Adventure Magazine Cover — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

716 Adventure est tramps of my life we lighted a fire and threw ourselves on the ground in utter weariness. I felt my tongue thickening from thirst. Sleep or rest being impossible, I climbed a rise to obtain a view of the country in the starlight. At a great dis- tance I made out a faint glow. Could it be our camp? Descending the hill at once, I roused my partner from a half stupor. Lighting firebrands as a safe-guard against some hungry lion or leopard that might feel inclined to leap upon us in the darkness, we resumed the weary tramp. For an hour or so we feared that the glow ahead was from a grass fire started by wandering sav- ages, but finally we could make out dark forms passing to and fro against the light, and knew that it was our own fire and that the boys were waiting for us. All the next day we lounged about the camp while our carriers brought in the ivory, but the following morning we again took up the pursuit of the elephant herd. For two weeks we hovered about it, drop- ping a bull here and there, and killing about twenty lions and leopards for their skins. After obtaining the ivory from eighteen bull elephants and eight cows, we trekked back to Shirati, sold the ivory to the tra- ders and counted up our profits. A statement as to these will convey an idea of the commercial side of ivory hunt- ing. The expenses must first be reckoned. On the three months’ trip in question these were as follows: The German Government tax of 100 rupees ($33.33) on each ele- phant shot 2,600 Rupees. Wages of 55 porters at 3 rupees a month for three months 495 _ Wages of cook at Io rupees a month 30 “t Wages of two gunbearers at 5 ru- pees a month 30 aS Backsheesh 295 <5 8666 Provisions 300 Rupees. Ammunition 150 £ Presents to natives 60 s Tax on one rhino and two buffalo at 30 rupees each go fe Tax on fifty antelopes at 3 rupees each 150 eS Tax on fifteen gazelles at one ru- pee each 3 4 Total 4,215 Rupees. ($1,264.50) The profits were: Ivory of 18 bull elephants 12,240 Rupees. Ivory of 8 cows 2,160 rs Government bounty on 9 lions at 20 rupees each 180 3 Bounty on g leopards at Io ru- pees each 90 s Proceeds from sale of g lion- skins 180 be Proceeds from sale of 9 leopard- skins go = 14,940 Rupees. Less Expense 4,215 = Net Profit 10,725 Rupees ($3,217.50) It will be seen from this that the mone- tary returns from an elephant hunt of three months were not inconsiderable, but such profits can be realized no more from ivory hunting in East Africa. Within a year both the British and German Govern- ments have awakened to the danger of the extinction of the elephants within their domains and have made regulations forbid- ding the shooting by a single hunter of more than two elephants a year. But the traveler can still see an occasional lion from the car windows on the Uganda Railway, and leopards invade the hen- houses of the farmers. With immense reaches of virgin territory, the country will remain for a long time to come a paradise for hunters of big game. COMICLOOCKS. CO