are making such progress every day. It seems therefore
-fitting that I should note the fact here as showing how well grounded
-is my opinion that the progress of civilised culture is destructive to
-those treasures of nature that have come down to us from primeval times.
-
-[17] The author believes that he cannot better give expression to
-his views as to the preservation of the beauties of nature, than by
-reproducing an article on the appearance of the stork in the Soldin
-district, by Herr M. Kurth. He writes in _Die Jagd, Illustrierte
-Wochenschrift für deutsche Jäger_, May 13, 1906:
-
-“As for the stork-shooting appointed by the District Committee of the
-districts of Soldin, Landsberg and Ost-Sternberg for the period from
-March 1 to June 15, it is to be remarked that the opinions held by
-sportsmen as to the damage done by storks, especially in reference to
-small game, are very much divided, and that not much can be put to the
-reckoning of ‘Brother Longlegs’ of those misdeeds that figure heavily
-in the accounts of other robbers, such as the crane, the magpie, and
-all kinds of native birds of prey, and the hedgehog, marten, and
-polecat. These one and all carry off nestlings, and most of them
-attack young leverets also. Now if we are to go for the stork, it
-should of course be done when he is to be found together in too great
-numbers; and this is entirely the idea of the District Committee. The
-neighbourhood of Balz bei Vietz on the Eastern Railway has always
-been remarkable for the number of its storks’ nests. One finds two of
-them on nearly every one of the old barns, a nest at each end of the
-roof. It was so even thirty years ago, and so it is to this day. But
-the proprietors of the barns never agree to the nests of the storks
-being destroyed, or any opposition made to the settling there of
-these trustful and friendly birds. And for what reasons precisely has
-‘Friend Adebar’ settled in such numbers in this district? Well, here
-the far-spreading meadows of the Warthe, with their full scope for
-extended flight, offer him all the food he wants and to spare, and
-here the frogs’ legs must be particularly good. It may be that now
-and again a young partridge or a leveret strays into Mother Stork’s
-kitchen, but that is the exception. Now if people keep strictly to
-the object indicated by the District Committee, namely to bring down
-the numbers of the storks where there are too many of them, one may
-let it pass. But how many will out of a mere shooting-mania take aim
-continually at the harmless birds!--though such are never genuine
-sportsmen. How can this be checked? And it should not be forgotten
-that in the first week of April our African guests are to be found in
-hundreds along the Warthe brook, whence they then disperse to various
-parts of the neighbouring districts. Now it is to be hoped that no one
-will assume that the stork is to be found here ‘in too great numbers,’
-and that therefore ‘one may blaze away at him.’ In some years this
-may possibly be the case, but if he were scared out of the district
-our landscape would be the poorer by the loss of the bird’s welcome
-cry, as has happened in the case of the heron and the cormorant in our
-district. This last-named bird comes now only seldom, and then only one
-at a time, to the Netze, near Driesen. There was a heronry formerly
-near Waldowstrenk in the Neumark district, but it disappeared ten
-years ago. We must hope that this will not be the fate of the stork,
-whose appearance has so many links with the poetry of our childhood,
-and that we shall not be deprived of his presence. What a pleasing
-sight it is when ‘Brother Longlegs’ with dignified walk stalks beside
-the mower at haymaking time, looking so confiding and fearless! And
-what a joy it is to old and young when the first stork of the season
-wheels in circles over the homestead, when for the first time he comes
-down to his old nest, and announces his arrival with a joyful outcry!
-Must not every sympathetic and thoughtful lover of nature be filled
-with sorrow and indignation when, on the pretext of petty thefts, but
-probably out of mere wanton love of destruction, attempts are made
-to drive out of our country this friendly bird, which is so pleasing
-an ornament of the landscape? It would really be a crime against the
-out-door beauty of our native land, and against nature all around us,
-if out of narrow-minded selfishness we were to extirpate the stork, as
-happened in recent times to that most splendidly coloured of our birds,
-the kingfisher, on mere suspicion of its being a ‘great destroyer’ of
-fish. Love of nature, joy in nature, is a valuable element in German
-feeling, and therefore, dear fellow sportsman, let us maintain our good
-character!”
-
-[18] We are indebted to the English hunters of those days for all the
-information we possess as to the wild life of South Africa at that
-time. If there had not been amongst them men who knew also how to
-handle the pen, we should have been almost entirely without trustworthy
-information as to that period. I may take this opportunity of saying a
-word for the English “record-making sportsman,” who is not unfrequently
-the subject of false and unfounded invectives, which I can only
-describe as mostly full of fanciful fables. Other lands, other ways,
-and there are black sheep in every nation. In any case we may take
-English ideals of sport as our example, and also the regulations drawn
-up by English authorities for the protection of the animal world.
-
-[19] In a review of my book _With Flashlight and Rifle_ (German
-edition).
-
-[20] Sir William Cornwallis Harris must be considered as a quite
-trustworthy authority. His works are indeed the most complete
-first-hand evidence we have as to the state of the fauna of South
-Africa at the time.
-
-[21] On the part of the Government and the local authorities everything
-that is possible is being done to settle this difficulty. But
-unfortunately their efforts seem to have little success.
-
-[22] Cf. my book _With Flashlight and Rifle_, p. 736, where a statement
-by Professor P. Matschie, the Custodian of the Royal Zoological Museum
-at Berlin, will be found, bearing out the truth of what is here
-remarked.
-
-[23] During the last few years handsome groups have also been set up in
-the museums of other places, such as Munich, Stuttgart, and Carlsruhe.
-
-[24] The ibex, which was once also common in Germany, has been found by
-Dr. G. Merzbacher in the central Tian-Shan region in the form of _Ibex
-sibirica merzbacheri_: and two years ago by G. Leisewitz in such great
-numbers that the appearance of flocks of hundreds of them was a daily
-experience.
-
-[25] The Hudson Bay Company put on the market in the year 1891 1,358
-skins of the musk ox (_Ovibos moschatus_), but only 271 in the year
-1901. In the year 1878 the same company sold 102,715 skins of the
-Canadian beaver, but only 44,200 in the year 1892. A striking example
-of the results of excessive exploitation of hunting grounds!
-
-[26] Besides other sources, I take these data from an interesting
-article by C. Brock, in the periodical _Die Jagd_. This writer
-estimates the area devoted to the chase in the German Empire at
-54,000,000 hectares; the number of shots fired in a year at game at
-16,000,000, besides some 6,000,000 shots fired at animals that are not
-game. He rightly notes that for the individual the whole business of
-sport is a losing or non-productive occupation, but one of productive
-value for the households of the country folk, as about 130,000,000
-marks are annually spent upon it.
-
-[27] Professor Haberer lately found strychnine in use in various ways
-in many places in Eastern Asia.
-
-[28] See, amongst other writings of his, _Outdoor Pastimes_, by
-Theodore Roosevelt.
-
-[29] On the destruction of the turtle-dove (_Turtur turtur_, L.)
-during its migration to Greece, see Otmar Reiser, Curator of the
-National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, _Materialen zu einer Ornis
-Balcanica_. At Syra one sportsman shoots as many as a hundred in a day;
-at Paxos, according to the Grand Duke Ludwig Salvator, they are killed
-in heaps. The lands of the Strophades Islands are completely equipped
-with huge falling snares and shooting-stands for the systematic
-massacre of the “Trigones.” Everywhere in Greece when the cry of
-“Trigones!” is heard, fire is opened upon the newcomers.
-
-[30] Expeditions in uninhabited districts have sometimes been entirely
-supplied by shooting wild animals.
-
-[31] Cf. Schlobach, _Deutsch-Ostafrikan_. Zeitg. 1 Beiblatt, 10
-Februar, 1906.
-
-[32] Houston Stuart Chamberlain, _Immanuel Kant_.
-
-[33] According to the latest observations of Professor Yngwe Sjöstedt
-these nut-galls are inhabited by three different species of ants.
-
-[34] Cf. also Prof. Yngwe Sjöstedt on the destruction of wild animals
-by the Boers in the Kilimanjaro district, in the _Täglichen Rundschau_,
-Berlin, 1906. Professor Sjöstedt travelled through these districts for
-the purpose of making a collection of their fauna for the Copenhagen
-Museum, and visited the Merker Lakes with a view to securing a
-hippopotamus.
-
-[35] The destruction of wild animals by the Boers in the Kilimanjaro
-district was in every way opposed by the central and local authorities,
-but failing the possibility of strict control it does not seem to have
-been possible to make the regulations effective. Prof. Sjöstedt found
-the Boers in no way settled down, but roving about the country in
-pursuit of the wild animals.
-
-[36] It appears that the explorer completed some of these sketches
-after his return with the help of stuffed specimens, but he drew others
-entirely from nature on the African velt.
-
-[37] So too, for example, Wissmann never killed a lion. This is
-sufficient proof of the difficulty of observing animal life. The author
-may take this opportunity of calling attention to the remarkable work
-of this departed explorer, _In den Wildnissen Afrikas_, and thinks
-himself fortunate in the possession of a letter from his hand approving
-of his method of observing animals. This letter expresses in words
-that go to the heart the love for and understanding of the beauty of
-the African fauna that characterised this successful and distinguished
-explorer.
-
-[38] Take, for instance, his description of the Ugalla River in a
-letter to his grandfather, General von Meyerinck, in his work _Von
-Sansibar zum Tanjanjika_ (published by Hermann Schalow, Leipzig, 1888).
-
-[39] Unfortunately such ridiculous and ugly names as gemsbock,
-hartebeest, wildebeest, etc., have gradually come into general use.
-
-[40] _Pauw_ is Dutch for _peacock_.
-
-[41] Cf. Prof. P. Matschie, _Die Säugetiere Deutsch-Ostafrikas_ (“The
-Mammalia of German East Africa”), p. 96, and my work _With Flashlight
-and Rifle_.
-
-[42] From the Cameroon district in West Africa Professor Yngwe Sjöstedt
-writes to me also of a nearly related species of cuckoo that has much
-the same cry.
-
-[43] Franz Hermann Meissner in his work, _Arnold Böcklin_, says “I have
-often found that I had to consider these pictures with the blue eyes of
-an old Ostrogoth seer of primitive days.” And I am of opinion that in
-order to take full delight in the charm of the tropics one must look on
-them with _northern_ eyes.
-
-[44] Cf. Professor Dr. A. Reichenow, _Die Vögel Afrikas_.
-
-
-[Transcriber’s Note:
-
-Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-Project Gutenberg's In Wildest Africa, vol 1 (of 2), by Carl Georg Schillings
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: In Wildest Africa, vol 1 (of 2)
-
-Author: Carl Georg Schillings
-
-Translator: Federic Whyte
-
-Release Date: June 16, 2017 [EBook #54922]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN WILDEST AFRICA, VOL 1 (OF 2) ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Greg Weeks, Kim, Wayne Hammond and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
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-</pre>
-
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="cover" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">i</span></p>
-
-<h1 id="IN_WILDEST_AFRICA">IN WILDEST AFRICA</h1>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ii">ii</span></p>
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="frontis" src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>From a Photograph by Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.</i></p>
-<img src="images/frontisb.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">iii</span></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 class="xx-large">
-IN WILDEST AFRICA<br />
-<br />
-<small>BY</small><br />
-<span class="large">C. G. SCHILLINGS</span><br />
-<span class="x-small">AUTHOR OF “WITH FLASHLIGHT AND RIFLE IN EQUATORIAL EAST AFRICA”</span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="x-small">TRANSLATED BY</span><br />
-<span class="large">FREDERIC WHYTE</span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="medium table">WITH OVER 300 PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR’S<br />
-NEGATIVES, TAKEN BY DAY AND NIGHT; AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS</span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="large smcap">Vol. I</span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="large table"><span class="smcap">London</span><br />
-HUTCHINSON &amp; CO.<br />
-<span class="medium">PATERNOSTER ROW<br />
-1907</span></span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">iv</span><br />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">v</span></h2>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="Preface">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i007" src="images/i007.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>LION STUDY.</small></span></span>
-
-Preface</h2>
-
-<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">I&nbsp;never</span> dreamed that my book <i>With Flashlight
-and Rifle</i>&mdash;alike in its German and its English and
-American editions&mdash;would receive everywhere so kind a
-welcome, or that it would make for me so many new
-friends, both at home and abroad.</p>
-
-<p>I have been encouraged by this success to give a fresh
-series of my studies of African wild life and of my “Nature
-Documents,” as Dr. Ludwig Heck has designated my
-photographs, in the present work.</p>
-
-<p>I should like to express my gratitude once again to
-all those who, in one way or another, have furthered my
-labours in connection with these two books, especially to
-Dr. Heck himself and the other men of eminence and
-learning whose names I mentioned in my preface to <i>With
-Flashlight and Rifle</i>. A complete list of all my kind
-helpers and well-wishers would be too long to print here.
-I am deeply indebted, too, to the many correspondents&mdash;men
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">vi</span>
-of note and young schoolboys alike&mdash;who have
-written to me to express their appreciation of my achievements.
-Their praises have gone to my heart. I owe
-a special word of thanks to President Roosevelt, who
-smoothed the way for my book in the United States by
-his reference to me in his own volume <i>Outdoor Pastimes
-of an American Hunter</i>. I take the more pleasure in
-discharging this debt in that I had long derived intense
-enjoyment from President Roosevelt’s masterly descriptions
-of wild life and sport in America. President Roosevelt
-has always been one of the foremost pioneers in the
-movement for the preservation of nature in all its forms,
-and has made every possible use of the resources placed
-at his disposal by his high position to further this end.</p>
-
-<p>This new book of mine is in form a series of impressions
-and sketches, loosely strung together; but it will
-serve, I hope, indirectly to win over my readers to the
-one underlying idea&mdash;the idea upon which I harp so often&mdash;of
-the importance of taking active steps to prevent the
-complete extermination of wild life.</p>
-
-<p>Like <i>With Flashlight and Rifle</i>, this supplementary
-work can claim to stand out from the ranks of all other
-volumes of the kind as regards the character of its illustrations.
-All those photographs which I have taken myself
-are reproduced from the original negatives without retouching
-of any kind. Every single one, therefore, is an
-absolutely trustworthy record of a scene visible at a given
-hour upon the African velt by day or by night. I insist
-upon this point because herein lie both the value and the
-fascination of my pictures.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">vii</span></p>
-
-<p>In his introduction to the English edition of <i>With
-Flashlight and Rifle</i> Sir Harry Johnston declares that
-that work was “bound to produce nostalgia in the lines
-of returned veterans”; I trust that <i>In Wildest Africa</i>
-will bring also to such readers a breath from the wilderness
-awaking in them memories of exciting experiences on the
-velt. Above all, I trust that its appeal will be not to
-grown readers alone, but that it will have still stronger
-attractions for the coming generation.</p>
-
-<p>A preface should not be too long. I shall conclude
-with the expression of the hope that I may be able presently
-to secure a new collection of “Nature Documents.”</p>
-
-<p class="author">C. G. SCHILLINGS.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">viii</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i009" src="images/i009.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>YOUNG DWARF ANTELOPE.</small></span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">ix</span></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i010" src="images/i010.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">x</span><br />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">xi</span></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="Contents_of_Vol_I">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i012" src="images/i012.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES.</small></span></span>
-
-Contents of Vol. I</h2>
-
-<table class="toc">
-  <tr>
-    <td class="small">CHAP.</td>
-    <td />
-    <td class="small tdr">PAGE</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>I.</td>
-    <td><a href="#I">THE SPELL OF THE ELELESCHO</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>II.</td>
-    <td><a href="#II">FROM THE CAVE-DWELLER’S SKETCH TO THE FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">88</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>III.</td>
-    <td><a href="#III">NEW LIGHT ON THE TRAGEDY OF CIVILISATION</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">107</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>IV.</td>
-    <td><a href="#IV">THE SURVIVORS</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">139</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>V.</td>
-    <td><a href="#V">SPORT AND NATURE IN GERMANY</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">179</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>VI.</td>
-    <td><a href="#VI">THE LONELY WONDER-WORLD OF THE NY&Iacute;KA</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">204</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>VII.</td>
-    <td><a href="#VII">THE VOICES OF THE WILDERNESS</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">283</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">xii</span><br />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">xiii</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2>
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i014" src="images/i014.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>GULLS.</small></span></span>
-
-List of Illustrations in Vol. I</h2>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td />
-    <td class="small tdr">PAGE</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i>&mdash;Portrait of the Author.</a></td>
-    <td />
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i007">Lion Study</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">v</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i009">Young Dwarf Antelope</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">vii</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i010">Armed Natives</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">ix</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i012">Black-hoofed Antelopes</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">xi</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i014">Gulls</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">xiii</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i016">A Giraffe Photograph</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i017">My “Boys” organising a “Goma”</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i018">Bearers indulging in a Bath</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i019">A Masai <i>ol’ moruan</i> (old man)</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i020">Group of Masai</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i024">A <i>memento mori</i> of the Velt</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i026">Dwarf Gazelles on the Velt</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i028">Masai Herdsmen</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i032">Young Masai Dancing and Singing</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i036a">Bearers on the March</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">21</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i036b">Transport Bearers in Difficulties</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">21</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i038">The Author being Carried across a Swamp</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">23</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i039">How Mules and Asses are got across a River</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">24</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i040">Two of my Wandorobo Guides      </a></td>
-    <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;24</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i042">A Halt of my Caravan on the Velt</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">25</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i046">Masai Warriors</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">29</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i050">Group of Masai</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">33</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i054">A Party of my trusty Companions</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">37</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i058">Bearers making their way through high grass</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">41</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i062">The Caravan on the March</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">45</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i066">A Herd of Zebras taking Refuge from the Heat of the Midday Sun</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;48</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i068">Flamingoes on the margin of a Lake</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">49</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i072">Flamingoes flying down to the Lake margin</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">53</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i074">Alfred Kaiser in Arab costume</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">55</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i077a">Group of Gnus</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">58</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i077b">Nile Geese on the Natron Lake</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">58</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i078a">A Herd of Grant’s Gazelles</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">59</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i078b">Crested Cranes and Zebras</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">59</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i082">A Camp on the Velt</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">63</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i086">Native Settlement on the Pangani River</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">67</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i091">Group of Eland Antelopes</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">72</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i092">A Herd of White-bearded Gnus</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">73<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">xiv</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i096">A Masai Dance</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">77</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i102a">A Herd of White-bearded Gnus (i) at close quarters;</a> <a href="#i102b">(ii) a more distant view;</a> <a href="#i101a">(iii) they show their disquiet;</a> <a href="#i101b">(iv) they decide to retreat</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;80</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i104">Effects of Heat and Mirage</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">81</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i108">A Hot Day in the Great Rift Valley</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">85</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i110">Group of Masai</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">87</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i111">Prehistoric Sketch on a Fragment of Ivory</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">88</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i114">Old Picture of a female Hippopotamus</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">91</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i116">An old German Picture of the Giraffe</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">93</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i118">Hottentot Hunters: a sketch of two hundred years ago</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">95</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i120">Ancient Egyptian representations of Giraffes and other animals</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">97</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i122">Sketches of Animals made by the Bushmen</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">99</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i124">iBlack-tailed Antelopes running through high grass</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">101</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i126">Bearers on the March</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">103</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i130">A Rhinoceros moving through velt grass</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">107</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i138">Three large Gorillas shot by Captain Dominick</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">115</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i144">Troop of Lions in broad daylight</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">121</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i150">Herd of Elephants in South Africa, by Harris</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">127</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i156">Group of Wild Animals at Hagenbeck’s zoological gardens</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">133</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i162">Young Grant’s Gazelles</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">139</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i163">’Mbega Monkeys</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">140</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i166">A ’Mbega</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;142</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i168">East African Wild Buffaloes</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">143</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i171">Modern Methods of Taxidermy: Setting up a Giraffe</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">146-149</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i175">Male Giraffe Gazelle</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">150</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i177a">Dwarf Antelope</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">152</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i177b">Giraffe Gazelles</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">152</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i178a">Snow-white Black-hoofed Antelope</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">153</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i178b">New Species of Hyena (<i>Hyena schillingsi</i>)</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">153</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i183">Dwarf Musk Deer</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">158</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i184">A Pair of Guerezas</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">159</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i189">Black-hoofed Antelope</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">164</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i190">Giraffe Gazelle and Dwarf Antelope</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">165</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i193">Head of an African Wart-hog</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">168</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i194">Nest of Ostrich’s Eggs</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">169</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i199">Drying Ornithological specimens</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">174</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i200">Group of Author’s Trophies</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">175</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i202">Women of the Rahe Oasis</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">177</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i204">Egyptian Geese in a Swamp</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">179</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i226">The Ny&iacute;ka: a Bird’s-eye View</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i231">Oryx Antelopes</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">204</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i232">A Velt Hillock</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">205</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i234">The Summit of Mount ’Ngaptuk</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">207</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i238">A Look-out Place</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">211</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i243">Black-hoofed Antelopes</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">216,&nbsp;217</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i249">Black-tailed Antelopes</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">222,&nbsp;223</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i257">Masai Hartebeests</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">230</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i258">Giraffe Gazelle</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">231</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i262">Grant’s Gazelles</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;234</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i266">Grant’s Gazelles</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">237</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i270">White-bearded Gnus and Zebras taking Refuge from the Midday Sun</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;240</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i275">An old Acacia</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">244</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i276">A typical Landscape</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">245</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i280">Hungry Vultures</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">249</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i283">Flamingoes in Flight</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">252,&nbsp;253</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i289">Storks on the Wing</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">258</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i290">Storks gathering for Migration</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">259</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i292">Remains of Rhinoceroses</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">261</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i295">Crested Cranes in Flight</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">264</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i296">Vultures and Marabous</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">265</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i301">Herd of Waterbuck</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">270</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i302">Oryx Antelopes</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">271</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i307">Grant’s Gazelles</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">276</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i308">Hartebeests near the Western ’Ndjiri Swamps</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">277</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i310">Map of a Day’s Movements and Observations</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">279</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i312">Flamingoes on the Margin of the Natron Lake</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">281</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i314">A Francolin perched on a Thorn-bush</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">283</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i318">Flight of Sandfowl</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">287</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i324">Zebras and Gnus</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;292</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i328">An Alarum-turaco</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">295</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i334">Nest of Weaver-birds</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">301</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i342">A Shrike on the Look-out</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">309</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#i348">Brook with an Underground Channel</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">315</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">1</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="I">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i016" src="images/i016.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>A GIRAFFE PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN IN THE SHIMMERING LIGHT OF THE VELT.</small></span></span>
-
-I<br />
-
-The Spell of the Elelescho</h2>
-
-<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">On</span> the afternoon of January 14, 1897, a small
-caravan of native bearers, some fifty strong,
-was wearily making its way across the wide plain towards
-its long-wished-for goal, Lake Nakuro, which was at
-last coming, into sight in the far distance. The appearance
-of the bearers and their worn-out clothing showed
-plainly that the caravan had made a long journey. And
-so it was. Weakened by fever, I was coming from
-the Victoria Nyanza in the hope of making a quicker
-recovery in this more elevated district. As is the way
-when one is convalescent, life seemed to me something
-doubly beautiful and desirable now that, after lying
-seriously ill for weeks, I was recovering from the fever.
-I had been all but despaired of by the English officers
-who had kindly taken care of me, Mr. C. W. Hobley
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span>
-and Mr. Tompkins, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.
-I had caught the disease in the marshes of the Nyanza
-and in my tramp through the wild Sotik and Nandi
-country, then unexplored or very little known. During
-the last few days our march had once more been imperilled
-by hostile tribes, the rebel Wakamassia, but
-this danger was all but past now that we were entering
-the uninhabited region of the Nakuro, Elmenteita and
-Naiwasha Lakes, in the district known to the Masai as
-En’aiposha.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i017" src="images/i017.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>MY “BOYS”&mdash;BODY-SERVANTS AS DISTINGUISHED FROM BEARERS&mdash;AMUSED
-THEMSELVES AT MOSCHI BY ORGANISING WHAT IS CALLED A “GOMA.”</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Endless undulating, expanses of grassy country, unadorned
-by a single tree, had made our last days of
-marching not too pleasant. Now there was a marked
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span>
-downward incline of the grass-covered plateau; it gradually
-changed to a barren plain of volcanic origin, and the view
-extended over the wide glittering lake.</p>
-
-<p>Filling a far-stretching hollow, and lost to view on
-the horizon, it lay at our feet, a welcome sight.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i018" src="images/i018.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>MY BEARERS LOST NO OPPORTUNITY OF INDULGING IN THE ENJOYMENT OF A BATH.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>The camp was pitched beside a parched-looking
-’msuaki tree on the banks of a brook which at this time
-of the year was a turbid torrent pouring itself down
-towards the lake. Some time before, bush and grass fires
-had raged in the neighbourhood and destroyed the old
-grass, and here, it would seem, a heavy rainfall had
-conjured forth for us a new carpet of grass that was fresh
-and luxuriant. The remarkable luxuriance of the grass
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span>
-lands in the district had already been specially noticed,
-and compared to the richest pastures of the Swiss Alps,
-by the discoverer of, and first traveller in, this region,
-Dr. G. A. Fischer, an explorer who, alas! so soon fell a
-victim to the climate.</p>
-
-<p>Fischer&mdash;in 1883&mdash;was the first to visit the neighbouring
-Lake Naiwasha. How the situation has changed
-since then! At that time, and thus only twelve years
-before I first camped there, the warlike Masai still held
-these wide uplands as absolute masters.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i019" src="images/i019.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>A MASAI</small> <i>ol’ moruan</i> (<i>i.e.</i> <small>OLD MAN</small>) <small>ANSWERING MY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE
-ELELESCHO PLANT.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Oscar Baumann, an explorer who did good service,
-was one of the first to traverse their inhospitable dominions.
-It was some years after Fischer’s journey that Baumann
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span>
-made his way into the region of the Nile sources,
-during his famous expedition to legend-haunted Ruanda
-(now better known to us through Dr. Richard Kandt’s
-researches). I made his acquaintance at the Austrian
-Consulate at Zanzibar. He, also, was snatched away in
-his early years by the Sphinx of Africa, the treacherous
-climate.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i020" src="images/i020.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>MASAI</small> <i>ol’ morani</i> <small>AND TWO YOUNGER MASAI IN MY CAMP. THE TYPICAL COSTUME OF THE WARRIOR DIFFERS CONSIDERABLY
-FROM THAT SHOWN IN THE ILLUSTRATION AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER, WHICH REPRESENTS A MASAI ALREADY
-INFLUENCED BY CIVILISATION.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>His journey, only a few years before my stay here,
-cost his numerous and strongly armed caravan hard
-fighting with the natives. And now I am camping here
-with a few men in an unfortified camp!</p>
-
-<p>Fischer was quite convinced that he could not venture
-upon his exploring journey without the support of the
-Mohammedan trading caravans, but he had finally to
-start alone with 230 bearers. Yet, notwithstanding all
-difficulties, he successfully accomplished his task. But
-how different from those of to-day were the circumstances
-under which a journey was made into unknown Masailand
-at that time! The Masai warrior was then still sovereign
-master in his own land; he was still “Ol open l en gob”
-(“Lord of the land”) in the full sense of the word. And all
-the chivalrous poetry that has been so pathetically brought
-home to us by the fate of the North American Indians, was
-also not alien to his warlike character. Then came the
-moment when he had to face the firearms of the Europeans.
-His fate was sealed, like that of the lion and the leopard.</p>
-
-<p>Then, too, tribute had to be arranged for on all sides.
-Not only some of the petty chiefs in the neighbourhood of
-the coast, but the Masai too, must receive costly payments.
-Thus, for example, Dr. Fischer had to hand over to the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span>
-chief Sedenga at ‘Mkaramo on the Pagani River, to obtain
-permission for the passage of his caravan, 100 pieces
-of cloth, each six yards long, an axe, 100 leaden bullets,
-one ten-pound keg of gunpowder, two large coils of brass
-wire, and eight pounds’ weight of artificial pearls!</p>
-
-<p>Only two kinds of caravans were known to the Masai,
-slave caravans and trading caravans, which busied themselves
-with collecting the coveted ivory tusks. The Arab
-traders knew how to combine the two objects: the slaves,
-the “black ivory” of the trade, were forced to carry the
-white ivory down to the coast.</p>
-
-<p>The strength of these trading caravans, well equipped
-with firearms, always amounted to several hundred men;
-but under certain circumstances these numbers were
-considerably increased, so that caravans of a thousand men
-or even more were not rare. It took Fischer long months
-to recruit his caravan. The bearers did not like to undertake
-the dangerous journey with the first white man who
-started for that region. The jealousy of the Arab traders
-was also at work. They feared that the channels of the
-ivory traffic, which they carefully kept secret, might be
-revealed.</p>
-
-<p>The German explorer carried through his expedition
-under the greatest difficulties. He returned home only
-to succumb soon after to the extraordinary hardships
-he had endured.</p>
-
-<p>Fischer’s researches were of special importance in
-connection with the ornithology of Masailand.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> His
-journey gave to science some thirty-six hitherto unknown
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span>
-species of birds. Such a result must indeed command our
-respect, when we consider the difficulties with which
-the traveller had to contend, and especially when we
-remember that his available resources were comparatively
-trifling, beside, for instance, the abundant help that was at
-the disposal of the English explorers of the same period.
-The Geographical Society of Hamburg rendered him the
-service of making the execution of his plans possible, and
-for the same object Fischer expended all the money he had
-earned in the active practice of his profession as a doctor
-on the island of Zanzibar. He saw the activity he had
-devoted to the service of scientific ideals richly rewarded
-by the results he obtained. And then he had soon to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span>
-succumb to the treacherous climate. But if his life was cut
-short, how quickly the power of the Masai warriors was
-broken, the very power that had so harassed him, and
-made his journey so difficult and dangerous. That terrible
-scourge, the cattle plague, probably introduced from
-India, suddenly destroyed the greater part of the herds
-of the Masai, and at the same time blotted out vast
-numbers of the Masai themselves from the list of the
-living.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i024" src="images/i024.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A</small> <i>memento mori</i> <small>OF THE AFRICAN VELT.</small></p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i026" src="images/i026.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>DWARF GAZELLES ON THE VELT. IN THE EDDYING WAVES OF DAZZLING LIGHT
-ONE COULD NOT KEEP ONE’S EYES OPEN FOR MORE THAN A SECOND AT A TIME.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>The fates of these pastoral people and of their
-property (the countless herds of cattle) were so closely
-bound together, and these warlike herdsmen had become
-so dependent on their droves of cattle, that once these
-were ruined they could not survive, but died in a few
-days of famine.</p>
-
-<p>In the lapse of little more than a year the cattle plague
-and the Black Death had swept over the Masai uplands.
-Hungry vultures hovered over scenes of horror. The
-herds of cattle fell under the strange pestilence. Agonised
-by slow starvation, the herdsmen followed them to death.
-I have often found lying together, in one narrow space,
-the countless white bleached bones of the cattle and the
-skull of their former owner. It would be an old camping-ground,
-with its fence of thorns (zereba) long rotted
-away, and it was now a strangely impressive Golgotha.
-These heaps of bones, still to be seen in 1897, were soon
-after dissolved in dust and scattered by the winds.</p>
-
-<p>Where are the Masai of those days?</p>
-
-<p>Suddenly they stand boldly before me, as if they
-had sprung up out of the ground! It is no illusion.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span>
-But why do my bearers show no fear? Why does no
-uproar break out in the camp?</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i028" src="images/i028.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>MASAI HERDSMEN.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>It is plain enough that no one troubles himself
-about the appearance of these figures, for they come, not
-threatening and demanding tribute, but conscious of the
-overpowering might of the European. True, a few
-months ago, not so far from my camp, their warriors
-surprised and destroyed a caravan of nearly a thousand
-coast folk. But, generally speaking, they do not care to
-have to reckon with the superior weapons of Europe.
-They even accept some food from me. And in this
-matter they are not so dainty as they used to be in former
-times, when the warriors&mdash;obedient to strict dietary laws&mdash;lived
-only on the meat and milk of their herds. Of
-course, here we have to deal with only a small number
-of them. Yonder, on the wild uplands, there still live a
-not inconsiderable number of Masai, who having saved
-their herds, or got them together again, keep as far away as
-may be from the Europeans and their uncanny weapons.</p>
-
-<p>The Masai warriors, with their wives, children, and
-herds, seem to me to be fit accessories for this desert
-landscape. In the evening, dances amuse us till late in
-the night, and many a wordy skirmish breaks out as some
-of my bearers who, thanks to former journeys, have some
-knowledge of the Masai tongue, gossip with these nomads
-of the wilderness. The coast folk think themselves high
-as the heavens above the “savage” Masai. The Masai
-warriors, in return, despise the burden-bearing coast folk,
-count them as “barbarians,” and scornfully call them
-“il’meek.”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span></p>
-
-<p>But the times have changed, and so it comes to pass
-that my people too join in the dance, which lasts late into
-the night: that songs of the warriors and the women&mdash;“‘Singolioitin
-loo-‘l-muran” and “Loo-‘ngoroyok”&mdash;ring
-out through the darkness, the chorus finding a manifold echo
-with its oft-repeated “Ho! He! Ho! Na! He! Hoo!”
-It is a “Leather Stocking” kind of poetry, and indeed
-the redskins of the New World and the Masai here in
-Dark Africa seem to me alike. The former had to yield
-to civilisation, the same fate awaits the latter.</p>
-
-<p>No one had the least anxiety about the night. We
-quietly allowed the Moran<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> to bivouac near the camp.
-Our march through the wild highlands of the Wasotiko
-and the Wanandi had deadened our sense of such dangers.
-We could have no forebodings of the fierce struggle
-lasting for years that was yet to come between the
-English troops and those peoples, or imagine how warlike
-and skilled in self-defence they were. The presence
-of hundreds of spear- and club-armed warriors in the
-camp had become an almost daily experience, and great
-was the surprise of the English officers, later on, when
-they heard that the great caravan, which I had joined,
-had had the good fortune to pass through these districts
-without any fighting.</p>
-
-<p>For me my serious illness had all at once interrupted
-the austere and wild delights of this life of the march and
-the caravan. But I had now become doubly responsive
-to the joys of travel amid light and air, freedom and
-endless space; doubly responsive also to the changing
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span>
-impressions derived from my week of marching through
-lonely primeval forests, bamboo thickets, and grassy
-plains&mdash;scenes in which, as my friend Richard Kandt,
-the discoverer of the source of the Nile, so strikingly
-remarks,<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> every plant, every stone, seems to cry out again
-to one in the vast solitude but one word: “The desert!
-the desert!”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i032" src="images/i032.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>YOUNG MASAI DANCING AND SINGING NEAR MY CAMP.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>In the early morning hours of January 15 there was
-a light continuous rainfall. A short march of only two
-hours brought us to our camping place on the shore of
-Lake Nakuro.</p>
-
-<p>Far away extended the panorama of the lake, which
-lay before us filling its hollow bed, with its banks at this
-season of the year yielding fresh pastures to numberless
-herds of wild animals, and its waters affording rest and
-food to countless members of the feathered tribe. I had
-hardly ever seen greater numbers of the pretty little
-dwarf gazelles (<i>Gazella thomsoni</i>, Gthr.). Thousands and
-thousands more of these graceful creatures showed themselves
-on the fresh, green, grassy meadows of the lake
-margin, or scattered over its pebble beds of obsidian,
-augite, and pumice-stone. Wherever one turned one’s
-gaze it fell again and again upon these beautiful gazelles,
-which in many ways reminded one of wild goats at
-pasture, and were so strangely trustful that they often
-allowed the spectator to come quite close to them.
-Marked as are the colours of its hairy covering, the
-dwarf gazelle does not stand out boldly from the background,
-whether this be a plain blackened by bush-fires,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span>
-or the mere bare ground, dun-coloured and brown, or
-land covered with soft green grass. But how clearly
-defined are its brown, black, and white, when we look
-closely at the hide of a specimen we have secured, or
-see it in a museum.</p>
-
-<p>Darker spots in the distance far away from us we
-take to be larger wild animals. The field-glass shows
-that they are hartebeests, and a great number of waterbuck;
-and still farther off there is a moving mass that
-shimmers and is half lost in the glare of the morning sun.
-There are zebras, and yet more zebras, moving like
-living walls! Strange effects of light actually give us the
-impression of something like a wall or rampart, made up
-of the living forms of the zebras&mdash;the deep shadows they
-throw come out black, their flanks are lighted up in the
-dazzling sunshine, and they shimmer with all colours and
-with ever-changing effect.</p>
-
-<p>Here by the lake we have the characteristic mark of
-the wilderness: dwarf gazelles and zebras, zebras and
-dwarf gazelles in greater and greater multitudes! Wherever
-the eye glances it falls upon these two species, and the
-numerous waterbuck and Grant’s gazelles, and the
-hundreds of hartebeests, are in a sense mere points of
-relief for the sight amidst these vast crowds. Bathed
-in the shimmering light this multitude of animals mingles
-together. Wherever I make my appearance there is for
-awhile movement in the mass of wild creatures, which
-otherwise are grazing quietly. I have long since left the
-camp a considerable distance behind me. I am following
-One of the rhinoceros&mdash;or hippopotamus&mdash;tracks leading to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>
-the lake margin, lost, so to speak, in this multitudinous
-animal life, and once more I have the feeling of finding
-myself, as it were, in the midst of a vast flock of sheep,
-and the impression that all the creatures about me are not
-“wild beasts,” but rather tame domestic animals that have
-been driven out here to graze on the pastures under the
-supervision of a herdsman.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i036a" src="images/i036a.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="hang"><small>BEARERS ON THE MARCH. THE FIGURE ON THE RIGHT IS AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE WAY IN WHICH THEY SOMETIMES RELIEVE THE STRAIN
-ON THEIR SHOULDERS BY CARRYING THEIR LOAD AT ARMS’ LENGTH OVER THEIR HEAD. A HUNDRED PACES A MINUTE IS AN
-AVERAGE RATE FOR A HEAVILY LADEN BEARER.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i036b" src="images/i036b.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>TRANSPORT BEARERS IN DIFFICULTIES.</small></p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i038" src="images/i038.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>THE AUTHOR BEING CARRIED ACROSS A SWAMP.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>The mass of animals surges and undulates to and fro.
-Some old bulls of the heavily horned hartebeest species
-seem to have undertaken the duty of sentinels. They
-stand apart fixed and motionless, watching attentively the
-strange appearance of the approaching man, and then
-make away in a long striding gallop, with heads bent well
-down, to increase the distance between themselves and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span>
-the suspicious object, ready all the while to give the alarm
-signal for a general stampede by loud snorting. In this
-district we do not find the flat-horned hartebeest of the
-Kilimanjaro (<i>Bubalis cokei</i>, Gthr.), but the species
-named after its discoverer, Jackson (<i>Bubalis jacksoni</i>).
-Long and stately horns distinguish this variety of a
-remarkably formed species of antelope, which is widely
-distributed throughout Darkest Africa. To my great
-delight I succeeded in bringing down a specimen of a
-much more interesting species, Neumann’s hartebeest<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">4</a>
-(<i>Bubalis neumanni</i>, Rothsch.), then only known by one
-or two examples.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i039" src="images/i039.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>HOW MULES AND ASSES ARE GOT ACROSS A RIVER.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i040" src="images/i040.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>TWO OF MY WANDOROBO GUIDES.</small></p></div>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i042" src="images/i042.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>A HALT OF MY CARAVAN ON THE VELT. ON THE LEFT CAPTAIN MERKER, THE EXPLORER OF THE MASAI COUNTRY AND
-THE GREAT AUTHORITY ON THE RACE; NEAR HIM, WEARING A TROPICAL HELMET, STAFF-SURGEON K&Uuml;NSTER, WHO
-LATER SERVED IN THE SOUTH-WEST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span></p></div>
-
-<p>Overwhelming in its vastness, its rich variety of
-colour, form, and movement is the picture of animal life
-thus displayed.</p>
-
-<p>Moving along the hollows of the plateau hour after
-hour, looking out from its ridges, now with the field-glass,
-now with unaided sight, I find the whole grassy expanse
-covered with these wild creatures. Hundreds and
-hundreds more of zebras alternate with larger or smaller
-herds of Grant’s gazelles. Near them, but keeping apart,
-and all around them the dwarf gazelles are swarming.
-Here and there one sees the proudly uplifted head of a
-stately waterbuck, adorned with splendid branching horns,
-and not far off his hornless doe, both of them in form and
-action greatly reminding one of the stag, of our northern
-lands. Occasionally the eye catches sight of splendid
-black-plumed cock ostriches here and there on the plateau.
-They watch the traveller carefully, and are accompanied
-by their mates, which are very much more difficult for the
-eye to make out owing to their plain grey plumage. On
-all sides there are whole herds of brown hartebeests grazing,
-resting, or making for some more distant spot with their
-characteristic long striding gallop. And now one suddenly
-comes upon a herd of giant eland antelopes, brownish
-yellow, and adorned with white cross-stripes. Conscious
-of their mighty strength, there is not much shyness about
-them; but they know not the danger they run from the
-long-range weapon of the European.</p>
-
-<p>Think of all this animal life, bathed in the fulness of
-the tropical sunlight! All depths and shades of colour
-play before our eyes. Strongly cast shadows, ever changing
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span>
-with the position of the sun, alter again and again the
-whole appearance of this world of life, and from minute
-to minute it presents new riddles to any one who has not
-had years of experience in the wilderness. When the
-glittering light of the midday hours is tiring and confusing
-the sight, one often can hardly tell for certain whether
-it be a living multitude stretching out in the distance
-before one, or whether the play of the sunlight is
-imparting a semblance of life to scattered clumps of
-thorn bushes.</p>
-
-<p>Four rhinoceroses which I now descry moving across
-the plain in the distance, and a flock of ostriches which
-I can plainly make out with the field-glass, change shape
-and colour so often that it is astonishing to see them.
-According to their movements and position with respect to
-the sun they appear to be of a blending blue and grey, or
-intensely black, and then again almost invisible and the
-colour of the earth, but always changing, always different
-from what they were the moment before.</p>
-
-<p>To realise all this one must in fancy place oneself in
-the condition of exaggerated susceptibility to nervous
-excitement that results from the intensity of the light,
-together with the climate, and the unusual degree of
-hardship. All this produces the greater effect because
-one has to do one’s work in solitude and loneliness, and
-is cut off from all interchange of ideas with one’s fellows.</p>
-
-<p>Here, where the flora makes so poor a display, the
-fauna is abundant. What a sight it affords for the
-ornithologists!</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i046" src="images/i046.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>MASAI WARRIORS, ARMED WITH THE LONG SPEARS WHICH HAVE COME INTO USE WITH THEM DURING THE LAST GENERATION
-OR TWO. IN FORMER DAYS, ACCORDING TO HOLLIS, THEY USED SPEARS WITH SHORTER BLADES.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Amongst the herds of zebras our European stork
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span>
-together with its smaller African cousin, the Abdim stork,
-is stalking in hundreds over the plain hunting for locusts.
-In company with the storks I saw also great flocks of the
-handsome crested crane engaged in the same occupation.
-Or they rose in heavy flocks over the valleys with loud
-and strangely discordant cries. Under the scanty shadows
-of the mimosas the splendid giant bustards take their stand
-at midday, erect, solemn, stiff-necked. At this time they
-are not very wary, but in the coolness of the morning
-and in the evening hours they soon get away to a safe
-distance, either running with their quick mincing step, or
-spreading their strong pinions for a short flight along
-the ground. Their smaller relative, <i>Otis gindiana</i>, Oust.,
-rose before me in the air, often throwing somersaults on
-the wing like a tumbler pigeon. There is hardly any
-other bird of its size that has such a mastery of flight.
-Sea-eagles circled by the margin of the lake uttering their
-beautiful clear-sounding cries. Heedless of their presence
-thousands of splendid rose-red flamingoes soared up into
-the deep blue dome of the sky, or lined the margin of
-Nakuro, like a garland of living lake-roses, in company
-with great flocks of ducks, geese, and waterside birds of
-many kinds. Out of the clumps of acacias, and from
-between the thickets of ‘msuaki bush by the lake, guinea
-fowl and francolins rise, strung out in clattering flying
-lines, and in the morning hours handsome sandfowl that
-have come from far-off regions of the plateau sail by the
-margin of the lake. Altogether an overwhelmingly rich
-picture of warmly pulsating life and activity! The sight
-of it all is indeed quite capable of impressing one with
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>
-the idea of flocks of wild creatures that have been
-completely tamed; and once this idea has suggested itself,
-the impression is so strong that for many minutes one
-can believe in it!</p>
-
-<p>Amidst all this wealth of “wild” life, which here seems
-hardly to deserve the name of “wild,” it is much easier
-to understand how primitive man in other continents
-gradually secured domestic animals for his use, from the
-vast range of choice thus presented to him.</p>
-
-<p>But a strange feeling comes over the observer when
-he remembers that out of all this wealth of animal life
-the African has never been able to link one single creature
-permanently to himself. He obtained his cattle and also
-his goats and sheep from Asia. The camel may be left
-out of account, for its connection with the human race is
-lost in the mystery of primitive times. We may say that
-the fauna of Africa has not given a single species to the
-group of our domestic animals. It is sad and humiliating
-to reflect that the men of to-day cannot accomplish what
-was done in the dim past&mdash;granted that it took endless
-ages in the doing.</p>
-
-<p>There were times, as I have said, when I could not
-get rid of this impression of <i>tame</i> herds of animals.
-And this was all in a land, and a district, that left one
-nothing to desire in the way of primitive wildness.
-What, then, must it have been in early days when man
-was not yet waylaying the beasts of the wilderness, or at
-least had not yet employed the poisoned dart and spear,
-the pitfall and the snare? It must have been a veritable
-Garden of Eden. But here, far and wide, there is
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>
-nothing to be seen of man, only something that evokes
-conjectures as to his former presence.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i050" src="images/i050.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>GROUP OF MASAI, SHOWING THE HEAVY IRON ORNAMENTS WORN BY THE MARRIED WOMEN. IN THE BACKGROUND, ONE OF
-THEIR HUTS, PLASTERED OVER WITH EARTH.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>For suddenly from a height I notice a number of large
-mounds, formed of stones, such as only the hand of man
-could have built up. Under the secure protection of
-these masses of rock&mdash;rough hillocks of heaped up stones&mdash;men,
-who were once chiefs and elders of the Masai, sleep
-their everlasting sleep. Their resting-places have been
-so placed that they are not visible from any considerable
-distance, but are hidden away in the hollows of the
-ground. Out there in the wilderness, beneath the bright
-blue sky, these simple old monuments speak to me most
-impressively of the mighty harmony of everlasting change.
-As chance will have it, I find not far from the graves a
-human skull shining brightly in the sunlight and resting
-on a projecting rock. It must have lain here very long,
-as if keeping a look out on the old tomb of ol ‘loiboni,
-the departed “wizards” of the Masai. The empty eye-holes
-stare at the ancient grave.</p>
-
-<p>But this symbol of the least is not obedient to the
-spell of death that whispers here all night long, for it
-has had to give shelter and protection to the rearing up
-of new life. As my hand grasps the skull, now brittle
-with decay, a family of mice takes to flight from inside
-of it. They had set up their home in this bony palace,
-and built their nest there.</p>
-
-<p>And as if the Masai, resting probably for centuries
-under these heaps of stone, had left their herds to me,
-once more there surges around me this sea of animals.
-Near at hand they are sharply defined against the ground,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span>
-but farther off in the glittering light they grow indefinite.
-How the whole flood of life contrasts with the grim
-volcanic barrenness of the landscape!</p>
-
-<p>At this moment my impression of vast shepherd-guarded
-herds is deepened by the sudden appearance of
-some spotted hyenas, scattering among the volcanic pebble
-beds, and then running away over the plain, and seeming
-to play the part of the shepherds’ dogs.</p>
-
-<p>But where are the herdsmen of all these herds?
-Immediately there comes an answer to my question.
-Yonder, by the margin of the lake, in the distance, I see
-little wreaths of smoke rising. The idea they give me
-of herdsmen on the watch is to be quickly dissipated by
-a report, not a loud one, followed by puffs of powder-smoke
-that vanish quickly in the air. The shooting does
-not disturb the animals that surround me. But then the
-report is hardly audible, the little puffs of smoke barely
-perceptible to the eye. I must find out who is disturbing
-the peace. It is perhaps a caravan making for the
-Victoria Nyanza. For we are upon the new “road”
-to the lake&mdash;a road which is indeed still in the region of
-projects, but which soon will be plainly marked with
-railway metal.</p>
-
-<p>The smoke puffs appear at markedly regular intervals
-and as quickly disappear. I cannot understand it. For
-a long time I keep my attention anxiously fixed on these
-proceedings, all the while hurrying towards this remarkable
-apparition. At last my field-glasses enable me to descry
-a man, who from time to time drops on one knee to
-take aim.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i054" src="images/i054.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A PARTY OF MY TRUSTY COMPANIONS.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span></p></div>
-
-<p>What in the world is he after?</p>
-
-<p>As we draw closer, I am extremely surprised at seeing
-that the man does not allow himself to be in the least
-disturbed in his proceedings. Now his bullets begin to
-whistle unpleasantly near me. I fire in the air, once,
-twice.... Now his attention is attracted, and simultaneously
-I perceive a number of dark objects near the
-marksman. They seem to be his companions, black men,
-and squatting on the ground.</p>
-
-<p>From the background there emerge now great numbers
-of such objects&mdash;it must be a large caravan.</p>
-
-<p>The distance between us is diminished so that one can
-see plainly.... Now we can shout to each other....
-At last I learn that the hunter is marching with his long
-caravan of bearers to the great lake. He has been putting
-out all his exertions to shoot some wild animals. But
-although he has many surprisingly interesting hunting
-adventures to tell of as the result of his three months’
-march from the coast to this point, that task seems to have
-been beyond his powers! With a well-aimed shot he has
-stretched on the ground just one single dwarf gazelle!!</p>
-
-<p>After shaking hands, he bewails the fact that he has
-a rifle that shoots so baldly. He says its system is
-absolutely worthless, especially against wild animals.</p>
-
-<p>Our fleeting acquaintance is broken off in a few
-minutes. He is the first newly arrived European that I
-have met for a long time, but I have not too much
-sympathy for this class of sportsmen. So my new
-acquaintance goes off, still blazing away freely. He has
-been urged on by my information that his camping and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span>
-watering, place for the day is a long way off, and that
-the borders of the lake seem to me to be fever-haunted.</p>
-
-<p>A queer kind of shepherd, in truth, for these wild
-herds! I fear he would be very like a wolf, or rather&mdash;to
-be zoologically and geographically precise&mdash;a leopard,
-in sheep’s clothing!</p>
-
-<p>Again I was alone; the disturber of my peace had not
-frightened away the animals. So, as I was regaining
-strength rapidly, I decided to halt here for a few days.
-This meant having to provide for oneself in the most
-primitive way, for I was short of some of the most necessary
-provisions and supplies. But in such conditions the
-decision was not difficult to take. I shall not easily forget
-the days I spent there.</p>
-
-<p>The plateau of the volcanic lakes Naiwasha, Elementeita
-and Nakuro, standing nearly 6,000 feet above the sea,
-presents to the spectator all the austere, stern, and strange
-charm peculiar to the Masai uplands.</p>
-
-<p>Some ten years have gone by since that expedition
-of mine, and all is now changed. Up to that time only
-the natives had lived in these districts. Few Europeans
-had penetrated into these solitudes; but now a track of
-iron rails links the Indian Ocean with the Central African
-Lake basin, and the shrill whistle of the locomotive sounds
-in the equatorial wilderness. Wherever the influence of
-the railway extends, the Masai, whom I then learned to
-know, have disappeared. Reservations have been assigned
-to them, like the Indians of North America.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i058" src="images/i058.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>BEARERS MAKING THEIR WAY THROUGH HIGH GRASS.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>My former companion on my travels, Alfred Kaiser,
-describes, not without a certain feeling of sadness, how he
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>
-saw them once more, not long, ago, under these new
-conditions, already to a great extent changed by European
-influence&mdash;and changed in a way that was not at all to
-their advantage. Using, instead of the beautiful Masai
-dialects, some mangled fragments of English, they scornfully
-refused objects of barter that were eagerly coveted
-ten years ago, and insisted on coined money. They no
-longer wore their native ornaments, but were dressed in
-European second-hand clothes. In a word they were
-stripped of all the wild and primitive beauty that had once
-distinguished them.</p>
-
-<p>It is a hard fate, when a rude aboriginal people is all
-of a sudden brought into touch with those of a high
-degree of civilisation.</p>
-
-<p>As the former lord of the land<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> was deprived of his
-rights, so the same fate, more or less, befalls the splendid
-animal world that lends its charm to these solitudes.</p>
-
-<p>But then&mdash;ten years ago! I had been given back to
-life after sharp suffering, and all that I was now allowed
-to see in such rich abundance spoke to me in a more than
-ordinarily impressive language, a language that seemed
-to me to have an enduring charm.</p>
-
-<p>And how clearly must this language have sounded in
-the times of the primitive past!
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span></p>
-
-<p>So we may here attempt a picture of the wild life of
-the lake margin in former days, on the lines of the sketches
-I have already traced out of the life and activity of the
-wild herds of the plateau, as I still could see them....</p>
-
-<p>Out of the many memories of those days, that still work
-on me like magic, there is one above all that has a special
-meaning, for me: “Elelescho!”</p>
-
-<p>But what is “Elelescho”? the reader will ask. “Elelescho”<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">6</a>
-is the name of a peculiar plant, perhaps it would
-be more correct to say a bush, that has in many ways set
-its mark on the flora in the very heart of the Masai region.
-Ranges of hills covered with silvery-leafed Elelescho,
-the spicy smell of Elelescho, the water at the camping
-place redolent of Elelescho&mdash;and also, in consequence, tea,
-coffee, cocoa tasting of Elelescho&mdash;that is a memory that
-remains fixed firmly in one’s thoughts of this home of the
-wild herds and of the Masai. It Was these disappearing
-nomads who gave the bush its beautiful name.</p>
-
-<p>Possibly the musical sound of the name has not a
-little to do with reconciling us in memory to the plant.
-For the bush itself has in process of time monotonous
-effect not very to the senses, but for this very
-reason all the stronger and more enduring. Its character
-is connected by strong links of memory with our experiences
-of those days, and the sound of its name awakes
-rose-coloured recollections. For just as it is not given
-to man to remember exactly the nature of intense bodily
-pains, so fancy, looking backwards, kindly blots out much
-that was hard and little that was pleasant in the life we
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span>
-have led. Thus it is that this strange bush, with its
-silver-grey leaves and aromatic odour, is capable, as hardly
-anything else is, of awakening in the mind of the traveller
-a kind of nostalgia&mdash;nostalgia for the wilderness, to which
-he is drawn by so much of beauty and of hardship. We
-have gained very little by learning that botanists recognise
-our plant as one of the Composit&aelig;, and name it
-<i>Tarchonantus camphoratus</i>, L. It is to be found also
-in other parts of Africa; and Professor Fritsch reported,
-as early as 1863, that he found it growing in Griqualand,
-then still an unsettled country, where it was called the
-“Mohatla.” It would be a pity if its beautifully sounding
-Masai name were not preserved for future times, and I
-must do my best to save “Elelescho” from such oblivion.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i062" src="images/i062.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>THE CARAVAN ON THE MARCH.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>One must have learned the word with its sweet-sounding
-pronunciation from the lips of a proud, handsome,
-slender Masai warrior in order to understand how so
-seemingly slight a thing can imbue one’s impression of a
-whole land.</p>
-
-<p>The Elelescho is as prominent in those regions as
-the oak and beech or fir in Germany, or as the juniper,
-the heath, and the broom, and has the same influence
-on the landscape. But it has a greater and deeper
-influence upon the imagination, because it so dominates
-those solitudes, that to him who has long travelled in
-them the mere memory of it evokes a vivid picture of
-their once familiar aspect. The strong scent of the
-Elelescho plant leads the Masai to wear the leaves of
-the bush as a decoration round their ears for the sake
-of its perfume. It belongs thus to the plants that because
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span>
-of their scent are used as ornaments by warriors and
-maidens: “Il-k&auml;k ooitaa ‘l muran oo ‘n&mdash;&mdash; doiye ‘l&mdash;&mdash;
-or&ocirc;pili.”<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> So there pass before us Masai maidens, and
-Masai warriors decked with Elelescho leaves and Elelescho
-branches, and received with sympathetic smiles by the
-caravan leaders&mdash;who, however, unlike the Masai, think
-very little of it. Very simple and na&iuml;ve are the relations
-of these natives with nature around them. Only the
-obvious, the actually useful, comes into their thoughts,
-and for my black companions the Elelescho always recalls
-only memories of poor desert regions of the waste&mdash;regions
-in which they must often endure hunger and suffer many
-hardships. Far different is the influence of the Elelescho
-region on my feelings. For me this bush is symbolically
-linked with the plunge into uninhabited solitudes, with
-self-liberation from the pressure of the civilisation of
-modern men and all its haste and hurry.</p>
-
-<p>We wish to feel once more, and to give ourselves up
-fully to, the spell of the Elelescho&mdash;the charm of the
-Elelescho thickets, that are also in South Africa in the
-lands about the Cape the characteristic mark of the velt,
-now so lonely, but once alive with hundreds of thousands
-of wild herds.</p>
-
-<p>A wonderful night has come on.</p>
-
-<p>The moon&mdash;in a few days it will be at the full&mdash;sheds
-its beams in glittering splendour over Lake Nakuro.</p>
-
-<p>The little camp is soon wrapped in silence. The
-weary bearers sink into deep and well-earned slumber.
-Only the sentries, pushed far out, are on the alert. It
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>
-was but a few days since the rebel Wakamassia hillmen
-were a source of danger to us, and nightly precautions
-are not yet forgotten. The moonbeams flicker ghost-like
-over the lake. Night-jars give forth their songs close to
-the camp all round us. Strange sounds and cries ring
-out from the throats of the waterfowl on the lake margins,
-and not far away one hears the snorting of the hippopotami.
-Jackals and spotted hyenas prowl round the camp,
-betraying themselves by their voices. The hyena’s howl
-and jackal’s wailing bark mingle strangely with the deep
-bass note of a bull-hippopotamus. Here in the wilderness
-there is hardly any sound that is louder than the mighty
-voice of these giants of the water.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">8</a></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i066" src="images/i066.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A HERD OF ZEBRAS TAKING REFUGE FROM THE HEAT OF THE MIDDAY SUN.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i068" src="images/i068.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>FLAMINGOES ON THE MARGIN OF A LAKE. THEY MUST BE VERY LONG-LIVED BIRDS, SOME OF THEM NOW LIVING IN
-THE COLOGNE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS HAVE BEEN THERE THIRTY YEARS.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>A strange feeling came over me. Amid all the ever-varying
-sensations of the last year my capacity for
-enjoyment, my sensitiveness to outside impressions, had
-been developed and enhanced. A short time since I was
-between life and death, struggling with the treacherous
-infection of fever. Now I was well. I was breathing
-the air some three thousand feet higher than the place
-where I lay ill near Victoria Nyanza. I was again in a
-region whose vast volcanic solitudes contrasted strongly
-with its abundance of highly developed organic life, and
-exercised a strange influence upon me.</p>
-
-<p>Is there such a place as Europe? Is it possible that
-thousands of miles away there is a centre of civilisation
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span>
-whose teeming millions would fain imprint their image
-on the whole earth, and even lay covetous hands on this
-far-off wilderness, and that in time this must happen?</p>
-
-<p>A world of which I myself am a unit! How strange
-that I can delight so deeply in all this wild charm! And
-how quickly the wishes of men change! A while ago,
-in the long nights of fever, I had but one desire&mdash;that
-my heart, my heart alone, should not be buried in a
-foreign soil, but be taken back to the Fatherland.</p>
-
-<p>And now, only a few weeks after my recovery, how
-different seems to me all I may hope for from Fate, and
-how much more complex, how much more difficult to
-accomplish!</p>
-
-<p>I yield myself up entirely to the spell of the wilderness,
-to the mood of the night.</p>
-
-<p>That was ten years ago, before the Europeans had
-banished it&mdash;when it ached on the senses like the nocturne
-of some great tone-poet. But I know well that to-day
-it is no longer in existence; Lake Nakuro is now only
-a lake like any other, and the railway whistle wakes its
-echoes.</p>
-
-<p>That night the spell must have been exceptionally strong.
-It seemed to me as though I were under some charm,
-as if I were carried back into the far-off times. There
-came before my mind much of what the lake had seen
-in the long vanished past. The lands around me heaved
-and quaked. Mighty earth-shaping forces were doing
-their work. I seemed to see before my eyes what
-happened here in primeval times&mdash;how volcanic forces,
-strange, boundless, and terrible, had built up and given
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span>
-form to the country around me here, destroying all living
-things, and yet at the same time preparing the conditions
-for the hotly pulsating waves of life of later days. In
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>
-my mind I saw pass before me wondrous mighty forms
-of the animal world of the past, long since extinct.
-Then&mdash;suddenly I started up. What was that?</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i072" src="images/i072.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>FLAMINGOES FLYING DOWN TO THE LAKE MARGIN.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i074" src="images/i074.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>ALFRED KAISER (IN ARAB COSTUME).</small></p></div>
-
-<p>A loud trumpeting ran in my ears! Elephants!
-Were there still extant such herds of elephants as those
-that I saw coming down there to the lake to drink, rolling
-themselves in the mud of its banks, and openly making
-friends with the hippopotami? Just as in the daytime I had
-noticed the different kinds of antelopes and the zebras, so
-here I saw again the elephants and hippopotami living their
-life close together, moving round or beside each other
-without fear or hesitation. The herd, numbering many
-hundred heads, was guided to its drinking-place silently
-and slowly by its aged leader, a female elephant of most
-exceptional size. Many young elephants were there in
-company with their mothers. Some very little ones, only
-a few weeks old, played with their comrades, or knowingly
-imitated the movements of the older animals in the water,
-while the old ones took care to prevent the tender young
-creatures from taking any harm.</p>
-
-<p>But it all seemed somehow impossible! Veterans
-among the most experienced black elephant-hunters had
-assured me that such huge herds were not to be met
-with. And if I saw aright in the shimmering moonlight,
-what a great mass of hippopotami were moving about
-there before me! And now, paying, no attention to the
-elephants that were peacefully bathing farther out in the
-muddy water, they clambered on to the land, and began
-to graze like cows on the bank among some more of
-the elephants. It was exactly the same friendly relation
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>
-that I had seen between the dwarf gazelles and the zebras
-during the day. Could I be only dreaming? Such a
-multitude of huge creatures here close to my camp&mdash;it
-could hardly be a reality!</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i077a" src="images/i077a.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>GROUP OF GNUS. HARTEBEESTS IN THE BACKGROUND.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i077b" src="images/i077b.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>NILE GEESE ON THE LOW BANK OF THE NATRON LAKE (LAKE NAKURO). DWARF GAZELLES IN THE BACKGROUND.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i078a" src="images/i078a.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>A HERD OF GRANT’S GAZELLES.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i078b" src="images/i078b.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>CRESTED CRANES AND ZEBRAS.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>And now I perceived that a second herd of elephants,
-some hundreds strong, was approaching the water. In a
-straight line these still more giant-like colossi came down
-to the lake margin&mdash;all of them, as I now clearly perceived,
-bulls with mighty tusks, and amongst them some
-quite enormous tuskers, obviously patriarchs of the herd,
-and carrying some hundreds of pounds’ weight of ivory
-that glittered afar in the moonlight.</p>
-
-<p>The two herds greeted each other with their curious
-cries, difficult to describe, and then the newcomers began
-to bathe and drink.</p>
-
-<p>My attention was especially arrested by some of the
-elephants, clearly visible in the moonlight, keeping apart
-from the rest. Standing together in pairs they caressed
-each other with their trunks, while the enormous ears
-which are such an imposing decoration of the African
-elephant stood out from their heads, so as to make them
-look larger than ever.</p>
-
-<p>My wonder increases! Numerous herds of giraffes,
-hundreds strong, come down to the lake, and this, too, not
-far from the elephants, and without any fear.</p>
-
-<p>And now there is again a new picture! A herd of
-innumerable buffaloes. With their great formidable heads
-turned watchfully towards the rest of the crowd, they too
-are coming for a refreshing bath. Their numbers still
-increase. It is a sight recalling, surpassing even, the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span>
-descriptions given by the first travellers over the velt
-regions of Cape Colony.</p>
-
-<p>How did all this accord with the reports I had received
-of the scarcity of elephants? with the destruction of the
-buffalo by the cattle plague? With my own previous
-experiences? The most authoritative of my informants
-had assured me that in this district the elephant was to
-be found very rarely, the buffalo hardly ever!</p>
-
-<p>Suddenly with mysterious swiftness the night is gone,
-and the day breaks. I search for and find the tracks of
-my giant guests of the night. I had made no mistake.
-Monstrous footprints are sharply impressed in the mud,
-the ground looks as it had been ploughed up, and in
-the midst of the plain, not very far from the lake, there are
-actually hundreds of mighty elephants standing near some
-ol-girigiri acacias. As I begin to watch them, they
-suddenly become restless. In their noiseless way they
-make off at an extremely quick rate, and soon disappear
-behind the nearest ridge.</p>
-
-<p>Round about me I see herds of zebras, hartebeests, and
-wild animals of all kinds in vaster numbers even than those
-yesterday. The deep bellow of the wild buffalo breaks
-upon my ear. I can see long-necked towering giraffes in
-the acacia thickets. The snorting of numerous hippopotami
-sounds from the lake. Some of these burly fellows
-are sunning themselves on its margin; and quite close to
-them several rhinoceroses are grazing peacefully in the
-midst of their uncouth cousins.</p>
-
-<p>I am surprised, too, at seeing a troop of lions disappearing
-into the bush, after having made a visit to the water.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span>
-They are so close to me that I can plainly see by the shape
-of their bodies that they are going home after having had
-an abundant repast.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i082" src="images/i082.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A CAMP ON THE VELT.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>The behaviour of my people puzzles me. I had no
-opportunity for questioning them as to why they were not
-more impressed by this unexpected spectacle, for my
-attention was suddenly arrested by the appearance of a
-lengthy caravan of bearers, that seemed as if it had
-emerged before my eyes from the trampled ground.
-There is new life and movement among the herds of
-wild animals. Slowly, defiantly, or in swift-footed fear,
-each according to its kind, all these wonderful creatures
-seek safety from the approaching crowd.</p>
-
-<p>A robust negro marches at the head of the caravan.
-He carries a white flag inscribed all over with texts from
-the Koran. Hundreds of bearers come steadily in. Each
-carries a load of nearly ninety pounds’ weight, besides his
-cooking gear, sleeping-mat, gun and powder-horn. At
-regular intervals grave-looking, bearded Arabs march
-among the bearers. Two stately figures, riding upon asses
-and surrounded by an armed escort, are evidently the
-chiefs, and a great drove of asses with pack-saddles laden
-with elephant tusks brings up the rear. Very quickly the
-numerous party establish their camp, and I now remark
-that hundreds of the bearers are also laden with ivory. It
-is clearly a caravan of Arab ivory-traders.</p>
-
-<p>After the usual greetings&mdash;“Sabal kher” (“God bless
-thee”), and “Salaam aleikum,” questions are asked in the
-Swahili language: “Habari ghani?” (“What news?”) I
-now learn that the party of travellers set out some two years
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>
-ago from Pangani on the coast to trade for ivory in the
-Masai country. I am surprised to hear the Arabs tell how,
-although theirs is one of the first caravans that have made
-the attempt, they have penetrated far into the inhospitable
-and perilous lands of the Masai. Their journey has been
-greatly delayed, for they have had to fight many battles
-with the Wachenzi, the aborigines of the districts through
-which they marched. “But Allah was with us, and the
-Unbelievers had the worst of it! Allah is great, and
-Mohammed is his prophet!”</p>
-
-<p>Every one set busily to work. In the turn of a hand
-the camp was surrounded with a thorny zereba hedge, and
-made secure.</p>
-
-<p>And now I had personal experience of what has passed,
-times without number, in the broad lands of the Masai;&mdash;armed
-detachments from the caravan started on raids for
-far-off districts. The timid Wandorobo, that strange subject
-tribe of the Masai, brought more and more ivory to
-the camp to sell it to the traders, after long and obstinate
-bargaining. It was remarkable how clever were the people
-of the caravan in dealing with these timid wild folk, and
-how well they knew how to gain their confidence.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> This
-confidence, however, was not made use of in trade and
-barter for the advantage of the natives. But thanks to the
-methods and ways of managing the natives, as the traders
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span>
-understood them, we saw that the wild folk were quite
-satisfied, and this was the main point.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i086" src="images/i086.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>NATIVE SETTLEMENT WITH PALISADE AND ZEREBA (HEDGE) ON THE MIDDLE COURSE OF THE PANGANI RIVER. (PROTECTIVE
-CHARMS ARE PLACED OVER THE GATEWAY AND IN FRONT OF IT, IN THE FOREGROUND OF THE PICTURE.)</small></p></div>
-
-<p>But what patience is required in trade of this kind! A
-white man could never develop such Oriental patience.
-Again and again a tusk would be endlessly bargained over,
-till at last, often after days of chaffering, it passed into the
-possession of the caravan. The natives were of course
-bent on getting the tusks, sooner or later, into the camp.
-At the very outset they had sent in a most exact description
-of them, and then envoys from the caravan had to go and
-inspect them, often at a distance of several days’ march
-from the camp.</p>
-
-<p>Every day a great number of Masai warriors appeared
-in the camp. Men belonging to many kraals, owners of
-great herds of cattle, camped near the lake. There were
-not infrequent skirmishes, especially at night time. The
-young warriors, the Moran, made attempts at plunder, and
-were beaten off with broken heads. But, on the whole,
-this hardly disturbed the good understanding. “It is their
-testuri (custom),” thought the experienced and fatalistic
-coast folk, and they accepted it as an unavoidable incident
-of the trade. But festivals were also arranged, with dance
-and song. In the still moonlit nights the strange chant
-rang out in a high treble far over the plain, and sounded
-in the rocky hills, and festivity and rejoicing reigned among
-the warriors, the girls, and the women.</p>
-
-<p>But by day one saw their busy life displayed, all the
-bucolic poetry of grazing herds of cattle with their spear-armed
-herdsmen. There was a great deal to be done, and
-in each and every task the Masai girls and women showed
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span>
-themselves, like the men, excellent guardians and attendants
-of their herds.</p>
-
-<p>In the neighbourhood of the Masai kraals the wild
-animals of the plain mingled freely with the tame cattle
-of the Masai, knowing well that the Masai folk would
-not shoot them. The wild animals were exposed only
-to the attacks of the Wandorobo. But these latter bore
-themselves very shyly in the presence of their over-lords,
-the Masai, and went off to far distant hunting grounds,
-so that the wild animals were hardly ever disturbed by
-a hunter.</p>
-
-<p>The young Masai warriors also began to devote
-themselves to hunting for ivory. With great courage,
-and often with no small display of dexterity, they killed
-a large number of elephants, allured by the high prices
-offered by the caravans. But they kept the beautiful
-tusks carefully hidden, buried in the earth till the moment
-when they had successfully arranged a sale. The buried
-treasure was easy to conceal. At the place where the
-tusks were put away the grass was set on fire and burned
-up over a considerable area, and then no eye could
-distinguish the slightest indication of the buried treasure.</p>
-
-<p>The Elmoran also made use of a method of hunting
-which is employed in other parts of Africa, namely, to slip
-quietly up to an elephant, and with a single powerfully
-delivered sword-cut sever the tendon Achilles. But few
-indeed were daring enough to attempt this, and these were
-strong, brave, and well-trained warriors. Such an exploit
-won for them high respect among their comrades of
-the clan.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i091" src="images/i091.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>ELAND-ANTELOPES RALLIED IN A GROUP BEFORE TAKING TO FLIGHT.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i092" src="images/i092.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A HERD OF WHITE-BEARDED GNUS. IN THE BACKGROUND ONE OF THE CHARACTERISTIC HILLS OF THE MASAI UPLANDS.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span></p></div>
-
-<p>While the Masai warriors thus took their share in
-elephant-killing, and the Wandorobo stuck to their long,
-trusted poisoned darts and poisoned spears, the caravan
-folk attacked the elephants with powder and iron bullets,<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">10</a>
-and slew whole hecatombs of them.</p>
-
-<p>“Nowadays,” the leader of the caravan told me, “the
-chase is easier and less dangerous, and your firearms also
-give the man from the coast the power of hunting and
-killing the Fihl (elephant). For example, you know, sir,
-that my half-brother, Seliman bin Omari, is not a practised
-hunter. And yet, believe me, he and his people have
-brought down many, many elephants.”</p>
-
-<p>But his banker on the coast, the Hindoo Radda Damja,
-certainly never hears one word of any elephant being killed
-by Seliman’s people:</p>
-
-<p>“No one is so clever as he is at knowing nothing
-about elephants when questions are asked. The ivory is
-always something traded for with the natives, far, far away
-in the interior,” he adds, with a cunning wink. “The
-main point is that we all get pembe (ivory), and he gets
-plenty of it! I would like to work the business as he
-does, but, sir, I am not so clever in preparing amulets, and
-moreover, I don’t know as much as he does of the ways
-of the elephant.</p>
-
-<p>“But it’s a pity that in all parts of the country the ivory
-is becoming very scarce, so one has to be going always
-farther into the interior, and one must try to find new ivory
-districts.”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span></p>
-
-<p>Thus my Arab informant talked a long time with me.
-He told me much that was interesting and much that was
-new to me. He told me of caravans that had been
-massacred, cut off to the last man by the natives in remote
-districts: and again of caravans that had been not one or
-two,&mdash;no, as long as six years on the march, that had
-buried a lot of ivory and gradually got it down to the coast.
-Time counts for nothing here, for the people&mdash;that is to say,
-those who are not slaves&mdash;receive only the one lump sum
-agreed upon for the journey, no matter how long it lasts.
-His friends, with caravans mustering many hundreds, had
-carried hundreds and hundreds of barrels of gunpowder
-into the interior, they had sought everywhere for new
-districts abounding in ivory, and the result had been the
-slaughter of the elephants on all sides. Nevertheless he
-had not much to tell me of men having enriched themselves
-by this trade. However, this did not apply to the traders
-on the coast, who advanced the money. These lent money
-to the caravan leaders, who went into the interior, at the
-high rate of interest usual in the East, and thus became
-rich men. They had, of course, also many losses. It
-happened not seldom that one of their debtors was “lost”
-in the interior, which means that he simply did not come
-back, but chose to pass the rest of his life in exile. And
-in that case it would be a difficult matter for the creditor
-to take proceedings against him.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i096" src="images/i096.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>A MASAI DANCE&mdash;THE PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS THE PLAITED QUEUE WORN BY THE YOUNG WARRIORS (EL MORAN), WHO LEAP
-AS HIGH IN THE AIR AS THEY CAN. THE YOUNG WOMEN, WHOSE HEADS ARE CLIPPED COMPLETELY BARE, SING AND
-DANCE ROUND THEM.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Then my informant told me how many of the elephant
-hunters still living had been carrying on their business
-already for a long time before any Europeans whatever
-thought of making a prolonged stay in the country. He
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span>
-told me also much that was interesting about the old trade
-routes extending far through Africa, and even to the
-Congo. He had friends and relatives who had already
-traversed these routes many times, and journeyed from
-the east coast even to the Congo, long before any
-European traveller. Many of the people of his caravan
-were able to tell from memory each day’s journey as
-far as the Congo, and give exact information about the
-chiefs who held sway in each district, and the possibility
-of getting supplies of various kinds of provisions,
-such as maize, millet, bananas, or other products of the
-country.</p>
-
-<p>I cannot exactly say how long he had talked with
-me about elephants and elephant-hunting, about the ivory
-trade, and many other things. I only know one thing&mdash;that
-after some time his talk became more and more
-difficult for me to understand, that I strove in vain against
-an ever-increasing weariness, and that at last I saw neither
-the Arab nor the caravan&mdash;in a word, saw nothing more,
-felt nothing more.</p>
-
-<p>I fell into a deep sleep in which, in my dreams, I had
-a lively argument with some Europeans, who would not
-believe so many elephants, buffaloes, and other wild
-animals had formerly been here, and who kept on objecting
-strongly that it was impossible that all this could have
-been the case so short a time ago.</p>
-
-<p>When I woke up again I found myself in my lounging-chair,
-a primitive piece of furniture of my own construction.
-My black servant stood before me, and asked me if I
-would not rather go to bed.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span></p>
-
-<p>I rubbed my eyes&mdash;it had all been a dream, then; the
-spell of Elelescho must have inspired me with it. How
-foolish to yield to this spell! But men will perhaps so
-yield to it when all this has become “historical” and
-the Masai and their lives and deeds have, like the Redskins
-of America, found their Fenimore Cooper.</p>
-
-<p>Then may the spell of the Elelescho exert its rightful
-power; then may it make famous the slender, sinewy, noble
-Masai ol-morani as, amidst his fair ones, his “doiye,”<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> he
-leads the song-accompanied dance as he goes out to war,
-and reigns the free lord of the wilderness! But to-day he
-bears on his brow the significant mark of an inexorable
-fate&mdash;that of the last of the Mohicans.</p>
-
-<p>The spell of the Elelescho has departed from Lake
-Nakuro, once so remote from the world.</p>
-
-<p>The lake is no longer remote.</p>
-
-<p>Iron railway lines link it with the Indian Ocean.
-Vanished from it is the spell that I once felt both waking
-and sleeping; gone is the poetry of the elephant herds,
-the Masai, the Wandorobo, and the caravan life in all
-its aspects; gone all that I saw there. The traveller,
-if he would learn to know the primitive life and ways,
-whether of men or of the animal world, if he would know
-the primeval harmony that speaks to him in an overpowering
-language peculiar to itself, must press on
-into the wilderness farther away from these tracks.
-This harmony, whose special character is day by day
-disappearing, day by day is in an ever increasing measure
-destroyed, cannot be recalled under the new, the coming
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span>
-system, the system that abandons itself to restlessness&mdash;that,
-in a word, which we call modern industry, modern
-civilisation.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i102a" src="images/i102a.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>A HERD OF WHITE-BEARDED GNUS AT CLOSE QUARTERS.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i102b" src="images/i102b.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A MORE DISTANT VIEW OF THEM.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i101a" src="images/i101a.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>THEY SHOW THEIR DISQUIET BY SWINGING THEIR TAILS.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i101b" src="images/i101b.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>FINALLY THEY DECIDE TO BEAT A RETREAT.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i104" src="images/i104.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>EFFECTS OF HEAT AND MIRAGE.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>To-day one may perhaps read in the <i>East African
-Gazette</i> that Mr. Smith, the railway engineer, favoured
-by extraordinary luck on a hunting expedition, has seen
-one solitary bull elephant not far from Lake Nakuro!
-This is something quite out of the ordinary, and Mr. Smith
-is to be congratulated. Unfortunately his efforts during
-many years to have even one young East African elephant
-sent to London have been without any result. A young
-animal is no longer to be found. In the same number
-of this newspaper, under another heading, we read the
-report that the export of ivory this year by the Uganda
-Railway has been utterly disappointing; the quantity carried
-has been terribly small, hardly worth mentioning!</p>
-
-<p>I had a talk lately with a travelling companion who
-had spent some time with me in the wilderness ten years
-ago, and who had just revisited those distant lands, availing
-himself of the railway. Alfred Kaiser, a widely travelled
-man, recalled to me the life we had lived together, when
-there was yet hardly a trace of European influence among
-the people of the interior by Lake Victoria. In memory
-we saw again the inhabitants of then hardly known
-Sotikoland receiving us mistrustfully on their frontier,
-thousands strong. Their glittering spears sparkle in the
-morning sun; chiefs, ministers, and court ladies of the
-Wakawir&oacute;ndo appear in camp in most primitive costume;
-club-armed warriors regard us with the most open distrust;
-cowry shells and artificial pearls form their costume and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span>
-are used as their money; sudden attacks and fighting are
-quite in the order of the day.</p>
-
-<p>And now, only ten years later, Kaiser has seen the
-Masai at Lake Nakuro, English-speaking caricatures of
-civilisation.</p>
-
-<p>A feeling of something like resentment comes upon
-the traveller who has had to pay toll for his journey
-with the ceaseless sweat of his brow, when he thinks
-that now any one can reach Lake Nakuro in a few
-days from the coast. It is true that the over-anxious
-globe-trotter is kept in check by only too well justified
-fears of the treacherous malaria and the sleeping-sickness
-that has made such terrible progress of late. Otherwise
-the railway journey from Mombassa to the Victoria
-Nyanza, and then down the Nile to Cairo, would be a
-much-travelled route.</p>
-
-<p>I have tried to describe, in brief outline, the rapid,
-unwelcome change of our time, the result of European
-civilisation forcing its way in. As I describe things, so
-they were half a century ago, and even yet ten years ago,
-when I stayed by the shores of Nakuro, and no railway
-had yet been made there.</p>
-
-<p>To-day one can no longer find the old spell of the
-Elelescho there, or anywhere else where the white man
-has penetrated.</p>
-
-<p>The traveller probably sees only a shrubby plant.</p>
-
-<p>It covers many a ridge, and the lonely plains of the
-uplands, and sends afar its spicy perfume. The botanists
-call it <i>Tarchonantus camphoratus</i>, L. They class it among
-the Composit&aelig;.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i108" src="images/i108.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A HOT DAY IN THE GREAT RIFT VALLEY.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span></p></div>
-
-<p>But here it can no longer exercise any spell.</p>
-
-<p>That has flown far, far away, into the interior. There,
-where the white man has not yet come, it still prolongs
-its existence.</p>
-
-<p>How long, yet will it be before it has entirely departed?</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i110" src="images/i110.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>GROUP OF MASAI&mdash;THE WARRIOR ON THE LEFT DRESSED IN A COSTUME
-IMPROVISED OUT OF A COLOURED BED QUILT.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span></p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="II">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i111" src="images/i111.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>ONE OF THE OLDEST “NATURE DOCUMENTS” FROM THE HAND OF MAN.
-PREHISTORIC SKETCH OF A MAMMOTH ON A FRAGMENT OF IVORY.</small><br />
-
-<span class="medium">(From L. Reinhardt’s work <i>Der Mensch zur Eiszeit in Europa</i>.)</span></span></span>
-
-II<br />
-
-From the Cave-dweller’s Sketch to the
-Flashlight Photograph</h2>
-
-<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">The</span> mysterious charm of wild nature, undisturbed,
-almost untouched, by the hand of man,&mdash;the charm
-inherent in all that I have in mind when I talk of “the
-spell of the Elelescho”&mdash;explains the keen and profound
-interest with which my pictures of animal life were
-received at home.</p>
-
-<p>In these days, when even electricity has been harnessed
-by men, there is a feeling that the knell has been sounded
-of all that is wild, be it man or beast. And however
-unpretending and inadequate the little pictures might be
-that I had won from the wilderness, yet all nature-lovers
-felt that they had here before them authentic, first-hand
-records revealing secrets which the eye of man had never
-before looked upon, or had had but scant opportunity for
-studying.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span></p>
-
-<p>These pictures were the first to show really wild
-animals in full freedom, just as they actually live their
-life on velt and marsh-land, in bush, forest, air, and
-water. They showed nature in its unalloyed reality, and
-therefore a peculiar stamp of truth and beauty must have
-imprinted itself upon them. They came, too, as a surprise,
-for in many points the hitherto accepted representations
-of the animal world and those given by my photographs
-did not agree.</p>
-
-<p>Mere subject counts for so much in a picture with
-most people that it takes them a long time to appreciate
-a work of art the subject of which does not at the first
-glance appeal to them. This applies peculiarly to my
-African photographs. It is not a very easy matter for
-the eye to grasp the movements of the varying forms of
-animal life in their natural freedom. Often their appearance
-is so blended with their surroundings that it requires
-long practice to distinguish the individual characteristics
-of each, the fleeting graces of their momentary aspects.</p>
-
-<p>I could not, therefore, help feeling a certain apprehension
-that every one would not at once be able to understand
-and decipher my pictures in my book, <i>With Flashlight
-and Rifle</i>. It is necessary when one looks at them to
-understand, in some degree, how to read between the
-lines; one must make an effort to grasp their more
-elusive features; in short, one must devote oneself to the
-study of them with a certain gusto, a certain intelligence.
-There was a further difficulty arising from the fact that
-the illustrations could be reproduced only by a process in
-which unfortunately much of the finer detail of the originals
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span>
-is lost. The use of the process, however, was necessary
-for various reasons.</p>
-
-<p>There can be only two ways of securing the best
-possible result in the execution of pictures of such subjects.
-The ideal method would be for heaven-sent artists, after
-years of study, to give us works of this class, and combine
-in these masterpieces the strictest truth with the finest
-craftsmanship. But this requires a thorough study of
-each separate species of animal seen from afar and at
-close quarters&mdash;and how is this possible, seeing that one
-gets only momentary glimpses? The other method is
-that of photography, the picture on the negative, which
-can claim the advantage of documentary accuracy, and at
-the same time leaves a certain scope for the artistic sense
-of the operator. So the greatly improved photographic
-methods of to-day can step in, at least as a substitute and
-makeshift, in the absence of works of art such as the
-genius of one man may give us. Considering the
-extreme difficulty of taking portraits of living animals in
-their wild, timid state, such pictures can only in a few
-instances lay claim to technical photographic perfection.
-But at least so far as my own taste goes, a certain lack of
-sharp definition in the picture (often deliberately sought
-for in taking other objects) is not only no disadvantage,
-but is even desirable. As a confirmation of this idea of
-mine, I may mention the opinion of an American journalist,
-who declares that my picture of a herd of wild animals
-given on page 327 of <i>With Flashlight and Rifle</i> to be the
-most perfect thing of the kind he has seen, and the most
-pleasing to him, and compares it to the work of a Corot.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i114" src="images/i114.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>PICTURE OF A FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUS FROM LE VAILLANT’S BOOK OF TRAVELS,
-PUBLISHED MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>It must be noted that <i>if the animals are drawn so as
-to stand out separated from the landscape which is a needful
-accessory of the picture, and brought forward into the
-foreground in an obviously selected pose, they must appear
-unnatural to the eye of the expert</i>. Such pictures cannot
-fail to give an unnatural impression, for in the freedom
-of the wilderness the animal world never presents itself
-in this way to the eyes of man. In their full significance
-as masterpieces of nature, all the various aspects of the
-animal world are first manifested to us in close connection
-with their environment. It has been a keen satisfaction
-to me to find that many world-renowned artists have
-appreciated warmly the beauty of these photographs, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>
-have given expression to this feeling. I have been told,
-for instance&mdash;what I myself had already noticed&mdash;that
-numbers of the pictures, especially, those showing birds
-on the wing, bear a great resemblance to certain famous
-works of Japanese painters<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> of animal life, works that
-seem to dive into the secrets of nature. It has been
-brought home to me, indeed, both by hundreds of letters
-and thousands of opinions expressed in conversation,
-that the pictures have excited almost universal interest,
-and that my labours have not been in vain.</p>
-
-<p>Fully to enjoy the peculiar beauty of such photographs
-of living wild animals, the best way is undoubtedly to see
-the pictures considerably magnified by means of the magic
-lantern. On account of the special character and strangeness
-of most of the objects shown, I have the lantern slides
-lightly tinted. This colouring can be done without in
-the least altering the picture in its details, and its object
-is merely to secure greater effectiveness. Approval from
-all sides, both from artistic circles and from the public,
-satisfies me as to the correctness of this proceeding. Only
-in this way do photographic pictures shown by transmitted
-light produce the full impression of beauty and naturalness;
-they seem to transport the spectator directly to the far-off
-wilderness.</p>
-
-<p>There must be some good reason for the widespread
-interest manifested in these pictures of the life and ways
-of animals, some of them still so little known, and all of
-them living in remote solitudes. It seems to me that the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>
-cause is deep-seated&mdash;that deep down in the heart of the
-highly-cultured civilised man there are involuntary yearnings
-after the sensations of wild, healthy, primeval nature.
-The progress of mankind from the so-called barbaric stage
-to the highest civilisation has been accomplished in so
-short a time, in comparison with the whole period of man’s
-existence, that it is easy to understand how such a longing
-may survive. In every man there must be something
-of this craving for light and air and primeval conditions.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i116" src="images/i116.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>Camelo-pardus feu Giraffe.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A GERMAN PICTURE OF THE GIRAFFE DATING FROM ABOUT TWO HUNDRED
-YEARS AGO.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>“The conflict of man with the animal world,” says
-Wilhelm B&ouml;lsche, “has passed away unsung and uncelebrated.
-The civilised man of to-day has hardly a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span>
-recollection of the endless lapse of time during which
-mankind had to struggle with the beasts of the earth
-for mastery.” Let us for a few moments turn our gaze
-backwards to that far past. In epochs that the learned
-date back by hundreds of thousands of years, we find
-attempts made by the cave-dwellers to execute artistic
-representations of nature as they saw it. The artist of
-prehistoric times set to work with his rude instruments
-to draw in merest outline on a smooth rock-face, on a
-tusk taken in the chase, or on some such material, the
-things that had particularly attracted his thoughts or
-stimulated his efforts. Specimens of these primitive works
-of art have been handed down to us. In the first place
-there are pictures of animals, scratched upon ivory, and
-notwithstanding all their crudeness, sketched with sufficient
-ability to enable us to-day to recognise with certainty the
-objects which the artist tried to depict. Such sketches
-scratched on ivory, showing various kinds of animals
-(some of them now extinct) and forming the oldest documents
-of the animal-sketcher’s art, have been found in
-the caves of the south-west of France, in the old dwelling-places
-of the so-called “Madeleine” hunters of La
-Madeleine and Laugerie Basse. The museum at Zurich
-also possesses similar primitive documents from the
-Kesslerloch cave, near Thaingen, in the canton of
-Schaffhausen.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i118" src="images/i118.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>HOTTENTOT HUNTERS&mdash;A SKETCH DATING FROM 200 YEARS AGO.</small></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>(Some South African tribes actually hunt the lion on foot with javelins,
-and I have myself more than once observed the courage of the East
-African natives in similar circumstances.)</small></p></div>
-
-<p>It is indeed not surprising that the cave-dweller of
-those days took his models from the ranks of the animal
-creation. All his thoughts and efforts were directed to
-the chase; he had no resources but in this pursuit, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span>
-he had to carry on, day and night perhaps, a fierce struggle
-for existence with wild beasts. One can thus follow the
-development of the human race through the course of
-time from the primitive sketches of beasts down to our
-own days, in which it has been reserved for the hand
-of man to execute masterpieces inspired by genius, and
-in which man makes the sun to serve him in depicting
-and preserving representations of all that lives and moves,
-creeps and flies. By means of the sketches of animals
-laboriously scratched on pieces of ivory by the Cave men
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span>
-of Southern Europe, we make the acquaintance of the
-long-haired prototypes of the living elephants of to-day.
-These animals were the most coveted big game in Europe.
-Clearly recognisable sketches of reindeer tell us that a
-climate like that of the northern steppes prevailed at the
-time; others of horses show that the wild horse was then
-to be found in Europe; those of the aurochs prove the
-existence of that animal. There is a remarkably close
-resemblance between the style of all these drawings and
-that of the rude sketches made by the Esquimaux of our
-own day. Some such Esquimaux sketches of animals on
-walrus tusks, at the most a hundred years old, are to be
-found in the Berlin Ethnographical Museum. Interesting,
-too, are the sketches of giraffes from the hands of ancient
-Egyptian artists. They show us that the artist of those
-days in drawing animals allowed a loose rein to his fancy
-and imagination. Thousands of years must separate these
-representations of animals from the sketches of Asiatic
-wild life which Sven Hedin discovered at Togri-sai-Tale
-near L&ocirc;b-nor. They are scratched on bright green slate,
-and depict yaks, wild asses and tigers, and the hunting
-of them with bow and arrow. They appear to be of the
-same kind as the animal-sketches made by the South
-African Bushmen, discovered by Fritsch in the year 1863.
-These cave pictures show us various members of the fauna
-of Cape Colony, which has already been to so great an
-extent exterminated. During the period of the Middle
-Ages a more perfect style of representing animals was
-gradually evolved, but even about the year 1720 we find
-representations that are inaccurate to an incredible extent,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span>
-and, indeed, so recently as the early part of last century,
-one sees in the travels of the French naturalist Le Vaillant,
-in the picture of a female hippopotamus, a proof that the
-development of animal-drawing had as yet made little
-progress.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i120" src="images/i120.jpg" alt="" />
-
-<p class="hang"><small>ANCIENT EGYPTIAN REPRESENTATIONS OF GIRAFFES AND OTHER ANIMALS. (THE BIRD AT THE TOP ON THE LEFT IS
-PLAINLY RECOGNISABLE AS THE SHOE-BILLED STORK&mdash;<i>BALAENICEPS REX</i>. NOW IT SEEMS ONLY TO BE FOUND IN THE
-MARSHES OF THE UPPER NILE. I HAVE TO THANK PROFESSOR HOMMEL OF MUNICH FOR THESE ILLUSTRATIONS, WHICH
-ARE TAKEN FROM “MONUMENTS ET M&Eacute;MOIRES DE L’ACAD&Eacute;MIE DES INSCRIPTIONS ET BELLES LETTRES.”)</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i122" src="images/i122.jpg" alt="" />
-
-<p class="hang"><small>SKETCHES OF ANIMALS MADE BY THE BUSHMEN. (DISCOVERED IN SOUTH
-AFRICA BY PROFESSOR G. FRITSCH IN THE ‘SIXTIES, AND REPRODUCED
-BY HIS KIND PERMISSION.)</small></p></div>
-
-<p>But what a difference in drawing and technique has
-come about in less than a hundred years! One need only
-compare the pictures of those times with the works of our
-own days, to be convinced that, besides artistic execution,
-there is now an increasingly exacting demand for the
-precise truth. Indeed, one of the first points to be insisted
-on is that photographic pictures <i>shall not be altered,
-worked up&mdash;in word, in any way “retouched.”</i> Only
-on this condition can they really claim to be&mdash;that which
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>
-in a special sense they ought to be&mdash;<i>true to nature,
-absolutely trustworthy “nature-documents.”</i> This distinguishes
-the photograph from works of art executed by
-the hand of man, which must conform to each individual
-conception of the artist.</p>
-
-<p>It is a hard saying that the modern cultured man is
-becoming, continually more and more estranged from
-nature. But in this matter let us take the standpoint
-of the optimist, who says to himself that there must be
-a reaction&mdash;a conscious, deliberate return, which indeed
-will represent the result of the highest stage of culture.
-There is an increasing perception of the existence in our
-home landscape of an ideal worth, that we have not
-yet been able sufficiently to estimate. To-day already
-there is a movement on all sides, and the demand is heard,
-ever stronger and clearer, for the protection of the beauties
-of nature. We must protect Nature in the widest sense
-of the word. And even if, in the stern progress of
-evolving civilisation, much that remains in the treasury
-of primitive nature must be destroyed, we shall be able
-long to preserve and rejoice in much else.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i124" src="images/i124.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>A SMALL HERD OF FEMALE BLACK-TAILED ANTELOPES RUNNING AWAY THROUGH
-HIGH GRASS.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>And here come into play the healthy desire of man
-in his primitive state, the cry for light and air, and all
-the beauty of nature. It is hardly a hundred years since
-we in Europe learned to value the landscape beauties of
-unspoilt nature. English writers of travels a century ago
-still spoke of Switzerland with aversion; it was for them
-a horrible, dismal mountain country. And it is easy to
-understand how man in his hard struggle for the
-necessaries of life regarded, and was forced to regard,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span>
-nature around him as on the whole unfriendly and
-menacing. But since those times there has been a
-change for the better, even though it cannot be denied
-that many men require very specially adjusted spectacles
-to enable them to enjoy this or that beauty of the nature
-around them! Thus the landowner feels a pleasing
-satisfaction at the sight of his cornfields. And yet these
-cornfields are hardly anything else but an artificially formed
-bit of bare velt, on which at certain times a short-lived
-vegetation grows up, whilst at other times the naked soil
-presents itself to the eye&mdash;uninviting, stripped of all
-adornment, arid and empty. Thus, too, the man who
-loves wine feels that well-cultivated vineyards are a
-beautiful sight; but it may be doubted whether he would
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span>
-do so if, say, only cotton-pods grew on the vines! In
-ancient times, as Humboldt shows, with the Greeks and
-Romans, as a rule, only country that was “comfortable
-to live in” was called beautiful, not what was wild and
-romantic. Yet Propertius<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> and many others praise the
-beauty of nature left to itself, in contrast with that which
-is embellished by art. Then we have a long way to
-travel through the Middle Ages, when the Alps are
-described to us as “dismal” and “horrible,” till we come
-to the nature-studies of Rousseau, Kant, and Goethe.
-At first there were very few to sympathise with them.
-Their view gradually prevailed, in spite of many backward
-eddies. Thus Hegel had only one impression of the
-Swiss Alps, that of a performance tiresome on account
-of its length&mdash;a judgment not far removed from that
-of the Savoyard peasant who declared that people who
-took any interest in snow-covered mountains must be
-insane.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, we find in Eastern Asia, and
-especially among the Japanese, from the earliest times,
-the most ardent love for nature, and there even the poorest
-knows how to adorn his home with flowers, and to turn
-the beauty of the landscape to similar account.</p>
-
-<p>A great part of the interest felt in natural beauty is
-perhaps to be traced to extraneous considerations. On
-the other hand, here in Germany we see most of our
-people full of feeling for our glorious forests and for
-our German scenery in general. We have to face the
-prospect, however, of a silenced countryside&mdash;a countryside
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span>
-without song or music.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> That is a matter for anxiety.
-Insects, birds, quadrupeds, life and movement should be
-a part of the landscape. This idea should continue to
-attract more and more adherents. German thought and
-feeling are altogether in unison on this subject, and it is
-to be hoped that the cry for the protection of the beauties
-of nature, for the preservation of the plant and animal
-worlds, and all that is picturesque in our native landscape,
-may continue to find expression. The League for the
-Preservation of the Homeland in Germany gains daily
-new supporters.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i126" src="images/i126.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>BEARERS ON THE MARCH.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Men like Professor Conwentz and many others have
-been working for years in this direction, and carrying
-on a most successful propaganda. This action for the
-preservation of the Homeland, taken in the highest and
-broadest sense of the word, must tend to evoke and foster
-the love of nature and its beauties in ever wider circles.</p>
-
-<p>In other countries, too, steady progress is being made
-towards the same goal, and the importance of these
-considerations has long been recognised. In England and
-in America a way has recently been found to give practical
-effect to the idea of the protection of the beauties of
-nature by measures well calculated for this end. In this
-connection, too, a refined &aelig;sthetic culture is gaining
-ground. I do not at all close my eyes to the difficulty
-of regulating the conditions bearing on this matter. But
-in this connection we must not shrink from decisive
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span>
-measures. Those who come after us will be the first to
-prize and esteem these measures at their full value.</p>
-
-<p>What I have here described as something to be desired
-and worth striving for at home must also hold good for
-the whole world&mdash;the preservation of all that is characteristic,
-all that belongs to primitive nature, wherever it
-is to be found.</p>
-
-<p>The beauties of nature are most abundant, and in our
-time they are all&mdash;all&mdash;threatened with destruction and in
-need of protection. Where we can save and preserve
-any of them, our hands should not remain idle.</p>
-
-<p>But where this is not possible, let us secure “nature-documents,”
-paintings, representations of all kinds as true
-to life as may be.</p>
-
-<p>In this way we shall, at least, save for future ages
-memorials of enduring worth, for which our children’s
-children will give us thanks.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="III">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i130" src="images/i130.jpg" alt="" />
-
-<span class="hang"><small>A RHINOCEROS MOVING SLOWLY THROUGH THE GRASS OF THE VELT&mdash;TAKEN WITH
-THE TELEPHOTO-LENS AT A DISTANCE OF 120 METRES, AND WHERE THERE
-WAS NO COVER. THE ANIMAL LOOKED REMARKABLY LIKE AN ANT-HILL. ON
-ITS BACK ONE SEES A BIRD</small>&mdash;(<i><small>BUPHAGUS ERYTHRORHYNCUS,</small></i> Stanl.)&mdash;<small>HUNTING
-FOR TICKS</small>.</span></span>
-
-III<br />
-
-New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation</h2>
-
-<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">Theodore Roosevelt</span>, President of the
-United States of America, says in his lately published
-work, <i>Out-door Pastimes of an American Hunter</i>:
-“The most striking and melancholy feature in connection
-with American big game is the rapidity with which it
-has vanished.”</p>
-
-<p>He makes a critical investigation of this disturbing
-fact, and he most strongly advocates restrictive laws and
-the establishment of reservations for wild animals. He puts
-himself at the head of every effort directed towards the
-protection, as far as may be, of the animal world and of
-wild nature, and shows by word and deed how even in
-a brief period remarkable results can be obtained in this
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span>
-direction. At the same time, on every page of his
-striking work, the President shows that he is in favour
-of the practice of the chase within proper limits, and thus
-he by no means takes the side of extreme partisans in
-this matter. His efforts are of the greatest service to the
-cause, and will no doubt have extremely valuable results
-in the United States, where, owing to its peculiar circumstances,
-the natural treasures of the country were, till very
-lately, recklessly wasted.</p>
-
-<p>The establishment of the Yellowstone National Park
-was largely the President’s work. In this vast territory
-no shot may be fired. It forms an inviolable national
-sanctuary, within whose boundaries life of all kinds is safe.
-Several similar reservations are already established, or their
-establishment is projected. Strict protective laws have
-been some of them brought into operation throughout the
-States, and some of them gradually extended to various
-districts according to their circumstances. Whole tracts
-(as, for instance, Alaska) have been closed for years by
-law against the hunter. In short, a period of thoughtless
-ravage has been followed by an era of self-control with a
-swiftness that no one would ever have expected under
-the conditions prevailing in America.</p>
-
-<p>The facts I have noted give one something to think
-about. When in such vast regions of the world measures
-of this kind are found to be necessary, there must have
-been strong grounds for them. And, in fact, primitive
-nature and all its glories were in as serious peril in the
-United States as in many other parts of the world.
-The cutting down of enormous stretches of forest, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span>
-the destruction of the stately representatives of the animal
-world, went on at giant speed in the United States. The
-almost complete extinction of the splendid American bison,
-that once roamed in millions over the prairies of the
-United States, is one of the most startling facts illustrating
-the destruction of wild animals through the introduction
-of civilisation. This fact had no slight influence in procuring
-the enactment of severe measures.</p>
-
-<p>In a land like the United States such measures are
-possible, advantageous, and practicable. In other countries,
-too, which are in a settled condition, similar
-regulations have everywhere come into force of late years.
-Thus, for instance, the remnants of the fauna of Australia
-are now protected by stringent laws. But quite different,
-and much more difficult, are the conditions of the problem
-with regard to Africa. There, more than anywhere else,
-the time has come for protective regulations. But how
-can these measures be enforced, however well they may be
-thought out? We must keep before our eyes the terrible
-example of the disappearance of the animal world of
-South Africa, as the result of the extremely rapid spread
-of civilised life. We can now, with the help of statements
-made by trustworthy writers, survey the various phases of
-this utter destruction of animal life during the last century,
-and so form an idea of what awaits other parts of the
-Dark Continent.</p>
-
-<p>Powerful voices have been raised of late in favour of
-the preservation of African wild life, and this especially
-in England. In this respect, Mr. Edward North Buxton
-is most prominent in pressing for thorough measures
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span>
-of protection for the African fauna, throughout the wide
-possessions or spheres of interest of the British Empire.
-In England, too, many strong pleas have been made in
-support of the view that even relatively speaking noxious
-animals should not be deprived by man of the right to a
-certain amount of protection. Thus Sir H. H. Johnston,
-the former Governor of the Uganda Province in Central
-Africa, says in his preface to the English edition of my
-book <i>With Flashlight and Rifle</i>, that in his opinion the
-weasel, the owl, and the primitive British badger of the
-existing fauna ought not to be entirely sacrificed to
-the pheasant&mdash;a beautiful enough bird, but, after all, one
-that must always remain an “interloper”; that the egret,
-the bird of paradise, the chinchilla, the sea-otter,<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> and
-such-like creatures are “&aelig;sthetically as important,” and
-have the same right to existence, as a woman beautifully
-dressed in the spoils of these animals. Good pioneer
-work in this direction must result from the noble-hearted
-resolve of the Queen of England to put herself at the
-head of the “Anti-Osprey Movement,” organised to save
-the royal heron from threatened extinction.</p>
-
-<p>There can be no doubt that the complete extermination
-of any species of animal must excite in the mind of a
-reflecting man a sense of injustice and wrong; and that
-this complete destruction of certain species can only be to
-the interest of all men in general when such animals, of
-whatever kind they may be, are entirely noxious and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span>
-quite useless. No epoch in the world’s history can be
-set in comparison with ours in so far as it has been the
-witness, in the course of a few decades, of almost daily
-progress and improvement in connection with industry,
-culture, and the whole field of human knowledge. And,
-moreover, no epoch has been so penetrated with the
-great thoughts of progressive humanity. The continual
-employment&mdash;in ways that are ever more adroit, ever
-more complex&mdash;of all the resources offered by nature to
-man, seems at the same time to blind him to certain
-grave misdeeds that he is actually perpetrating every day.
-These great crimes against the harmony and order with
-which nature surrounds us&mdash;crimes that it is not easy to
-make any amends for&mdash;are the disfigurement and poisoning
-of watercourses, the pollution of the air, the laying waste
-of a portion of the plant world (namely, the forests), and
-the extinction of some of the animals that live with us.</p>
-
-<p>We do not shrink from the most <i>reckless</i> exploitation
-of those forests that have come down to us from the
-primeval past&mdash;the vast stores of coal buried deep in the
-bosom of the earth. The expert can now calculate with
-certainty that in a few hundred, at the very farthest in a
-thousand, years these stores will be exhausted. When it
-comes to this, the triumphant progress of industrial science
-will no doubt give us some substitute, perhaps even something
-better; but no technical knowledge, no science, can
-ever give us back anew those highly developed organisms
-of the plant and animal world which man to-day is recklessly
-sweeping out of the list of living things. They
-cannot restore to us the green woods and their animal life.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>
-We preserve with punctilious precision every vestige of
-the art of the past. The older the documents of earlier
-historic times are, the more eagerly they are coveted, the
-more highly they are valued. Our collectors gladly pay
-the largest sums for an old papyrus, an old picture, an
-object of decorative art, or a marble statue. And, as has
-been rightly remarked, what warrant have we that some
-new Phidias, some new Michael Angelo, some new Praxiteles
-will not arise, and give us something of as high value
-as these, or even much more perfect? Unreservedly to
-deny this would be the same thing as to give the lie to
-the progress of the human race.</p>
-
-<p>But the same man who, in this respect, acts so reverently,
-so conservatively, looks on with folded arms while
-treasures are destroyed that ought to be guarded with
-special affection and care, in these times when the great
-value of all natural science is so fully recognised.<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">16</a>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span></p>
-
-<p>We organise, at an extremely high cost, expeditions
-to survey and explore far-off regions. We sink into the
-greatest depths of the sea our cunningly devised trawl-nets,
-and study with ceaseless diligence the smallest
-organisms that they bring up into the light of day. We
-consider the course of the stars, and calculate with precision
-their remote orbits. We daily discover new secrets, and
-have almost ceased to feel surprised at each day bringing
-us something new, something yet unheard of. Much that
-is thus done to secure the treasures of the past <i>might
-equally well be done in coming years. But much that we
-neglect to do can never be made good</i>, for we are
-permitting the slaughter, up to the point of extinction, of
-the most remarkable, the most interesting, and the least
-known forms among the most highly organised of the
-creatures that dwell with us on our earth!</p>
-
-<p>An example that appeals to us with terrible force is
-that of South Africa (taking the country in its widest
-limits), a region now so largely peopled by Europeans.
-There has been an almost complete disappearance of the
-larger animals that once lived in their millions on its wide
-plains. If one studies the trustworthy narratives of the
-earlier explorers, one reads that, hardly a century ago, it
-was not a rare sight to see in one day a hundred, or even
-a hundred and fifty rhinoceroses, hundreds of elephants
-that showed little fear of man, and countless antelopes;
-and one asks oneself, How can it be possible that all this
-abundance of life has vanished in so short a time? A
-specimen of the “white” rhinoceros, which in those times
-was still living in large numbers, is in our day worth a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span>
-small fortune; it is to be found <i>in no museum in Germany</i>,
-and is simply almost impossible to obtain. This former
-abundance is now known only to few, and these only
-specialists engaged in studies of this kind. But to
-them it is also plain and terribly certain that, where the
-like conditions come into being, the same process that
-was at work in South Africa will produce the same
-results.</p>
-
-<p>There can be no doubt about it. In a hundred years
-from now wide regions of what once was Darkest Africa
-will have been more or less civilised, and all that delightful
-animal world, which to-day still lives its life there, will
-have succumbed to the might of civilised man. That will
-be the time when the fortunate possessors of horns and
-hides of extinct African antelopes, and the owners of
-elephant tusks, skulls, and specimens of all kinds will be
-selling all this for its weight in gold. And no one will
-be able to understand how it was that in our day so little
-thought was given to preserving as far as possible all
-this valuable material in abundant quantities at least for
-<i>the sake of science</i>, instead of sacrificing it wholesale to the
-interests of trade, and to the recklessness of the new
-settlers in those lands. For these men, who have to
-struggle hard with the new conditions of life and its
-necessities, can scarcely act otherwise than heedlessly and
-short-sightedly. They will always take possession of a
-district before settled conditions are introduced, and before
-the Government is in a position to enforce the observance
-of its regulations, however well-intentioned these may be.
-So it will come to pass that it will suddenly be found no
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span>
-longer possible to provide European collections with even
-a pair of specimens of the mighty elephant, or to procure
-other large animals for exhibition in these establishments.
-And this will be the case not only with regard to the
-larger species, but the same thing will happen to all others.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i138" src="images/i138.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A SCENE IN THE CAMEROONS (GERMAN WEST AFRICA), SHOWING THREE LARGE GORILLAS SHOT BY CAPTAIN DOMINICK.<br />
-(PHOTOGRAPH SUPPLIED BY CAPTAIN DOMINICK.)</small></p></div>
-
-<p>The Queen of England has lately expressed the wish
-that no lady shall come into her presence wearing osprey
-plumes in her hat. This act of hers should be most
-heartily welcomed, for the bird world is being destroyed
-in a way of which only a few experts have any idea. If
-our ladies only knew that whole species of birds have
-become extinct, thanks to the fashion of wearing hats
-trimmed with birds’ feathers, doubtless they would no
-longer pay allegiance to this destructive fashion. The
-massacre of birds is carried on in some such way as this.
-The leading firms agree to make this or that bird
-fashionable. It is thus that the death-sentence of many
-rare species of birds is pronounced. The traders scattered
-all over the world give the hunters who engage in this
-kind of business directions, for instance, to bring in osprey
-feathers. And how are they obtained? The royal heron,
-a timid and beautiful bird, is not easy to stalk. But the
-businesslike hunter knows what to do. He simply kills
-the herons in thousands and thousands <i>at their nesting-places</i>.
-Love for its offspring brings the beautiful creature
-within range of the gun-barrel of the lurking hunter, who
-kills thousands of the birds in cold blood when they are
-gathered together in the breeding season. Countless
-thousands must be killed, countless thousands more of
-young helpless nestlings, bereft of the parent birds, must
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>
-starve to death before enough of these little plumes has
-been collected to make a load heavy enough to be put on
-the bearers’ shoulders. And now the dealers of the whole
-civilised world lay in a stock, so that full provision may
-be made for a form of fashion-mania that may probably
-last only a few months. Even in the farthest swamps of
-America, in the lands beyond the Caspian, and wherever
-the royal heron breeds, one can follow the bird hunter, and
-see him at his horrible and murderous work. The end
-is everlasting silence. A rare species is soon utterly
-destroyed. In the last century alone about two dozen
-species of birds became extinct. And in these days nearly
-a dozen more species of birds are threatened with extinction!
-According to the Reports of the Smithsonian
-Institute this is notably the case in America with regard
-to quite as many species. The wonderful birds of paradise
-are going; the latest “trimming” for the hats of American
-ladies, these dwellers in remote islands of the Southern
-Seas are to be threatened in a more serious degree, and
-probably to a great extent exterminated. Everywhere
-we have the same lamentable facts! It is certainly high
-time to interfere effectively. I myself think that the best
-results would follow from appeal to all noble-minded
-women.</p>
-
-<p>In Africa I have already observed an example of the
-disappearance of one species of bird<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">17</a>&mdash;every European
-takes a lot of trouble to get possession of some of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span>
-much-prized marabou feathers. Now, as long ago as the
-year 1900, at London, as a member of the International
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span>
-Conference for the Protection of Wild Animals, I did my
-best to obtain, at least on paper, some measure of protection
-for the marabou. This bird had not only quite won my
-heart by its extraordinary sagacity, but for the same reason
-it was a general favourite even in the times of classical
-antiquity. My efforts were in vain. And this will mean
-nothing more or less than the extermination of a large and
-handsome bird, which is comparatively easy to hunt down,
-and the rate of increase of which is exceptionally small.</p>
-
-<p>From all these points of view the support of the
-“League for the Protection of Bird Life in Germany” is to
-be warmly recommended. In England these reasons have
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span>
-brought about the formation of the “Society for the
-Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire,” which
-devotes itself to the protection of animal life in general
-throughout the world-wide British dominions.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i144" src="images/i144.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>XXIX. FELIS LEO, THE LION.</small></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>ONE OF CORNWALLIS HARRIS’S SKETCHES, SHOWING HOW HALF A CENTURY AGO NUMBERS OF LIONS WERE TO BE FOUND
-TOGETHER IN BROAD DAYLIGHT IN SOUTH AFRICA. I HAVE SEEN SIMILAR GATHERINGS IN EAST AFRICA, NOTABLY ON
-JANUARY</small> 25, 1897. <small>HARRIS’S SKETCH SHOWS THE GREAT DEVELOPMENT OF THE MANE IN THE NOW NEARLY EXTINCT
-SOUTH AFRICAN LION, A CONTRAST TO THE ALL BUT MANELESS LIONS OF EAST AFRICA.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Let us now follow a little more closely, under the
-guidance of English writers, the process of the extermination
-of the South African animal world. This lamentable
-work was completed very rapidly in the course of only
-something like a hundred years. From numerous English
-authorities, as well as from the publications of the Society
-already named, I have been able to ascertain that the last
-“blaauwbok” was killed by the Boers in Cape Colony
-about the year 1800. From extant sketches of this wild
-animal, it appears that it was a smaller species of the
-splendid horse-antelopes still to be found in other parts of
-Africa. During the following seventy-five years the extermination
-of several other kinds of animals was systematically
-carried out; and exactly eighty years later the last
-quagga, a kind of zebra (<i>Equus quagga</i>) was killed by the
-Boers. In England there is only one single specimen
-preserved, and that in a very poor condition. It is to be
-found in the British Museum. A further sacrifice to the
-advancing Europeans was the giant, wide-mouthed, “white”
-rhinoceros (<i>Rhinoceros simus</i>, Burch.), a mighty creature,
-that formerly ranged in thousands over the grassy plains
-of South Africa. The length of a horn taken from one of
-them is given as 6 ft. 9 in., English measurement! Even
-as late as the year 1884, a single trader was able to
-pile up huge masses, small hills, of these rhinoceros horns
-by equipping some four hundred tribesmen of the Matabele
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span>
-race with guns and ammunition and sending them out
-rhinoceros-hunting. Now it is difficult to get even a few
-specimens of this animal for the museums, and they are
-almost worth their weight in gold. Information lately
-obtained seems to indicate that a very small number
-of these mighty beasts, probably not more than thirty-five
-in all, are still living their life in the midst of inaccessible
-swamps in Zululand and Mashonaland, in a district that, on
-account of its deadly climate, is almost closed to Europeans.
-However, the Government of Natal has, I am pleased
-to say, made the killing any animal of this species, without
-legal permission, a crime to be punished by a fine of &pound;300.</p>
-
-<p>An English officer, Captain (afterwards Sir) William
-Cornwallis Harris, is an authoritative witness as to the
-extermination of wild animals in South Africa in 1836,
-though it must have been going on for a long time before
-that without any written record. The Boers must have
-slaughtered hecatombs of wild animals, though up to that
-date we have no first-hand written evidence on the subject.<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">18</a>
-Their proceedings were precisely of the same character
-as the events that have occurred in our own day in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span>
-connection with the destruction of the elephant, the
-rhinoceros, and other animals throughout Africa. This
-destruction goes on silently, and only a few men who have
-a special knowledge of the circumstances bring some
-information about it to the world at large. The rest keep
-silence, and mostly have good grounds for so doing.</p>
-
-<p>The descriptions given by Harris, Oswell, Vardon,
-C. J. Anderson and their contemporaries give some idea
-of what enormous multitudes of wild creatures then wandered
-over the plains of South Africa. We are inclined
-to underestimate the abundance of the fauna of earlier
-epochs. The process of animal-destruction by the hand
-of man has been going on from immemorial times. For
-thousands of years man has been continually pressing the
-animal world back more and more, and it has had to give
-way in the unequal struggle. This process has been going
-on so slowly and so imperceptibly that it is only by the
-scanty remnants left from earlier times that we can form
-some estimate of the wealth that has disappeared. These
-are no empty fancies. All the lonely far-off islands of
-the world’s seas, the little visited Polar lands, and all the
-uninhabited steppes and wildernesses give us evidence of
-this. Not only from the lips of Cornwallis Harris, but
-also from some of his contemporaries, we have descriptions
-of the former abundance of wild life in the Cape districts of
-South Africa. At that time the country was, in the literal
-sense of the word, covered with countless herds of Cape
-buffaloes, white-tailed gnus, blessbock, bontebock, zebras,
-quaggas, hill-zebras, hartebeests, eland-antelopes, horse-antelopes,
-oryx-antelopes, waterbuck, impallah-antelopes,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>
-springbocks, and ostriches. Herds of hundreds of
-elephants were to be seen. Every marsh, every river-bed,
-was literally overcrowded with hippopotami. All other
-kinds of animals that are now so scarce, such as the large
-and handsome kudu, and all the different kinds of small
-wild animals, were to be met with in vast numbers.
-Although since the year 1652 South Africa had been
-to a continually increasing extent occupied by the Boers,
-all these wonderful things had managed to survive in rich
-profusion up to the moment when, about a hundred years
-ago, the great war of extermination began. Various
-causes contributed to bring this about: the increasing
-numbers of the settlers, their continual penetration farther
-and farther into the interior, and, above all things, the
-improvement of firearms.</p>
-
-<p>The natives, although very numerous in South Africa,
-had, as happens everywhere, left the animal life of the
-country in its abundance to the Europeans, who were
-overrunning the land in increasing numbers. It was
-reserved for these to bring the war of extermination to
-an end in a short time. Truly a melancholy spectacle!</p>
-
-<p>Wilhelm B&ouml;lsche describes all this in fitting words:<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">19</a>
-“In Africa,” he says, “a wonderful drama is to-day unfolding
-itself before our eyes. It is the downfall of the
-whole of a mighty animal world. What is being destroyed
-is the main remnant of the great mammalian development
-of the Tertiary period. Once it spread in the same fulness
-over Europe, Asia, and North America. Now in its
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span>
-last refuge this most wonderful wave of life is rapidly
-ebbing away. Everything contributes to this result&mdash;human
-progress, human folly, and even disease among the
-animals themselves.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i150" src="images/i150.jpg" alt="" />
-
-<p class="hang"><small>SKETCH OF A HERD OF ELEPHANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA, BY HARRIS. IT GIVES AN IDEA OF THE ABUNDANCE OF ELEPHANTS
-IN THE CAPE DISTRICTS SIXTY YEARS AGO. THIS EXPLORER’S SKETCHES GIVE A TRUE PICTURE OF THE LANDSCAPE
-AS WELL AS OF THE ANIMALS.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>To give an example: Through the trifling fact that
-we have ivory balls for billiards, the African elephant
-goes to destruction. The individual cannot stop this;
-but what he can do is to secure more material for each
-special branch of science before the door is closed, and
-to once more observe in their primeval surroundings the
-last elephants, wild buffaloes, giraffes&mdash;those last living
-vestiges of the Tertiary period.</p>
-
-<p>But above all, the sketches of Le Vaillant, a French
-explorer, who, about 1780, set out from Cape Town on
-his travels into the interior, are of great importance for
-our study of the former abundance of animal life in South
-Africa. They are all the more interesting for German
-readers because he traversed part of what is now
-German South-West Africa, and gives in his book an
-account of its condition at that time. He, too, tells of
-absolutely incredibly great multitudes of wild animals; on
-the banks of the Orange River he comes upon great herds
-of elephants and giraffes, and he cannot find enough to
-say of the astonishing wealth of animal life. For those
-who know German South-West Africa, his narrative is
-of special interest. He formed collections which
-he brought back with him to his native country, and to
-all appearance is a fairly trustworthy authority, though
-at the same time, like many contemporary and later
-travellers, here and there he makes assertions that are
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span>
-clearly unwarrantable. For instance, in one place he
-tells how he once rode a zebra, that he had wounded,
-for a considerable distance, back to his camp.</p>
-
-<p>Some fifty years later, at the period of the journeys
-of Captain William Cornwallis Harris,<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> as I have already
-remarked, the same conditions prevailed, with regard to
-the abundance of wild animals, as in the days of Le
-Vaillant. It was almost a daily experience for the traveller
-to be molested by lions. The Vaal River then teemed
-with hippopotami. What is now the site of Pretoria
-was inhabited by a number of rhinoceroses, that were
-absolutely an annoyance to the explorer: “Out of every
-bush peeped the horrible head of one of these creatures.”
-Of the neighbourhood of Mafeking he tells us that the
-gatherings of zebras and white-tailed gnus literally covered
-the whole plain; that with his own eyes he had at one
-time seen at least fifteen thousand head of wild animals!
-In another place he tells us of an absolutely overwhelming
-spectacle. He saw at the same time more than three
-hundred elephants; to use his own expression, the plain
-looked like one undulating mass.</p>
-
-<p>William Cotton Oswell, whom I have mentioned in
-my earlier work, and who died as lately as 1893, knew
-the countries of South Africa in the days of Livingstone,
-and gives the same account of them as his predecessor
-Harris. He once came upon more than four hundred
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>
-elephants gathered together in one herd on the open
-velt. Unfortunately, like so many others, he published
-very few sketches.</p>
-
-<p>Gordon Cumming, a traveller well known to the
-German public through Brehms’ <i>Tierleben</i>, has also left
-us sketches of those days that corroborate the descriptions
-given by his contemporaries. He tells how, in the
-year 1860, a great drive was organised in the Orange
-Free State in honour of the Duke of Edinburgh, afterwards
-Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The number
-of wild animals driven together by the natives, which
-included zebras, quaggas, gnus, cow-antelopes, blessbock,
-springbocks, and ostriches, was estimated at five-and-twenty
-thousand. The number killed on this one day was
-reckoned at about six thousand animals, and a number
-of natives were trampled to death by the herds of wild
-beasts.</p>
-
-<p>At this time there were still Europeans in South Africa
-who made elephant-hunting their ordinary business. Now
-there are neither elephants nor indeed any other kind of
-wild animal in numbers worth mentioning in these once
-rich hunting grounds. They have all been killed off in
-the course of a hundred years. Where once hundreds
-of thousands of gnus lived their life, there are now only
-a few hundred specimens carefully preserved and guarded.
-And the same is the case with all other wild animals.
-Many species are gone completely and for ever. <i>A similar
-process will go on slowly but surely throughout the whole
-of Africa, wherever civilisation penetrates. There is only
-one chance of the beautiful wild life of Africa being
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>
-permanently preserved, and that lies in the hunters themselves
-consenting to protect and spare it.</i></p>
-
-<p>It has been rightly remarked by such a competent
-authority as A. H. Neumann (who is, moreover, one of
-the most experienced of English elephant hunters) that
-the continued existence of many wild African species is
-not incompatible with the progress of civilisation. He
-points out that we can only reckon with some degree of
-certainty on the effective preservation of wild animals,
-where not only reservations have been established for
-them, but where also a considerable amount of control
-can be exercised over both Europeans and natives. In
-his opinion, for instance, a mere regulation forbidding the
-shooting of female elephants is impracticable: “I should
-like,” he says, “to see one of those who have drawn up
-such a regulation come into the African bush, and there
-show us how we are to distinguish between female and
-bull elephants in these impenetrable thickets.”</p>
-
-<p>In the British colonies in Africa reservations for wild
-animals have been established with most successful
-results. Those of British East Africa, the Sudan and
-Somaliland, and finally of British Central Africa, taken
-together, have about five times the area of the Victoria
-Nyanza.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i156" src="images/i156.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Shillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>GROUP OF WILD ANIMALS AT HAGENBECK’S ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS AT STETTINGEN, NEAR HAMBURG. THE ANIMALS LIVE IN
-OPEN SPACES ARRANGED TO REPRESENT THEIR NATURAL SURROUNDINGS, AND THE SPECTATORS ARE PROTECTED BY
-WIDE TRENCHES AND GRILLES. HERR HAGENBECK IS SEEN ON THE LEFT.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>By means of reports made as carefully as possible
-by the district authorities, estimates have been obtained
-of the numbers of existing wild animals. In the laying
-out of the reservations the very migratory habits of the
-African fauna have been taken into consideration as far
-as is practicable, and by strict protective regulations of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span>
-various kinds most satisfactory results have been secured.
-In the Transvaal Colony, too, a reservation has been
-marked out in the Barberton district between the Olifant
-River and the Portuguese frontier. Any one shooting
-in this reservation without a permit is liable to a fine of
-&pound;100, or six months’ imprisonment. There is a very
-interesting official report as to the wild inhabitants of this
-reservation. “It contains one old rhinoceros (with shot-marks
-on its hide), a small herd of elephants, a considerable
-supply of ostriches, from five to nine giraffes, a satisfactory
-quantity of gnus, and also of ‘black-heeled’ or impallah-antelopes,
-two or three small herds of buffaloes, several
-herds of zebras, numerous waterbuck and kudus, and a
-small number of horse-antelopes. On the other hand,
-whether oryx-antelopes and eland are still to be found
-there appears to the author of the report in the highest
-degree doubtful.”</p>
-
-<p>However, in the extensive reservations that have been
-established in other British possessions in Africa, and
-especially in those of the Sudan, a large number of the
-beautifully formed dwellers of the wilderness still live
-their life, and this must be a delight to the heart of
-every sportsman.</p>
-
-<p>It is to be hoped that through thus establishing
-“sanctuaries” (as the English call them), with the consequent
-supervision, a means has been found of protecting
-the indigenous wild life of Africa, as well of America,
-for a long time to come.</p>
-
-<p>In German colonies, too, efforts are being made to
-preserve, as far as possible, the native fauna. The more
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span>
-our views can be made clear, the more complete the
-survey of this difficult subject can be made by the combined
-experience of many experts being gradually brought to
-bear together upon it, the sooner may we anticipate
-satisfactory results from this co-operative action. For
-years I have been following with close interest everything
-connected with this question, and my wide correspondence
-with officers, officials, and private individuals warrants me
-in concluding that on all sides there is an energetic
-movement in progress. Of course, we have to face
-serious difficulties in such a campaign. Thus it seems,
-according to numerous and trustworthy reports, that the
-attempt to establish Boer settlements in the Kilimanjaro
-district in East Africa has had, and still is having, very
-fatal results for the once splendid wild life of that region.
-And, indeed, it is no easy matter to reconcile a colony
-of Boers&mdash;the people who have already made such a
-clean sweep of the wild life of South Africa&mdash;to the
-preservation of the fauna of the country. One can see
-how difficult the regulation of these matters is for the
-authorities.<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">21</a></p>
-
-<p>We must not forget also that, as a result of the
-wonderful improvements in firearms, the problem of the
-protection of wild animals presents itself to-day in quite
-a different fashion from that of the days of the hunters
-of fifty, or even of twenty-five years ago.</p>
-
-<p>But it is not the individual hunter whose interest lies
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span>
-in sport or science<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">22</a>; it is not the man who brings us
-the first knowledge of many of the inhabitants of the
-wilderness, and first arouses our interest in them; it is
-not such as these who should be regarded as the destroyers
-of the fauna of a foreign land. Rather this is the work
-of all those powerful influences that everywhere combine
-to this end during the introduction of civilised life. It
-has indeed been already proposed, in all seriousness, by
-some men of science to completely extirpate the wild
-animals of East Africa, in order thus to circumvent the
-tsetse fly and other minor pests that may perhaps communicate
-disease from the wild to the tame cattle. And
-this, too, before it can be said with any certainty whether
-these cases of infection do not arise only from a number
-of very small animals which it would be impossible to
-exterminate!</p>
-
-<p>Our most important task is now to obtain an accurate
-knowledge of the fauna of foreign lands. For this purpose
-we must collect materials which will render the study of
-this wild life of other lands possible to our scientific
-institutions; which will place them in a position to give
-to a wide public an idea of all these rich treasures, and
-thus awaken an intelligent love for them in the hearts
-of the pioneers of civilisation.</p>
-
-<p>And then we must devise practicable measures of
-protection. This is a wide field of labour. The hunter
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span>
-himself must take in hand the intelligent preservation of
-the wild animals. The measures of protection must be
-suited to the varying conditions of the wide hunting
-grounds of foreign lands, and must not be considered
-only from the stay-at-home point of view.</p>
-
-<p>This is not to be done by mere laments over the
-extermination of wild life, or even by merely putting
-limitations on the enjoyment of the chase by the individual
-hunter. On the contrary, a beneficial result can be
-obtained only by all European travellers in those countries
-interchanging their experiences, collecting material, and
-exerting themselves to the utmost and in concert to devise
-measures that will, as far as may be, put a stop to the
-threatened extermination.</p>
-
-<p>This is a great and noble task.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="IV">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i162" src="images/i162.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>YOUNG GRANT’S GAZELLES ON A BLACK-BURNED STRETCH OF VELT.</small></span></span>
-
-IV<br />
-
-The Survivors</h2>
-
-<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">To</span> learn to know anything with precision, to devote
-oneself to it and master it in its smallest details, one
-must generally make its study a labour of love. So the spread
-of more exact knowledge of the manifestations of nature
-around us must go hand in hand with the awakening of
-love for them and for the splendours they present to our
-view. And with this increasing impulse towards research
-and knowledge must come the desire to prevent as far as
-possible the rapid destruction of fauna and flora. Public
-opinion, in truth, has begun to range itself on the side
-of these much menaced glories of nature.</p>
-
-<p>We have to observe and investigate. We have to get
-together some small portion of the vast material that is
-often so uselessly squandered, in order to employ it in the
-service of special branches of science, and to make some
-closer knowledge of these things accessible to every one.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>
-We have to establish great collections formed on a definite
-plan, and everywhere to save as much material as possible
-for scientific and educational purposes, so long as it can still
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span>
-be done. “If these ideas could be brought home to the
-right quarters, millions would be made available for this
-object,” writes one of the most learned specialists in these
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span>
-matters. Our zoological gardens and museums are already
-doing their best, but they are hampered by the want of
-pecuniary resources. Whilst the largest sums are freely
-provided for the purchase of antiquities, there is a dearth
-of means for doing what is necessary to save the treasures
-of our vanishing fauna while there is still time!</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i163" src="images/i163.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>GROUP OF ’MBEGA MONKEYS, WITH THEIR WHITE-COATED YOUNG<br />
-(FIRST DISCOVERED BY THE AUTHOR).</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i164" src="images/i164.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>LETTER FROM PROFESSOR P. MATSCHIE, THE LEADING AUTHORITY ON THE
-DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAMMALIA OF GERMAN EAST AFRICA.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Other countries, America for instance, set us a glorious
-example. There you see public collections formed, affording
-panoramas of animal life so splendid, so beautiful, and
-planned on such grand lines, that the love of nature must
-be lighted up in the hearts of all who visit them.</p>
-
-<p>What can be saved of these disappearing treasures must
-suffice for all time, and must in part at least be preserved
-in fire and thief-proof “zoological treasuries,” for it will be
-impossible to obtain such things again in the future, no
-matter what efforts may be made. Thus a great and
-difficult task presents itself to our museums. We can
-rightly require of them that they shall not merely exhibit
-the principal species of the animal world, but that they
-shall also preserve specimens of the most striking representatives
-of our still surviving fauna that are likely soon
-to become extinct. And these specimens must be guarded
-by all the resources of art and science against light and
-any other influence that might injure them. For such a
-far-seeing policy posterity will be grateful to us.</p>
-
-<p>It seems, however, as though some unlucky star presided
-over the collecting of the larger species of the animal world.
-Let any one devote himself to these special pursuits and
-objects, and even if he win thereby the approval of experts
-and of wide circles of the public, still a certain odium will
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span>
-seem to attach to him. Obviously he must kill a certain
-number of animals, that are often <i>quite unknown</i> till then,
-and in almost every case have been <i>hardly studied</i> at all,
-in order that he may add them to the collections belonging
-to his native country. He gains the gratitude of science
-and of the learned, but he has to encounter the prejudices
-of others. People think that they are justified in throwing
-upon him, the scientific collector, the reproach of being an
-exterminator.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i166" src="images/i166.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A ‘MBEGA</small> (<small><i>COLOBUS CAUDATUS</i></small>, Thos.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i168" src="images/i168.jpg" alt="" />
-
-<p class="hang"><small>THREE NEW VARIETIES OF EAST AFRICAN WILD BUFFALOES:</small> <i><small>BUBALUS SCHILLINGSI</small></i>
-Mtsch. spec. nov., <small>FROM THE MIDDLE PANGANI, LAKE DJIPE MOMBASA;</small> <i><small>BUBALUS
-NUHAHENSIS</small></i>, Mtsch. spec. nov., <small>FROM UPOGORO, ’NDEMA, ’MBARAGANDU AND
-THE UPPER RUAHAIS;</small> <i><small>BUBALUS WEMBARENSIS</small></i>, Mtsch. spec. nov., <small>FROM THE
-TSHAIA MARSHES IN THE SOUTHERN WEMBERE STEPPE. THE ILLUSTRATIONS
-SHOW HOW GREATLY THE FORM OF THE BUFFALO’S HORNS VARIES IN DIFFERENT
-DISTRICTS, AND GIVE A PROOF OF THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIONS
-FOR EACH SEPARATE REGION.</small></p>
-
-<p class="caption">I have to thank Professor Matschie for the two lower illustrations.</p></div>
-
-<p>Those who speak thus completely forget that it was
-through the material thus placed before their eyes that
-they themselves obtained their very first knowledge of
-these beautiful creatures; that till then they hardly
-took any interest in such things; and that it is only by
-means of knowledge secured in this way that regulations
-for the preservation of these beauties of nature can be
-devised.</p>
-
-<p>Let us suppose that every museum and scientific
-collection in the world were provided with a series of
-specimens of all the varieties of the animal world that are
-now most seriously threatened with extinction; let us
-further suppose that each of these institutions secured,
-besides, duplicate series of the hides and skeletons of each
-species. To make a striking comparison, all this, beside
-the wholesale destruction of the animal world of which we
-have to complain, would be like a week-end sportsman
-perhaps killing one hare during his whole life compared to
-the millions of hares killed every year in Germany.</p>
-
-<p>If a species is already reduced to such a state that the
-taking of a few hundred, or even a few thousand, specimens
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span>
-for scientific purposes will exterminate it, we may say
-generally that, even without this proceeding, it is inevitably
-doomed to extinction. But the wretched egg-collecting
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span>
-by youths, for instance, is quite a different matter.
-Certainly there must be a great deficiency, when continually,
-year after year, wood and meadow are searched
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span>
-for birds’ nests by thousands of boys. This is obvious,
-and thus the rarer species are threatened in their very
-existence.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i171" src="images/i171.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>MODERN METHODS OF TAXIDERMY: SETTING UP.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i172" src="images/i172.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>ONE OF MY SPECIMENS IN THE MUNICH MUSEUM.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i173" src="images/i173.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>THE COMPLETED SPECIMEN IN THE MUNICH MUSEUM</small> (<i><small>GIRAFFA SCHILLINGSI</small></i>, Mtsch.).
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i174" src="images/i174.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>ANOTHER OF MY SPECIMENS IN THE STUTTGART MUSEUM.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Great stress ought always to be laid upon the point to
-which I have here called attention, and I can appeal to
-every expert on the subject for confirmation of my opinion.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i175" src="images/i175.jpg" alt="" />
-
-<p class="hang"><small>PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDY OF A MALE GIRAFFE GAZELLE</small> (<i><small>LITHOCRANIUS WALLERI</small></i>,
-Brocke) <small>SHOT BY THE AUTHOR. AN EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL AND RARE
-SPECIES, FIRST SEEN BY THE AUTHOR IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA IN</small> 1896.</p></div>
-
-<p>I think that I have earned a special right to speak on
-this matter. For the last fifteen years I have hardly ever
-carried a gun when at home in Europe; I have refused
-the most pressing invitations to shooting parties; and I
-have sought pleasure only in the sight of our native wild
-animals, which I know so well, and in secretly watching
-and observing them. But in the midst of a yet unstudied
-foreign fauna, of which we still know little or nothing,
-where there is question of first obtaining some scanty
-knowledge oneself, and forming collections for definite
-scientific research&mdash;in the midst of an animal world of this
-kind I would not hesitate to shoot even large numbers of each
-species. For there would be good reason for not merely
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span>
-securing well-developed male specimens, as the hunter does,
-but also females and young animals in all the various stages
-of growth and colouring. This must be obvious even to
-a child, and no one will deny to science the right so to act,
-at least in those regions of Africa which&mdash;in comparison
-with India and other countries&mdash;are still untouched by civilisation,
-and which therefore, in their primitive unchanged
-condition, afford us doubly interesting results. Now supposing
-one has got together large collections, and has been
-so fortunate as to succeed in bringing them down to the
-coast and home to Europe. A collection of insects or of
-the lower animals may pass without remark; but woe to
-the slayer of the larger species of wild animals! These
-come under the description of “beasts of the chase,” and
-now a peculiar kind of bacillus quickly develops&mdash;the
-bacillus of “hostility to the hunter,” which, introduced into
-Europe from the tropics, finds here, too, a fostering soil.
-Let me be allowed to endeavour to find a prophylactic
-against this bacillus in these essays. I have already often
-laid stress upon the facts that such great quantities of the
-skins and feathers of birds are exported for the purposes
-of fashion, that by this trade whole species are threatened
-with extinction; that every individual European is allowed,
-without any hindrance, to send home his trophies of the
-chase&mdash;trophies which, with only a few exceptions, can
-have hardly any value for science; above all, that the
-extermination of the elephant in Africa is being carried out
-before our very eyes for the sake of his ivory; and that all
-this is held permissible. But let one make collections for
-scientific purposes, and scrupulously hand over every skin,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span>
-every hide, with the horns and skull belonging to it, all
-carefully labelled, to some museum at home, and, according
-to widely expressed opinion, he is greatly to blame for the
-destruction of animal life.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i177a" src="images/i177a.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>DWARF ANTELOPE IN THE CARLSRUHE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i177b" src="images/i177b.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="hang"><small>GROUP OF GIRAFFE GAZELLES (IN THE AUTHOR’S POSSESSION) PREPARED BY
-ROBERT BANZER OF OEHRINGEN. THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS SHOWN IN
-ITS CHARACTERISTIC ATTITUDE WHEN BROWSING ON TREES OR BUSHES.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i178a" src="images/i178a.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="hang"><small>GROUP, ALSO PREPARED BY BANZER, SHOWING A SNOW-WHITE “BLACK-HOOFED”
-ANTELOPE, ATTACKED BY A BLACK SERVAL AND TWO OTHERS.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i178b" src="images/i178b.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="hang"><small>A SPECIMEN OF THE NEW SPECIES OF HYENA DISCOVERED BY THE AUTHOR
-IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA</small> (<i><small>HYENA SCHILLINGSI</small></i>, Mtsch., <small>NATURAL HISTORY
-MUSEUM, LONDON).</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Happily in recent years our colonial collections have
-been considerably augmented. An extraordinarily large
-quantity of material has been forwarded to the Berlin
-Natural History Museum, amongst others, by officials,
-private individuals, and members of the garrisons abroad.
-Hence valuable results have been obtained for the zoology
-of these regions. Amongst the satisfactory results of the
-ever increasing activity in the zoological exploration of the
-Dark Continent are surprising and repeated discoveries of
-unknown species of animals, such as the Okapi (<i>Ocapia
-johnstoni</i>) and a black wild hog, till now completely
-unknown (<i>Hylochœrus meinertzhageni</i>, Oldf. Thomas).
-With the help of these collections, Professor Matschie,
-dealing with the mammalia, and Professor Reichenow with
-the birds, have succeeded in establishing the fact that
-each separate region of the Dark Continent possesses its
-own characteristic fauna. And most important conclusions
-with regard to the distribution of animals have thus been
-derived from these great systematic collections. My friend
-Baron Carlo Erlanger, the well-known African traveller,
-and the only one who has ever traversed Somaliland from
-end to end, though unhappily cut off by an early death,
-was able to confirm these theories, with reference to the
-countries he explored, by the ample collections he systematically
-formed. The whole science of zoology in relation
-to geography has been turned on to new lines of research,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span>
-and has given the most important and most valuable results.
-Everything should be done to support efforts of this kind.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i183" src="images/i183.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>DWARF MUSK DEER</small>, (<i><small>NESOTRAGUS MOSCHATUS</small></i> Van Duben) <small>FROM THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION IN THE BERLIN NATURAL
-HISTORY MUSEUM.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i184" src="images/i184.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>A PAIR OF GUEREZAS</small> (<i><small>COLOBUS CAUDATUS</small></i>, Thos.). <small>THIS LIFELIKE GROUP WAS PREPARED BY THE SKILLED
-TAXIDERMIST KERZ, OF THE STUTTGART MUSEUM.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>But in this department it is to all increasing extent the
-duty of our German museums to promote a knowledge of
-and an interest in the animal world of far-off lands by the
-display of ample collections, so arranged as to convey
-instruction. There has already been gratifying progress
-in this respect, but it is clear that for the development of
-these ideas we need more extensive, up-to-date buildings
-for our collections and museums. Other countries, especially
-England, and above all America, are far in advance of us
-in this matter. Our zoological gardens have the task of
-putting the <i>living</i> animal world before us. Happily we are
-doing this by far-sighted methods. To the Zoological
-Gardens of Berlin belongs the credit of having, to a continually
-increasing extent, arranged a display of the animal
-world in appropriate surroundings, and with reference to
-systematic classification and to its relations with geographical
-distribution and ethnological science, so far as one can
-assume the connection or companionship of certain species
-with man. There we see the disappearing species of wild
-cattle housed, each according to its peculiar character, in
-enclosures that are strictly true to nature, and artistically
-designed. Thus, for instance, the American bison&mdash;now
-hardly to be obtained for its weight in gold is shown in
-surroundings that remind us of the North American
-Indians, these also a disappearing race. The ostrich-house
-takes us back to the land of the Pharaohs, of which the
-ostrich was once a characteristic inhabitant, as well as the
-ichneumon, the crocodile, and the hippopotamus. Then
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span>
-the class of rodents is brought before us in almost poetical
-surroundings, that seem quite to justify the German animal
-stories of the Middle Ages, and that are calculated to produce
-quite a different effect on the mind from that of a
-stiffly arranged exhibition of the regulation type, especially
-in the case of the rising generation. But on account of the
-difficulty of securing and maintaining certain species, and
-their shortness of life in close captivity, our zoological
-gardens can only properly carry out their programme so
-long as it is possible for them to continually renew their
-stock of animals.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, the museums are all the more
-responsible for setting before our eyes the various species
-of animals even long after these have become extinct, and
-they must do this by means of works of art executed by the
-hand of man, masterpieces of taxidermy.</p>
-
-<p>And by masterpieces of taxidermy I mean artistic
-groups of “stuffed” animals that will, as far as may
-be, show us their life and action, their ways and habits.
-In former times this work was left to the so-called “animal-stuffer.”
-He took a hide, filled it out with some material
-or other, and then, so far as he could, gave it the appearance
-of a quadruped or a bird. Thus one sees a stuffed
-hippopotamus of this good old time which looks, not like
-such an animal, but like a gigantic sausage. One sees
-stags or antelopes that somewhat resemble the wooden toys
-associated with the Christmas boxes of my childhood, and
-not the particular species of animals which they are intended
-to represent&mdash;in short, wretched caricatures with neither
-beauty nor fidelity to nature.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i189" src="images/i189.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i><br />
-</p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPE IN THE CARLSRUHE MUSEUM.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i190" src="images/i190.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>GIRAFFE GAZELLE AND DWARF ANTELOPE IN THE CARLSRUHE MUSEUM.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i193" src="images/i193.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>HEAD OF AN AFRICAN WART-HOG SHOT BY THE AUTHOR.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i194" src="images/i194.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>PHOTOGRAPH OF AN OSTRICH’S NEST, JUST AS IT WAS FOUND. THE BIRD’S TRACKS MAY BE SEEN IMPRINTED ON THE SAND.
-THE DARK SPOTS ON SOME OF THE EGGS ARE PATCHES OF SAND.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span></p></div>
-
-<p>Nowadays, however, more than this must be done&mdash;the
-best must be insisted on. Instead of the “stuffer,” the
-artist must come upon the scene. Using the methods of
-the sculptor, he can artistically fashion a form that will be
-true to life, and clothe this form with the hide or skin.
-Happily by these means we now find such works of art
-exhibited in ever increasing numbers, not only in museums
-abroad, but also in the public collections of our own country.
-But as yet this new department of artistic activity is not
-generally as well understood as it should be. It is still far
-too little valued.</p>
-
-<p>What labour has to be devoted to the artistically correct
-setting up of even one single large mammal in a museum&mdash;for
-instance, a giraffe! First the animal must be hunted
-down in the wilderness, and its hide carefully prepared.
-Then, if it has been brought home in good condition, there
-follows a second laborious preparation, and finally the setting
-up. The difficult building up of the framework, and the
-work upon the giant beast till all is complete, require the
-labour of nearly a year. The very first conditions for the
-success of the whole are great patience, knowledge, and an
-ideal that is both artistic and true to nature.</p>
-
-<p>Our illustrations show, in its various stages, the progress
-of the setting up of one of the giraffes I collected in Africa.
-It is easy to understand that besides artistic and scientific
-ability for the correct moulding of the form, various complex
-manipulations are required before the giant beast again
-stands before us as if “reawakened to life.”</p>
-
-<p>I have further tried to show by illustrations of another
-giraffe, and of a series of antelopes, down to the tiny dwarf
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span>
-antelope, how under the hand of the artist the animal world
-can be made to rise up again, as if waked anew to life.</p>
-
-<p>All our larger museums ought to exhibit the most important
-and most prominent representatives of the animal
-kingdom modelled in attractive groups in their natural
-surroundings.</p>
-
-<p>In America it has become the custom for private individuals
-to place at the disposal of the zoological institutions
-extensive collections and large sums of money. With
-this help they are able to produce artistic work, true to
-nature, works of art, the consideration of which gives the
-spectator an insight into the life and habits of the animal
-world of his native land as well as of foreign countries.
-Unfortunately this custom has hardly yet been introduced
-amongst us.</p>
-
-<p>My native city of Frankfurt<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> can claim the honour of
-possessing, in the time-honoured Senckenberg Institute
-(now transferred to a new home), a museum founded by
-private effort and private interests, where one may see
-collections formed for exhibition, that may be pointed out
-as models of their kind.</p>
-
-<p>The collector of such things can partake of no greater
-pleasure than he experiences when, making a tour of the
-museums of various places at home, he sees awakened to
-new life the wild creatures he formerly observed and laid
-low in far-off lands. So I could not deny myself the
-pleasure of adding to this book a number of pictures of
-animals and groups of animals which I secured in the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span>
-wastes of Africa, and which are now set up in various
-museums. These are trophies that must allure every
-sportsman. It is of course not so easy a matter to secure
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span>
-them as it is to hack off without any trouble the antlers
-or horns of some wild animal that one has shot.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i199" src="images/i199.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>DRYING ORNITHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS FOR MY COLLECTION.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i200" src="images/i200.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>GROUP MAINLY COMPOSED OF THE AUTHOR’S TROPHIES IN THE CARLSRUHE MUSEUM. IN FRONT, BELOW, FROM LEFT TO
-RIGHT, WATERBUCK, GRANT’S GAZELLE, BOEHM’S ZEBRA, YOUNG ELAND; AND ON THE RIGHT A YOUNG OKAPI</small> (<i><small>OCAPIA
-JOHNSTONI</small></i>) <small>FROM THE CONGO STATE, THE GIFT OF THE KING OF THE BELGIANS.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i202" src="images/i202.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>WOMEN OF THE RAHE OASIS IN A BANANA GROVE.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Paintings, true to life, from the hands of artists, photographs
-taken directly from life, and finally these groups
-<i>awakened, as it were, to a new life</i>, are the means that can,
-and should, exert an educating and informing influence, so
-that all the beauty of this department of created nature may
-not be accessible only to a few learned men, but be open to
-all in general. If to an ever increasing degree this object
-finds support in influential circles, we shall thus obtain
-what must be somehow obtained. In the presence of the
-progress of industry and civilisation no one can indeed
-permanently prevent by protective measures the disappearance
-of certain species, even though we may hope to still
-delay the process of extinction by suitable regulations. But
-on this ground the duty that I have already indicated
-becomes more clearly imperative upon us. Its fulfilment
-cannot fail to be rewarded, in the case of all who take part
-in it, by the only true satisfaction that is given to mortals,
-the feeling of having done all that was in any way in our
-power to do.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="V">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i204" src="images/i204.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>EGYPTIAN GEESE IN A SWAMP.</small></span></span>
-
-V<br />
-
-Sport and Nature in Germany</h2>
-
-<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">Not</span> by far-away Lake Nakuro alone has “the Spell
-of the Elelescho” lived. It has lived, and still lives,
-all over the world; only that it goes by other names, and
-is linked with other symbols.</p>
-
-<p>In the brief summer of the Polar regions, battling
-with the snow and ice and the long night, it lives
-in the few stunted willows and the scanty reindeer-moss.
-It can only be fully understood where the ungainly walrus,
-the mighty Polar bear, coloured like his own snowfields,
-and the herds of fur-adorned musk oxen and reindeer give
-life to the wilderness, and millions of sea-birds cover the
-cliffs, or wheel shrieking through the air. To all these
-creatures the appearance of man in these wide regions is so
-strange and unaccustomed that they show no fear of him,
-and even come hurrying up from all sides to look curiously
-at this strange new being.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span></p>
-
-<p>In the high mountain regions of Central Asia, too, this
-spell survives, associated with the flocks of those timid
-creatures the primitive wild sheep, with the graceful wild
-goats, with the stately ibex,<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> and with the life and movement
-of the countless huge bears of the mountains, and
-with a strange flora that I myself have never looked upon,
-but of whose existence I am as persuaded as of that of the
-spell itself.</p>
-
-<p>It is to be found in the jungles of India, whence the
-tolerant natives have never driven it out. They have not
-expelled the animal world from its paradise. There in
-the region of the lotus-flower the spell may perhaps be
-recognised on still, moonlit nights.</p>
-
-<p>It survives everywhere: in the Australian bush, in
-the New and the Old World, on all islands, in all rivers
-and waters, in the life and movement of the waves and
-depths of the ocean, so full of secrets everywhere; in
-a word, where man has not yet driven it away.</p>
-
-<p>Once it lived everywhere in Germany, and even to-day
-it is still to be found in many places. It has its being
-where the mighty elk made its home on moor and marsh-land,
-and our forefathers hunted the aurochs and the bison
-in the primitive forest. To-day it is associated with the
-edelweiss and the chamois in the Alps; it has its being
-in the oak and beech woods, and where the green current
-of the Rhine flows down, or where the stag sends afar his
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span>
-cry of challenge to his rival, and the huntsman makes
-his way over the moor.</p>
-
-<p>There one still experiences the spell of the Elelescho.
-But everywhere, all over the world, everywhere in our
-Fatherland, it once lived and held sway.</p>
-
-<p>We may hope that the intimate and beautiful relations
-that the German sportsman establishes between himself
-and nature in his Fatherland will for a long, long time
-be handed down from generation to generation, and thus
-result in the maintenance and preservation of the noble old
-spell of the woodland and the wilderness. The ideal of
-<i>true German sportsmanship</i> has been developed in as high
-and full a sense as that of <i>fair play in sport</i> in England.</p>
-
-<p>Both of these ideals will be judged in unfriendly fashion
-only by those who regard them from a distorted point
-of view. The English ideal of sport is winning the world
-to itself; the German ideal must do the same.</p>
-
-<p>Coming from a good German school of sport, I consider
-myself fortunate in having learned to know the wonderful
-animal world of Africa. There is no doubt whatever that
-I must ascribe to the influence of this school the fact that
-my accounts of what I had experienced and seen met with
-such an appreciative reception both at home and abroad.</p>
-
-<p>How wonderful is the chase in Germany! The
-primitive attraction for the chase must be a part of every
-man. One need only once have seen the excitement that
-seizes upon a gathering of thousands if on a sudden a hare
-or some other wild creature comes into sight. At such
-a moment, almost without exception, every one of them
-is on the move, without the least reflection, and even
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span>
-notwithstanding the consciousness that in no case can he
-himself secure the prize. It is the call of a strong impulse
-deep rooted in men. But in our Fatherland how grandly
-and nobly what we mean by “true sportsmanship” has
-developed out of this primitive instinct!</p>
-
-<p>A certain kind of organisation of the business of the
-chase must have been in existence even in primeval times.
-Those who have made a study of this department of the
-life of nomadic hunters in many lands tell us that tribes
-and groups of families hunt only in well-defined areas,
-and as they value their lives do not venture to pass these
-boundaries. I have learned the same thing by my own
-personal experience of the Wandorobo and other nomad
-huntsmen of the African plateau. It must therefore have
-been the case everywhere, from the times when primitive
-men, the cave-dwellers, began their struggle with the mighty
-beasts of primeval days, down to our own times, when the
-chase is more and more regulated till at last it becomes the
-exclusive property of the owner of the land.</p>
-
-<p>As a consequence of this right came measures for game
-preservation both against the interference of the stranger
-sportsman, and as regards the wild creatures themselves.
-Increasing knowledge taught the hunter that he could not
-kill more than a certain number of wild animals without
-extirpating them entirely in his district.<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> Hence grew up
-our complex game-laws of to-day, and the general feeling
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span>
-that our hunting grounds should be used in as intelligent
-a way as possible. In Germany this problem has been
-solved to a remarkable extent. German sport has an
-important influence on the welfare of the people. Great
-numbers of our people are strengthened in body and mind
-by the chase, and, thanks to it, considerable sums of money
-are added to the resources of the country folk.</p>
-
-<p>According to a moderate estimate there are now in
-Germany upwards of half a million sportsmen. Each year
-they kill about 40,000 head of red and fallow deer, about
-200,000 roebuck, 4,000,000 hares, 4,000,000 partridges,
-and 400,000 wild ducks, in all some 25,000,000 kilograms
-(over 50,000,000 lb.) of wild game, of a value of
-25,000,000 marks (&pound;1,250,000), and forming nearly one
-per cent. of the total meat supply of Germany. The
-game leases bring in about 40,000,000 marks annually
-(&pound;2,000,000).<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> But these very sportsmen, who every year
-kill such a large quantity of wild animals, must at the
-same time be protectors and guardians of this same animal
-life! Strange as it may seem, many species of wild
-animals would have been long ago extinct if there were
-no sportsmen. For imperative reasons, the hunter must
-at the same time undertake the part of protector.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span></p>
-
-<p><i>But this idea ought to be to include a great deal more than
-is now the case.</i> As I have already said, no nation has
-known so well how to form a beautiful and poetical ideal
-of the chase and the spirit of sport as the Germans have
-done. But it is not to be denied that this perfect development,
-even in its very completeness, has in a certain sense
-become one-sided, in so far as sportsmen restrict their
-protection and guardianship to certain species of animals;
-one-sided, too, inasmuch as to a certain extent they regard
-their mission from the point of view of a close corporation.
-In this there is a certain advantage, but also a certain
-amount of danger now that, as a result of the rapid progress
-of civilisation, changes are introduced in every department
-of life so much more quickly than in earlier times.</p>
-
-<p>Huntsmen and fishermen desire the complete extermination
-of all kinds of animals that they consider to be a
-cause of injury to their sport. The result is the destruction
-of many kinds of animals that are beautiful in form and
-constitute an ornament of the landscape. By the same
-kind of reasoning sportsmen, in their capacity of landlords
-and forest owners, ought to demand the extermination of
-the wild animals that obtain their food from field and
-forest. Naturally sportsmen do not want this, but they
-should, as far as may be, let themselves be guided by
-higher points of view. This is the case already in many
-instances. For example, as an instance of zealous game
-supervision inspired by scientific principles, we have lately
-had to welcome a valuable idea of Forest Commissioner
-Count Bernstorff. According to his plan, small labels that
-will not annoy the animals (the so-called “Game marks”)
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span>
-are attached near the ears of young roebucks and red
-deer. Thus their resting-places, their movements, their
-growth, can be carefully observed.... We are, therefore,
-actually living in a time when to a certain extent each
-individual head of game is numbered!</p>
-
-<p>Interesting and valuable as such measures may be,
-should we not extend our loving care also to the animals
-that, though they are not reckoned as game, yet adorn
-and give animation to the land we live in? Some great
-landlords have given a bright example of progress in this
-direction. Thus in Hungary there are sporting estates
-on which wolf and bear are not completely exterminated,
-and in Germany estates on which the fox is spared to a
-certain extent. The result has been to the advantage of
-stags’ antlers and bucks’ horns on the estates in question.
-English landlords allow a free home to a pair of peregrine
-falcons or eagles, so as not to allow these beautiful birds
-to be completely extirpated.</p>
-
-<p>From these examples it is clear that there can be
-various opinions as to the view generally taken with regard
-to “predatory animals.” If there is not merely a selfish
-protection for game animals, but also protection for the
-other mammals and birds, we shall thus preserve from
-extinction some of the glorious forms of the realm of
-nature, and prevent their being sacrificed to narrow
-interests. There is food for thought in the fact that (as I
-have often had occasion to observe in Africa) in primitive
-countries there is to be found an astounding abundance
-of animal life. <i>Since prehistoric times man has been
-engaged in hunting with his simple weapons without, on
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span>
-the whole, very much diminishing the number of animals.</i>
-A striking proof that the destruction of wild life is the
-work of the Europeans themselves, and of the native
-hunters carrying firearms under their authority, is afforded
-by the fate of the North American buffalo, the whales,
-walruses, and seals of the frozen seas, and finally by that
-of the elephant in certain districts and of the South African
-fauna taken as a whole.</p>
-
-<p>We should not therefore act so rigorously in the
-proscription of our so-called “predatory” animals. Yet,
-for instance, my near neighbour, Freiherr H. Geyer von
-Schweppenberg, has lately shown that our pretty water-hen
-(<i>Gallinula chloropus</i>, L.) can do a great deal of damage
-to grass and corn.</p>
-
-<p>In South Africa what are called “poisoning clubs”
-have been organised, which aim at the extermination of
-“noxious animals” by poison. The use of poison ought
-to be entirely forbidden by legal enactments, with the
-exception, perhaps, of its administration for scientific
-purposes. The strychnine canister&mdash;the use of which
-ought only to be allowed, and that in exceptional cases,
-to those who are making scientific collections&mdash;is now
-making its appearance everywhere all over the world.
-I have had news from the most distant countries of its
-employment, unhappily with far too great success.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> It is
-already some time since the last <i>Lammergeier</i> of the
-German hill districts fell a victim to it. It is thinning to
-frightful extent the numbers of the bears in Eastern
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span>
-Asia and other countries, though these are quite harmless
-to man. But in our Fatherland a completely organised
-“poison business” has grown up, which is a very serious
-matter.</p>
-
-<p>I should like also to advocate strongly the legal prohibition
-of the use of pole-traps, to which all our owls
-and birds of prey fall victims.</p>
-
-<p>If we go on as we are going, the time cannot be far
-distant when we shall have to strike out of the list of
-the living several interesting members of our native
-fauna. In North America, in recent times, the following
-species, amongst others, have some of them become
-extinct, others extremely scarce: the Californian grizzly
-bear (<i>Ursus horribilis californicus</i>), the San Joaquin
-Valley elk, or wapiti (<i>Cervus nannodes</i>), Stone’s reindeer
-(<i>Rangifer stonei</i>), the prongbuck or pronghorn (<i>Antilocapra
-americana</i>), the Pallas cormorant (<i>Phalacrocorax perspillicatus</i>),
-the Labrador duck (<i>Camptolaimus labradorius</i>),
-the ivory woodpecker (<i>Campephilus principalis</i>), the scotar
-(<i>Aix sponsa</i>), several other species of birds, and finally
-the American woodcock. This last falls a victim chiefly
-to professional hunters, who are accustomed to kill it by
-hundreds in its winter quarters.</p>
-
-<p>“This list could perhaps be extended,” Mr. R.
-Rathbun, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute
-(whose kindness I have to thank for this information),
-adds at the end of his letter.</p>
-
-<p>His communications have also been of special interest
-to me because they awoke in me old recollections. In
-the ‘forties of the past century my father received a letter
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span>
-from North America in which he was informed that on
-ground over which the New York of to-day extends, one
-could shoot in a single day hundreds of woodcock. I
-myself, in my young days, used to take care of a beautifully
-coloured parrot, of a kind that since then has been almost
-extirpated, and is hardly to be obtained any longer.
-<i>Connurus carolinensis</i> is the name of this beautiful species
-of parrot, which also appears on the list of extinct animals
-of North America. There, too, men have begun to give
-strong practical expression to the movement for animal
-protection. In sanctuaries like Yellowstone Park there
-is complete protection for all animal life, including beasts
-of prey, and the bears have become so tame that they
-allow visitors to come within a few paces of them.
-Count E. Bernstorff, who received permission to shoot
-one of the few bisons still preserved in the State of
-Wyoming, says “One might take the way in which the
-animal life of America is protected as an example in
-securing still better preservation for the survivors of the
-primeval wild life of Africa. One must acknowledge that
-the Americans and their noble President, a brave sportsman,
-are now doing all that is possible in this matter.”</p>
-
-<p>President Roosevelt, in fact, has come forward manfully
-in the lists as a champion of widely extended protection
-for all the beauties of nature, and especially of the animal
-world. He endeavours by his words and writings to
-work effectually for these great and noble ideas, which
-bring to all men delight, profit, and contentment.<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">28</a>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span></p>
-
-<p>Brought up in the school of German sportsmanship,
-I had later on to change completely my view as to our
-distinction between “noxious animals” and “beasts of
-prey.” The African wilderness swarms with <i>beasts of prey</i>,
-and yet also swarms with <i>useful wild animals</i>. The waters
-of Africa teem with the <i>fish destroyers</i>, and also teem
-with <i>fish</i>. We should not therefore act so short-sightedly
-and pedantically. We should not be so eager to hunt
-down the last fox, the last pine-marten. The nesting-places
-of herons and cormorants are becoming ever fewer;
-the places where the handsome black tree storks build
-in our German Fatherland can almost be counted on
-the fingers of one hand; and the same is nearly true of
-the nesting-places of our rarer birds of prey.</p>
-
-<p>The killing of a wild cat has already become an event;
-it is the same with the eagle-owl.</p>
-
-<p>Out of the mass of literature of recent date bearing
-on the subject, I take a single book. In a very readable
-essay, <i>Der Uhu in B&ouml;hmen</i>, Kurt Loos shows that only
-a few years ago this interesting and beautiful large owl
-(<i>Bubo maximus</i>) was to be found making its home to
-the extent of some fifty pairs in thirty-five districts of
-Bohemia; now only eighteen pairs are living there, in
-ten districts. The author demands protection for the
-surviving pairs of owls, as natural objects that should be
-preserved, and he makes out a strong case for his proposal.
-R&ouml;ntgen-ray photographs are among the illustrations of
-this interesting work, and they suggest that in times when
-one can do one’s work with such excellent appliances,
-there is all the more reason for avoiding the thoughtless
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span>
-neglect of legacies left to us by Nature from the days of
-its primeval beauty.</p>
-
-<p>Numerous other examples of the rapid disappearance
-of certain species in our Fatherland might be quoted here.
-Unfortunately we have, on the whole, very little right to
-reproach the people of Southern Europe on the subject
-of their custom of carrying on a systematic massacre
-of birds; for we ourselves are always trapping thrushes
-and larks, and there is the shooting of the woodcock in
-spring. There can be no doubt that, if we would give
-up this spring shooting of the woodcock, this bird, which
-has so won the heart of the German sportsman, would
-breed abundantly in our forests. On sporting estates in
-the wooded hills in Baden I have had occasion to observe
-this bird nesting; and it is to be regretted that German
-sportsmen, who in other matters obey the customs of the
-chase with such scrupulous conscientiousness, do not spare
-this bird in the spring-time, although they are thus
-extirpating from their hunting grounds a bird that breeds
-in the woodlands of our country. The North American
-woodcock is in process of extinction, for it also is not
-spared by sportsmen in its breeding grounds, and it is
-just as little in safety from them in its winter quarters.
-It is thus one of the disappearing birds of North America,
-whilst our European woodcock is not so much exposed
-to harm from systematic pursuit either in its partly inaccessible
-northern breeding grounds or in its winter
-abode. But it is indeed difficult to abolish old, deep-rooted
-practices that are no longer abreast of the times.
-“Che vuole, signore?&mdash;il piacere della caccia!” was the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>
-reply of an Italian to a tourist who remonstrated with
-him on the subject of the extraordinarily widespread
-destruction of doves by means of nets in Northern Italy.
-The same answer would probably be given by the monks<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">29</a>
-of certain islands of the Mediterranean, who, keeping up
-an old custom, kill countless multitudes of turtle-doves
-during their migration. These are their favourite dainties,
-and they also export them largely in a preserved state.
-So, too, it will be a difficult matter to obtain from German
-sportsmen the complete abandonment of their pleasant
-spring campaign against the woodcock. Through the
-very interesting experiments of the Duke of Northumberland,
-who had marks put upon numbers of young
-woodcock, it has been ascertained that large numbers of
-them undoubtedly spend the whole winter in England.
-Now, if Professor Boettger and Wilhelm Schuster are
-right in their conclusions, drawn from similar observations,
-as to the return of the conditions of the Tertiary period,
-and if the species of birds they observed used at an
-earlier date not infrequently to winter with us, a more
-extended protection for the woodcock ought, at any rate,
-to be introduced.</p>
-
-<p>The continual levying of contributions on our colonies
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span>
-of sea-gulls, to the injury of a great number of the
-other species of birds that inhabit our sea-coasts, should
-also be greatly restricted. If this is not done we shall
-witness, within a period already in sight, a lamentable
-extermination of our shore- and sea-birds. And how
-grateful for protection many species show themselves!
-Wherever it is extended to them they enliven the landscape
-in the most pleasing way. So, too, it has been
-found that certain species of gulls have adapted themselves
-to a kind of nocturnal life in the neighbourhood of our
-great commercial ports.</p>
-
-<p>I may here mention as standing in special need of
-protection, and as wonderful adornments of our German
-landscape, whose preservation should find an advocate in
-every thoughtful man&mdash;the buzzard, the kestrel, the hobby-hawk,
-both our varieties of kite, the crane, the heron,
-the white and the black stork, the crested grebe, the
-water-hen, and the coot. All these enliven and embellish
-the landscape to a conspicuous extent, and should not be
-sacrificed to selfish interests.</p>
-
-<p>I knew an old gamekeeper, a native of the March
-of Brandenburg, who throughout the course of a long
-life had been taking care of a shooting estate, which
-had grown up with him, so to speak. He protected <i>his</i>
-wild creatures, and was delighted at having a colony of
-storks’ nests and a group of badger burrows in <i>his</i> woods.
-For long years he was able to preserve a primeval oak,
-the largest in the whole district, which in the year 1870
-he named the “King’s Oak.”</p>
-
-<p>To-day no birds of prey breed any longer on this
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span>
-estate; the primeval village of badgers is in ruins, and
-irreverent hands have cut down the “King’s Oak.” But
-the old man, now that his time of service has expired,
-never sets foot on the estate, though he is passing the
-evening of his life in the neighbourhood.</p>
-
-<p>That was a man who had innate in him a just and
-reverent feeling for the preservation of the beauties and
-glories handed down to us from the far past, and who
-loved, and, so far as it was possible, guarded these
-wonders of nature.</p>
-
-<p>Let us once for all throw overboard the sharp
-distinction between “noxious” and “useful” animals,
-and within certain limits let us protect the whole world
-of animal and plant life. This would be the noblest
-form of game preservation, in the widest sense of the
-word.</p>
-
-<p>I venture to dwell upon these ideas here, knowing
-that they are shared by a large number of men and
-women. Amongst our German game-preserving associations
-we have societies that have rendered great services
-to the protection of our native wild animals. An extension
-of these useful efforts to the protection of all our native
-fauna and flora in general is most certainly called for by
-the greatly altered conditions of our time. We are
-gradually coming to a period when every individual wild
-animal will be registered by specialists and indicated
-in a list! And we are also gradually approaching in
-our sporting estates the ideal of extensive, well-kept
-gardens, in which no touch of wild nature will any longer
-be left.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span></p>
-
-<p>I appeal once more to the authority of President
-Roosevelt. He expresses the opinion that it is now not
-so much the question of preserving great supplies of
-any one species as of maintaining the primitive beauty
-of the forest in its wild life.</p>
-
-<p>I think with pleasure of my youth, when, at a time
-when my father, in union with other game-preservers,
-founded the <i>Jagdschutzverein</i> (“Association for the Protection
-of Game”) of the Rhine Province, I had the
-opportunity of making myself acquainted with the old
-state of things in this department. My native district,
-the Eifel, still sheltered boars, eagle-owls, wild cats, and
-many other rare animals living in wild freedom. The
-ear of the boy learned to know and to love every cry
-of our native fauna. Roosevelt rightly remarks that
-many of the cries of American animals, such as the hoot
-of the owl, are <i>falsely</i> described as unpleasant. He who
-knows them well comes to love them, and would not
-like to miss them from the general concert of animal
-sounds. Here in Germany, too, we have evidence of this
-to a gradually increasing extent.</p>
-
-<p>The German sportsman ought to give a shining
-example to those of other lands in this matter of the
-protection of <i>all</i> the dwellers in his hunting grounds.
-To his care is entrusted <i>the whole German fauna</i> in its
-widest extent. To secure the preservation of this splendid
-work of nature here in Germany is an enterprise that
-will earn the gratitude of every lover of nature, the
-thanks of millions of men. The German sportsman, as
-the chosen guardian and keeper of the wild life of his
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span>
-native land, must also become the protecting lord of all
-its animal and plant life; he should maintain his own
-estate in its primitive condition to the fullest possible
-extent. But to his estate, in a wider sense, also
-belongs the velt of German Africa, still so rich in wild
-life. Here, too, the German sportsman should take up
-the position of guardian and protector.</p>
-
-<p>The well-known English writer Clive Philips-Wolley
-says that happily the old English sporting spirit is not
-dead; that the farthest and wildest hunting grounds of
-the world, a visit to which demands the greatest energy
-and courage, are still sought out by men of the English
-race, as in earlier days. England owes a great part of
-her colonies to men, eager for enterprise, who as hunters
-penetrated into unknown wildernesses; and the English
-hunter has, thanks to his courage and determination,
-always played a great part among strange peoples. The
-reckless conduct of travellers in far-off countries and
-among strange tribes is often sufficient to give a <i>whole
-nation</i> a bad character in the eyes of these people, while
-a right bearing may make it appear worthy of their
-admiration. Philips-Wolley further points out that the
-taking of “big bags” of game in far-off hunting grounds<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">30</a>
-should not be considered merely from the point of view
-of stay-at-home people, but from the point of view of
-those who have special knowledge of the districts in
-question.</p>
-
-<p>The time has passed when far-off lands were secured
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span>
-in this way. But I would wish for the German sportsman
-that he may, so far as is possible, visit the splendid
-hunting grounds that he can now find in the German
-colonies, and there become familiar with the chase in
-forms that our homeland can no longer offer to him.
-The more brethren of the green-coated guild go abroad
-nowadays, and bring us tidings of the fauna and of the
-hunting grounds of the German colonies, the more will
-our knowledge of this difficult subject be enlarged, and
-we shall be in a better position for working out practical
-protective regulations for the preservation of these splendid
-hunting grounds.</p>
-
-<p>And what a deep charm for the hunter there is in
-pursuing the chase in such regions! It is true that
-circumstances have so greatly changed in a few decades
-of years that the old hunters&mdash;say those of fifty years
-ago&mdash;would probably not be able to take the same deep
-delight in the sport of to-day that they felt in their own
-time. It was quite a different matter to go out to meet
-the dangerous wild beasts of Africa with the simple
-weapons, the muzzle-loaders, of that time. True, the
-African hunters, whom Professor Fritsch made acquaintance
-with in Cape Colony about the time of the ‘sixties,
-already possessed long-range weapons. They used
-“small-bore rifles” firing an elongated bullet that carried
-up to 1,500 yards. These rifles were fitted with ivory
-sights and silver sighting-lines, for shooting at night. A
-hunter named Layard was at that time famous in Cape
-Colony for having brought down an ostrich at 1,750
-yards!
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span></p>
-
-<p>Let us follow for once the wanderings of a hunter
-in East Africa, and give ourselves up completely to the
-charm of such a sporting expedition. No one is better
-fitted for making himself acquainted with lands that are
-remote, difficult of access and unhealthy, than the sportsman,
-who, even in such tracts of country, can find
-enjoyment. Besides the greater or less delight that the
-chase itself affords, much besides that is beautiful and
-desirable will present itself to him.</p>
-
-<p>When he has got his caravan together he enjoys in
-the first place the feeling of primitive untrammelled life
-in the wilderness. We see, indeed, how amongst those
-who belong to the most highly developed of civilised
-nations, even in our own days, the need of some dim
-reflection of this life makes itself plainly felt. Thus,
-especially in America, we see how many dwellers in cities
-spend some days out ill the woods and prairies, in order
-to enjoy there for some time under the tent the pleasures
-of camp-life.</p>
-
-<p>In a land which, like Africa, harbours all kinds of
-dangers, we must leave all hesitation behind us. In fact,
-the charm of danger must be an attraction to the huntsman.
-He has to justify the confidence of his followers and of
-his comrades. The natives who come in contact with
-him will by his bearing and conduct form their judgment
-of all his compatriots, and of his native land as a whole.
-So there imposes itself on him the duty of regarding
-himself as <i>a representative of his nation</i>. Though
-he is justified, if it comes to that, in defending his life
-even by bloodshed, he will nevertheless seek, as far as
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span>
-is possible, to enter into friendly relations with the native
-tribes. In many districts of Africa the European will
-traverse, with altogether superior weapons in his hands,
-countries whose inhabitants still fight with nearly the
-same weapons that were borne by prehistoric tribes. But
-notwithstanding this, he must remember that his superiority
-rests chiefly on the prestige that the European possesses
-in presence of the black man. But this prestige will not
-suffice, especially at night, to keep off all attacks. It is
-therefore necessary that proper precaution should be the
-rule. This is in the long run not such an easy matter,
-for generally in the midst of apparent peace no one will
-think of the possibility of an attack. But it often takes
-place without warning; and thefts at night will also sometimes
-happen. In short, the middle course between
-necessary precaution and needless nervousness is not
-always easy for the traveller to hit upon.</p>
-
-<p>But all this, to a great extent, adds to the charm of
-that wild caravan life. There is something endlessly
-alluring in thus going out into the open country with all
-one’s belongings, pitching one’s camp by some pleasant
-place where there is water, and under shady trees, and
-wandering, free as the birds, wheresoever the desire or
-wish of the moment leads one. Of course, if no shady
-trees are to be found, if the water tastes strongly of natron,
-or looks more like pea-soup than clear spring-water, if
-swarms of mosquitoes annoy one in the night, and flies
-and other insects in the daytime, all this must be put
-up with as a part of this wild life. Free as the birds,
-we can indeed choose our way, but with the everlasting
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span>
-restriction that it lies where water is to be found, and that
-we can secure supplies.</p>
-
-<p>But with a little good-humour one can get over all
-this, especially if one keeps before one’s eyes the fact
-that there are many worse things here, such as malaria,
-dysentery, and all the other numerous tropical diseases
-with which these lands are so lavishly supplied. But we
-could not find greater enjoyment in the primitive beauty
-and charm of this wilderness, even if all this were
-not so.</p>
-
-<p>It is true that the hunter in Equatorial Africa cannot
-obtain such splendid trophies as the stag’s antlers, that
-marvellous structure built up by an animal organism, and,
-according to R&ouml;hrig’s striking researches, renewed again
-year after year in about eighteen weeks. But instead
-there beckon to him other prizes&mdash;the mighty horns of
-the buffalo, the heavily knotted horns of the eland, the
-strong spiral horns of the two species of kudus, the
-variously shaped horns of the cow-antelopes, the sword-like
-horns of the oryx-antelope, all the beautiful variously
-shaped antelope and gazelle horns, and many others
-that make most delightful trophies, and will be still more
-highly valued the more sportsmen go to these distant
-countries, and the more these treasures, often so difficult
-to obtain, are understood. The mighty weapons
-of the elephant, that glitter white in the sun, the
-uncouth horns from the head of the rhinoceros or the
-tusks of the hippopotamus, the head of a giant crocodile
-bristling with teeth, the plain and yet so eagerly
-coveted hide of the King of the Desert, and the glaringly
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span>
-variegated skin of the leopard&mdash;all these are souvenirs
-and trophies that have the greatest charm for the hunter;
-of the greatest charm and value if he himself has taken
-them, and not merely (to use the sharp words with which
-Roosevelt scourges such practices) contracted for their
-capture. The German sportsman must contend for all
-these trophies against certain unsportsmanlike elements,
-such as the Boers, who unfortunately seem to be now
-exterminating the wild animals on Kilimanjaro; but they
-belong to the sportsman much more than to such as these.
-German hunters should not hesitate to take by sportsmanlike
-methods their fair share of the stock of big game,
-and in this way, as has long been the case in India and
-Ceylon, a code of customs of the chase will grow up in
-the German colonies, suited to the special circumstances
-of the country. In a publication by Captain Schlobach,
-that is well worth reading, it was recently stated that the
-military posts at Olgoss and Sonjo on the Masai uplands
-were continually at starvation point, and, in default of
-other supplies, had often recently been provisioned entirely
-with the spoils of the chase.<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> What would not German
-sportsmen (who contribute such large sums to the colonies)
-have given to be able to shoot these wild animals, and
-at the same time to help to spread in our colonies the
-ideals of the chase as understood in Germany, and to
-assist in the general recognition and success of German
-sportsmanship!</p>
-
-<p>Our knowledge of the animal world of foreign lands
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span>
-is gradually increasing to such a satisfactory extent that not
-only do we find a general interest taken in the wild life and
-the hunting grounds of our colonies, but we shall also be
-in a position to introduce adequate measures of protection
-for this beautiful fauna.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i226" src="images/i226.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>THE NY&Iacute;KA: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>In our colonies much has been lately done towards
-clearing up the hitherto hidden secrets of animal life. But
-if one remembers how many different opinions there are,
-even amongst authorities at home in Germany, with regard
-to many of the questions relating to our home fauna, one
-will pass a more lenient judgment on the many sharp
-controversies about matters of this kind in the tropics.</p>
-
-<p>But nothing of value is to be hoped for from controversial
-strife over divergent theories. All men who
-have acquired expert knowledge on these difficult matters
-should rather unite in a common task, and strive by co-operation
-to obtain some adequate result.</p>
-
-<p>In the wide British colonial possessions in Africa very
-extensive reservations have been established, in which no
-one is allowed to harm the animals. The practice of
-making exceptions in favour of certain officials has not
-been found to answer, and has been given up. So now
-wide districts of British Africa rank as animal sanctuaries.</p>
-
-<p>In German Africa, too, the authorities have tried, as far
-as they can, to obtain useful results by similar methods.
-Unfortunately serious events of many kinds are daily
-contributing to the diminution in numbers of the fauna
-of German Africa. Thus the war in South-West Africa
-is sweeping away the still surviving stock of wild animals
-as with an iron broom.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span></p>
-
-<p>In the face of all this, all parties concerned should take
-their share in common action. Our museums should be
-provided with the necessary material. Even if our knowledge
-of the African fauna has made sufficient progress, it
-further concerns us to exert an educating and informing
-influence on every pioneer of our colonies, so that he may
-not come in contact with that beautiful animal world in
-utter ignorance of it. Unfortunately we are still greatly
-wanting in this respect. However, in recent years a great
-amount of material has been placed at the disposal of
-the museums by our colonial officers, officials, and private
-individuals. Many of them have even made important
-contributions to our special knowledge of the animal
-world.</p>
-
-<p>But now, whether it is a question of tracing out the
-hidden and unknown life and ways of that equatorial
-animal world that has come into our possession, or of
-investigating the customs and languages of races that are
-barely discovered, or of tracking the horrors of tropical
-diseases and the germs that excite them and becoming
-master of that miniature world of life with the lens and the
-microscope, or of going into the wilderness as a sportsman&mdash;the
-men who devote themselves to all these pursuits
-will be led onwards by that spell, whose name the reader
-guesses, the spell of unchanged primeval conditions and
-untouched nature!</p>
-
-<p>May as many as possible of our German sportsmen go
-forth into our tropical possessions and yield themselves up
-to this spell! That which in our hunting grounds at home
-speaks to their hearts in the rustling of the oak and beech
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span>
-woods and on familiar moors and fields, they will find
-in a far higher degree in that far-off wilderness under the
-German flag. Returning home, may they, working in
-unison, and by mutually supplying what each may lack,
-bring into existence some splendid memorial of the joys of
-German sport.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="VI">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i231" src="images/i231.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>ORYX ANTELOPES TAKING TO FLIGHT.</small></span>
-</span>
-
-VI<br />
-
-The Lonely Wonder-world of the Ny&iacute;ka</h2>
-
-<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">The</span> endless wilderness of the Ny&iacute;ka presents to the
-traveller so much that is strange, beautiful, and
-wonderful that at times his senses become wearied of
-these changing impressions of travel, and a longing comes
-over him for the familiar scenes he has learned to love
-at home.</p>
-
-<p>As though in giant characters written on its rocks, the
-Ny&iacute;ka tells us of the conditions and the life of the past
-and at the same time of everyday actualities, giving us
-its message as well by its snow-covered volcanic peaks
-as in the footprints and tracks of the mighty creatures
-that wander through it. It is a difficult undertaking to
-reconstruct in fancy all the splendours that must once
-have presented themselves to the eye in this region. But
-nevertheless I will tell of what I have looked upon in
-the past,&mdash;of the many beautiful sights that linger in my
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span>
-memory and rise up like the shadows of a mirage,&mdash;of
-the delightful manifestations of its moving life, coming
-and going on hill and in valley, as strange, wondrous, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span>
-unfamiliar forms reveal themselves to the astonished
-spectator.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i232" src="images/i232.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>A VELT HILLOCK. THE SOLITARY TREE WAS FULL OF NESTS OF
-WEAVER-BIRDS.</small></p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The mystery of a deep harmonious influence belongs
-to the mighty wilderness. It reveals itself in its full
-beauty to him who has strenuously acquired a love for
-it by making a long sojourn in it and paying to it the
-tribute it demands.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>A stony wilderness extends endlessly on all sides, and
-the sight ranges without limit over the expanse that loses
-itself in mist and cloud. A barren stony sea, as far as
-the eye can reach!</p>
-
-<p>But it is not the velt or the African desert that lies
-below us as we rise one moment a hundred yards above
-the surface of the earth and the next three hundred
-yards and more. It is the sea of houses that form the
-capital of the German Empire.... In a few seconds
-the view takes in all the full extent of the mighty city,
-and then, as if in a dream, what we have just seen
-disappears from our sight. Borne by a breeze, of which
-we are hardly aware, our balloon sweeps towards the
-Baltic Sea.... It is a strange feeling thus to enjoy,
-thanks to our lofty point of outlook, an extended view
-far over the level March of Brandenburg with its teeming
-population all below us, a view which, old as the world
-is, has been vouchsafed to few mortal men. The city,
-with all its human life and activity, lies far below us. Its
-roar and tumult, that strange voice of the stony sea, has
-died away. We begin to make a long journey only a
-few hundred feet above the surface of the earth. Later
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span>
-on we rise, sailing through banks and clouds to a height
-of nine thousand feet above the earth, but before this
-higher ascent we have time and leisure to take a bird’s-eye
-view of “all that creeps and flies.” What an outlook
-over forest and plain! As we fly over them, horses
-grazing in paddocks, cattle on the pastures, for a moment
-suggest to me an illusion of the African velt peopled
-with its wild life. The eye, again and again fascinated
-by this prospect as a whole, can hardly grasp the details.
-Now our course is over endless open heaths, over moors
-and woodlands. The fleet-footed red deer, frightened by
-the drag-rope, look up in astonishment and stare at the
-strange monster, not knowing whither to turn in flight
-from such a menacing apparition. How the strange
-monster was a few hours later within a hair’s breadth of
-burying us in the waves of the Baltic Sea is another
-story....</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i234" src="images/i234.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ’NGAPTUK, ABOUT</small> 6,000 <small>FEET HIGH. THE CLEARNESS OF THE AIR MAKES IT LOOK AS IF THE
-ASCENT COULD BE QUICKLY MADE, BUT IT IS A WORK OF SEVERAL HOURS. I CLIMBED IT IN</small> 1899&mdash;<small>THE FIRST ASCENT
-BY A EUROPEAN. IN THE RAVINE RUNNING UP ON THE LEFT I FOUND SEVERAL ELEPHANTS. IN THE DRY SEASON THESE
-HILLS ARE THE RESORT OF NUMBERS OF RHINOCEROSES.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>How many hundred times, after I had gone back to
-the Dark Continent, have I wished for such a lofty
-observatory, an airship that would bear me over velt
-and desert, and from which I could fathom all the secrets
-of the animal world of the tropics, instead of having to
-travel toilsomely, fettered to the earth, often merely
-making step after step automatically in the blazing heat
-of the sun. When one day such a wish as this is fulfilled,
-that animal world in its beauty and splendour will have
-to a great extent passed away....</p>
-
-<p>I must, therefore, content myself with lofty observatories
-of another kind, that are not unfrequently
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span>
-to be found in the Masai uplands, in the form of
-numerous hills and rock masses. These afford splendid
-views and pictures of the animal creation to the spectator
-who waits patiently on their summits for hours and
-days, and has the help of good optical instruments. What
-life and activity displays itself there before our eyes
-under favourable circumstances! Though the wilderness
-may appear a desert solitude, bare and empty of all
-life, let only a few hours go by and the sun change
-its position a little, and already one sees movement under
-the trees and bushes that have been till now casting
-deep shadows. Then with measured steps, prudently
-regardful of their safety, all kinds of animals come forth
-to graze. We see the different wild species appearing,
-at first a few individuals, and soon in greater or smaller
-herds.</p>
-
-<p>How far the eye carries in this clear transparent
-atmosphere, and what a wide tract of country we are
-able to overlook! In this tropical brightness, after weeks
-and months, and even years, I could not get rid of the
-perplexing illusion as to distances. The tract of country
-that my sight could command seemed always much
-less extensive than it really was. And again, we were
-continually being misled by shimmering reflections of the
-air, so that we took gnus for elephants, ostriches for
-rhinoceroses, zebras for wild asses, and we might even
-hold to our mistaken view for a considerable time. He
-who wants to watch the living animals in this way from
-a lofty point of observation, must be able to keep on
-persistently for hours. Thus only will the scene piece
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span>
-by piece become familiar to him. Thus only will all
-the moving life below him very gradually combine into
-one splendid and intelligible picture.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i238" src="images/i238.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>ONE OF MY LOOK-OUT PLACES ON THE PLATEAU BETWEEN KILIMANJARO AND MOUNT MERU.</small></p>
-</div>
-
-<p>On the way to my look-out hill I pass thousands of
-the tracks made by wild animals.</p>
-
-<p>At the very outset, the traveller from northern lands
-sees a most surprising sight in those hundreds of thousands
-of tracks made by wild animals, and faithfully preserved for
-weeks and even for longer periods in the dry season on the
-plains of Africa. The giants of the animal world leave
-behind them their mighty footprints, often for nearly
-a year, holes in which a man will sometimes break his
-leg. But the footprints of the smaller animals also last
-a long time on velt and plain. And the language of
-the wilderness rises to a most effectual appeal to our
-senses when these tracks are associated with the marked
-tarry scent of the waterbuck in the bush, the breath of
-the great wild herds on the plain, the strong scent left
-by elephant or rhinoceros in the primeval forest and in
-the sultry thickets, and the scent of the buffalo among
-the reed-beds.</p>
-
-<p>There is often a chaos of tracks, a wild maze of
-paths trodden flat as a barn-floor, crossing each other,
-and then again uniting, so that the idea of tame herds,
-mentioned before as at times suggested, can no longer
-hold good.</p>
-
-<p>To-day we have again waited patiently to see the
-wilderness gradually come to life in the hours of the
-afternoon. And we have not been disappointed.</p>
-
-<p>Out from the shadows of scattered groups of trees
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span>
-there march great herds of the white-bearded gnus, that
-remind one so of small buffaloes. Slowly they make
-their way to the more open grazing ground and disperse
-themselves over it. But careful watch is kept by a few
-of them&mdash;the bulls that lead the herds, experienced old
-fellows! Under their guardianship the herd feels itself
-perfectly safe. There is also an unusually large drove
-of the wonderfully graceful impallah or black-tailed antelope.
-What a remarkable contrast is presented as the
-herds mingle together! The gnus, strongly built, haughty
-in their bearing, conscious of their strength against
-all animal foes, stand out wonderfully amongst their
-almost too graceful comrades, the impallah-antelopes.
-We can plainly distinguish that the females and those
-that are accompanied by young ones keep more together,
-while the bucks of the impallah-antelopes keep apart
-and look after their safety.</p>
-
-<p>Now a dark black mass slowly separates itself from
-a large group of trees. It is followed by several forms
-that do not so easily catch the eye. Our field-glasses tell
-us that a small flock of ostriches has come to mix with
-the wild species already noted. Now there are perhaps
-well over three hundred head of these three kinds of
-wild animals united together in one gathering. They
-are used to come together in the most friendly way,
-without apparently taking much notice of each other.
-For a long time the sight of these creatures, all so
-different, holds us fascinated. But our optical instruments
-must restlessly explore the distance for new sights of
-the animal kingdom; and at the same time there are even
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span>
-better instruments of investigation at work&mdash;the eyes of
-my black companions.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i243" src="images/i243.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>HERD OF BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i244" src="images/i244.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A HERD OF BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES PHOTOGRAPHED AFTER STALKING THEM WITH THE CAMERA FOR HALF AN HOUR.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>“Pharu, bwana!” now whispers one of my men,
-and points cautiously with his arm down to a certain
-point on the plain. His caution, however, is not necessary,
-for it is at a distance of at least a thousand yards that
-his sharp eyes have distinguished the outlines of two
-almost invisible rhinoceroses that are moving slowly
-through a group of acacias. What an effect that word
-“pharu” has upon me! For once more there has come
-close to me one of those strange, mighty beings that
-really belong to a time long passed, and which, like the
-elephant, the giraffe, the zebra, the gnu, and a few other
-forms, lend to the wilderness the charm of primeval
-days. Naturally still stronger is the effect of the cry
-of “Tembo!” on the hunter and the watcher amid such
-scenes. “Elephant!” This name electrifies even the
-weariest traveller. But when the word is “Twigga!”
-(“Giraffe!”)&mdash;even here in Europe the strange, slender-necked
-creature, moving in some acacia wood all flooded
-with the sunlight, comes up bodily before me&mdash;bodily and
-plainly to be seen, but alas, only in imagination!</p>
-
-<p>After trying for a minute, I succeed in getting the
-massive creatures sharply defined in the middle of the
-field of my glass. But the clear view of them is
-something that comes and goes. Several times it looks
-as if the velt had swallowed them up; then they suddenly
-come into sight again, being specially visible to the eye
-when they show themselves sideways. Seen from front
-or rear, particularly when at rest, they are all but invisible.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span>
-We are in luck; the rhinoceroses are ambling towards
-us, and come nearer and nearer, slowly following the
-line of some hollows in the ground.</p>
-
-<p>Now, borne on strong pinions, and brightly illuminated
-by the sunbeams, one of the great bustards cuts through
-the sea of air, and sinks down into some low ground
-far away below us. This is not an unusual sight in the
-late hours of the afternoon, and soon after we see not
-only some more of the same species, but also three
-other bustards of a smaller and commoner species that is
-more active in flight. It is the <i>Otis gindiana</i>, which I
-have got to like so much on account of its charming
-gambols on the wing, that must be a pleasure to every
-lover of birds. At this time of day it carries on this
-strange tumbling in the air, and if the day is hot and
-dry it makes for the neighbourhood of the water, or in
-any case for certain hollow places of the velt that
-provide it with at least a certain amount of soft vegetable
-food. Another picture! A great flock of splendidly
-coloured crested cranes wings its strong undulating flight
-and goes away over the hill. I notice in the air the
-striking appearance of the snake-vulture and a pair of
-the nimble-winged Bateleur eagles, the “sky apes” of
-the Abyssinians. My gaze follows them eagerly into the
-distance.... In what various ways the bird world displays
-its mastery of the realms of air! Our attention is riveted
-now on the quiet gliding flight of the vulture in the
-highest levels of the air, now on the spectacle of a
-struggle in the air between some birds of prey and
-some ravens or bee-eaters that are annoying them.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span>
-Searching the ground as it goes, the augur buzzard (<i>Butco
-augur</i>) wings its flight over the stone-strewn slopes
-of the adjacent hill. Bateleur eagles wheel in graceful
-circles high in air, let themselves fall down for several
-yards, and then shoot up again heavenward. For hours
-at a time they will carry on their strong-winged circling
-and plunging through the realm of air, apparently without
-effort or fatigue. Various kinds of kites show themselves
-in their oscillating flight, that makes them always
-so clever at escaping the gun; amongst them large
-numbers of Montagu’s harrier (<i>Circus pygargus</i>, L.), which
-at certain times of the year range restlessly over the
-velt. Hawks and sparrow-hawks wing their rapid flight
-in search of prey. In short, every kind and form of
-bird flight that one can imagine! For instance, the
-proud majestic flight of the larger species of vultures is
-essentially distinct from the heavy flight of the small
-Egyptian vultures (<i>Neophron percnopterus</i>, L.), whose
-flight the Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria most aptly
-described, when he remarked that at a distance the bird
-might easily be mistaken for a stork.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i249" src="images/i249.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>BLACK-TAILED ANTELOPE BUCK PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE BUSH AT A DISTANCE OF ABOUT EIGHTY YARDS.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i250" src="images/i250.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>A HERD OF ANTELOPES PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE BUSH AT FIFTY YARDS.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>It is indeed a great pleasure to follow with the eye
-all the wondrously beautiful types of flight that the
-African birds of prey present to us. The <i>enormous
-numbers of birds of prey</i>, in a land that is nevertheless
-so rich in wild life, ought to suggest some salutary
-reflections to those who, here at home, with such dogged
-persistence wage war with guns and pole-traps against
-those creatures, which are so great an ornament to the
-landscape. For my part, I would on every point support
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span>
-the proposals of experienced men, like Freiherr von
-Besserer of Munich and Dr. von Bocksberger of Marburg,
-who advocate protection even for our birds of prey, at
-least within the Government domains. “Let us try,”
-says Von Besserer, “still to preserve them at least
-within certain limits. Let us grant them some few places
-of refuge. Let us not arraign them too strictly for
-every theft, so that future generations may also enjoy
-the spectacle of their beautiful flight.”</p>
-
-<p>And now it seems, as if on some gigantic chess board,
-move after move is being made on the plain below us.
-We have hardly remarked the wild species already noted,
-when we suddenly find ourselves perplexed as to which
-point we shall first direct our gaze to, which is to attract
-the special attention of our eyes. To our right, two great
-herds of zebras come rolling along, and ever as they
-move are now plainly visible, now almost disappear, as
-if in regular alternation. To our left, on the crest of a
-ridge that rises there, suddenly sharply defined silhouettes
-appear&mdash;again it is a herd of gnus, and this time clearly
-one that numbers at least a hundred and fifty head. While
-our attention is still attracted by this beautiful spectacle,
-my trusty comrade Abdallah suddenly lays his hand upon
-my arm and, only with a glance of his eyes, indicates the
-little valley that lies stretched out below our feet. This
-time there is good excuse for his caution. For there,
-looking as if they were cast in bronze, two of the wonderfully
-beautiful giraffe-gazelles stand staring up in astonishment
-at the place where we are posted. It may well be
-that these timid children of the wilderness here had never
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span>
-yet been disturbed by the strange sight of a human figure.
-“Ny&oacute;gga-ny&oacute;gga!” whispered the lips of my comrade.</p>
-
-<p>It is not often that one has the chance of seeing the
-ny&oacute;gga-ny&oacute;gga at such close quarters, and besides,
-it is extremely difficult to watch it without being noticed
-by it. It is so completely lost to sight in its surroundings,
-and is so extremely timid and watchful, that I have very
-seldom indeed succeeded in observing this splendid animal
-before it has itself remarked my presence. When I succeeded
-it was almost invariably towards evening when
-it had come out to feed. It is worth while to take full
-advantage of such moments, for the slightest disturbance
-instantly drives it away. And so it was now. It was
-not long before the two ny&oacute;gga-ny&oacute;gga, with their long
-necks stretched out, disappeared in the hollows of the
-broken ground that extended below the place where we
-stood. After this I caught sight of them a few times
-standing amongst the clumps of acacias, timid, surprised,
-and watchful; then the gazelles betook themselves to the
-protection of the wide velt, looking like mere points in
-the distance.</p>
-
-<p>To me it seems as if the sonorous name that the Swahili
-language gives them, and also the softer name that sounds
-so sweetly in the mouth of a Masai,&mdash;“Nanyad,”&mdash;best
-and most fitly express their beauty, strangeness, and grace.</p>
-
-<p>Again we turn our attention to all that is going on
-below us. This time it is the rhinoceroses, which have
-approached to within a few hundred yards of my post, that
-most engage our attention. We observe how they nibble
-here and there at the boughs of the <i>Salvadora persica</i> and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span>
-other shrubs, and then again rub their rough hide or their
-horns against the strong trunk of a tree or on a block of
-stone. They have all this time been coming gradually
-nearer to the herd of gnus that we first noticed, and now
-at last they stand quietly on the level ground, only a
-hundred paces away from the old gnu-bulls which are
-acting as sentinels.</p>
-
-<p>And now it is I myself who am the first to make out
-with the glass a third rhinoceros. “Wapi, bwana?” my
-companion eagerly asks me, and as I point out to him the
-place on the velt where I have picked the animal out,
-he approvingly confirms my observation with the remark:
-“Ndio, bwana, pharu mkubwa sana” (“Yes, master, a
-very big rhinoceros!”)</p>
-
-<p>After some time we see that it is an old and unusually
-large bull; he, too, has gradually taken the same
-line as his two colleagues. Our observation proves to
-be correct, and we also remark before long that the
-first pair of rhinoceroses we had noticed is made up of
-an old cow and her nearly grown up young one.</p>
-
-<p>More herds of zebras and gnus, and small troops of
-Grant’s gazelles and of impallah-antelopes have come
-into sight, and now they are joined by a whole crowd
-of hartebeests, which so far have kept themselves hidden
-in a side valley of the velt full of thick tall grass.</p>
-
-<p>And now the moving mass of animal life is ever more
-abundant, more varied. I notice in the valley at the foot
-of my hill a string of guinea-fowl; how they hurry and
-scurry about, flutter up with sounding strokes of their
-wings, and then soon drop down again! And now my
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span>
-attention is attracted by a pair of Bateleur eagles, that
-wheel in the air, and enjoy themselves for an hour at a
-time playing on the wing. They probably have made their
-eyrie not far from this spot.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i257" src="images/i257.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>MASAI HARTEBEESTS</small> (<i><small>BUBALUS COKEI</small></i>, Gth.) (<small>THE “KONGONI” OF THE SWAHILI, “OL-KONDI” OR “OL-LUDJULUDJULA”
-OF THE MASAI</small>).</p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i258" src="images/i258.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>GIRAFFE GAZELLE</small> (<i><small>LITHOCRANIUS WALLERI</small></i>, Brooke) <small>STANDING IN ITS CHARACTERISTIC ATTITUDE BEFORE TAKING TO FLIGHT.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>For minutes at a time the cry of the francolin rings
-out clearly round about my post; then again it is silent.
-My eyes can indeed see animals of many kinds, and my
-sight ranges with restless efforts over the far distance; but
-so far I have looked in vain for a form that is frequent and
-familiar enough in this wilderness&mdash;the towering figure of
-the “Twigga.”</p>
-
-<p>Where can the giraffes be hiding to-day? Why have
-they not come out to the still freshly green acacias in the
-far-stretching hollow to my left, where I have already
-marked their presence for whole days at a time?</p>
-
-<p>And yet they are there, only I had failed to distinguish
-them. At last I can make out their strange forms, as they
-graze there among the acacias, and they stand out sharply
-under the oblique rays of the sun.</p>
-
-<p>What poetry there is in the movements of all the
-various organisms that our eyes behold! Every variety of
-gait, from the heavy, swinging, and nevertheless rapid
-march of the pachyderms to the graceful speed of a pretty
-gazelle, speaks in a language of its own to him who has
-become familiar with the peculiar movements of this
-animal world. Just as at the outset the strange appearance
-of an animal one sees for the first time makes a
-surprisingly strong impression on one, so too does the
-great difference in the gait of the various species. But
-they were all soon familiar to me. So now at the sight of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span>
-the giraffes I feel a pleasure and delight in their quaint
-coming and going, their heads appearing and disappearing,
-there below me in the midst of the green bowers of
-mimosa leaves, high over which my view ranges. What
-laws must be at work here too, by whose operation I am
-compelled to feel all this to be so beautiful, so harmonious,
-so splendid! I grasp the meaning of the words:
-“Therefore I believe that life will first open its eyes in
-that world of which Goethe said: ‘There is still the life
-of life, and this is only form.’”<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">32</a></p>
-
-<p>What a splendid sight there is from my lofty look-out!
-the whole of this mighty spectacle displays itself almost
-without a sound that I can hear. Only a few voices of
-birds, but no cry of any other animal reaches my ears.
-But as the breeze rises more and more towards evening,
-there begins in my immediate neighbourhood a strange
-and beautiful concert, that is already familiar to me. And
-now, as the wind blows more and more strongly through
-the perforated gall-nuts that hang on every tree above
-us, there resounds through the desert silence a strange
-melody, a strange language of musical notes that only
-the sound of the &AElig;olian harp can to some degree
-represent.</p>
-
-<p>These nut-galls on the acacias are bored quite through,
-and in many cases become the dwelling-places of small
-ants. If one disturbs them by tapping on the outside of
-their strange habitation,<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> they come swarming out to fight
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span>
-with the disturber of their peace! It is not so often that
-their strange ways and doings concern a human being,
-but it comes to pass to-day. The watchful observer
-takes delight not only in the sound of these strange
-musical instruments, but also in the thought that they
-give shelter to a little world of their own, a peculiarly
-organised little state made up of living beings, just as the
-wide endless wilderness below them is a state with the
-various larger wild animals for its inhabitants.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i262" src="images/i262.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>GRANT’S GAZELLES</small> (<i><small>GAZELLA GRANTI</small></i>, Brooke).</p></div>
-
-<p>My diary records yet another kind of natural observatory,
-a giant tree uprooted on a wooded river-bank. Here,
-as it were, in the gallery of the wood, the huge trunk
-felled by the storm-wind offered me an inviting seat among
-its branches, and thence I enjoyed many a sight of the
-animal world around.</p>
-
-<p>There I had a view of the river close at hand, and
-farther away many clearings of the wood, which at this
-time of the year showed a rich display of animal life. The
-ripening forest fruits had attracted into this neighbourhood
-large packs of baboons. It was good to watch their busy
-activity as I looked down from my observatory, where I
-sat hidden by a thick growth of creeper. Great herds
-of antelopes, and especially waterbuck and Grant’s
-gazelles, are regularly to be found in these wide clearings
-of the woods. I remember some hours of the afternoon
-when the life of the forest displayed itself here in a way
-that suggested Paradise. I saw at the same time a large
-drove of the graceful, wonderful pallahs, and, grazing
-in their immediate neighbourhood, some twenty Grant’s
-gazelle bucks which had joined together to form a great
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span>
-herd. The antelopes had scattered themselves over part
-of the clearing, feeding on the fresh growing grass there,
-but all the while keeping themselves somewhat apart
-from the herd of gazelles. But they had gradually drawn
-near to a party of waterbuck which were standing under
-an old shady tree, and now I had an opportunity of
-watching for a long time these three varieties of antelope,
-all so beautiful, yet so different. To my surprise, after
-some time they were joined by nine stately eland-antelopes,
-whose white side-stripes made them wonderfully prominent
-among the uniformly coloured coats of the waterbuck.
-Amongst these animals some three hundred baboons were
-moving about with a certain careless self-possession.
-They were all big ones, keenly devoted to the hunt for
-insects, pulling up grass and turning over stones. Some
-of the older individuals meanwhile scrambled up tree
-trunks for a few feet, and thence kept a careful look-out
-for the approach of any possible enemy.</p>
-
-<p>I kept as still as a mouse, knowing well that the
-slightest movement would betray my presence to the
-timid, keen-sighted monkeys.</p>
-
-<p>Now a numerous herd of zebras moved through the
-wood and across the clearing at a slow, careless pace.
-As they moved there was a bright shimmering of the
-variegated stripes of the beautiful “tiger-horses,” and
-again they would often be blurred into one uniform grey.
-They mingled with the waterbuck, which took very little
-notice of them, and evidently had known the zebras for
-a long time. It was wonderful to see the proud waterbuck,
-with their horns, which are at once weapon and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span>
-ornament, and the stallion leaders of the zebra herd all
-continually on the alert watching against their enemies.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i266" src="images/i266.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>TELEPHOTO STUDIES OF VARIOUS ATTITUDES AND MOVEMENTS OF GRANT’S GAZELLES.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>There is a scuttling over the ground, for the little
-mongoose family, that live over there among the ant-hills,
-are making a sally from their fortress. Snake-like
-in their swift movements, the graceful little animals seem
-to glide along. Yonder two snake-vultures are looking
-for reptiles. Numbers of other vultures and marabous
-have flown down to the margin of the shallow water to
-bathe and drink.</p>
-
-<p>Into the midst of all this gathering of animals there
-now come three ostriches, making for the fresh green
-growth along the marshy edge of the river-bank, and
-a number of francolins and guinea-fowl that gradually
-come crowding out of the undergrowth into the clearing
-to feed there. On the sandbank on which I look down
-as it extends far along the course of the river, there are
-some thirty huge crocodiles sunning themselves. I can
-see several smaller specimens of these mail-clad lizards
-on a flat part of the river margin not far from the
-sandbank.</p>
-
-<p>Yesterday, too, six giant hippopotami paid a visit to
-this sandbank on the primeval river, and left tracks that
-my eye can plainly see in the glowing sunshine; to-day,
-however, I have waited in vain for them to show themselves.
-But suddenly from the reed-beds on the opposite
-bank of the stream the mighty voice of an old bull comes
-booming across to me.</p>
-
-<p>Over this most peaceful picture of animal life the
-tropical sun blazes, casting deep shadows. At this hour
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span>
-of the day even the voices of the birds are generally
-silent. Only the melodious piping of the organ-shrike
-sounds somewhere near me, and often, too, the cries of
-one or other of the baboons which is being corrected with
-bangs and cuffs by an older member of the pack.</p>
-
-<p>All the various kinds of animals assembled here get
-on quite peacefully together. They often almost touch
-each other, without taking the slightest notice of one
-another. Even the antelope bucks, adorned with dangerously
-pointed horns, make not the slightest use of their
-sharp weapons against the other species. All the time
-that I was looking down from my lofty seat I saw nothing
-but peace and good-fellowship. And yet how quickly a
-tragedy might interrupt this stillness and peace! The
-tracks of lions and leopards down there, the crocodiles
-on the sandbank, and the vultures hovering in the air
-told me that.</p>
-
-<p>Often in this, and in other places, I have gained an
-insight into the life and ways of the animal world, and
-I have thus passed many enjoyable hours. Now one,
-now another species presented itself to my observation,
-but it was seldom that I saw such a large number of
-different species at <i>the same time</i>. But in all cases I
-have found that man is a disturbing element in the
-midst of such pictures of the animal Paradise. Even
-where I could feel sure that the appearance of a white
-man, a European, was quite unknown to the animals of
-the district, even then the very moment I showed myself
-the immediate result was a panic-stricken flight.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i270" src="images/i270.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>WHITE-BEARDED GNUS AND ZEBRAS TAKING REFUGE FROM THE MIDDAY SUN UNDER THE SHADE OF THE
-MSUALLI TREE.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>I have still clearly before my eyes the picture that
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span>
-presented itself to me as I emerged from the over-growth
-of creepers on the boughs of that uprooted tree.
-First a shrill cry from the monkeys. In a trice the
-little young ones were clinging to their mothers, and
-with long bounds the whole crowd of them galloped
-away over the level ground, hidden in a cloud of dust,
-and disappeared on the far side of the clearing. There
-a good many of them halted to look back. Of all the
-animals known to me only the baboons and the spotted
-hyenas take to flight in this way. The spectacle has
-such a surprisingly strange and unaccustomed, almost
-uncanny effect, that it always recurs to me when I think
-of these animals.</p>
-
-<p>The antelopes follow the example of the fugitive
-baboons, after first rushing hither and thither, right and
-left, leaping wildly into the air. At this moment the
-impallah-antelopes, especially, make a splendid picture.
-Bounding along as if on springs of steel, they shoot
-up several yards high into the air. Wherever the eye
-turns it sees the graceful forms of these beautiful
-animals in all possible positions, making long bounds,
-some four feet high off the ground, and in every other
-attitude that one can imagine. But the end of all these
-splendid pictures, each seen for a moment, is a general
-stampede. Whirling clouds of dust in the far distance
-tell for some time longer which way the fugitives have
-taken.</p>
-
-<p>But it is not every day that such varied pictures,
-so richly stored with the life of the primitive animal world
-of the tropics, present themselves to the traveller. And
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span>
-it needs, too, a trained eye to enjoy all the separate
-impressions in their combined effect, as making up one
-masterpiece of Nature. But often, too, an almost too great
-wealth of beauty gathered together in a small space
-presents itself to our eyes. Thus, more especially, I
-keep a memory of these small idyllic lakes of the wilderness,
-that are hidden away here and there in the Ny&iacute;ka
-district, and give a home to a wealth of animal life that
-often seems almost too abundant. We sometimes find
-one of the most interesting species of the larger mammalia,
-the hippopotamus, living here in somewhat narrow quarters,
-but thus more easily accessible to observation than in
-the great lake basins, where it lives in hundreds or
-thousands, but where also it can much more easily get
-away from the sight of the observer. It is true that
-one can see numerous heads emerging from the water
-in the distance, one can mark the thin spray of water
-blown from their nostrils, forming numbers of little fountain
-jets that glitter in the sun. But the peculiar life and
-activity of these giants of the animal world goes on chiefly
-at night, invisible to our eyes. In the smaller lakes it is
-all different.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i275" src="images/i275.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>IN THE MIDST OF THE VELT IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE GREAT NATRON LAKE I FOUND A SOLITARY OLD ACACIA.
-THE DISTRICT WAS NEARLY WATERLESS. THE TRUNK OF THE TREE SHOWED THE MARKS OF ELEPHANTS THAT HAD
-RUBBED THEMSELVES AGAINST IT.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i276" src="images/i276.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><small>A TYPICAL LANDSCAPE WITH ACACIAS AND SCATTERED BOULDERS&mdash;THE CAMPING PLACE OF MARAGO-KANGA NOT FAR FROM
-THE EASTERN ‘NJIRI SWAMPS. NEAR THIS CAMPING PLACE MY PEOPLE SHOWED ME THE ALMOST UNRECOGNISABLE
-GRAVE OF AN ENGLISH HUNTER WHO HAD BEEN KILLED BY A BUFFALO. I HAD IT PUT IN ORDER, AND MY ASKARI
-(ARMED FOLLOWERS) FIRED A VOLLEY OVER IT.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>I remember with pleasure a certain gathering of
-hippopotami in one of the lakes that lie hidden away
-between Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, and which were
-discovered some years ago by Captain Merker. When
-I saw them there were still living in them some hundreds
-of hippopotami, and it was easy to watch their doings
-in the water. Gathered in herds they played about in
-the water under the bright sunlight, showing little sign
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span>
-of timidity. Especially the young ones, that were still
-going about with their mothers, had so little fear that
-I sometimes saw them rising almost completely out of
-the water. They were also sometimes to be seen resting
-in the sunshine on the sandbanks by the lake margin.
-Some of these lakes were of such small extent that the
-animals had to come up to breathe at a distance of at
-most only some twenty yards from the observer. But all
-the same they were generally inhabited by quite a number
-of hippopotami. It was then a great pleasure to watch these
-beasts for hours at a time, from the lofty look-out place
-provided by the surrounding heights that rose steeply
-from the edge of the lake. They kept up good fellowship
-with the crowds of water and marsh fowl that give life
-to these lakes. All these animals displayed themselves
-to the spectator at as close quarters and as plainly as in
-a zoological garden. The rosy red pelicans fishing in
-flocks of hundreds at a time presented the most charming
-contrast to the uncouth quadrupeds. Even now in fancy
-these lakes come before my sight, lakes that lie far from
-all human ways and doings in a silent solitude. Dark
-clouds float over it. The proximity of the massive and
-dark Mount Meru often causes a cloudy veil to hang over
-that volcanic plateau with its crater lakes. Again I climb
-the steep cliffs that ring them round, and again my gaze
-sweeps over the level surface of the water. But though
-there has been no decrease in the numbers of the waterfowl
-that enliven the lakes, the hippopotami have, alas!
-disappeared. I found on the occasion of my last journey
-a small number still there, but I hear from Professor
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span>
-Sj&ouml;stedt,<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">34</a> the Swedish naturalist, who lately visited these
-lakes, that the hippopotami, who had made the lakes
-their home since dim far-off times, have almost disappeared.
-The Boers<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> have killed everything. I came
-upon one here some years ago who was killing a lot of
-the hippopotami; others have followed up the work of
-this forerunner with more serious results. Attempts to
-make settlers at home in primitive regions are almost
-always inconsistent with a protection of the primitive
-animal world, even though these animals inhabit lonely
-upland lakes, hidden away in the wilderness, far from
-human settlements.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Thus in memory picture follows picture.</p>
-
-<p>Besides the harmonies of the wilderness, the impressions
-of the eye are always those that come back
-alluringly in my recollections. However truly the artist
-may be able to reproduce all these various impressions,
-there is one kind that will always be missing from his
-pictures, namely, all the fleeting <i>movement</i>. To take
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span>
-as an instance only one out of an abundance of forms,
-who can reproduce in pictures the endless variety of birds,
-the world of winged life! Every day added to my knowledge
-of these multitudinous flocks, through the increase
-day by day of my bird collection, which I obtained at
-the cost of much labour, and which has been the means
-of giving to science many hitherto unknown species.
-As I added each new bird to it, I added also to my
-knowledge of these beautiful creatures, as yet so little
-known, and slowly, very slowly I became familiar with
-them. What splendour of forms and colours! In what
-enormous flocks does the feathered race inhabit the
-wilderness and the primeval forest! The Biblical account
-of the flocks of quails in the desert sounds to us like a
-legend, and yet it is no legend. At times when we too
-were marching across the same kind of ground, there flew
-past us with a whirr of many wings huge flocks of quails,
-that sought and found their safety in flight. At times
-I have also seen similar flocks of snipe. How long has
-it been since both these kinds of birds appeared in such
-flocks in our country at home?</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i280" src="images/i280.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>HUNGRY VULTURES NEAR MY TENT ON THE TREELESS VELT.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>The endless variety of form and colour, the movements
-of the animals which the eye perceives under the ever-changing
-tropical light, that shows everything brilliantly
-and sharply defined, all this taken together makes up
-memory-pictures of a charm that nothing can surpass.
-But he only can picture them to himself who has gone
-forth and made them his own.</p>
-
-<p>The huge sea-turtle comes creeping along, emerges
-from the waters of the Indian Ocean, and makes for the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span>
-sandhills to lay its eggs there. Its giant track on the
-sand leads me to its nest. To my astonished eyes this
-peculiar track looks as if a ploughshare had torn through
-the ground.</p>
-
-<p>The Indian Ocean, which is the home of this huge
-sea-turtle, shelters also in quiet bays the strange Dugong
-or sea-cow, and great is the surprise of even the natives
-themselves when from time to time they capture in their
-nets this remarkable creature, which is becoming rarer
-every year.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i283" src="images/i283.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>FORMATION OF A FLOCK OF FLAMINGOES IN FLIGHT.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i284" src="images/i284.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>FLIGHT OF FLAMINGOES</small> (<small>TAKEN AT SHORTER RANGE. THERE WERE THOUSANDS IN THIS FLOCK</small>).</p></div>
-
-<p>In the lagoons one sees emerge from the surface the
-head of a great giant snake, a good five yards long, the
-African python; others I have come upon suddenly<br />
-<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">on the open velt. There are continually thrilling</span><br />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span>
-moments! It may be that memory conjures up for us the
-delightful fairy-like image of a rare dwarf antelope seen
-perhaps once only in the shades of the forest, a dwarf
-antelope that, with strange large eyes and ears alert,
-watches one’s approach, and then like a flash of lightning
-disappears in the thickets; it may be that in memory
-one sees the reddish brown, mud-smeared body of a giant
-elephant emerge from the midst of some densely tangled
-primeval forest; it may be that a tree suddenly bursting
-into bloom yields me a wonderfully beautiful new kind of
-bird, which I grasp in my hand, delighted with its robe
-of feathers; it may be that suddenly the massive giant
-form of a rhinoceros appears before me in the tall grass,
-unexpected, menacing, standing as if chiselled out of stone;
-it may be that my free gaze ranges without limit over the
-wide prospect, and sees in primitive abundance the strange
-life of the tropics; in every case the impressions received
-seem to the beholder fascinating beyond description.</p>
-
-<p>Monotonous as the surroundings of the landscape may
-appear to the newcomer, poor and barren though the
-velt may seem to be for weeks at a time, yet, enlivened
-and permeated by the mighty flood of all this strange
-animal life, it has a beauty and a charm whose influence
-no one can escape who makes his way into the midst
-of it with open heart and eyes.</p>
-
-<p>He who looks around him with clear-sighted vision,
-and tries to see more than others, has revealed to him
-the beauties of Nature in the greatest and most wonderful
-way, and is drawn in the highest sense of the word to
-admiration of them. Here is verified, as Sir Harry
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span>
-Johnston says in his preface to my first book, “the old
-nursery story of eyes and no eyes.”</p>
-
-<p>It is thus that I lie for long hours in the wilderness,
-and observe, admire and enjoy. What a wealth of
-impressions is brought before the eyes among these
-ever-changing, at first strange but gradually familiar sights,
-in the midst of the foreign-looking landscape, bathed in
-a light that has a marvellous influence, and in its full
-power is almost blinding.</p>
-
-<p>Now the dwarfs, and again the giants of the animal
-world rivet our attention. But it is especially the <i>primeval
-abundance</i>, the great profusion of large and small wild
-life, that gives an impression that is now delightful, now
-overwhelming. One must have seen, with the eye of
-the hunter, gigantic old bull-elephants in the primeval
-forest, great herds of rhinoceroses and giraffes in one
-single day, thousands of zebras and antelopes gathered
-together&mdash;one must have felt all this profuse wealth of
-life, to be able to understand its full beauty and grandeur.</p>
-
-<p>Yet there are days when one looks around in vain for
-all this life and activity, when, on account of the weather,
-or some other reason, the animals do not show themselves
-so freely. One must also take due account of the
-extensive periodical migrations of the African fauna.
-<i>Many an erroneous judgment as to the alleged scarcity
-of wild life, in districts in which other hunters pursued
-the chase at an earlier date with success, is to be thus
-explained.</i></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i289" src="images/i289.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>THIS TELEPHOTOGRAPH OF STORKS ON THE WING WILL GIVE SOME IDEA OF THE HUGE FLOCKS IN WHICH THEY START
-ON THEIR NORTHERN MIGRATION IN FEBRUARY.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i290" src="images/i290.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>WHITE STORKS GATHERING FOR THEIR NORTHERN MIGRATION TO EUROPE.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>But, on the other hand, there are also days when
-such an abundance of animal forms presents itself to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">258</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">259</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span>
-our eyes, that the most lively imagination can form no
-idea of all this profusion. On such days, I have often
-wished that one could have a gigantic photographic
-apparatus, an instrument that would be capable of making
-a record of all I saw. But on such days, also, I have
-more than once made a mental apology to explorers
-whose lives have long closed in death. When, for instance,
-in former years I had looked over the sketches of the
-late Cornwallis Harris, sketches showing the life of the
-South African fauna as he saw it about the year 1837,
-I more than once had my doubts about the correctness
-of his representations of it. As the result of what I
-myself have seen, I have quite given up such doubts.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i292" src="images/i292.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>REMAINS OF RHINOCEROSES KILLED BY THE BOERS ON THE SHORE OF ONE OF
-THE MERKER LAKES.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>The original sketches left to us by Cornwallis Harris
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span>
-(which I must say do not always rise to a high level
-From the artistic point of view<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">36</a>) are coloured sketches
-accompanied by descriptions, and show us such multitudes
-of wild animals that they seem to border on the fabulous.
-For we see in them elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes,
-buffaloes, zebras and antelopes, all gathered together in
-crowds, and thus one inclines involuntarily to the opinion
-that all these have been brought together in one picture
-merely to give illustrations of the various species. But
-my own observations have shown me that our artist is
-perfectly correct. One sees how necessary it is to make
-documentary records of such observations. The men of
-a later time, as I plainly realise, may be able to place
-before themselves a picture of all this primitive abundance
-of animal life only with the greatest trouble and by
-means of earnest study of every authority bearing on
-the matter.</p>
-
-<p>Enormous periods of time must have gone by to
-develop all the beauty and splendour of this so varied
-and so highly organised life. My thoughts range over
-far distant times. I see, looking so near that it seems
-as one could touch it with one’s hands, one of the
-mightiest volcanoes of our earth gradually unveiling
-itself and stripping off its robe of clouds. The volcanic
-regions below it remind me of the story of how all my
-surroundings were developed.</p>
-
-<p>Born in fire, and evolved, differentiated, and formed to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">265</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">266</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">267</span>
-so much beauty, which no hostile hand has yet come to
-destroy, the scene around me is so splendid that my eyes
-keep ranging over it, more and more eager to contemplate
-all its splendours.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i295" src="images/i295.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>CRESTED CRANES IN FLIGHT.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i296" src="images/i296.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>IN A WONDERFULLY SHORT TIME VULTURES AND MARABOUS FLY DOWN FROM AN EXTREME HEIGHT IN THE AIR TO FALL
-UPON ANY DEAD ANIMAL.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>A strange feeling comes over me. I think of all the
-beautiful spots of our old world. They have all been
-taken possession of under carefully devised arrangements
-and methods, well protected by the eye of the law, and
-often only occasionally open to access, and then on condition
-of payment. But the beauty I am contemplating
-has now been hopelessly abandoned to intruders, who
-have neither knowledge nor taste nor sense, and who are
-at this moment so barbarously destroying it.</p>
-
-<p>But these thoughts must give way to others that are
-more pleasant and consoling. How wonderful to be able
-to revel in this wilderness, to feel in oneself the influence
-of all these splendours, notwithstanding all dangers and
-all difficulties, however great! Everything around us
-undulates and shimmers, bathed in a dazzling sea of light.
-Gradually the colouring of plain and hills, the dome of the
-sky and the whole surrounding landscape, changes to duller
-and less definite tints. The sun-illumined air rises in
-waves from the earth, and the various strata of it form an
-ever-changing chaos of reflected light. Over all there is
-deep peace. A spell that accords with the mood of the
-moment seems to stream down from the dome of the sky
-over this solitude, lying so far from the noisy activity of
-the world.</p>
-
-<p>All that I here behold has been going on since those
-far times, directed by natural law, in ever-recurring
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">268</span>
-succession. But to-day for the first time a member of
-the complex society of civilisation takes delight in this
-mountain rising amidst all this primeval beauty.</p>
-
-<p>Who could possibly set down this poetry upon paper&mdash;the
-poetry of the velt and its wild inhabitants, the moods
-of East African Ny&iacute;ka? The master of colouring has not
-yet arisen who could give us a picture of these mighty
-gatherings of wild herds, and of these deserts that seem
-overcrowded with animal forms, that yet live so peacefully
-together, nor can the master of the pen, though he may
-have been able by his words to conjure up some idea of
-them in the mind.</p>
-
-<p>One who has perhaps felt and enjoyed their spell more
-than any one else is Alfred Brehm. But he has travelled
-only in regions that had long been under the influence of
-man and his activity. He has only once seen the king of
-beasts, and has never looked upon the giraffe&mdash;whose
-beautiful eyes the Arab compares with the eyes of his
-beloved&mdash;and many other forms of the African fauna.<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">37</a>
-Nevertheless he has done wonders, thanks to his deep
-feeling for his subject, his intimate understanding of it,
-and his incomparably poetical power of description. He
-has given us imperishable pictures in words that are among
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">269</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">270</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">271</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">272</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">273</span>
-the most beautiful that have ever been written about Nature.
-Our old famous teacher, Dr. Schweinfurth, has seen and
-described similar scenes. With these two we may rank in
-equal honour the name of the German explorer Richard
-B&ouml;hm,<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">38</a> who unhappily lost his life so tragically and at such
-an early age on the shores of Lake Up&auml;mba in Southern
-Ur&uacute;a, of which he was the discoverer. Many others
-might also be named who were deeply influenced by these
-primeval splendours. But the fauna of South Africa
-has vanished unsung and untamed, before any artist or
-master of words arose to place in a fitting way its beauties
-on record for all time!</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i301" src="images/i301.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>TELEPHOTOGRAPH OF A HERD OF WATERBUCK</small> (<i><small>COBUS ELLIPSIPRYMNUS</small></i>, Ogilb.) <small>RUNNING AWAY</small>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i302" src="images/i302.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>ORYX ANTELOPES</small> (<i><small>ORYX CALLOTIS</small></i>, Thos.); <small>“CHIROA” OF THE SWAHILI, “OL GAMASSAROK” OF THE MASAI</small>): <small>A MOST DIFFICULT
-ANIMAL TO STALK</small>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Masters of words like Ludwig Heck, by whose
-skilful pen the life of the mammalia has been lately
-described anew for us in Brehm’s <i>Tierleben</i>, and like
-Wilhelm B&ouml;lsche, would perhaps have been capable of
-grasping, and reproducing the impressions that the
-traveller feels in those far lands. But they have never
-trodden these distant countries, and they must therefore
-confine themselves to describing artistically and yet truly
-what they have never actually seen, from ideas based
-on their own clear understanding of the observations
-of others.</p>
-
-<p>The sun is setting. It is time for me to come down
-from my hill and return to my camp. The sun goes to
-his rest in flaming splendour, there is a glowing radiance
-of violet and purple light; soon dark night will surround
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">274</span>
-me. Thoughtfully I tread my homeward way, with my
-mind richly stored with impressions, but anxious as to my
-efforts to describe all that I have seen, and doubtful as
-to my success.</p>
-
-<p>“To have passed a thousand and more days, a
-thousand and more nights in the wilderness with a great
-longing in my heart in some way to grasp and make my
-own all the splendour I have seen and all its charm;
-to have again and again delighted in the beauty of the
-Ny&iacute;ka: this does not make me capable of reproducing
-it. And even if after many decades of years I could
-fully comprehend it, I should never succeed in reproducing
-it in its full significance and bringing it home to the
-minds of those who have never looked upon it with their
-own eyes.”</p>
-
-<p>So runs a passage in my diary.</p>
-
-<p>Descriptions of things similar to those that I have
-told of in inadequate words in these slight sketches of the
-Ny&iacute;ka district of East Africa may be read of other regions
-of our earth. The life and activity of the Arctic fauna,
-of those gigantic creatures of to-day, the whales, and of
-the Polar bears, the musk oxen, the wild reindeer, the
-walruses, the seals&mdash;those most sagacious creatures&mdash;and
-the life of many other animal forms&mdash;all these together
-are waiting for the hand that will describe them in word
-and picture and put on enduring record for all time this
-changing life. Thus only will a new existence be given
-to those forms of life for which the sentence “Vae Victis!”
-has gone forth.</p>
-
-<p>May the master soon appear who will be able to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">275</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">276</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">277</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">278</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">279</span>
-give us a noble and true picture of the East African
-Ny&iacute;ka in all its vast proportions. For, as the night
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">280</span>
-is now descending on the wilderness, so will an everlasting
-night soon come down upon all the life and movement
-that I have tried so inadequately to describe in merest
-outline.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i307" src="images/i307.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>GRANT’S GAZELLES.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i308" src="images/i308.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>HARTEBEESTS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE WESTERN ’NDJIRI SWAMPS.</small></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i310" src="images/i310.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>A PAGE OF MY DIARY SHOWING HOW I NOTED MY MOVEMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
-BY MEANS OF A ROUGH MAP.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>About a century ago the “Twilight of the Gods”
-(<i>G&ouml;tterd&auml;mmerung</i>) began for all the wild life of the Cape
-region of South Africa. Even before these hundred years
-had run out it was ended; this abundant flood of life
-had disappeared....</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i311" src="images/i311.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>BATELEUR EAGLE IN FLIGHT.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">281</span></p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i312" src="images/i312.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>LIKE A ROSY RED CLOUD THE FLAMINGOES FLY DOWN ON THE MARGIN OF THE NATRON LAKE.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">282</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">283</span></p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="VII">
-<span class="figcenter">
-<img id="i314" src="images/i314.jpg" alt="" />
-<span class="caption"><small>A FRANCOLIN PERCHED ON A THORN-BUSH.</small></span></span>
-
-VII<br />
-
-The Voices of the Wilderness</h2>
-
-<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">The</span> German sportsman knows well the mysterious
-charm that speaks to the listener, when in the
-woods in spring he hears the note of the woodcock and
-the cry of the ptarmigan, and when in autumn he hears
-the call of the stag to its mate. It must be that the
-listener is subject to some atavistic influence, some
-impulse rooted in the dim past now quickening into life.</p>
-
-<p>Let him who understands this charm follow me through
-the equatorial wilderness, and listen with me to the music
-of songs and notes that we may call the language of
-the Ny&iacute;ka. We shall hear it there on every side, by
-day and by night. True, fully to understand this language
-one should have King Solomon’s magic power, which
-made its possessor understand the speech of animals, or
-like Siegfried have dipped one’s hand in the blood of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">284</span>
-the dragon, and thus have acquired the gift of holding
-converse with the birds.</p>
-
-<p>This much is certain, in the wildernesses of Africa
-this primeval language is still to be heard. In our hunting
-grounds at home the voices of the aurochs, the bison,
-the ibex, the bear, the lynx, and the wolf have been
-silenced, and many other voices that have belonged to
-the wild open country since primeval days have all but
-died away. I have indeed learned to understand only
-a few words of this language of the wilderness, though
-I have heard thousands of its sounds. But I may be
-able to tell something about it.</p>
-
-<p>What a strong and deep impression this world of
-sound makes upon the traveller at so many hours of the
-day and night! Every region, every different kind of
-country has its own characteristic harmony. One does
-not always hear it&mdash;it depends upon the season of the
-year and the time of the day, on the changes of weather,
-and much else. But when one has become even to some
-small extent familiar and conversant with these various
-voices, one enjoys this music-language Of the Ny&iacute;ka with
-a sense of deep delight and ever growing understanding.
-Sometimes it is most difficult to find out the names of
-the individual speakers. Often they keep very quiet;
-they seem to be like great vocalists on tour: they appear
-suddenly, and then disappear again for a long time,
-without letting one see any more of them. Then the
-traveller may often listen long, in vain, for the singer&mdash;gone
-without leaving a trace behind. But it is not only the
-soloists that charm us. There is also the combined effect
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">285</span>
-of all the voices of nature uniting in one vast impressive
-chorus. This has made such an impression upon me
-that I shall try, so far as my limited powers permit, to
-describe it to the reader. This musical language of the
-wilderness is in itself powerful, rich and impressive, but
-all this in a still greater degree for him who, observing
-things with the eyes of a seer, knows many of the voices
-that resound in it will not be heard much longer.
-Although for long, long ages, through hundreds of
-thousands of years, this tumult of sound has been heard,
-these voices, or many of them, will soon be silent victims
-of civilisation! They are going, and with them many of
-the euphonious names of places with which the natives
-have distinguished every spot, but which the Europeans,
-as they penetrate into the country, feel themselves obliged
-to change.</p>
-
-<p>It may seem that I myself am not quite guiltless
-of such misdeeds. It is true that I named an
-island, that resort of the wild buffaloes in the Pangani
-River, “Heck Island,” in honour of Professor Ludwig
-Heck. But the island had till then no name whatever.
-One feels sad, on glancing over the map of Africa,
-to note the degradation of so many old traditional
-names, which is in no way justified, and is a sign of
-the hasty and violent introduction of civilised life. “The
-Boers are not people who think much about natural
-history,” says a writer somewhere. And in fact, through
-their agency, the euphonious names of the various wild
-species of South Africa are now to a great extent already
-obsolete. They hastily gave vulgar-sounding names of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">286</span>
-their own to the wild animals.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> Thus the oryx antelope
-became the “gemsbock,” and the cow-antelope, because
-it was tenacious of life and difficult to kill, the “hartebeest.”
-The gnu, on account of its wildness, was called
-the “wildebeest,” the bustard the, “pauw,”<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> the hyena the
-“wolf,” and the giraffe&mdash;incredible though, it may seem&mdash;the
-“kameel”! Hand in hand with this went the changing
-of place-names: so we read of “Hartebeests Fontein,”
-“Olifants River,” “Kameeldoorn,” “Zwartkop,” and we
-have a whole series of unpleasant, and sometimes utterly
-ugly names by the introduction of which the beautiful
-aboriginal names of various places have become obsolete.
-Thus not only do the primitive inhabitants of the land
-disappear, but their names, too, are blown away upon
-the wind.</p>
-
-<p>Countless are the voices that resound by day in the
-Ny&iacute;ka. But by night these voices speak still more
-mysteriously and wonderfully to him who listens to them,
-bringing him into still closer union with nature. From
-the multitude of these voices I choose a few only.</p>
-
-<p>Old memories come back to me! It is in the year
-1896. I have just landed, and am sitting in my night
-shooting-encampment by an inlet of the sea near Dar-es-Salaam.
-A concert of the voices of nocturnal birds
-mingles with the sharp buzz of the mosquitoes. Again
-and again one hears a strange cry. Unspeakably sad
-and monotonous, this peculiar sound rings out over the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">287</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">288</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">289</span>
-waters of the inlet; in the distance a changing answer
-comes back in response to it.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i318" src="images/i318.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>FLIGHT OF SANDFOWL.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>I did not then suspect <i>that it would take me nearly
-a year</i> to be absolutely certain that this sound was
-uttered by an extremely shy and restless kind of
-cuckoo!</p>
-
-<p>This sound of the African night always made the
-strongest impression upon me, and remains indelibly in
-my memory. All that one heard from near at hand,
-or from the distance miles away, had its origin not in
-man’s voice or in human activity of any kind, but most
-come from birds and beasts to a great extent unknown
-to us. One had to interpret, to conjecture, to build
-up theories. Often one struck upon the correct solution.
-But often enough, too, the interpretation one accepted
-proved to be false, and then one’s anxiety to find out
-the true solution, aroused anew, was doubly keen. The
-first time I heard it, I had no difficulty in interpreting
-for myself the cry of the monkeys harassed in the
-night by leopards, a screaming of a kind one cannot
-easily forget, plainly expressing the greatest terror. The
-first time one heard the neighing of the herds of zebras
-it was much more difficult to recognise the sound, and
-the gobbling cry of the ostrich had at first a still
-stranger effect. But as soon as I had heard the voice
-of the zebras a few times, it was clear to me that the
-extinct <i>quagga</i> of South Africa must have derived its
-name from its cry. If one puts the accent on the
-second syllable, and pronounces the <i>g</i> softly and deep
-in the throat, one has, as one repeats it, a wonderful
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">290</span>
-reproduction of the cry of the zebra as I heard it
-myself.<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">41</a></p>
-
-<p>What a pity that all this cannot be put on permanent
-record by some such apparatus as a gigantic phonograph!
-But unfortunately we are still a long way from such a
-possibility.</p>
-
-<p>No one will be surprised at my keeping specially in
-mind that endlessly melancholy cry of the cuckoo in the
-darkness. How lonely and empty our German woodlands
-would seem without the cuckoo and the cuckoo cry!
-As a matter of fact the African primeval forest <i>never</i>
-hears the same cry that has become so clear to ourselves.
-Our cuckoo, migrating in a few days all the way from
-the north to the equator, flies in restless haste through
-wood and plain, but <i>he is silent</i>. His cry is heard only
-in our country at home. But in the East Africa district
-of Pori, amongst many other cries those of two species
-of cuckoo are heard in rivalry. These are the sickle
-cuckoo&mdash;the “Tipi-tipi” of the Swahili&mdash;a reddish-brown
-fellow that flutters in heavy flight everywhere about the
-bush, the reedy bogs and hill-slopes; and the solitary
-cuckoo (<i>Cuculus solitarius</i>, Step.), about whose cry I
-was for a long time mistaken. The unceasing, low cry
-of the former, the sickle cuckoo, if it is heard even a
-few times, can never again be forgotten. It sounds like&mdash;“Dut-d&uacute;t&mdash;dududu&mdash;dut-d&uacute;t.”
-One hears it by day and
-also in the darkest night, contrasting strongly with the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">291</span>
-sharply defined, clear note of our European cuckoo, though
-the latter listens in silence to the cry of his cousins all
-through the winter under the equator. This cry seems
-to me, with its low, dull, softly prolonged tones&mdash;so
-different from the louder cry of its northern relative&mdash;to
-be quite in keeping with its mysterious tropical home.
-For the sickle cuckoo knows all its deepest mysteries,
-and no bird ranges so unweariedly through the densest
-thickets and over the most inaccessible regions. In the
-most hidden, solitary, and unknown spots<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> it would come
-fluttering up from the ground at my feet, often startling
-me. It seemed to me as if the bird wanted to call my
-attention to newly discovered mysteries, as its “Dut-d&uacute;t&mdash;dududu&mdash;dut-d&uacute;t”
-came sounding to me, now here, now
-there, low, soft and melodious, by day under the brooding
-noonday heat, and just the same in the midnight hours.</p>
-
-<p>At night, too, he is seconded, as I have already
-mentioned, by his more timid cousin, with an ever
-repeated “K&iacute;-k&uuml;-k&uuml;&mdash;k&iacute;-k&uuml;-k&uuml;,” that resounds monotonously
-in the distance.</p>
-
-<p>There is a strange charm in continually hearing these
-voices again and again, without knowing the little singers;
-and a triumph at last in making out which they are.</p>
-
-<p>“During a sleepless night,” said Richard Wagner,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">292</span>“I once went out upon the balcony of my window on
-the Grand Canal at Venice. As if in a deep dream the
-legend-haunted city of the lagoons lay spread out before
-me under the darkness. Out of the soundless silence
-there came the loud call of a gondolier waking up just
-then on his boat ... then from the farthest distance
-the same call answered back along the dark canal; I
-recognised the old, melancholy, melodious sounds, doubtless
-as old as the canals of Venice and their people. After
-a solemn pause the far-sounding dialogue at last began,
-and it seemed to me to melt into harmony, till the notes
-heard close at hand and coming more softly from afar
-died away as sleep came back to me again.”</p>
-
-<p>Who could describe in such noble words the impression
-made upon our minds by the spell of the sounds and
-songs of the nocturnal wildness, and all its strange and
-beautiful music? All that at first is strange there, and
-even alarming, comes gradually to be something one
-loves intimately. Shall I ever be able to listen to it all
-again? Who knows? Let me try then to make some
-record of what I have so often heard, and in these few
-sentences attempt to give some faint echo of these once
-familiar voices.</p>
-
-<p>We are in the midst of the great forest. Giant
-podocarpus and juniper trunks rise up towards the sky.
-It is cool and shady all around us here; we breathe a
-moist, and not unfrequently a musty air. The sunlight
-plays only upon the tops of these giants of the primeval
-woods, and can but scantily illumine the almost bare
-ground below them, sending here and there shimmering,
-dancing rays of light amongst the tree-trunks. High
-overhead the giants arch their branches, interlacing them
-in a vast living roof of green. Only where clearings
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">293</span>
-make a break in the mass of trees, a sea of light floods
-all the ground&mdash;a flood of light so strong that our eyes,
-accustomed to the obscurity, the mysterious semi-darkness
-of the forest, are dazzled, and there comes to our minds
-involuntarily recollections of old Bible pictures, in which
-such floods of light are shown streaming down from
-heaven to earth. A confusion of trees, creepers and
-undergrowth, with amidst it uprooted tree-trunks lying
-mouldering away; the earth black, and often marshy;
-no road or way far and wide, but only here and there
-the tracks and beaten paths made by the elephants and
-rhinoceroses that have roamed the old forest since primeval
-times.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i324" src="images/i324.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>ZEBRAS AND GNUS.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>Deep silence all around. If the traveller stands still
-and holds his breath, this silence seems to weigh down
-upon the soul with a weird force. At such moments
-it is as though some vague disaster threatened, or something
-wicked and dangerous were creeping around unseen.</p>
-
-<p>Suddenly, a squealing and chattering. There is a
-scurry up and down the tree-trunks, and again there
-is a strange sound of spitting and growling. Just now
-there had come over us a feeling such as is expressed
-in B&ouml;cklin’s<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">43</a> masterly picture, directly inspired by nature,
-<i>Schweigen des Waldes</i> (the “Silence of the Forest”).
-We had almost expected each moment that legends set
-before us by the power of his genius would here become
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">294</span>
-realities; we felt that here one might surprise nymphs
-and dryads. The spell is soon broken. The gnomes
-of the primeval forest, the tree-climbing hyraxes, have
-scared away the silence. Wonderful to say, these dwarfish
-<i>hoofed animals</i>, the nearest still surviving relatives of the
-rhinoceros, are here scrambling up and down on the
-trunks of the venerable trees.</p>
-
-<p>From all sides, from every spot, every direction,
-there resound the same cries, and again there is silence
-all around us. Here, far in the depths of the primeval
-forest, the bird world seems to have no home. But
-hark! I hear a curious chirping, and I notice on a bare
-bough above me one of the most gloriously coloured of
-African birds, the banded trogon (<i>Heterotrogon vittatum</i>,
-Shell.), which, uttering a most peculiar sound, is carrying
-on its characteristic sport&mdash;flapping its beautiful wings.</p>
-
-<p>Then loud-sounding trumpet-like notes break on
-the ear. We hear a rushing in the air, and big hornbills
-with their huge beaks come sailing, as I judge
-by their cries, through the air, and alight on the top
-of a giant juniper (<i>Juniperus procera</i>). They, too, fly
-away after awhile; their trumpeting, dies away in the
-distance, and again there is silence all around. Their
-voices and that of the brightly coloured helmet-bird give
-to the primeval forest of Africa a strange charm that
-is all its own.</p>
-
-<p>But now there suddenly breaks forth a remarkable
-sound, rising and again falling as I listen, a strange music
-of a most peculiar kind. It is the chatter of the colobus
-monkeys, a sound that cannot be described in words.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">295</span>
-A party of these wonderful creatures seems to be in good
-humour, for their song comes to me in chorus unceasingly,
-and in rising strength. “Mur&uacute;h-mur&uacute;h-mur&uacute;h-rrrrrrm&uacute;h
-rrrrrrm&uacute;h-mur&uacute;h quoi-quo-quo-quo-rrrr,” it sounds, now
-swelling strongly out, now gently dying away. These,
-too, are doomed to death, who now are letting us hear
-their primitive song, that in our days may so easily be
-their death-song; for these monkeys are keenly hunted
-for the sake of their beautiful fur, and their song often
-betrays them to the hunter, eager for their spoils. Some
-poisoned darts, which I find here with points as sharp
-as needles, and which were once shot with a bad
-aim at the little monkeys, are evidence enough of this.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i328" src="images/i328.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption"><small>AN ALARUM-TURACO</small> (<i><small>CHIZAERHIS LEUCOGASTRA</small></i>) <small>IN ITS PLACE OF SAFETY
-AMONG THE ACACIA THORNS.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>And again I hear the great wood ringing and echoing
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">296</span>
-with the countless cries of birds. There was a time,
-too, when the call of millions of the now all but extinct
-passenger pigeon resounded in North America; so, too&mdash;and
-of this I have no doubt&mdash;the cooing of the ringdoves
-was heard repeated by thousands of birds in our beech
-and oak woods at home when the acorns and beech-nuts
-were in season.</p>
-
-<p>On the lonely uninhabited western slopes of the
-highest giant mountain of the German possessions, Mount
-Kilimanjaro, certain forest fruits flourish in profusion.
-There is heard on every side a strong, sweet-sounding
-dove-note, like that of our ringdove. A handsome large
-species of wood-pigeon (<i>Columba aquatrix</i>, Tem.) has
-gathered in hundreds of thousands. The rustle of their
-wings, as they rise or come down in great flocks,mingles
-with their beautiful calls and cries; the ear can hear
-nothing else. Voice, form, and movement so strongly
-remind one of our own ringdoves that one feels carried
-away to far-off, familiar scenes, and the illusion is helped
-by the character of the Kilimanjaro landscape, which in
-certain of the higher regions has less of a tropical than
-of a northern aspect. How strange it is; the cry of
-this bird all at once transports the traveller to his own
-land! Truly <i>there is a magic in sound</i>. With the poorest
-appliances, the slightest equipment, the creative fancy
-can in a moment build a bridge to the Fatherland. The
-call of this beautiful dove sounding here on every side,
-its love-inspired circling high in air above the tops of
-the giants of the primeval forest, surrounds it with a
-dream-picture, and makes me suddenly breathe the air
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">297</span>
-of the beech woods. I am in the northern woods in
-springtime; cool and fragrant the northern air blows
-round me. But ah! thousands of miles of land and sea
-divide me from all that, and cool reflective reason counts
-only on the possibility, not the certainty, of my ever
-seeing my native land again.</p>
-
-<p>And yet this beautiful picture has a strengthening
-and consoling influence. It drives away the trouble of
-home-sickness&mdash;a dismal thing!</p>
-
-<p>I can hear many other voices besides these in the
-primeval forest. But those that impress themselves in
-the most completely enduring way on the memory are
-the strange cry of the tree-hyrax, the peculiar note
-of the hornbills, that calling of the doves, the remarkable
-chorus of song of the ‘Mbega monkeys, strange beyond
-all description, and the trumpeting of the lord of the
-primeval forest, the elephant.</p>
-
-<p>Another tone-picture&mdash;an early morning at a drinking-place
-in the desert. One could feel the cold in the
-night, but the quick coming warmth of the equatorial
-sun’s rays has soon roused the animal world to active
-life. There is the cry and call of the francolins on all
-sides. But the chief part in this early concert is taken
-by the thousands of turtle-doves, flying from all directions
-to the water. Everywhere a murmuring and cooing, that
-the Masai are able to re-echo so incomparably in the
-name of the turtle-dove in their language&mdash;“‘Ndurgulyu.”
-As an accompaniment to this, there is the rustling
-and wing-clapping of all the feathered visitors at the
-water. Towards evening, the air in the neighbourhood
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">298</span>
-of a much-visited drinking-place is literally filled with
-these beautiful and swift-winged birds. The rustling and
-beating of their wings in rapid flight makes in itself a
-concert. I not unfrequently came upon places that bore
-the name of the “Doves’ water,” or the “Doves’ resting-place.”
-All the various voices of the many species of
-doves that find a home in the Ny&iacute;ka resound again in
-the traveller’s ears for years after. Whether it be the
-strange voice of the parrot-pigeon, that ushers in the
-concert with a hollow “Kruh-kruh” and follows it up
-with some remarkable notes, or the melancholy cry of
-the little steel-spotted pigeon that comes to us from the
-thickets, or the strong, loud-sounding love-notes of
-the already-mentioned <i>Columba aquatrix</i>, Tem., so like
-our ringdove, or, above all, the familiar sweet voices of
-the many small kinds of turtle-doves&mdash;all these sounds, the
-rustling and fluttering and beating of wings, the living,
-moving picture presented by all these beautiful birds,
-belong inseparably to the essence and being of the
-Ny&iacute;ka. When the turtle-doves greet the morning with
-their soft cooing, their call is answered from afar by
-strange guttural tones borne swiftly through the air,
-sounding, like “Gle-gl&eacute;-l&aacute;gak-gl&eacute;-&aacute;ga-&aacute;ga,” from the velt-fowl
-hurrying like themselves to the water. Brehm, in
-his <i>Leben der V&ouml;gel</i>, has already raised a poetical
-monument to them made up of beautiful lines. But I
-could not picture to myself the morning concert of the
-bird world in the Ny&iacute;ka without the strange cry of
-the sand-fowl and the cooing of the doves, and the
-peculiar sound of the beating wings of the velt-fowl as
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">299</span>
-they rise in scattered flight from their resting-places,&mdash;a
-sound that impresses itself strongly and distinctly on the
-ear, more than that of any other bird I know, as the
-“Kl&aacute;ck-kl&aacute;ck-kl&aacute;ck” of the rising woodcock strikes the
-ear of the sportsman in Germany.</p>
-
-<p>The wonderful flight of the velt-fowl, their calls
-and cries, their hurry and bustle, afforded me ever new
-interest. It always seemed to me as though the wide
-wilderness here sent out its lovingly guarded favourite
-children as envoys, with the mission of making it known
-that even now, in this dull, barren time, life has not
-died out even in the most remote deserts. So I see
-and hear them once more in fancy, beautiful, timid, and
-full of the joy of life. It is thus their countless millions
-enliven the wastes of Africa, as well as the endless tundra
-marshes of Asia.</p>
-
-<p>Deep, long-drawn-out notes, like those of musical
-glasses, ring in my ears. The brooding noonday heat
-is round me. The sun is in the zenith, and hardly
-another sound is to be heard all around. The wilderness
-lies before me in the hot glowing sunlight as if dead.
-My weary bearers have given themselves up to a dozing
-sleep, at the place where I have at last halted, after a
-march of many hours with a few companions.</p>
-
-<p>Before me is a miniature mountain-world lighted up
-by the dazzling sunbeams. There is a mass of precipitous
-rocks, so characteristic of the Masai-Ny&iacute;ka district, that
-stretches away into the distance. The Candelabra
-Euphorbias spread out their strange forms against the
-light, in grotesque clumps, and seem to me to make
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">300</span>
-themselves one with the rocks, whose inorganic character
-and nature appear to be repeated in their characteristic
-forms.</p>
-
-<p>From out of the midst of this stony wilderness these
-remarkable notes come sounding in my ears. They seem
-to be mysterious voices of rock and stone. The eye
-searching expectantly for the singer that is uttering
-this bell-like melodious music can discover nothing.
-And yet the notes come from the throat of a bird. It
-is once more some hornbills that are making their song
-of love and wooing resound in this wilderness. I have
-been able to listen to them for hours, losing myself in
-dreams, and I cannot say why I seemed to identify
-precisely <i>these</i> bird-voices with the voice of the African
-Sphinx, that legendary Sphinx which has sung already
-to so many, and lured many back again for ever. Thus
-may the songs and voices of the old sanctuaries of
-Northern Africa once have been. Again and again,
-when I heard it, I had to think of those men who,
-with burning longing in their hearts, went forth into the
-Dark Continent to wrest from it the secrets of its fauna,
-but had to pay for the undertaking with their lives.</p>
-
-<p>A burning glow of sunshine, a dazzling light in
-overwhelming abundance over all the desert waste of
-rock&mdash;and amidst it, again and again, that deep, ghostly,
-metallic note, that directly impresses the traveller as
-though it were the language of the wilderness, peculiarly
-its own. But how can I describe all this in words?</p>
-
-<p>And at a moment like this, as if to heighten the effect,
-over there the voice of the mightiest bird that the earth
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">301</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">302</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">303</span>
-bears in this our day sounds forth. I hear in the distance
-the ringing cry of a hen-ostrich, and I listen to it with
-attention strained to the highest point.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i334" src="images/i334.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="x-small"><i>C. G. Schillings, phot.</i></p>
-
-<p class="caption"><small>NESTS OF WEAVER-BIRDS ON THE BOUGHS OF AN ACACIA.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>The strange duet has now long died away. But it
-often comes up to me again in the midst of the movement
-of civilised life and takes me back on the wings of fancy
-to the glorious beauty of the wilderness.</p>
-
-<p>But that uncouth tropical singer is not really needed
-to conjure up this frame of mind. A little unseen <i>lark</i>,
-all by itself, can evoke for me the charm of the solitudes
-of Ny&iacute;ka as with a magic wand.</p>
-
-<p>How this comes to pass, I will tell the reader. We
-must make a long tour. Now we are in the north, in
-our native country, in the midst of the spring, amongst
-spreading fields of our German homeland. The song
-of the lark fills the air, and our heart expands to its
-music. We go out upon the open moor. We hear a
-trilling and quavering of another kind, with a strangely
-sweet touch of sadness in it, especially at night&mdash;the song
-of the woodlark. But now let the reader follow me to
-the little island of Heligoland. In the glare from the
-lighthouse, that sends afar its rays,&mdash;in this case rays that
-bring destruction,&mdash;countless numbers of larks flutter
-and wheel about, bewildered in the darkness of the
-autumn night, and full of anxiety and fear. On a dark,
-rainy October night thousands of them fall victims to
-the death that lies waiting in ambush for them below
-this tower raised by the hand of man. Their little wings
-have brought them safe over the ocean to the small island.
-But there one hears no rejoicing song, No! there
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">304</span>
-resounds only something like an agonised cry for help
-from weak creatures in the direst peril of death.</p>
-
-<p>Millions of larks fly thus each year southwards and
-northwards, obedient to that mysterious migratory impulse
-that guides them on their way.</p>
-
-<p>The song of the lark and the cry of the lark are
-very different things. To those who know them they
-mean a song of happy springtime, and a cry for help
-in the night of death.</p>
-
-<p>How comes it that I thus speak of, and have to think
-of, sounds uttered by the birds here at home? Simply
-because over there, in other lands, my fancy so often and
-so readily imagined the flying bird to be a messenger,&mdash;a
-courier for thoughts of home,&mdash;and connected such wishes
-and longings with its appearance and disappearance.</p>
-
-<p>In autumn, the noblest of our northern songsters
-makes its way in a few days and nights into the inmost
-heart of the Dark Continent. It disappears again in
-spring, to return to the north over velt and desert,
-morass, mountain and sea. The cuckoo, that only a
-few days ago could be seen in our northern lands by the
-eyes of men who knew how to recognise it, I see on the
-African velt, a wandering, fleeting visitor. Thus it seems
-to bring me a greeting, like that brought by our oriole,
-our nightingale, and many other children of the homeland.</p>
-
-<p>No one can be surprised that in these solitudes these
-birds, and their coming and going, are closely associated
-with our thoughts. It is the less to be wondered at
-seeing that they are all such eloquent witnesses to the
-miracle that these weak creatures with their feeble wings
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">305</span>
-twice each year traverse continents and fly safely over
-seas.</p>
-
-<p>We cannot help thinking of the lark and its spring
-song at home, when in the wilds of Africa we hear its
-voice; and it appeals so impressively to the wanderer in the
-wilderness, that afterwards it has the power of bringing
-back by its music a picture of the Ny&iacute;ka in all its
-characteristic wildness. It is a song that has a character
-of its own. When I hear it, if it is in the Ny&iacute;ka,
-I cannot help thinking of the songster’s frail, weak
-brethren of Europe, that, following an irresistible
-impulse, are perhaps at this moment meeting their
-death on the little island of Heligoland&mdash;obedient to the
-same instinct that sends myriads of their kind each year
-towards pole or equator. For even as the northern
-song of the lark awakens the soft, poetic spell of
-smiling fields, so, too, the mysterious and still deeply
-veiled spell of the Ny&iacute;ka can find expression in its
-wonderful music.</p>
-
-<p>Small, invisible almost, it rises in the air. Soon it is
-lost to sight in the sky. Then suddenly a song that,
-though so often heard before, is still a marvel, comes
-distinctly on the ear, its notes sharply accented and
-emphasised as if it were <i>close to us</i>. There is a sharp,
-rhythmical, clapping sound, as if small laths or pieces of
-whalebone were being rattled together. It comes from
-that tree right in front of us. No mistake about it seems
-possible. But the eye searches in vain for the producer
-of the sound.</p>
-
-<p>Again and again one is deceived in this way. Who
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">306</span>
-could imagine that that little bird far away over there,
-a hardly perceptible speck on the horizon, is producing this
-strange music? “Kn&aacute;ck! kn&aacute;ck! kn&aacute;ck!” again, and yet
-again, it comes to us ringing out loud and clear. Our
-little invisible songster does not tire of pouring out its
-strange misleading song. It is a kind of love-song of
-a species of lark, which was discovered by Fischer some
-fifteen years ago and bears the name of the naturalist,
-now long deceased; <i>Mirafra fischeri</i>, Rchw.,<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">44</a> is its
-scientific name. Its clapping and rattling are undoubtedly
-part of the charm of a journey in certain districts of the
-Masai-Ny&iacute;ka.</p>
-
-<p>Even in my tent, in the midst of the comparatively
-loud noise of the busy camp of my numerous caravan, I
-can hear the clapping, rattling voice of this lark. Some
-hundreds of yards away it flies up into the sky, like our own
-skylark, and hovers about clattering in the air, so loudly
-and distinctly that if I did not know its character and
-habits, I would have been continually looking for it close
-to my tent. It is very hard to quite free oneself from
-this illusion. One continually thinks that one hears the
-cry of the bird in one’s immediate neighbourhood, the
-sound being produced much in the same way as that of
-the snipe.</p>
-
-<p>And yet another strange voice of a lark resounds
-in my ears: a melancholy, plaintive, soft sound, till
-now unknown to me and to most others. All night
-long its calls and cries resound about my camp. I
-should never have thought that it was a lark (<i>Mirafra
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">307</span>
-intercedens</i> Rchw.) that thus made itself heard in the
-night, as our woodlarks do in moonlight nights at
-home. It was at the cost of much careful research
-that the discovery was made of what bird produced this
-song.</p>
-
-<p>And the strange voice of yet another bird is inseparable
-from my recollections of the wilderness of East Africa.
-The xerophytic flora of the far-spreading thorny mimosa
-thickets gives shelter to a privileged member of the bird
-world, which is thus guarded in safety from all danger
-amid their thorny boughs and branches. I refer to a
-peculiar bird, belonging to the group of the Musophagid&aelig;,
-grey-feathered, green-beaked, long-tailed, and adorned
-with a crest. This strange fellow roves about restlessly&mdash;a
-bird about as big as a jay, misleading the
-traveller with his cry in the most curious way. Science
-calls him <i>Chizaerhis leucogastra</i>, R&uuml;pp.; the German
-language has given him the name “<i>L&auml;rmvogel</i>”
-(“noisy bird”).</p>
-
-<p>And he has a perfect right to bear his name. There
-resounds somewhere near us, and in a way that completely
-deceives us, now the barking and snarling of a dog, now
-the bleating of sheep. Following the direction of the
-sound we look to see what produces it, and we find our
-bird hopping about nimbly upon the tops of the thorn-trees
-and acacias, appearing to have no anxiety about
-the thorny spikes of the branches, in which he makes his
-home. With a cleverness that borders on the miraculous
-he makes his way amongst them, protected by them
-against the attacks of birds or beasts of prey, and in his
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">308</span>
-conscious reliance on the security of his dwelling-place,
-so to say, mocking at all enemies. So deceptive
-are his cries that at first, and especially when I was
-in the neighbourhood of native settlements, I was
-continually looking everywhere for sheep and their
-shepherds.</p>
-
-<p>Many other typical bird-voices live in my memory.
-I hear the peculiar plaintive cry of the large cormorants
-that are busy with their fishing by the salt lakes of the
-wilderness, a cry that seems most fitted for these solitudes.
-The mysterious chattering and chirping of the little
-swamp-fowl come to my ear from the shallows and the
-bushes along the banks of silent rivers of the primeval
-forest, a bird-language so strange that the natives believe
-the birds are conversing with the fish in the stream. I
-hear the cackling of the knowing Nile-geese, that seem
-to be always engaged in conversation; when on the wing,
-too, a pair of them, in their affectionate fidelity, have
-always some warning, some reminder of something or
-other to call out to each other. Where their cry resounds
-one hears also frequently that of the wonderful, wailing
-peewit; it has a plaintive and melancholy effect on the
-mind of the listener. Far different is the noisy outcry
-of its brightly coloured cousin, a denizen of the thirsty
-wilderness (<i>Stephanibyx coronatus</i>, Bodd.). Shrill and
-harsh the voice of the bird rings out, a watch-cry by day
-and night, and when in bright moonlight nights they fly
-in flocks over the camp. Swarms of these remarkable
-birds, the police of the wilderness in feathered uniforms,
-flutter around the traveller as he approaches. They ruin
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">309</span>
-his attempts to stalk wild animals, and their strident
-screeches, to which all other animals hearken, haunt him
-long after, as also the call and cry of the large, yellow-eyed
-thick-knee, an inhabitant of the loneliest solitudes.
-But I cannot imagine the low shores of African lakes
-and the sea-coast without the cry of the widely distributed
-sandpiper, which has its home in the far north. In winter
-its low plaintive cry is heard at every step: but even in
-summer the trained ear can distinguish it here and there.
-These individual stragglers from the north are thus to
-be found during all times of the year in this distant
-country, while the most of their kindred tribe have
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">310</span>
-successfully made their way to the Polar lands, their usual
-summer breeding-place.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i342" src="images/i342.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="hang"><small>A SHRIKE</small> (<i><small>LANIUS CAUDATUS</small></i>, Cab.) <small>ON THE LOOK-OUT FROM THE HIGH BOUGHS
-OF AN ACACIA. ITS CRIES WHEN IT SEES A HUNTER ON THE MOVE
-OFTEN WARN THE ANIMALS HE IS STALKING.</small></p></div>
-
-<p>High over my head the voice of the pretty avocet
-(<i>Recurvirostra avocetta</i>, L.), one of the most charming
-forms of the bird world known to us, transports me by
-magic to the distant and mournful lakes of the Masailand
-wilderness. What the dwarf bustards (<i>Otis gindiana</i>,
-Oust.) keep calling out to each other with their continually
-repeated “R&aacute;gga-ga-r&aacute;gga” is not to be discovered. But
-their cry, which has kept the fancy of the natives busy
-since olden days, is as inseparably associated with regions
-on which the grass grows high, as the voices and cries
-of the sandfowl, the francolins, and, above all, the
-jarring outcries of the guinea-fowl, on the velt. All the
-manifold voices of doves, cuckoos, parrots, hornbills,
-bee-eaters, shrikes, orioles, starlings, finches, weaver-birds,
-sylvians, and the rest, calling, exulting, rejoicing,
-uttering cries of alarm or complaint, have woven themselves
-into my recollections of happy days and days
-of toil.</p>
-
-<p>Thus there still rings in my ear the triple note of
-the yellowish green bulbul (<i>Pycnonotus layardi</i>, Gurn.),
-which, like our sparrow, is present everywhere, till one
-almost tires of it. Most curious is the friendly play which
-the handsomely coloured glossy starling (<i>Spreo superbus</i>,
-R&uuml;pp.) carries on with a weaver-bird (<i>Dinemellia dinemelli</i>,
-[Hartl.] R&uuml;pp) in flights like those of our sparrows. It
-comes back to me all the more vividly when I recall
-the notes uttered by these two birds, which, though such
-close friends and taking such delight in each other’s
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">311</span>
-company, are so distantly related. The curious warbling
-of the honey-finder (<i>Indicator indicator</i>, Gm.), which
-often guides the man who follows it to a wild bees’ nest,
-also easily makes a permanent impression on the ear of
-the traveller.</p>
-
-<p>And there are many other bird-voices that delight
-any one who takes pleasure in sound. When silvery
-moonbeams streamed over the camp, the night-jars
-(especially <i>Caprimulgus fossei</i> [Verr.] Hartl.) buzzed and
-hummed forth their strange song everywhere around. No
-matter how remote and desolate the wilderness in which
-the traveller laid down his head to rest, these goat-suckers
-were to be heard. Their voice makes a strong impression
-on us even in our own country in the lonely woods, but
-its effect is much more striking, on the far-off equatorial
-velt. With noiseless soft beating of its wings the bird
-comes gliding past us; its wings almost touch us. When
-it pours forth its song, its monotonous sleepy song, I
-could listen to it for hours. In the daytime it starts up
-suddenly from the ground here and there in front of
-you, uttering the feeblest of cries, that it is impossible
-to represent. In the next instant it vanishes like some
-huge moth, and even the sharpest eye cannot distinguish
-it amongst the dry branches and leaves, or
-clinging close to the rocky ground. The song of the
-night-jar is among my most vivid recollections of the
-bird-voices of Africa.</p>
-
-<p>In the neighbourhood of water, wherever it may be,
-and in the thick undergrowth, wherever the African
-wilderness extends, you hear the call and cry of a peculiar
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">312</span>
-bird-voice. It rings out through the stillness with a
-deep double piping note, that impresses itself in a lasting
-way on the ear. It is the voice of the handsome organ-shrike
-(<i>Laniarius &aelig;thiopicus</i>, Gm.). These shrikes, which
-mate permanently, always utter this note in such quick
-succession, one of the pair after the other, that at first
-you think you are listening to only a single bird. This
-beautiful bird-note indicates the proximity of water, and
-thus it has acquired quite a special significance in these
-countries.</p>
-
-<p>Finally there is no sound from the throat of a bird
-that I call to mind so plainly, or so continually, as the
-song of the African nightingale (<i>Erithacus africanus</i>,
-[Fschr.] Rchw.). I have very frequently heard this beautiful
-song during the months of our winter, in many districts
-round Kilimanjaro. When I heard it unexpectedly for
-the first time, I was most deeply moved by it. Ten
-years ago I heard it during a day’s march in the wooded
-gullies of the great volcanic mountain, and it was most
-clear and full and beautiful. I never expected thus to
-hear this northern bird-voice in the tropics. Later on,
-when I was camped at a considerable altitude in the
-primeval forests of Kilimanjaro, I was saluted with the
-cries of northern migratory birds, that, wheeling round
-the mountain, seemed to be flying over its everlasting
-snowfields. It was a strange coincidence in those
-Christmas days, the song of the northern nightingale,
-and those northern birds of passage on the wing under
-the equatorial sun! It is worth noting that this voice of
-the nightingale was the only genuine northern bird-song
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">313</span>
-that I ever heard in Africa. That our nightingale also
-sometimes breeds there is indicated by the discovery of
-its nest by the late Dr. Fischer. But the problem of
-the extraordinary identity in character of this nightingale
-with its northern sister still awaits solution. Many
-difficult observations will have to be made in order to
-investigate it thoroughly.</p>
-
-<p>What a contrast to this song of our northern
-nightingale is presented by the voices of the hyenas
-and jackals, the strange cry uttered by the leopard, all
-the sounds emitted by the antelopes, and finally the
-indescribably startling, harsh-sounding bellow of the
-crocodile!</p>
-
-<p>But neither individually nor collectively can the effect
-of all these voices be expressed in words. They associate
-themselves with the forms of a flora untouched by the
-hand of man, and the unceasing throb of animal life. I
-think of them all together as a theatre of nature now
-flooded with sunlight, now in the mysterious darkness of
-night, or with glistening moonbeams playing over it.
-What impresses one so much is not merely these individual
-voices, but the way in which all the myriad voices
-mingle in one mighty chorus.</p>
-
-<p>If this symphony of nature is to be written down, it
-must be by some master who will combine in one
-marvellous melody these musical utterances that are so
-mighty and impressive, so full of mystery and charm,
-and so often dying away in the deepest and most delicate
-cadences. None of these tones should be missing, no
-note of them all should be struck out.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">314</span></p>
-
-<p>I should like to set in contrast with this mighty
-primeval harmony of the wilderness the sounds and
-voices of the modern industrial world, which gradually
-and unwittingly we take to be something natural. He
-who would feel all its greatness and perfection must keep
-himself far away for weeks and months from the screaming
-whistle he hears on the railway, and the howling siren of
-a steamship.</p>
-
-<p>Then there is the insect world! Those flower-covered
-bushes have attracted a multitude of great droning beetles.
-They hasten to them in heavy flight. On the ground
-a host of scarab&aelig;us beetles are busy with their special
-work. The ceaseless sharp chirps of the cicadas sing
-their continual song. Through all its variations there
-goes on this hum and buzz of the millions and millions
-of the lower creation. And joined with it there ring
-out the thousands and thousands of songs of the birds;
-the powerful voices of the great mammals bellow over
-plain and bushland, through swamps and primeval forests,
-over dale and hill. The concert of the feathered songsters
-is suddenly silent, as, it may be, the harsh cry of the
-leopard resounds, or the mighty, dull, rumbling roar of
-the king of the desert thunders over the earth; or the
-trumpet-like cry of the elephant vibrates through the
-woods; or harsh war-cries from human lips, battle-songs
-of primitive men, are heard&mdash;but heedless of it all, even
-at these moments, day and night resound the weak voices
-of all the myriads of lesser creatures of the animal world.
-But he who penetrates into this wilderness must have
-receptive senses to understand the full beauty of it all.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">315</span>
-For him this harmony exists wherever the primitive
-animal world lives its life.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="i348" src="images/i348.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="hang"><small>ON THE WEST SIDE OF KILIMANJARO I FOUND A BROOK, CALLED BY THE
-MASAI “MOLOGH.” ABOUT TEN MILES FROM THE WESTERN ‘NJIRI
-SWAMPS IN THE DRY SEASON IT SUDDENLY DISAPPEARS AMONG THE
-STONES AND REACHES THE SWAMPS BY AN UNDERGROUND CHANNEL.</small>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">316</span></p></div>
-
-<p>Glorious and grand, too, is the language of Nature
-when she herself raises her primeval voice, associated
-with no sound of life that we can perceive. Thus it
-is in the hours of storm by night, when on the plain,
-or in the primeval forest, or on the hill slopes, the thunder
-roars round the little camp, and the crackling lightning
-comes down in zig-zags. Then the rumbling thunder,
-the rushing downpour of the water-floods, the roar of
-the storm-wind, speak with an impressiveness that is
-beyond all description. Then in their hour of death the
-giants of the primeval forest, the mighty, venerable
-trees, suddenly themselves find a voice that strikes
-loudly on the ear: they groan in the embrace of the
-wind, and under its fury crash thundering to the ground.
-Then, when the earth and the rocks under our feet seem
-to shake, when the powers of Nature are let loose in all
-their might, when weak little man in his small tent,
-alone in the midst of all this violence, listens to the sounds,
-alone and abandoned like the sailor on a frail plank in
-the midst of a raging ocean, then it is that the wilderness
-sings its greatest, noblest, most wonderful song.</p>
-
-<p>The traveller may yet return to the African wilderness
-and hear once more the voices of the smaller denizens
-of the wild. The chirping of cicadas will lull him to
-rest, or the buzzing of the mosquitoes forbid it. Their
-chirping and buzzing will bear witness that these waves
-of life roll on untroubled and uninjured by the incoming
-of civilisation. But the greater voices will become rarer and
-rarer. Soon the trumpeting of the elephant, the roar of the
-lion, the bellow of the hippopotamus will be heard no longer.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">317</span></p>
-
-<p>But to-day one can still hear all these sounds which
-I have described, and which our most remote ancestors
-listened to all day and all night in the ages when there
-still lived in Europe a fauna very similar to that which
-we find dying out in East Africa. By day and night
-they go forth in trees and thickets, by swamp and
-reed-bed. The song of birds is accompanied by the
-monotonous deafening chorus of the bullfrogs. Even
-in the traveller’s tent the crickets chirp, and the night-jar
-buzzes and buzzes past it, and tells and whispers of
-the nightly life and movement of the animal world, in
-its monotonous mysterious song.</p>
-
-<p>A jackal holds a conversation with the evening star.
-In the dark night the deep bass of the hyena is heard;
-and then it laughs aloud, in a weird, shrill, shrieking
-treble. This laugh, seldom uttered, but when heard
-making one’s heart shudder, is not a thing to forget; on
-feverish nights it plagues one still in memory. No one
-need jest about it who has not himself heard it. He
-who has heard it understands how the Arabs take the
-hyenas to be wicked men living under a spell.</p>
-
-<p>Now at last the lion raises his commanding voice, and
-one thing only is wanting to the whole nocturnal spell&mdash;the
-noisy trampling of timid and harassed droves of
-zebras and other herds of wild things. But if the ground
-of the velt, hardened by the burning sun, rings once
-more to the thundering hoof-beats of the zebras, the
-eye fails in the darkness, and only our ears perceive by
-their numberless sounds the waves of life that are surging
-around us; and then indeed the listener comes to full
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">318</span>
-consciousness of how rich the animal-language of the
-Ny&iacute;ka still is.... Nowhere else in the world of
-to-day do all the voices of the wild resound more
-impressively, and for him who listens to this language
-there is no escape from that mysterious spell&mdash;the Spell of
-the Elelescho!</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<h2 id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES:</h2>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">1</a>
-Cf. Reichenow, <i>Die V&ouml;gel Afrikas</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">2</a>
- <i>El moran</i> = the “young men,” <i>i.e.</i> Masai warriors.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">3</a>
-Dr. Richard Kandt, <i>Caput Nili</i>. (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">4</a>
-I gave the skull of this specimen to the Berlin Natural History
-Museum.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">5</a>
-As late as the year 1859 the Masai warriors menaced the places on
-the coast between Tanga and Mombassa! Even in the eighties the
-explorers Thomson and Fischer had to submit to their demands. To
-that flourishing period of the Masai belongs the origin of their view that
-even if the Bantu Negro races have cattle, they must have been stolen from
-the Masai, for, as say, “God gave us in earlier days all the cattle on
-the face of the earth.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">6</a>
-According to Hollis, the singular of the word is “O-‘l-leleshwa.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">7</a>
-As Hollis tells us.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">8</a>
-The pachyderms seem to feel no ill effects from the natron-bearing
-water; but for men the water of the lake&mdash;at least, near my camp&mdash;proved
-very unpleasant. Our drinking water was obtained from a small marsh
-near the shore of the lake.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">9</a>
-John Hanning Speke, one of the discoverers of the Victoria Nyanza,
-has already remarked that the Arabs know well how to manage their
-slaves, and to tame them like domestic animals; that they are able to
-entrust them with business matters, and send them out of their own
-dominions into foreign countries, without the slaves ever attempting to
-escape from their masters.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">10</a>
-The native elephant-hunter&mdash;the “Wakua”&mdash;use as a rule several
-small iron bullets with a heavy charge of gunpowder.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">11</a>
-Singular: en-dito = the young maiden.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">12</a>
-Cf. also <i>Ostasienfahrt, Erlebnisse und Beobachtungen eines Naturforschers</i>,
-etc., von Dr. Franz Doflein, Leipzig, 1906.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">13</a>
-Cf. Friedlander, <i>Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">14</a>
-In the market of Nice alone, according to official statistics, from
-November 1, 1881, to the beginning of February 1882, 1,318,356 little
-song-birds were put up for sale.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">15</a>
-Strict regulations have lately been put into force for the preservation
-of the last-named species. But, as the result of the merciless persecution
-to which it has been subjected, the sea-otter is all but extinct.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">16</a>
-While this book is passing through the press several correspondents
-have sent me an article published by Freiherr von Schr&ouml;tter-Wohnsdorf in
-the <i>Monatsheften des Allgemeinen Deutschen Jagdschutsvereins</i> of August 24th,
-1906. According to this article, during the year 1906, by ministerial orders,
-in four of the chief forest districts of East Prussia, <i>sixty-seven head of wild
-elk</i> were killed off, though hitherto the few remaining living specimens
-of the elk have been so carefully preserved both on public and private
-estates. This thorough-going course was adopted for the sake of the
-preservation of the woods from damage by the animals. That this should
-have been done in the case of a disappearing species of wild animal,
-hitherto so carefully preserved, and of which private individuals were
-allowed to shoot only male specimens, is in open contradiction with those
-views as to the necessity of protecting the rarer beauties of nature, which
-are making such progress every day. It seems therefore fitting that I
-should note the fact here as showing how well grounded is my opinion that
-the progress of civilised culture is destructive to those treasures of nature
-that have come down to us from primeval times.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">17</a>
-The author believes that he cannot better give expression to his
-views as to the preservation of the beauties of nature, than by reproducing
-an article on the appearance of the stork in the Soldin district, by Herr
-M. Kurth. He writes in <i>Die Jagd, Illustrierte Wochenschrift f&uuml;r deutsche
-J&auml;ger</i>, May 13, 1906:
-</p>
-<p>
-“As for the stork-shooting appointed by the District Committee of the
-districts of Soldin, Landsberg and Ost-Sternberg for the period from
-March 1 to June 15, it is to be remarked that the opinions held by
-sportsmen as to the damage done by storks, especially in reference to
-small game, are very much divided, and that not much can be put to the
-reckoning of ‘Brother Longlegs’ of those misdeeds that figure heavily in
-the accounts of other robbers, such as the crane, the magpie, and all kinds
-of native birds of prey, and the hedgehog, marten, and polecat. These
-one and all carry off nestlings, and most of them attack young leverets also.
-Now if we are to go for the stork, it should of course be done when
-he is to be found together in too great numbers; and this is entirely the
-idea of the District Committee. The neighbourhood of Balz bei Vietz
-on the Eastern Railway has always been remarkable for the number of its
-storks’ nests. One finds two of them on nearly every one of the old barns,
-a nest at each end of the roof. It was so even thirty years ago, and so it
-is to this day. But the proprietors of the barns never agree to the nests
-of the storks being destroyed, or any opposition made to the settling there
-of these trustful and friendly birds. And for what reasons precisely has
-‘Friend Adebar’ settled in such numbers in this district? Well, here the
-far-spreading meadows of the Warthe, with their full scope for extended
-flight, offer him all the food he wants and to spare, and here the frogs’
-legs must be particularly good. It may be that now and again a young
-partridge or a leveret strays into Mother Stork’s kitchen, but that is
-the exception. Now if people keep strictly to the object indicated by the
-District Committee, namely to bring down the numbers of the storks where
-there are too many of them, one may let it pass. But how many will out
-of a mere shooting-mania take aim continually at the harmless birds!&mdash;though
-such are never genuine sportsmen. How can this be checked?
-And it should not be forgotten that in the first week of April our African
-guests are to be found in hundreds along the Warthe brook, whence they
-then disperse to various parts of the neighbouring districts. Now it is to
-be hoped that no one will assume that the stork is to be found here
-‘in too great numbers,’ and that therefore ‘one may blaze away at him.’
-In some years this may possibly be the case, but if he were scared
-out of the district our landscape would be the poorer by the loss of the
-bird’s welcome cry, as has happened in the case of the heron and
-the cormorant in our district. This last-named bird comes now only
-seldom, and then only one at a time, to the Netze, near Driesen. There
-was a heronry formerly near Waldowstrenk in the Neumark district,
-but it disappeared ten years ago. We must hope that this will not be
-the fate of the stork, whose appearance has so many links with the poetry
-of our childhood, and that we shall not be deprived of his presence.
-What a pleasing sight it is when ‘Brother Longlegs’ with dignified walk
-stalks beside the mower at haymaking time, looking so confiding and
-fearless! And what a joy it is to old and young when the first stork of
-the season wheels in circles over the homestead, when for the first time he
-comes down to his old nest, and announces his arrival with a joyful outcry!
-Must not every sympathetic and thoughtful lover of nature be filled with
-sorrow and indignation when, on the pretext of petty thefts, but probably
-out of mere wanton love of destruction, attempts are made to drive out of
-our country this friendly bird, which is so pleasing an ornament of the
-landscape? It would really be a crime against the out-door beauty of our
-native land, and against nature all around us, if out of narrow-minded
-selfishness we were to extirpate the stork, as happened in recent times
-to that most splendidly coloured of our birds, the kingfisher, on mere
-suspicion of its being a ‘great destroyer’ of fish. Love of nature, joy in
-nature, is a valuable element in German feeling, and therefore, dear fellow
-sportsman, let us maintain our good character!”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">18</a>
-We are indebted to the English hunters of those days for all the
-information we possess as to the wild life of South Africa at that time. If
-there had not been amongst them men who knew also how to handle the
-pen, we should have been almost entirely without trustworthy information
-as to that period. I may take this opportunity of saying a word for the
-English “record-making sportsman,” who is not unfrequently the subject of
-false and unfounded invectives, which I can only describe as mostly full
-of fanciful fables. Other lands, other ways, and there are black sheep in
-every nation. In any case we may take English ideals of sport as our
-example, and also the regulations drawn up by English authorities for the
-protection of the animal world.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">19</a>
-In a review of my book <i>With Flashlight and Rifle</i> (German
-edition).</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">20</a>
-Sir William Cornwallis Harris must be considered as a quite trustworthy
-authority. His works are indeed the most complete first-hand
-evidence we have as to the state of the fauna of South Africa at the
-time.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">21</a>
-On the part of the Government and the local authorities everything
-that is possible is being done to settle this difficulty. But unfortunately
-their efforts seem to have little success.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">22</a>
-Cf. my book <i>With Flashlight and Rifle</i>, p. 736, where a
-statement by Professor P. Matschie, the Custodian of the Royal Zoological
-Museum at Berlin, will be found, bearing out the truth of what is here
-remarked.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">23</a>
-During the last few years handsome groups have also been set up in
-the museums of other places, such as Munich, Stuttgart, and Carlsruhe.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">24</a>
-The ibex, which was once also common in Germany, has been found
-by Dr. G. Merzbacher in the central Tian-Shan region in the form of
-<i>Ibex sibirica merzbacheri</i>: and two years ago by G. Leisewitz in such great
-numbers that the appearance of flocks of hundreds of them was a daily
-experience.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">25</a>
-The Hudson Bay Company put on the market in the year 1891
-1,358 skins of the musk ox (<i>Ovibos moschatus</i>), but only 271 in the year
-1901. In the year 1878 the same company sold 102,715 skins of the
-Canadian beaver, but only 44,200 in the year 1892. A striking example
-of the results of excessive exploitation of hunting grounds!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">26</a>
-Besides other sources, I take these data from an interesting article
-by C. Brock, in the periodical <i>Die Jagd</i>. This writer estimates the area
-devoted to the chase in the German Empire at 54,000,000 hectares; the
-number of shots fired in a year at game at 16,000,000, besides some
-6,000,000 shots fired at animals that are not game. He rightly notes that
-for the individual the whole business of sport is a losing or non-productive
-occupation, but one of productive value for the households of the country
-folk, as about 130,000,000 marks are annually spent upon it.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">27</a>
-Professor Haberer lately found strychnine in use in various ways in
-many places in Eastern Asia.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">28</a>
-See, amongst other writings of his, <i>Outdoor Pastimes</i>, by Theodore
-Roosevelt.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">29</a>
-On the destruction of the turtle-dove (<i>Turtur turtur</i>, L.) during its
-migration to Greece, see Otmar Reiser, Curator of the National Museum
-of Bosnia and Herzegovina, <i>Materialen zu einer Ornis Balcanica</i>. At
-Syra one sportsman shoots as many as a hundred in a day; at Paxos,
-according to the Grand Duke Ludwig Salvator, they are killed in heaps.
-The lands of the Strophades Islands are completely equipped with huge
-falling snares and shooting-stands for the systematic massacre of the
-“Trigones.” Everywhere in Greece when the cry of “Trigones!” is
-heard, fire is opened upon the newcomers.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">30</a>
-Expeditions in uninhabited districts have sometimes been entirely
-supplied by shooting wild animals.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">31</a>
-Cf. Schlobach, <i>Deutsch-Ostafrikan</i>. Zeitg. 1 Beiblatt, 10 Februar,
-1906.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">32</a>
-Houston Stuart Chamberlain, <i>Immanuel Kant</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">33</a>
-According to the latest observations of Professor Yngwe Sj&ouml;stedt
-these nut-galls are inhabited by three different species of ants.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">34</a>
-Cf. also Prof. Yngwe Sj&ouml;stedt on the destruction of wild animals
-by the Boers in the Kilimanjaro district, in the <i>T&auml;glichen Rundschau</i>,
-Berlin, 1906. Professor Sj&ouml;stedt travelled through these districts for
-the purpose of making a collection of their fauna for the Copenhagen
-Museum, and visited the Merker Lakes with a view to securing a
-hippopotamus.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">35</a>
-The destruction of wild animals by the Boers in the Kilimanjaro
-district was in every way opposed by the central and local authorities,
-but failing the possibility of strict control it does not seem to have
-been possible to make the regulations effective. Prof. Sj&ouml;stedt found the
-Boers in no way settled down, but roving about the country in pursuit
-of the wild animals.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">36</a>
-It appears that the explorer completed some of these sketches
-after his return with the help of stuffed specimens, but he drew others
-entirely from nature on the African velt.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">37</a>
-So too, for example, Wissmann never killed a lion. This is sufficient
-proof of the difficulty of observing animal life. The author may take this
-opportunity of calling attention to the remarkable work of this departed
-explorer, <i>In den Wildnissen Afrikas</i>, and thinks himself fortunate in the
-possession of a letter from his hand approving of his method of observing
-animals. This letter expresses in words that go to the heart
-the love for and understanding of the beauty of the African fauna that
-characterised this successful and distinguished explorer.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">38</a>
-Take, for instance, his description of the Ugalla River in a letter to
-his grandfather, General von Meyerinck, in his work <i>Von Sansibar zum
-Tanjanjika</i> (published by Hermann Schalow, Leipzig, 1888).</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">39</a>
-Unfortunately such ridiculous and ugly names as gemsbock, hartebeest,
-wildebeest, etc., have gradually come into general use.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">40</a>
- <i>Pauw</i> is Dutch for <i>peacock</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">41</a>
-Cf. Prof. P. Matschie, <i>Die S&auml;ugetiere Deutsch-Ostafrikas</i> (“The
-Mammalia of German East Africa”), p. 96, and my work <i>With Flashlight
-and Rifle</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">42</a>
-From the Cameroon district in West Africa Professor Yngwe
-Sj&ouml;stedt writes to me also of a nearly related species of cuckoo that
-has much the same cry.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">43</a>
-Franz Hermann Meissner in his work, <i>Arnold B&ouml;cklin</i>, says “I
-have often found that I had to consider these pictures with the blue
-eyes of an old Ostrogoth seer of primitive days.” And I am of opinion
-that in order to take full delight in the charm of the tropics one must
-look on them with <i>northern</i> eyes.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">44</a>
-Cf. Professor Dr. A. Reichenow, <i>Die V&ouml;gel Afrikas</i>.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="transnote">
-<h3>Transcriber’s Note:</h3>
-
-<p>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
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