In fact, he hardly hurried his stately exit after a disdainful glance at us. It seemed stuck. He must have already cleared it through my company or he wouldn't have known I was free. The Tsavo man-eaters may have picked up their culinary preferences by dining upon the bodies of Indian coolies discarded along the railway line. Those lions can't do that for pleasure, because it has to scare them, too. Through all the firing, he had stayed not ten feet from the wounded one and, if the American had not spotted his creeping up on me, I would likely have been given the New Look. Jaguar, yes. Slowly, and I do not misuse the word, I eased a step back. On the anniversary of Watan's death, some people went up to the mountain to lay flowers, complaining that the city government hadn't held any commemorative activities, that there were mounds of dirt and weeds in the park that hadn't been cleaned up . One, an absolutely immense black-maned male, was the biggest lion I have ever seen, certainly over ten feet in length. One day, with a client from Philadelphia, we shot a very fine male lion at about ten yards after tracking him off the carcass of a wildebeest for three hours. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. De Beer, completely blind and helpless, could only scream as the lioness ate him alive.Ten feet away, petrified with terror, Colin Matthews stood watching the cat ravage his father-in-law. The Man-eaters of Tsavo treated the project as one extended buffet table, their accomplishment having been to have eaten more imported Indian coolies than it took to film. Frantically, I tried to locate the lion, but his roars drowned everything out, a solid vortex of impossible sound saturating the hut. Undoubtedly, both may be correct, depending upon mental condition at the time, location of the bite, and other such factors. I finally decided, after locking eyes with her for at least six months, that I would prefer the devil I didn't know to the one lying there watching me like a butcher reading a cuts chart. Others, such as Willy De Beer and Paul Nielssen say that the pain was excruciating.The fact that I have never been seriously injured by an animal, save a bite on a booted foot by a Brazilian jaguar, is owed both to luck of the purest form and an absolute dedication on my part to caution with any game. Seller Rating: Contact seller Book First Edition Used - Hardcover Condition: Near Fine US$ 40.00 Convert currency Free shipping Within U.S.A. The lion, fortunately, wasn't having any, although what might have happened if the client had caught him might have made interesting reading.I don't know about you, but I still get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach when I flip on the Late Show and see the poor old MGM bloke doing his thing. Nairobi has an impressive cemetery of lion-killed white men, including Sir George Grey, brother of the then prime minister of Great Britain early in this century. If you're watering multiple times a day in mid-temperature weather, you're giving it too much. In the beam of the light was clear evidence of a scuffle, the smooth earth torn by striations of long claw marks. As the professional, Paul was obliged to earn his $25 per day salary by following the lion and killing it. I swung around a half-turn and looked smack into the puss of the second lion, who uttered a low sound that you didn't have to speak lionese to understand. Login to YUMPU News Login to YUMPU Publishing Sometimes, however, the victim is grasped by the body and dragged off to be eaten alive. The cat gave a horrible roar and released Silent as I wrenched the spear free, the long point bright with blood. In this kind of business you learn to remember close calls only for what they taught you, not for how they might have turned out. It was an interesting few minutes. By the time dawn lightened the sky there was little left, but still plenty to interest the hyena. St. Martin's Press, 1978-01-15. It was hard, dangerous hunting that I had quit rather than risk a client's being chewed up. As Johnnie Cox tells it:"We would miss him, but, after all, we were well ensconced at our water hole. Also, one just doesn't turn down official requests from district commissioners, not if one wants to hang on to one's professional hunter's license. I told them, and myself, that the odds of the lion returning were pretty slim, but when I left, that hut was better defended than the Alamo. If only the bloody Zambians would let a hunter carry sidearms! As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Peter Hathaway Capstick's Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view Africa through the eyes of one of the most renowned professional hunters. I have walked up to within a few feet of sleeping lions, elephants, and rhinos, who never noticed me. Death in the Long Grass - , Peter Hathaway Capstick, 9781466803923 that the lion coughed before beginning his charge. But he'll settle for a cold beer as long as he has his smokes. Well, I reckoned, double or nothing. Imagine the number of people they had eaten in the ten years they operated unmolested! His book on the episode is a classic of hunting literature and, due to its immense popularity, is still often available in used bookstores. After giving up his career, the New Jersey native hunted in Central and South America before going to Africa in 1968, where he held professional hunting licenses in Ethiopia, Zambia, Botswana, and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Your right!" Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush is written by Peter Hathaway Capstick and published by St. Martin's Press (Macmillan US Trade). I didn't hit one as far as I know, but the shots scared them out of camp. Most often it's an amateur because you don't live very long as a pro if you get careless. ""There was a large tree in our camp area. ""As I could see lions within what looked like biting distance, I started blasting away with the .308. May contain highlighting and or writing. Please try again. A sheet of blood burst into his eyes as he threw himself backward, gasping in pain.Most men who had just had their foreheads ripped open by a man-eating lioness would not be anxious for an encore performance. Covered with gore from her wounds, she fled the black hut but, halfway to the De Beer house, she stopped, giving a desperate thought to helping her husband. At any rate, lions certainly have a creditable record for killing the famous. As lions go, he was a real beaut, well over nine feet and with an anthracite neckpiece that grew down to his cuticles. The only possible way to counter the odds of this happening is to be so incredibly careful as to forestall the inevitable as long as possible. Colin Matthews has had many operations on his hand, but it is not expected to be of much use to him again. If you can catch him the first time and make an effective shot, you will end his career right there. As if in a dream, he shoved his right arm as far as it would go into the enraged animal's mouth, the wood-rasp tongue tight in his fist. I'll leave in an hour. As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Peter Hathaway Capsticks. He rolled over, face-up on the dirt, listening to the lion chewing on the young man. At five yards she gathers her hind legs beneath her flattened, lean body, the hind claws gripping the earth for purchase. Some professionals show their assorted scars with pride, but I don't feel that way. I had tried hunting lion in this cover before, harrying them through the jungles of waxy, green, , a dense, house-high shrub that grows like a beach umbrella with the handle cut off, in hope of getting my clients a quick shot as the cats crossed the open channels between the heavier clumps. Where was the ammunition? It was so dark that he could hardly see, but he heard the short Chuff! It is the clearest case of not just the ancient confrontation of man against beast, but also of man deliberately putting himself in harm's way. Very bad form, indeed. Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2016. As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Peter Hathaway Capsticks Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view Africa through the eyes of one of the most renowned professional hunters.Few men can say they have known Africa as Capstick has known itleading . Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2022. Also, I knew there was more than one wounded lion in there, not forgetting the companion who had notreappeared nor shown himself after disappearing into the hardwoods that ringed the. In this novel, Alex's uncle dies in what he is told is a car accident. We might be able to stalk him while he was actually eating his kill or intercept him on his way to water before he went to lie up for the hot hours. I took away one lesson for sure: the next time a district commissioner asks me for a favor, I'm going to have a severe attack of radio trouble. I almost blew my first lion charge by not compensating for this, but luckily the slug passed through the scalp and broke the spine above the paunch. He was later trapped and, after being displayed, shot.Although there is virtually no area in Africa that has not recorded a degree of man-eating activity, some localities are historically much more dangerous than others. Awkwardly, he reversed the rifle, found the safety, and, still unseeing, listened to determine where to fire. When it was clear, the man-eater straddled the corpse and, holding it by a limp shoulder, dragged it across the open and into the blackness of bush.The lion easily carried his kill for three miles, pausing only twice to shift his grip. People were climbing on top of trucks, scaling trees and shouting in terror. Read less. ""I then entered into the stupidest misadventure of a mis-spent life. In a two-day period, three lions had become increasingly bold, even to the point of entering the camp and eating chickens belonging to the native staff. After fifteen minutes of tossing, I took another bite at the flask and dozed off shortly after.You don't have to live in the African bush surrounded by dangerous or potentially dangerous game very long before you develop a sixth sense that may mean the difference between life and the alternative. Great writing style. They are hunted for the oldest of motives: the challenge of man against a fast, deadly animal on the animal's terms. I loaded my .470 Evans double-express rifle with soft-points and stuck another clump of the big cartridges into various pockets of my bush clothes where they wouldn't rattle against each other. Hans Besser, a German hunter early in this century, told of a missionary of the White Fathers in Tanganyika being carried off and taking fifteen minutes to die while the lion ate him. A very attention-getting grunt sounded from the grass about twenty feet away, and a most determined-looking lioness stepped onto the path and flattened herself. Assurnasirpal II claimed to have done in "370 lions like caged birds" with a spear.In ancient Greece, lion sticking was all the rage. Gripping read, good way of storytelling the various bush animals, Especially liked the account fo the cape buffallo. Actually, all of the man-eaters I have shot or inspected after someone else killed them have been in the blush of health with the exception of one old lioness in Ethiopia who had a horribly deformed lower jaw, from the bone of which I extracted a two-and-a-half-inch chunk of iron curtain rod shot there by a hydrocephalic moron with a muzzle loader. Locking the safety catches, he handed the .243 to Colin Matthews as he came up. 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