Hunting

Deep in the African jungle, the natives halted sharply, stiffened, passed the word. A leopard. Stalking began. Stewart Edward White was in the lead, in his hands a bow cut from the sturdy yew trees of California. The bow string was the length of the old cloth yard--27 1/2 in., and it took 80 pounds of pulling power, and much skill to draw one of the 5 1/2 -ft. steel-tipped arrows, also of yew, to the head of the bow. It was a clumsy thing, this bow, difficult to keep clear of the jungle undergrowth, not a thing to discharge instantaneous death in a second into a springing leopard. The leopard was a good 100 ft. away. It was a long shot. White made it.

The leopard dropped, was up again, darting for cover, with White after it, followed by two natives with extra quivers of arrows. One carried also a small gun, by way of "mental comfort." The hidden leopard surprised one of White's companions, fell upon him and clawed him. The gun carrier came to the rescue and fired pointblank. More infuriated, the beast turned upon the firer, bit him furiously. White seized the fallen gun and fired the second shot, only to draw the leopard's attack on himself with such force that he was knocked down, leopard's teeth sunk in his shoulder. The two bearers were helpless from their wounds, the rest of the party at a distance. But White managed to unsheath his hunting-knife and sink it in the beast's throat.

Such was the story that crept, last week, out of the jungle to Nairobi, British East Africa; sped thence to Paris, London, the world.

Against gunpowder, what chance has the poor pard, the feeble tiger, the defenseless lion? Lords once of the jungle, they are driven ever back into their forests, away from the soft fat flesh of the deer. But go where they will, gunpowder follows relentlessly until, at last, cornered, they turn, crouch, roar terribly, and leap--into bullets of death-dealing steel. Is this justice, is this sportmanship?

"No," said Stewart Edward White, author of 20-odd books on various sections of "God's Great Out-of-Doors." "It is not sportsmanship; it is disraceful butchery."

Not a large man, Stewart Edward White, ather slight, in fact, small of hand, small of feature, finely drawn lines, academic, refined, wearing glasses --a proper man for a writing desk, for an 18th Century escritoire even. But he has put in some few solid years lumber jacking, he has hunted and trapped in nearly every wild section of the world. "For my part, I am going to give the lion and the tiger a sporting chance. I shall hunt them with the bow and arrow."

So he spoke four months ago, and left the U. S. with Prof. F. Saxton Pope of the University of California and Cinema Director Arthur H. Young, sport-questing.

The leopard had his chance--and, as far as the arrow was concerned, he won. But the penalty of victory was death. After the wounds he inflicted upon Mr. White and the two natives have been healed at Nairobi, Archer White will return to the jungle for six months more of chance-taking, chance-giving, in the style of the Battle of Crecy.*

*Aug. 25, 1346, when the French were routed by English bowmen.