The World and Its People Part 46

Those versed in the use of the tackey allow the enraged a.s.sailant to approach almost unpleasantly near, and then thrust the weapon of defense boldly in his face just as he is about to strike. The thorns are so annoying that he is obliged to close his eyes, and can merely run forward in a blind, helpless fashion. This gives the person bearing the tackey a chance to spring to one side and to proceed upon his way for some little distance, before the bewildered bird is ready for another attack, when he is again met by the same simple but effective instrument.

Some ludicrous stories are related of the encounters newcomers at the Cape have had with ostriches. A st.u.r.dy newcomer, six feet in height, on starting for an early morning walk, was cautioned against going into a certain camp where the ostriches were dangerous. He laughed at his friends' advice, told them he was not afraid of a d.i.c.ky-bird, and disdaining the proffered tackey started off straightway in the forbidden direction. He did not return to dinner; a search was made for him, and eventually he was found perched up on a high ironstone boulder, just out of reach of a large ostrich, which was doing sentry, walking up and down, and keeping a vicious eye on him.

He had sat there for hours, nearly roasted alive, and there he would have had to sit till sundown, but for the timely appearance of his friends.

Another story is related of a gentleman whose theory was that any creature, however savage, could be quelled by the human eye. One day he tried to quell one of his own ostriches, with the result that he was presently found in a very pitiable predicament, lying flat on the ground, the subject of his experiment jumping up and down on him, and occasionally varying the treatment by sitting on him.

CHAPTER LXV.

VIEWS IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA.

The explorer, Paul Du Chaillu, gives some interesting views of sections of Equatorial Africa, which from the western coast, as far as he had been, are covered with an almost impenetrable jungle, which begins where the sea ceases to beat with its continual waves; how much farther this woody belt extends, only further explorations will be able to show. From the farthest point it extends eastward as far as the eye can reach; near the banks of a large river, however, running from a northeast direction towards the southwest, prairie lands are to be seen.

"Now and then prairies looking like islands, resembling so many gems, are found in the midst of this dark sea of everlasting foliage; and how gratefully my eyes met them no one can conceive, unless he has lived in such a solitude. Here and there prairies are seen from the seash.o.r.e, but they do not extend far inland, and are merely sandy patches left by the sea in the progress of time.

"In this great woody wilderness man is scattered and divided into a great number of tribes. The forest, thinly inhabited by man, was still more scantily inhabited by beasts. There were no beasts of burden, neither horse, camel, donkey, nor cattle. Men and women were the only carriers of burdens. Beasts of burden could not live, for the country was not well adapted to them. The only truly domesticated animals were goats and fowls, the goats increasing in number as I advanced into the interior, and the fowls decreasing.

"I was struck by the absence of those species of animals always found in great number in almost every other part of Africa. Neither lions, rhinoceroses, zebras, giraffes, nor ostriches were found; and the great variety of elands and gazelles, although found almost everywhere else in Africa, were not to be seen there.

"Travelers in my locality would never dream that such vast herds of game could be found on the same continent, as those described by different travelers. Hence, large carnivorous animals are scarce, leopards and two or three species of hyenas and jackals only being found. Little nocturnal animals are more common, but they are very difficult to get at.

"Reptiles abound in the forest. There are a great many species of snakes, the greater part of which are very poisonous. Some are ground snakes, others spend part of their lives upon trees, while some are water snakes. A very dangerous snake is the black variety of the cobra.

This snake is much dreaded; for, when surprised or attacked, it rises up as if ready to spring upon you.

"There is also a large water snake found often in the beautiful clear water of the streams of the interior. I have often seen this snake coiled up and resting on the branches of trees under water.

"Lizards are also abundant in some districts, and it is interesting to watch how they prey on the insect world. Among them I noticed a night species, that lives in the houses, and that is the great enemy of c.o.c.kroaches. They are continually moving from one place to another during the night in search of their prey. During the day, they remain perfectly still, and hide themselves between the bark of trees forming the walls of the huts.

"The country is also very rich in spiders; they are of wonderful diversity of form. Some of them are so large and their webs so strong that birds are said to be caught in them. There are house spiders, tree spiders, and ground spiders. The spiders are exceedingly useful, and rid the country of many unpleasant flies. How many times I have seen them overpower prey which seemed much stronger than themselves.

"The web spiders seemed to have but a few enemies, but the house and wall spiders, which make no web, have most inveterate enemies in the shape of two or three kinds of wasps.

"During the day I have seen these wasps travel along the walls with a rapidity that astonished me, and, finally, when coming to a spider, immediately pounce upon the unfortunate insect and overpower it by the quickness of the movements of their legs, and succeed in cutting, one after the other, the legs of the spider close to the body, and then suck it, or fly away with it to devour it somewhere else.

"I consider some species of ants, snakes, lizards, and spiders as most useful; for they destroy a great quant.i.ty of insects and other vermin.

The great moisture of the country I have visited, with its immense jungle, is well adapted for the insect world, and would prove a very rich field for a naturalist and collector.

"I was surprised to see how closely several of them mimicked or imitated other objects. Some looked exactly like the leaves on which they most generally remain; others are exactly of the color of the bark of trees on which they crawl; while others looked exactly like dead leaves, and one or two like pieces of dead branches of trees. Dragon flies of beautiful color were met near the pools.

"Bats are very abundant, and I had succeeded in making a fine collection of them. They sometimes came by hundreds and spent the whole of the night flying round a tree which bore fruits they liked, and the noise made by their wings sounded strangely amid the stillness which surrounded them.

"Squirrels are rather numerous, and there are a good number of species.

Birds of prey and snakes are their great enemies.

"There are eight species of monkeys, but they are not all found in every district. They live in troops, but when old they live generally by themselves or in pairs.

"Of all the mammalian animals inhabiting the forest the monkey tribe is the most numerous; but the poor monkey is surrounded by enemies, the greatest being man, who sets traps everywhere to catch him. Then he is continually hunted by the negroes with guns or arrows. The guanonien, an eagle, is also his inveterate enemy.

"The guanonien is a most formidable eagle, and, in spite of all my endeavors, I have been unable to kill one. Several times I have been startled in the forest by a sudden cry of anguish from a monkey which had been seized by this 'leopard of the air,' as the natives often call it, and then have seen the bird with its prey disappear out of sight.

"One day, hunting through the thick jungle, I came to a spot covered with more than one hundred skulls of monkeys of different sizes. Some of these skulls must have been those of formidable animals, and these now and then succeeded, it appears, in giving such bites to this eagle that they disabled him.

"For a while I thought myself in the Valley of Golgotha. Then I saw at the top of a gigantic tree, at the foot of which were the skulls, the nest of the bird, but the young had flown away. I was told by the natives that the guanonien comes and lays in the same nest year after year. When an adult specimen has been secured, it may be found to rival in size the condor of America.

"By the side of wild men, roamed the apes, the chimpanzee forming several varieties. Then came the largest of all, the gorilla, which might be truly called the king of the forest. They all roamed in this great jungle, which seems so well adapted to be their homes; for they live on the nuts, berries, and fruits of the forest, found in more or less numbers throughout the year; but they eat such a quant.i.ty of food that they are obliged to roam from place to place, and are found periodically in the same district.

"The elephant has become scarce, and recedes farther and farther every year into the fastnesses of the interior.

"Mile after mile was traveled over without hearing the sound of a bird, the chatter of a monkey, or the footstep of a gazelle, the humming of insects, the falling of a leaf; only the gentle murmur of some hidden stream came upon our ears to break the deadness of this awing silence, and disturb the grandest solitude man can ever behold--a solitude which often chilled me, but which was well adapted for the study of nature."

CHAPTER LXVI.

CROCODILES.

Long before the advent of man upon the globe, there was a period when huge crocodiles swarmed in the rivers of the temperate zones. The diminished heat of the temperate regions of the earth, as we know them to-day, has driven these scourges of all that live in the waters they frequent into the great rivers and lagoons of the torrid zone.

The crocodile is characterized by the depressed head, so indicative of a low order of intelligence; the vast jaw, which, armed with formidable rows of conical teeth, seems designed to s.n.a.t.c.h and to swallow; and the elongated, mud-colored body, with its long lizard-like tail, resting on short legs. These all stamp him with a peculiar ugliness and frightfulness.

The female crocodile generally lays her eggs, like the sea turtle, in a hole in the sand, and leaves them to be hatched by the potent rays of a tropical sun. These eggs are about the size of those of a goose, and are covered with a limy sh.e.l.l.

The young of the crocodile have numerous enemies. Many an egg is destroyed by the smaller flesh-eating animals, or by birds, before it can be hatched in the hot sand. Even if the eggs hatch, no sooner do the young creep out of the broken sh.e.l.ls and instinctively move towards the water, than the ichneumon, a species of weasel, and the long-legged heron make haste to swallow them; hence their span of life is not usually a long one.

Should they escape these enemies and take refuge in the water, they become the prey of the different sharp-toothed fishes. Even the full-grown crocodile, in spite of its bony covering, is not exempt from attack. Like many other of the lower animals, when surprised, it endeavors to escape by feigning death. Crocodiles are very numerous in the river Shire. On one occasion some travelers on board a small vessel counted sixty-seven of them basking in the sun on the same bank.

Women, while drawing water, are sometimes seized by these creatures, and the protection of a fence is required to keep the crocodiles from the river's brink. It is the scourge of the lakes and rivers wherever it is found. Like the eagle among birds, or the lion among beasts, so is the crocodile among reptiles.

Its main food consists of fishes, various aquatic birds, and such animals as it can seize along the borders of the water. It is not only a powerful foe but a cunning one as well.

Like the various carnivorous animals, it can, though a reptile, fast in its aquatic home for weeks and even months without apparent inconvenience. When opportunity offers, it becomes a veritable glutton, and is then indolent and torpid at the close of its meal.

It is when excited by hunger that the crocodile displays its great force and activity. Wherever a river enters a lake, or where a lake empties its waters into some larger body, there the ugly reptile may be found lurking, on the watch for fish. As these pa.s.s in the rapidly moving waters, it darts upon them with astonishing velocity.

Again, it conceals itself near where animals have their favorite drinking spot, and rushes out upon the unsuspecting creatures as they approach the water's edge. In the same way it seizes upon the various water birds; often it swims quietly and warily under them and pulls them down by their legs.

Sometimes the crocodile is carried inland by floods, but, as a general rule, it does not advance far on sh.o.r.e in search of prey. On land it is not difficult to escape from its attack; for its legs are poorly fitted for running and the construction of its neck is such as to prevent its turning easily from one side to the other when in pursuit of a victim.

Winter is the most favorable time for catching the crocodile; then it may be found on the sand banks basking in the warm rays of the sun.

Spring, too, is a favorable season, for the mother reptile keeps watch over the sand hills where she has deposited her eggs; and the native who is so successful as to discover this place digs a hole in the sand to the leeward and throws up the earth on the side from which he expects the crocodile to approach. He then conceals himself and awaits its coming. If the reptile has failed to observe him, it soon comes to the accustomed spot and falls asleep. The native huntsman then throws his harpoon with all his might into the creature; for, to make the stroke successful, the iron of the harpoon must penetrate to the depth of four inches. As soon as it is wounded, it rushes into the water. Then the huntsman retreats to the canoe, which a companion has brought to his aid.

When a crocodile is struck by the harpoon, it lashes violently with its tail and tries to bite the rope in two. To prevent such a thing happening, the rope is not woven, but consists of about thirty separate fine lines bound together at intervals of every two feet. These separate lines often get between the creature's teeth or become tangled about them.