In Africa; Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country
John Tinney McCutcheon
Paperback
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, April 24, 2017)
John Tinney McCutcheon (1870 – 1949) was an American newspaper political cartoonist who was known as the "Dean of American Cartoonists". At the turn of the century he went on a 4 month African safari hunting African big game. Along the way in addition to getting his full share of African big game, he also adopted an orphan baby rhino and met up and hunted with Theodore Roosevelt who was on his famous big game hunting trip. From inside the book: This collection of African stories is a record of a most delightful hunting trip into those fascinating regions along the Equator, where one may still have "thrilling adventures" and live in a story-book atmosphere, where the "roar of the lion" and the "crack of the rifle" are part of the every-day life, and where in a few months one may store up enough material to keep the memory pleasantly occupied all the rest of a lifetime. The stories are descriptive of a four-and-a-half months' trip in the big game country and pretend to no more serious purpose than merely to relate the experiences of a self-confessed amateur under such conditions. CONTENTS I.The Preparation for Departure. Experiences with Willing Friends and Advisers II.The First Half of the Voyage. From Naples to the Red Sea, with a Few Side-Lights on Indian Ocean Travel III.The Island of Mombasa, with the Jungles of Equatorial Africa "Only a Few Blocks Away." A Story of the World's Champion Man-Eating Lions IV.On the Edge of the Athi Plains, Face to Face with Herds of Wild Game. Up in a Balloon at Nairobi V.Into the Heart of the Big Game Country with a Retinue of More Than One Hundred Natives. A Safari and What It Is VI.A Lion Drive. With a Rhino in Range Some One Shouts "Simba" and I Get My First Glimpse of a Wild Lion. Three Shots and Oat VII.On the Tana River, the Home of the Rhino. The Timid are Frightened, the Dangerous Killed, and Others Photographed. Moving Pictures of a Rhino Charge VIII.Meeting Colonel Roosevelt in the Uttermost Outpost of Semi-Civilization. He Talks of Many Things, and Promptly Plans an Elephant Hunt IX.The Colonel Reads Macaulay's "Essays," Discourses on Many Subjects with Great Frankness, Declines a Drink of Scotch Whisky, and Kills Three Elephants X.Elephant Hunting Not an Occasion for Lightsome Merrymaking. Five Hundred Thousand Acres of Forest in Which the Kenia Elephant Lives, Wanders and Brings Up His Children XI.Nine Days Without Seeing an Elephant. The Roosevelt Party Departs and We March for the Mountains on Our Big Elephant Hunt. The Policeman of the Plains XII."'Twas the Day Before Christmas." Photographing a Charging Elephant, Cornering a Wounded Elephant in a River Jungle Growth. A Thrilling Charge. XIII.In the Swamps of the Guas Ngishu. Beating for Lions We Came Upon a Strange and Fascinating Wild Beast, Which Became Attached to Our Party. The Little Wanderobo Dog XIV. Who's Who in Jungleland. The Hartebeest and the Wildebeest, the Amusing Giraffe and the Ubiquitous Zebra, the Lovely Gazelle and the Gentle Impalla XV.Some Natural History in Which it is Revealed that a SingSing Waterbuck is Not a Singing Topi, and that a Topi is Not a Species of Head-dress XVI.In the Tall Grass of the Mount Elgon Country. A Narrow Escape from a Long-Horned Rhino. XVII.Up and Down the Mountain Side from the Ketosh Village to the Great Cave of Bats. A Dramatic Episode with the Finding of a Black Baby as a Climax XVIII.Electric Lights, Motor-Cars and Fifteen Varieties of Wild Game. Chasing Lions Across the Country in a Carriage XIX.The Last Word in Lion Hunting. Methods of Trailing, Ensnaring and Otherwise Outwitting the King of Beasts XX.Abdullah the Cook and Some Interesting Gastronomic Experiences. Thirteen Tribes Represented in the Safari. XXI.Back Home from Africa.