Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1891 — BUFFALOES AND LIONS. [ARTICLE]

BUFFALOES AND LIONS.

Tho King of Beasts Not the Greatest Terror. It may be added that of all African £ame— sitva in certain kin jsof ground, Jhe elephant—the buffalo is tne most dangerous to hunt. The lion? By no means. A noble beast, and alt that, of course; Out as regards danger to the hunter, not a circumstance to a fierce oldbufTalo bull. The lion is easily killed or disabled by a well-placed bullet of forty-five calibre; but a buffalo is as tenacious of life as a grizzly bear, and to wound him with a rifle of small calibre is a dangerous performance. You m y riddle him through and through aud even pierce his vitals, nnd the peppering only serves to make him more savage and revengeful, and if you wound but fail to kill him, and escape his charges, as you value your life hunt no longer in that particular neck o’ woods.” Many a gallant sportsman has paid the penalty of h»9 rashness with his life by hunting over ground on which he had, the previous d y, left a wounded buffalo. But h 6 is noble game. He almost always charges you when you wound him, and he is full of fight so long as he is able to draw a breath. Luckily for his future he has no v luable robe on his back, that fatal covering which sealed the fate of the American bison. liis body is virtually hairless, and it is only for the grand trophy of his m >ssive horns that the sportsm in covets him. He is nocturnal in his habits, another point in his favor agaitist- annihilation. During the day the herd usally lies hidden m the dense rushes or papyrus of a swamp or in soma thick patch of jungle by a stream. At nightfall they come out on the plains to graze, and usually get under cover again by 8 or 9 next morning. To hunt him successfully you must remain for some time in the vicinity of his habitat long enough to learn his daily habit 9 and movements. You must be out and about before daylight in the mornings or your chances of bagging will be very slender.’ But you are likely to stumble on solitary specimens at any hour of the day and in all sorts of unexecuted places, as ray friend. Dr. Abbott, onoe had good cause to remember, to say nothing of myself. —Stevens in Africa.