Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 320: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE. BY PAUL C. SCHAFFER. A hunting experience in South Africa, in which the pursuer is suddenly left at the mercy of one of the most dangerous denizens of the jungle. jt has been my fortune to meet a number of professional hunters in my life, to be quite well acquainted with them in fact, as I have engaged them in several of the wild countries of the world to assist me in obtaining specimens for natural history societies, museums, and the like. And one whom I1 esteemed most highly, and still am proud to call my: friend, was Paul Hartridge, who ac- companied me in my long up country jaunt several years ago, when I was in South Africa. Hartridge’s experience was invalu- able to me, for he was an early colo- nist and not only thoroughly knew the animals indigent to the territory, but the country itself and the people who inhabited it. A man who had Jed the wild life he had led for so many years must have been through many exciting experi- ences and I asked him one night, after we were settled about the campfire— the chattering Totties on one side and ourselves on the other—what animal he considered most to be feared, con- sidered from his experience. I half expected a lion story in reply to my question, and was therefore somewhat surprised when he replied promptly : “ A buffalo bull.” Being pressed for his reason he told me the story I am about to relate. In speaking of the buffalo, Hartridge meant an animal far different from the so called buffalo that was once found in such numbers upon our own West- ern plains, which is really no buffalo at all. This American animal, the bison, is terrible indeed in appearance, but it has neither the fierceness nor the energy of the true buffalo. There are two species of the true buf- falo, the bos bubalus of India, and the bos caffer of South Africa. Old hunt- ers, both native and white, consider the bulls of both these species among the most dangerous denizens of the jungle and plain. An old bull has been known to charge upon an elephant with such savage momentum as to overturn the larger beast, and when fully aroused nothing can exceed his fierceness of <emper. The African buffalo is fond of wal- lowing in the mud, and in the Kaffir country they congregate in immense herds, much after the manner of the bison. But the bulls, as they grow old and gray, sometimes withdraw from the herd and adopt solitary habits, be- coming thus “ old rogues,” as the na- tives call bull elephants who do like- wise. ‘They then grow very fierce, and will attack anything that comes in their path, either man or -animal, throwing down their victims and kneading them with their horns and frontlets until every bone is broken. Hartridge told me that he was a good way up country at one time where elephants were by no means unknown, and where game of all kinds was most abundant. He was not the only white man in the party, but was evidently the one most familiar with the country, for his European companions were an Eng- lish gentleman and his two nephews, aged respectively twenty and twenty five. CONIC OOO SS CO