the animals with the telephoto lens at a hundred paces or more, and
the few chances I had of photographing them close at hand by daylight,
were responsible partly for my determination to go in for flashlight
pictures by night. At first my idea was discouraged and opposed by
expert advisers, but the Goerz-Schillings apparatus was evolved out
of my experiments and makes it possible now to secure excellent
representations of wild life.
As I have said already, I did not succeed with my flashlight
photographs on my second expedition. And my third expedition, on
which I managed to take a few, was brought to a sudden end by severe
illness. At that time I had not found a way to combine the working of
the flashlight with that of the shutter, essential to the photographing
of objects in rapid motion. My cameras stood ready for use in the dark
with the lens uncovered and the plates exposed, the shutter being
closed automatically when the flashlight contrivance worked. To my
surprise and disappointment this arrangement proved too slow; the
exposure was too long in the case of animals moving quickly. Jackals
emerged from my negatives with six heads, hyenas with long snake-like
bodies. Unfortunately I destroyed all these monstrosities, and cannot
therefore reproduce any of them here. Now and again, however, I was
fortunate enough to get a picture worth having--for instance, that of a
hyena making off with the head of a zebra, and that of three jackals,
included in the illustrations to _With Flashlight and Rifle_. The first
photograph I succeeded with in 1902 was that of a mongoose coming
up to the bait placed for him. On page 657 the reader may see this
marten-like animal taking to flight among the thorn-bushes. I secured a
number of other pictures, notably of hyenas, both spotted and striped,
and of jackals, in all kinds of strange positions, moving hither and
thither in search of prey.
What a state of excitement and suspense I used to be in at first when
the flashlight flamed out--until I got to realise that owing to the
rapid movements of the animals most of the photographs were sure to be
failures.
My illness and return from this expedition proved really an advantage
in the long run, inasmuch as they enabled me to get the apparatus
brought to such perfection as to render possible the photographing of
even the most rapid movements. This was brought about in the Goerz
Institute, Herr M. Kiesling contriving to secure the simultaneous
operation of the flashlight and the shutter.
Equipped with this new apparatus, I set out on my fourth expedition,
betaking myself for two reasons to districts with which I was already
familiar. In the first place, success was much more likely in a country
the speech of whose inhabitants and all their habits and customs
were known to me; but my chief reason was that I wished to achieve a
pictorial record of the wild life of the German region of Africa. As a
matter of fact, with this kind of object in view, a man might
spend a lifetime in any such region, and find that, however narrow
its boundaries, it could always offer him fresh subjects for study and
observation.
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, phot._
LIONESS FRIGHTENED AWAY FROM CARCASE BY THE FLASH-LIGHT.]
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, phot._
AIMING AT A PIGEON AND HITTING A CROW! I FOUND THIS SPOTTED HYENA ON
THE PLATE INSTEAD OF THE LION FOR WHICH IT WAS INTENDED.]
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH OF A JACKAL, TAKEN WITH A SMALL HAND-CAMERA.]
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, phot._
PHOTOGRAPH OF A JACKAL TAKEN WITH MY FIRST, PRIMITIVE NIGHT-APPARATUS,
NOT TOO SUCCESSFULLY!]
[Illustration:
IN ORDER TO ENSURE SUCCESS WITH MY FLASHLIGHT-PHOTOS, I USED TO
MAKE CONTINUAL EXPERIMENTS BEFOREHAND. I USED TO MAKE SOME OF MY
MEN ACT AS MOVING MODELS, AND GET THEM TO WAVE CLOTHS IN THEIR
HANDS.]
On arrival the photographic outfit proved so cumbersome, both as
regards transport and management, that both Prince Löwenstein, who
accompanied me, and who was not easily to be daunted by obstacles, and
also Orgeich gave expression to pessimistic views as to the possibility
of fulfilling my purpose.
No one, indeed, had been able to boast of success until then with
this new apparatus! I had yet to satisfy myself that it was really
efficacious--that, for instance, it would enable me to photograph
a lion falling upon its prey. Many were the fruitless experiments
witnessed by the Pangani forest. We experimented night after night, now
at one spot, now at another--my men learning to enact the rôle of lions
and other animals for the purpose. The Oriental and the negro are alike
in their bearing on such occasions, but these flashlight operations did
really succeed in arousing the wonder of my followers. The laughter
of my chief man still rings in my ears. “But the lions are far away,
master!” he would declare, utterly unable to understand my proceedings.
It took me long, and I had had a large number of failures, before I
succeeded in overcoming his attitude of incredulity.
As I have already intimated, the efficacy of the telephoto lens in
the tropics depends to an extraordinary degree on the conditions of
the atmosphere. The efficacy of the flashlight apparatus depends
upon the precise absolutely simultaneous working of the flashlight
and the shutter. It took me weeks and months (and I very nearly
gave the thing up as hopeless) before I managed to get good results
in the wilderness, though theoretically, and to a certain extent in
practice at home, the apparatus had been perfected. The heavy dew of
the tropical night, or a sudden shower of rain, may easily “do for” the
flashlight unless the apparatus has been thoroughly safeguarded. And
there are any number of other mishaps to be provided against. On one
occasion hyenas carried off the linen sandbags that form part of the
apparatus; mongooses made away with the aluminium lid of the lens-cap
and hid it in their stronghold, an ant-hill; ants gnawed the apparatus
itself. And when the photograph has at last been taken, a lot of other
harmful contingencies have to be kept in mind. The fact that several
shillings’ worth of powder is consumed in each explosion of the
flashlight is in itself a serious consideration. Of course, there is
always the additional danger of the cameras being stolen or destroyed
by natives--a misfortune I experienced more than once.
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, photo._
FLASHLIGHT FAILURES II. BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPES COMING DOWN TO THE
WATER-SIDE TO DRINK. THE BLEMISHES WERE CAUSED BY BITS OF THE
MATERIAL WITH WHICH THE FLASHLIGHT POWDER WAS COVERED TO PROTECT
IT FROM DAMP BEING BLOWN INTO THE AIR AND BURNING AS THEY FLEW IN
FRONT OF THE LENS.]
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, phot._
HOW MY FLASHLIGHT PICTURES WERE APT TO BE SPOILT. I. THE ZEBRA IS
BEHIND THE STICK TO WHICH THE COMMUNICATING STRING IS ATTACHED.]
[Illustration: FLASHLIGHT FAILURES III. TWO TURTLE-DOVES (ONE ON THE
WING) SET MY NIGHT-APPARATUS WORKING. MISHAPS OF THIS KIND OFTEN OCCUR.]
[Illustration: FLASHLIGHT FAILURES IV. A BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPE DOE
SWERVES SUDDENLY ROUND DURING THE FLASH.]
I would give the intending photographer a special warning against
careless handling of the explosive mixture. The various ingredients
are separately packed, of course, and are thus quite safe until the
time has come to mix them together (I know nothing of the ready-made
mixtures which are declared to be portable without danger). This
business of mixing them with a mortar is dangerous undoubtedly, for the
introduction of a grain of sand is enough to cause an explosion. I
myself, as well as others, have had some very narrow escapes whilst
thus occupied, and, as every photographer knows, the work has had fatal
results in several instances of recent years.
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, phot._
PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES OF ANTELOPES SHOT BY THE AUTHOR AND NOW TO
BE SEEN PRESERVED IN GERMAN MUSEUMS. 1, 2. WATERBUCK (_COBUS.
AFR. ELLIPSIPRYMNUS_, Ogilb.), MALE AND FEMALE. 3. ELAND (_OREAS
LIVINGSTONI_, Sclat.), FEMALE. 4. MASAI HARTEBEEST (_BUBALIS
COKEI_, Gthr.), YOUNG BUCK.]
My apparatus revealed several shortcomings even in the improved form.
It was not absolutely light-proof, and it had to be set up always,
for its automatic operation, in the brief tropical dusk. If no animal
presented itself for portraiture the plates exposed were always wasted,
unless at dawn they were withdrawn again. (This is not the case with
the apparatus as since perfected.)
Many wrong impressions are current in regard to this kind of
photography. It can be managed in two ways. Either the photographer
himself remains on the spot to attend in person both to the flashlight
and the exposure, or else the mechanism is worked by a string against
which the animal moves. Before I took my photographs I had been a
spectator of all the various incidents represented in them, watching
them all from hiding-places in dense thorn-bushes, thus coming, as it
were, into personal touch with lions and other animals. Though not so
dangerous really as camping out on the velt, where one’s fatigue and
the darkness leave one defenceless against the possible attacks of
elephants or rhinoceroses, you need good nerves to spend the night in
your thorn-thicket hiding-place with a view to flashlight snapshots of
lions at close quarters. In that interesting work _Zu den Aulihans_, by
Count Hoyos, and in Count Wickenburg’s _Wanderungen in Ostafrika_, the
reader will find interesting and authentic accounts of night-shoots
which correspond with my own experiences. Count Coudenhove in his
first book describes very vividly the effect upon the nerves of
the apparition of numbers of lions within a few paces of him, when
concealed in a thorn-bush at night.
There is a wonderful fascination at all times in lying in wait
by night for animals, and watching their goings and comings and
all their habits. Even here at home, in our game preserves, the
experience of passing hour after hour on the look-out has a charm
about it difficult to describe in words. Out in the wilderness it is
increased immeasurably. It is an intense pleasure to me to read other
people’s impressions of such experiences, when I feel the accounts are
trustworthy. They are so different in some respects, so much alike in
others. In my first book I cited Count Coudenhove, mentioned above,
in this connection, as a man of proved courage, who writes at once
sympathetically and convincingly. Here let me give a passage from the
book of another sportsman. Count Hans Palffy. In his _Wild und Hund_
he speaks as follows: “I had been waiting for two hours or so in the
darkness without being able to descry the carcase of the rhinoceros”
[which he himself had shot and which he was using as a bait for the
lion], “when suddenly I heard a sound like that of a heavy body
falling on the ground, and then almost immediately the lion began
growling beside the dead animal. I could hear the King of Beasts quite
distinctly, as he began to pull and bite at the flesh.... He would move
away from it every ten or twenty minutes, always in the same direction,
to give out a series of roars. The effect of this was magnificent
beyond description. Beginning always with a soft murmur, he gradually
raised his mighty voice into a peal of thunder--I never in my life
heard anything so beautiful.”
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, phot._
JACKALS. ONLY ONE IS VISIBLE, BUT THE GLEAMING EYES OF TWO OTHERS (NOS.
2 AND 3) GIVE A PECULIAR INTEREST TO THIS PHOTOGRAPH.]
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, phot._
PHOTOGRAPHS OF EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES SHOT BY THE AUTHOR AND
NOW PRESERVED IN VARIOUS MUSEUMS. 1. SMALL KUDU (_STREPSICEROS
IMBERBIS_, Blyth), BUCK. 2. DWARF GAZELLE (_GAZELLA THOMSONI_,
Gthr.), BUCK. 3. WHITE-BEARDED GNU (_CONNOCHÆTES ALBOJUBATUS_,
Thos.), BULL. 4. BUSH-BUCK (_TRAGELAPHUS MASAICUS_, Neum), BUCK.
(THE FEMALE OF THE FIRST-NAMED AND LAST-NAMED SPECIES HAVE NO
HORNS.)]
Both on account of the hardships and fatigue involved--which are
calculated in the long run to ruin his constitution--and also because
he really cannot manipulate his cameras successfully except on starry
or moonlight nights, it is most desirable for the photographer to
provide himself with an apparatus working automatically. You cannot
count upon its working as you would wish. The string which sets it in
action may be caught and pulled by a bat or even a cockchafer instead
of a lion you want to photograph. The photograph reproduced on p. 697,
for instance, was the work of the turtledoves therein visible. The
motion of their wings, it may be noted, was too quick for a clearly
defined record.
This picture, taken in the early morning, is a good instance of the
way in which I have always enforced my rule as to never touching up my
photographs. The plate was broken on its way home, but the cracks which
resulted were left as they were.[21] I remember one case in which I
had put up my apparatus with a view to securing photographs of certain
lions, and in which I had to be content with a picture of a spotted
hyena splashing its way in full flight through the swamp. The hideous
cowering gait of the animal came out very strikingly on the negative.
There is wide scope for a man’s dexterity and resourcefulness in the
setting up of a flashlight apparatus. All the qualities that go to the
making of a big-game hunter are essential to success in this field
also. You have to keep a sharp look-out for the tracks of the different
animals and to watch for their appearance, taking up your position in
some thorn-bush hiding-place or up a tree if you propose to operate the
camera yourself by means of a string. In the case of most animals you
have, of course, to pay special attention to the direction of the wind.
This is not necessary, however, in the case of lions. Lions take no
notice whatever of the man in hiding. Elephants, on the contrary, are
very easily excited, and when this is so they are apt to force their
way into his thorn retreat and trample on him or to drag him down from
his point of vantage.
* * * * *
Future workers in this field will find that my labours have served to
some extent to clear the ground for them, and we may look forward to
many interesting achievements. There can be no doubt that the explorer
who provides himself with the necessary photographic equipment will
find ample scope for his activities.
My own process was simple enough. I stretched lines of string round the
heifer or goat which was to serve as a bait, and the lions, hyenas,
etc., falling on their prey pulled these strings, which worked the
flashlight--the animals thus taking their own photographs. Some of
these pictures record new facts in natural history. In my first
book, for instance, there is a picture of a lioness making off with her
tail raised high in the air in a way no artist would have thought of
depicting, and no naturalist have believed to be characteristic.
[Illustration:
_C. G. Schillings, phot._
MORE ANTELOPES. 1. BLACK-HOOFED ANTELOPE (_ÆPYCEROS SUARA_,
Mtsch.), BUCK. 2. MOUNTAIN REEDBUCK (_CERVICAPRA CHANLERI_,
Rothsch.). 3. GRANT’S GAZELLE (_GAZELLA GRANTI_, Brooke), DOE. 4.
ORYX ANTELOPE (_ORYX CALLOTIS_, Thos.), BUCK.]
In the course of my labours I had to overcome every description of
obstacle, and had constantly to be making new experiments. By the
time I had got things right I had so small a stock of materials left
at my disposal that I ought to congratulate myself upon my subsequent
success. The number of good pictures I secured was far less than I had
originally hoped for, but on the other hand it far surpassed what, in
those moods of pessimism which followed upon my many failures, I had
begun to think I should have to be contented with.
Among my successful efforts I count those which record the fashion in
which the lion falls upon his prey, first prowling round it; and those
which represent rhinoceroses and hippopotami, leopards and hyenas and
jackals, antelopes and zebras making their way down to the waterside
to drink; those also which show the way in which hyenas and jackals
carry off their spoils, and the relations that exist between them. But
a point of peculiar interest that my photographs bring out is the way
in which the eyes of beasts of prey shine out in the darkness of night.
I have never been able to get any precise scientific explanation of
this phenomenon. I have often seen it for myself in the wilderness.
Professor Yngve Sjöstedt, a Swedish naturalist, who has travelled in
the Kilimanjaro region, tells us that he once saw, quite near his
camp, the eyes of at least ten lions shining out from the darkness
exactly like lights. I find the following passage, too, in an old book,
printed at Nuremberg in 1719: “Travellers tell us (and I myself have
seen it) that you can follow the movements of lions in the dark owing
to the way in which their glowing eyes shine out like twin lights.”
Even with a small hand-camera it is possible to secure pictures worth
having, such as the studies of heads reproduced on the accompanying
pages. These must always have a certain value, as they depict for the
most part species of animals which have never yet been secured for
zoological gardens.
I repeat that there is an immense harvest awaiting the man who is
prepared to work thoroughly in this field. Why, for instance, should
he not succeed in getting a picture by night of an entire troop of
lions? My photographs show how a mating lion and lioness fall on
their victim--from different sides; and how three lionesses may be
seen quenching their thirst at midnight, all together. With good luck
some one may manage to photograph a troop of a dozen or twenty lions
hunting their prey--that would be a fine achievement. Or he might
secure a wonderful group of bull-elephants on their way down to a
drinking-place. The possibilities are immense.
Who has ever seen a herd of giraffes bending down in their grotesque
impossible attitudes to quench their thirst? A photographic record of
such a sight would be invaluable now that the species is doomed to
extinction. But, apart from such big achievements as these, trustworthy
photographs of wild life in all its forms--even of the smallest
beasts and birds--are of the utmost value, especially in the case of
rare species that are dying out.
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHS OF (1) A SPOTTED HYENA (_CROCOTTA
GERMINANS_, Mtsch.); (2) AND (4) STRIPED HYENAS (_HYÆNA SCHILLINGSI_,
Mtsch.), AND (3) A JACKAL.]
This is true not merely of Africa, but of other parts of the world as
well. Who is attempting to secure photographic records of the great elk
and mighty bears of Alaska? or of the wild life of the Arctic zone--the
polar bear, the walrus, and the seal?
[Illustration: SNAPSHOT OF A JACKAL IN FULL FLIGHT.]
The Arctic regions should be made to tell their last secrets to the
camera for the benefit of posterity, nor should the wild sheep and ibex
of the unexplored mountains of Central Asia be overlooked.
These things are not to be easily achieved, and they involve a
considerable outlay of money. It would be, however, money well spent.
Money is being lavished upon many other enterprises which could very
well wait, and which might be carried out just as successfully some
time in the future. These are possibilities, on the other hand, that
are diminishing every year, and that presently will cease to exist. I
trust sincerely that it may be my lot to continue working in this field.
“If only the matter could be brought home to the minds of the right
people,” wrote one of our best naturalists, after examining my work,
“tens of thousands of pounds would be devoted to this end.”
[Illustration: GUINEA-FOWL.]
Envoi
I may be permitted a few words in conclusion to reaffirm certain views
to which I cling. I would not have my readers attach any special
importance to what I myself have achieved, but I would like them to
take to heart the moral of my book.
It may be summed up in a very few words. I maintain that wild life
everywhere, and in all its forms, should be religiously protected--that
the forces of nature should not be warred against more than our
struggle for existence renders absolutely inevitable; and that it is
the sportsman’s duty, above all, to have a care for the well-being of
the whole of the animal world.
Whoever glances over the terrible list of so-called “harmful” birds and
beasts done to death every year in Germany must bemoan this ruthless
destruction of a charming feature of our countryside, carried out by
sportsmen in the avowed interest of certain species designated as
“useful.” The realm of nature should not be regarded exclusively from
the point of view of sport; the sportsman should stand rather in the
position of a guardian or trustee, responsible to all nature-lovers for
the condition of the fauna and flora left to his charge.
I would have the German hunter establish the same kind of reservations,
the same kind of “sanctuaries” for wild life that exist in America.
In our German colonies, especially in Africa, we should model those
reservations on English examples. Such institutions, in which both
flora and fauna should be really well looked after, would be a source
at once of instruction and enjoyment of the highest kind to all lovers
of natural history.
[Illustration: FAREWELL TO AFRICA!]
_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
CHEAP EDITION
“The most remarkable travel book that has ever been
published.”--_Graphic._
With Flashlight and Rifle
A Record of Hunting Adventures and Studies in Wild Life
By C. G. SCHILLINGS
Translated by FREDERIC WHYTE
With an Introduction by Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.,
Illustrated with 302 of the Author’s “untouched” photographs
taken by day and night.
_Printed throughout on English art paper, in one handsome
vol., =824= pages super-royal 8vo, =12s. 6d.= net_
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT wrote of Mr. Schillings’s book:
“His extraordinary photographic work among the teeming wild creatures
of East Africa.... He is a great field naturalist, a trained scientific
observer, as well as a mighty hunter; and no mere hunter can ever do
work even remotely approaching in value that which he has done. His
book should be translated into English at once.”
Some Exceptional Reviews
“An entrancing work. His photographs are positively wonderful; his
letterpress is vivid.”--_Standard._
“A book of singular value.”--_Yorkshire Post._
“This remarkable book.”--_Sporting and Dramatic News._
“A unique and most remarkable book.”--_Scotsman._
“Space forbids any mention of the author’s hunting adventures or of his
many thrilling escapes from death, but all through the two volumes the
human interest is as strong as the scientific.”--_Graphic._
“A remarkable book. Nobody else has ever obtained so wonderful a series
of photographs.”--_Truth._
“An entirely remarkable book, containing the greatest triumph in
photography of wild animals ever achieved.”--_Outlook._
LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO., PATERNOSTER ROW
Nearest the Pole
By Commander R. E. PEARY
(U. S. Navy; President of the National Geographic Society)
_Author of “Northward over the Great Ice,” etc._
With an introduction by President Roosevelt and numerous illustrations
selected from a collection of 1,200 of the Author’s photographs
_In Crown 4to, cloth gilt and gilt top_, =21s.= _net_.