1906-1907
In April, 1906, Selous went all the way to Bosnia just to take the nest
and eggs of the Nutcracker, and those who are not naturalists can
scarcely understand such excessive enthusiasm. This little piece of
wandering, however, seemed only an incentive to further restlessness,
which he himself admits, and he was off again on July 12th to Western
America for another hunt in the forests, this time on the South Fork of
the MacMillan river. On August 5th he started from Whitehorse on the
Yukon on his long canoe-journey down the river, for he wished to save
the expense of taking the steamer to the mouth of the Pelly. He was
accompanied by Charles Coghlan, who had been with him the previous year,
and Roderick Thomas, a hard-bitten old traveller of the North-West.
Selous found no difficulty in shooting the rapids on the Yukon, and had
a pleasant trip in fine weather to Fort Selkirk, where he entered the
Pelly on August 9th. Here he was lucky enough to kill a cow moose, and
thus had an abundance of meat to take him on the long up-stream journey
to the MacMillan mountains, which could only be effected by poling and
towing. On August 18th he killed a lynx. At last, on August 28th, he
reached a point on the South Fork of the MacMillan, where it became
necessary to leave the canoe and pack provisions and outfit up to
timber-line. Here almost immediately he killed a cow caribou for meat,
and a comfortable camp was soon made. During the following days Selous
hunted far and wide, and found that Osborn's caribou was as plentiful in
these ranges as his friends in the previous year had found them. He
killed six splendid bulls, one of which is now to be seen, mounted
whole, in the Natural History Museum, and in a short time got all the
specimens he wanted. One day he saw a large black animal, which he took
to be a bear, coming towards him, and eventually killed it at a distance
of 400 yards. It proved to be a black variety of the wolf--a somewhat
rare animal to kill with the rifle, and curiously enough he killed
another a few days later.
Before leaving the mountains he shot a good bull moose and missed
another, whilst going down-stream, at 30 yards. A second shot, however,
killed the animal, and gave the hunter another fine specimen with horns
63 inches across. Selous reached Selkirk on September 20th, and so had
no difficulty in getting out before the ice formed.
As soon as he got home he wrote to me telling of the results of his
trip, and I give it as showing the sympathetic nature of his disposition
for the sorrows of others:--
"The first part of your letter awoke afresh all my sympathy for
you and poor Mrs. Millais in your sorrow for the loss of your
dearly beloved child. I suppose you can never hope to forget
what you once possessed and can never have again, nor would you
wish to do so; but time is merciful, and whilst never forgetting
the sweetness of disposition of your dear child, the sorrow for
her loss will gradually hurt you less and less. At least I trust
it will be so. I am so glad to hear that you have got such a
splendid lot of caribou heads this year. You well deserve them,
for you have taken a lot of trouble to get them. You must now
have quite a unique collection of Newfoundland caribou heads. I
got one good moose this year 631/2 inches spread (measured by Mr.
Burlace the other day) and another pretty head of 52 inches
spread. Besides these two I only saw one other bull moose--a
fair-sized head. I saw a good many caribou, but no large heads.
Every big bull I saw seemed to have a well-grown head. On August
29th I saw a single old bull and shot him. The next day I saw
another bull with ten cows and shot him. These heads were both
in velvet, but fully grown out and the velvet just ready to peel
off. On September 1st I saw another single bull and shot him;
and on the following day got another close to camp. Both these
bulls had their horns quite clean of velvet, not a shred left on
any part. I then went away to another range of mountains to look
for sheep and moose, returning again to the caribou-ground about
the middle of September. On my first day I came across four
splendid old bulls all together. They all had big heads, and I
got close to them and could have shot them all, but I let two of
them go after killing the other two, which seemed to me to have
the finest horns. Whilst I was skinning the animals I had shot
(with my half-breed Indian) three more big bulls _and a hornless
cow_ came and lay down on a knoll about 400 yards away. One of
these seemed to have very large horns; but I thought that six
was enough, so I let them alone. I think three or four of the
heads I have got are pretty good, but much better no doubt could
be got if one waited till they got into large herds after the
rutting season. Burlace makes my longest head 571/4 inches,
another is 55 inches, and two others just over 51 and 50. Two of
them have an inside spread of 48 inches. One head is of quite a
different type to the other five. It is only about 40 inches
long and very like a Newfoundland head with beautiful tops.
Besides the caribou and moose I only got two wolves--very fine
ones, and one of them black. I saw no bears at all, and only
female sheep. I am going away on Saturday, December 1st,
lecturing (with a two days' interlude at Beville Stanier's), and
shall not be home again from Scotland till December 15th. On
December 17th I go away again till the 20th; but after that I
shall be at home for a long time. Let me know when you get your
heads home, and I will then come over to look at them, and you
must come and see my Yukon heads as soon as I get them from
Ward's."
In May, 1907, he went to Asia Minor to take the eggs of sea and
raptorial birds, living on or near the Mediterranean coasts.
In June he wrote: "I was very pleased to see the letter you
wrote to the 'Field' about poor Arthur Neumann. I had thought of
writing something myself, but did not know him as well as you
did. I shall never cease to regret his loss. I look upon him as
the last of the real genuine hunters of African big game."
Arthur Neumann, the celebrated elephant-hunter, was born at Hockliffe
Rectory, in Bedfordshire, in 1850. In 1868 he went to Natal and later to
Swaziland, and acted as interpreter during the Zulu war in 1879. From
1885-1887 he hunted much in South Africa, and after a time went to East
Africa, where he helped to survey the line from the coast to Lake
Victoria Nyanza. After another visit to South Africa he made his first
journey after elephants to the East of Mount Kenia and killed large
numbers of bull elephants.
In 1896 he was badly injured by a cow elephant, and returned to Mombasa
in October, 1896. In 1899 he took part in the second Boer war, and in
1902 returned to East Africa and had another successful hunt, getting
some immense tusks.
In 1903-1904, hunting in Turkana, Turkwel and the Lorian swamp, he
killed many elephants, and made his last expedition in 1905-1906, when
his ivory realized L4500 on sale in London. He was a pioneer like
Selous, and wherever he went made a favourable impression on the
native--helping greatly to advance our hold on British East Africa. He
died suddenly in 1907.
In August, 1907, Selous went on a little hunt after reindeer in Norway,
as the guest of his old friend, Captain P. B. Vanderbyl, a hunter who
has had perhaps as great a general experience of big game hunting as any
man living. In this trip Selous shot five good stags in seven days'
hunting, but was not so fortunate as to get a first-class specimen,
although some of his heads were good. Of this trip Captain Vanderbyl
kindly sends me the following note:
"Although friends of many years' standing, Selous and I only did
one shooting-trip together, and that was after Reindeer in
Norway. We sailed from Hull to Stavanger in August, 1907, and
marched in with pack-ponies a few miles from the head of the
Stavanger Fjord to Lyseheien, where a small shooting-box had
been recently erected.
"Owing to a five years' close season which had just terminated
we found the reindeer fairly numerous, and not too difficult to
approach, but as they always feed up-wind, and cover a lot of
ground, we had some days to walk long distances before spying
any.
"We arrived at Lyseheien a few days before the opening of the
season, and spent the time walking after ryper, of which we used
to get 12 or 15 brace a day, and although Selous was never a
good shot with the gun, he showed the same keenness after the
birds as he did for any form of sport. He had to leave Norway a
few days before I did, in order to see his boys before they
returned to school.
"We were quite successful on this trip, and secured thirteen
stags between us, with some good heads among them. When not
hunting, we beguiled the time with some French novels Selous
produced, and I never knew of his liking for this kind of
literature before.
"We both enjoyed the trip thoroughly, and were surprised to find
so wild and unfrequented a hunting ground within about three
days journey of London."
During this season I was camped on the highest part of the range, some
thirty miles to the north. A heavy snowstorm, lasting for six days,
occurred on September 1st, and drove all the deer south-west to
Lyseheien, which accounted in some measure for the excellent sport
enjoyed by my friends.
Reindeer are at all times subject to these sudden local migrations, and
the very uncertainty of the sport makes it somewhat fascinating and
difficult. In Norway it is now difficult to secure a good reindeer head
for this reason, and the fact that indiscriminate poaching, even on what
is called strictly preserved ground, prevails.
During the winter of 1907 and early in the following year Selous devoted
himself to finishing his book "African Nature Notes and Reminiscences"
(published by Macmillan & Co. in 1908), a work which he wrote
principally at the instigation of his friend, Theodore Roosevelt. In
this he devotes the first two chapters to his views on protective
coloration and the influence of environment on living organisms. For
lucidity and accuracy of treatment he never wrote anything better or
more clearly discounted the views of theoretical naturalists. It is a
model of conclusive argument backed by sound data. Commenting on his
remarks Ex-President Roosevelt thus gives his opinions on the subject
(November 1st, 1912):--
"It is a misfortune that in England and America the naturalists
should at the moment have gotten into an absolutely fossilized
condition of mind about such things as protective coloration.
Both the English and the American scientific periodicals are
under the control of men like Professor Poulton and others who
treat certain zoological dogmas from a purely fetichistic
standpoint, exactly as if they were mediaeval theologians. This
is especially true of their attitude toward the doctrine of
natural selection, and incidentally toward protective
coloration. There is much in natural selection; there is much in
protective coloration. But neither can be used to one-twentieth
the extent that the neo-Darwinians, such as Mr. Wallace and the
rest, have used them; indeed these neo-Darwinians have actually
confused the doctrine of natural selection with the doctrine of
evolution itself.
"Heller is coming home soon. He has just written me from Berlin,
where he saw our friend Matzchie who, you doubtless remember,
has split up the African buffalo into some twenty different
species, based on different curves of the horns. Matzchie told
Heller that he had read my statement that of the four bulls I
shot feeding together near the Nairobi Falls, the horns,
according to Matzchie's theory, showed that there were at least
two and perhaps three different species (among these four bulls
from the same herd). Well, Matzchie absolutely announces that
doubtless there were two species among them, because the
locality is on the border-line between two distinct types of
buffalo, that of Kenia and that of the Athi! I think this is one
of the most delightful examples of the mania for
species-splitting that I have ever seen. On the same basis
Matzchie might just as well divide the African buffalo into a
hundred species as into twenty; and as for the elephant he could
make a new species for every hundred square miles.
"Apparently your 'African Nature Notes' was 'hoodooed' by my
introduction and the dedication to me; but I cannot help hoping
that you will now publish a book giving your experiences in East
Africa and up the White Nile. Without the handicap of my
introduction, I think it would do well! Seriously, the trouble
with your 'African Nature Notes' is that it is too good. The
ideal hunting-book ought not to be a simple record of slaughter;
it ought to be good from the literary standpoint and good from
the standpoint of the outdoor naturalist as well as from the
standpoint of the big game hunter. Stigand's books fulfil both
the latter requirements, but he has not your power to write well
and interestingly, and he has a rather morbid modesty or
self-consciousness which makes him unable to tell simply and as
a matter of course the really absorbingly interesting personal
adventures with which he has met. Unfortunately, however, the
average closet naturalist usually wants to read an utterly dry
little book by some closet writer, and does not feel as if a
book by a non-professional was worth reading--for instance, I
was interested in London to find two or three of my scientific
friends, who knew nothing whatever about protective coloration
in the field, inclined to take a rather sniffy view of your
absolutely sound and, in the real sense, absolutely scientific,
statement of the case. On the other hand, the average man who
reads hunting-books is too apt to care for nothing at all but
the actual account of the hunting or of the travelling, because
he himself knows no more about the game than the old Dutch and
South African hunters whom you described used to know about the
different 'species' of lion and black rhinoceros. Nevertheless I
am sure that your 'African Nature Notes' will last permanently
as one of the best books that any big game hunter and
out-of-doors naturalist has ever written. Charles Sheldon was
saying exactly this to me the other day. By the way, I hope he
will soon write something about his experiences in Alaska. They
are well worth writing about. I am much irritated because
Shiras, some of whose pictures I once sent you, will not make
any use of his extraordinary mass of notes and photographs of
American wild game and the rarer creatures of the American
forests and mountains.
"I am sending you herewith a rather long pamphlet I have
published on the subject of protective coloration. Thayer
answered the appendix to my 'African Game Trails,' in a popular
Science Monthly article, re-stating and amplifying his
absurdities. Men like Professor Poulton treat him with great
seriousness, and indeed Professor Poulton is himself an
extremist on this subject. I thought it would be worth while
going into the subject more at length, and accordingly did so in
the bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, and I
send you a copy. I shall also send one to Stigand. Do write me
about your experiences."
Roosevelt was in a measure responsible for this excellent book, and it
was due to his encouragement that Selous undertook its publication. He
sent it in parts to his friend, who thus summarizes the author's
literary style:--
"I have been delighted with all the pieces you sent me, and have
read and re-read them all. Do go on with your lion article. I
earnestly wish you would now write a book describing a natural
history of big game. You are the only man alive, so far as I
know, who could do it. Take S.'s book, for instance, which you
sent me. It is an excellent book in its way, but really it is
only a kind of guide-book. The sole contribution to natural
history which it contains is that about the wolves and the big
sheep. But you have the most extraordinary power of seeing
things with minute accuracy of detail, and then the equally
necessary power to describe vividly and accurately what you have
seen. I read S.'s book, and I have not the slightest idea how
the sheep or the ibex or the deer look; but after reading your
articles I can see the lions, not snarling but growling, with
their lips covering their teeth, looking from side to side as
one of them seeks to find what had hurt it, or throwing up its
tail stiff in the air as it comes galloping forward in the
charge. I can see the actual struggle as the lion kills a big ox
or cow buffalo. I can see the buffalo bulls trotting forward,
stupid and fierce-looking, but not dangerous unless molested,
while they gaze from under their brow-armour of horn at the
first white man they have ever seen. I can see wild hounds, with
their ears pricked forward, leaping up above the grass to see
what had shot at the buffalo they were chasing.
"I was immensely interested in your description of these same
wild hounds. And what a lesson you incidentally give as to the
wisdom of refraining from dogmatizing about things that
observers see differently. That experience of yours about
running into the pack of wild hounds, which, nevertheless, as
you point out, often run down antelopes that no horse can run
down, is most extraordinary. I am equally struck by what you say
as to the men who have run down cheetahs on horseback. Judging
from what Sir Samuel Baker saw for instance, cheetahs must be
able to go at least two feet to a horse's one for half a mile or
so. I wonder if it is not possible that the men who succeeded in
running them down were able to get a clear chase of two or three
miles so as to wind them. If different observers had recorded
the two sets of facts you give as to the speed of the wild
hounds under different conditions, a great many people would
have jumped to the conclusion that one of the two observers,
whose stories seemed mutually contradictory, must have been
telling what was not so.
"Let me thank you again for the real pleasure you have given me
by sending me these articles. Now do go on and write that book.
Buxton and I and a great many other men can write ordinary books
of trips in which we kill a few sheep or goat or bear or elk or
deer; but nobody can write the natural history of big game as
you can."
Selous' intimacy with the President was of that charming character which
unfortunately we now only associate with early Victorian days. They
wrote real letters to one another of that heart-to-heart nature which
only two men absorbed in similar tastes, and actuated by a similar
intellectual outlook, can send as tributes of mind to mind. Such letters
are ever a joy to the recipient; but once Selous seems to have
over-expressed his concern, when the President was attacked and wounded
by a would-be assassin. The answer is both characteristic and amusing.
"My dear Selous, I could not help being a little amused by your
statement that my 'magnificent behaviour, splendid pluck and
great constitutional strength have made a great impression.'
Come, come, old elephant-hunter and lion-hunter! Down at the
bottom of your heart you must have a better perspective of my
behaviour after being shot. Modern civilisation, indeed, I
suppose all civilization is rather soft; and I suppose the
average political orator, or indeed the average sedentary broker
or banker or business-man or professional man, especially if
elderly, is much overcome by being shot or meeting with some
other similar accident, and feels very sorry for himself and
thinks he has met with an unparalleled misfortune; but the
average soldier or sailor in a campaign or battle, even the
average miner or deep-sea fisherman or fireman or policeman, and
of course the average hunter of dangerous game, would treat both
my accident and my behaviour after the accident as entirely
matter of course. It was nothing like as nerve-shattering as
your experience with the elephant that nearly got you, or as
your experience with more than one lion and more than one
buffalo. The injury itself was not as serious as your injury the
time that old four-bore gun was loaded twice over by mistake;
and as other injuries you received in the hunting-field."