Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Klarer

On April 25, geodetic work continued.The angles formed by the observation point of the Bobab tree and the two ends of the bottom edge of the foundation have been accurately measured.This determination identifies the first triangle.Two more observation points were chosen on the left and right sides of the meridian, one at a conspicuous hillock on the plain six miles away, and the other at a pointing post about seven miles away. The triangulation work continued without hindrance for a month.On May 15, after establishing the seven geodetic triangles, observers moved north by one latitude. Colonel Everett and Strux had very little contact with each other during this phase of the operation.It is seen that both scientists are separated when assigning tasks and checking measurements.Each day, the two operate from observation points a few miles apart, a distance that keeps all self-esteem sparring away.When night came, the two returned to the camp separately and got into their own quarters.There were also many disputes between the two about the choice of observation point, but this choice was jointly decided by everyone, so it did not lead to serious quarrels.Zorn and Amory then hoped that while the two opponents kept their distance, the geodetic work would proceed smoothly without any regrettable incidents in the middle.

On May 15th, as mentioned earlier, after the observers had advanced one latitude northward from the southern end of the meridian, it happened to be at the latitude of Lataku, an African town located thirty-five miles east of the observation point. miles. A vast Kralle has recently been established here.This is a recognized resting place. At the request of His Majesty Marui, they decided to rest here for a few days.Zorn and Amory decided to use this time to gain some solar altitude.Ballendre then normalized the measurements for differences in the level of the poles to place them at sea level.As for Lord Murray, he was taking a break from scientific observation to study the wildlife of the area with his shotgun.

Klale, as it is called by the indigenous people in southern Africa, is a kind of floating village, a mobile town that moves from one pasture to another.It was an enclosure of thirty dwellings, inhabited by several hundred people. The Krale, which the Anglo-Russian expeditions had reached, was a vast settlement of huts surrounding the banks of a tributary of the Gürüman River.Made of impermeable rush mats and wooden posts, these huts look like low beehives.The entrance is covered with a fur, and one must crawl in and out on one's knees on one's knees.From this only entrance, a cloud of choking cooking smoke swirls out.The habitability of such huts is highly doubtful to anyone but the Bushmans and the Holden Dots.

The arrival of the expedition team made the whole village active.The dogs hanging at the door of every house were barking.Armed with axes and clubs, the warriors of the village bore the brunt of the attack, shielded by copper shields.There were about two hundred of them, showing the importance of this Kralle.There are at least sixty to eighty houses here, surrounded by thorny agaves five or six feet long, and protected from the attack of wild beasts. But when Morcomb spoke a few words to one of their chiefs, the natives were immediately disarmed.The expedition was allowed to camp near their fence along the same river.The Bushmen didn't even argue with the expedition team about the miles of pastures that lay between them.The expedition's horses, cattle and other herbivores can be well fed here without any impact on the mobile town.

Under Morcum's order and direction the camp was soon organized in the usual manner.Quad bikes circled the campsite, and everyone went about their business. John.Your Excellency Marui asked his companions to calculate and observe, but he set off with Morcum immediately without delay for an hour.The English hunter mounted his common mount, and Morcum mounted his zebra.The three dogs hopped and followed.Lord Moray and Morcomb each carried a carbine of explosive cartridges, a sign of their desire to attack the native beasts. The two hunters headed for a woodland a few miles northeast of Klarer.They talked while riding side by side.

Master Morcombe.Lord Marui said, I hope you will now keep your promise to me at the Molkata Falls and lead me to the place where the game is the most abundant in the world.But you know I didn't come to Southern Africa to hunt hares or foxes, as we have a lot of in the Highlands of Scotland.In an hour, I'm gonna knock down within an hour!Morcum said, Your Excellency, please allow me to say that I am a little impatient. First of all, you must be patient.And I am only patient when I am hunting, and in hunting I make up for all the impatience I have had in my life.It seems that your Excellency John doesn’t know that hunting big wild animals is a science. You need to know the hunting place in detail, know the habits of the animals, study their whereabouts, and then have to circle with them for several hours to push them closer to the leeward.Do you know?There must be no untimely shouts, no loud steps, no revealing glances.I would spend days spying on a buffalo, and after thirty-six hours of trickery and patience, I had the animal and I didn't think it was a waste of time.

very good my friend.I will have all the patience you require, said Lord Murray.But don't forget that this rest is only three or four days, we can't waste a minute. It's worth considering.Morcombe spoke in such a calm tone that WilliamAmory's going to reacquaint himself with his traveling companion on the Orange River, and it's worth considering, Sir John, we don't have to choose, kill any animal that comes up.Antelope or dama, wildebeest or duiker, all for the hunter in a hurry! Antelope or duiker!For a start, cried Lord Moray, I don't ask for all the game on African soil, but what do you want to give me, my brave Bushmen?

Morcum looked at his companion with a strange expression, and said in a mocking tone: When Your Excellency declares satisfaction, I shall have nothing more to say.I think someone made me miss a pair of rhinos or a pair of elephants for something more inconsequential. Hunter, retorted His Excellency Marui, I will go where you lead me, and I will hunt what you let me hunt, well, go on, don't waste time on these useless words. The two horses began to gallop, carrying the two hunters to the woods at a fast gallop. The plain they crossed rose gently to the northeast.The plain was dotted with countless bushes, and in flowering season a thick, transparent, fragrant resin flowed from the trees, which the colonists used to make a remedy for wounds.Among these gracefully arranged groves rose some enwana, an Egyptian fig tree, with a bare trunk thirty or forty feet high, crowned with a green parasol.Among the lush branches and leaves, countless noisy parrots are busy pecking at these slightly sour figs.Farther off, the acacia tree hangs in yellow clusters, the silver tree shakes its silky foliage, and the bright red tassels of the reeds suggest coral undersea.Charming amaryllis with pale blue leaves adorn the grounds, which are good for galloping horses.Less than half an hour after leaving Clare, Lord Mari and Morcum had arrived at the edge of the woods.It was a mass of tall acacia trees covering an area for miles around.Numerous trees grew in a jumble of tangled branches and leaves, preventing sunlight from reaching the ground under the trees, which was blocked by thorns and weeds.Yet Morcombe's zebra and Lord Moray's mount were unafraid to venture beneath the dense vault, cutting their way among the irregularly spaced branches.Now and then there would be a clearing in the woods, and the hunters would stop and look at the surrounding undergrowth.

It should be said that this first day was very unfavorable to His Excellency John. He and his companion Mocum passed through a large forest in vain, but did not encounter a single African wild animal.His Excellency John thought more than once of a dud he had let loose on the plains of Scotland.Perhaps it is the proximity to Klarer that keeps suspicious wildlife away.Morcum, on the other hand, seemed unfazed and unfazed. To him, the hunt could not be a hunt, but a quick run through the forest. Around 6:00 pm, it's time to consider returning to camp.John.His Excellency Marui was extremely annoyed and unwilling to admit this result, because a good hunter never returns empty-handed.He resolved to take the first game, whether a bird or a quadruped, a small wild animal or a beast of prey, which came within range of his shot.

Fate seems to have favored him.When the two were within three miles of Kralle, an African rodent called Lebislubestris, in a word, a hare, came from a hundred and fifty paces from Lord John. burst out of a bush.Without hesitation, Lord John fired a carbine bullet at the innocent little thing. Morcum let out a roar.He even hit a little rabbit with an explosive bullet!Yet the English hunter is fond of his rodent, and gallops to where the hare should fall. Bai ran so fast!There was no sign of a rabbit, not even a hair of rabbit except a little blood on the ground.Lord John searched under the bushes and in the grass, and the hounds searched in vain among the brambles.

But I did hit it!exclaimed Lord John. Hit too hard!Morcomb said quietly, it would be surprising if a hare had even a bit of fur left after it was hit by an explosive bullet! In fact, the hare had been blasted to powder.Your Excellency, there was nothing left but disappointment. He rode on his horse and returned to the camp without saying a word. The next day, Morcombe expected that Lord John would make some new hunting suggestions for himself.But the Englishman's pride had suffered too much, and he did not want to see Morcombe.He seemed to have forgotten all his hunting plans, and was just busy checking his instruments and making observations.Then, in his breaks, he visited Clare of the Bushmans, and watched the men practice archery, or the Gauha perform a musical instrument made of animal gut stretched over a bow, in which the entertainer blows an ostrich feather to make it trill; While they are busy with housework, they smoke madokuane, a kind of marijuana that is harmful to health.Most Aboriginal people enjoy this pastime.According to some travellers, inhaling this marijuana increases physical strength but damages the will.In fact, many of the Bushmen here seemed to have been drugged with Madokuane. The next day, May 17th, early in the morning, His Majesty Ma Rui was woken up by a sentence ringing in his ears: Sir, I think we will have good luck today.Just stop shooting rabbits with field howitzers. His Excellency John was not offended at this ironic suggestion, and said he could start any moment.Before the others woke up, the two hunters were several miles to the left of the camp.On this occasion, His Excellency John had an ordinary gun, a good F-Gold gun, which is indeed more suitable for hunting stag or antelope than the terrible carbine.It is true that you will not encounter pachyderms or carnivores on the plains.But Mr. John always has the explosion of the rabbit in his heart, so he would rather shoot a lion with sand bullets than have such an unprecedented shot in the history of sports. On this day, as Morcum foretold, good fortune favored the two hunters.They hunted a pair of Arispik, a very rare and difficult-to-shoot antelope; they were two lovely animals, four feet high, with long, forked horns that curved gracefully inwards into the shape of a machete. shape.The tip of the nose is thin and thin, the wings of the nose are flat, black hooves, thick and soft hair, and the ears are narrow and pointed.The belly and face are white as snow, in contrast to the long, thick, curving black hair on the back.Some hunters will be proud of such a hunting record, because Aristipek was Del Gorgo, Valbel, Cummings.Baldwin's shortcoming.This animal is also one of the most admirable exemplars of the beasts of the southern hemisphere. But what made the English hunter's heart skip a beat were some animal tracks that Morcombe pointed out to him on the edge of a dense coppice, near a deep pond surrounded by euphorbia bushes.The surface of the euphorbia bushes is covered with crowns of sky-blue water lilies like a starry sky. If you want to come here for lurking hunting early tomorrow morning, I suggest you don't forget to bring your carbine this time.Morcum said. Who told you to say that?Morcombe.Lord Marie asked. It's these fresh footprints you see on the wet ground. What!Are these big marks animal footprints?The circumference of the foot that made these tracks, then, is half a toise. Quite simply, Morcum said, it showed that the animals that made these footprints were at least nine feet tall at the shoulder. an elephant!exclaimed His Excellency John. Yes, sir, a fully grown male elephant if I'm not mistaken. See you tomorrow then, Bushmen. See you tomorrow, sir. The two hunters returned to camp.The two Arispices were brought back on the back of Lord John's horse.The two seldom-caught antelopes drew the admiration of the entire expedition.Congratulations to John from all, except perhaps serious Strux, for of the animals he knows only the Great Bear (constellation), Draco (constellation), Centaur (constellation), Pegasus (constellation) and other celestial animals constellation. At four o'clock the next morning, the two hunter friends were already waiting in the woods for the elephant herd to appear.They sat motionless on their respective horses, with the Hound beside them.From some new tracks, the pair identified that the elephants would be coming in groups to drink at the pond.They all carried rifled carbines that used explosive cartridges.After quietly lurking and observing in the woods for about half an hour, the two noticed a huge black shadow swaying fifty steps away from the pond. Lord John grabbed his gun, but Morcombe took his hand and signaled him to hold his breath. Soon, a larger shadow appeared.They heard the clumps of trees being parted with irresistible force, the trees rattling, the broken brambles crackling on the ground, and a great wheezing sound passing through the woods.This is the elephant herd.Six monstrous animals, almost as tall as their Indian counterparts, paced slowly towards the edge of the pond. It was getting light, and His Excellency John was able to admire these mighty animals.One of the large males in particular caught his attention, with its protruding forehead spread between two large chest-hanging ears, its massive body seemed magnified by the morning twilight.The elephant kept protruding its long trunk above the bushes, and knocked the thick trunk of the tree with its tusks bent at the top.Maybe it sensed danger. At this moment, Morcombe leaned into Lord John's ear and said, what do you think of that one? His Excellency John agrees. Well, said Morcum, we will separate him from the ranks. By this time the elephants had reached the edge of the pond, and their spongy feet sank into the soft mud.They drink water with their noses, and when the water reaches their throats, they make a gurgling echo.The huge male elephant looked around anxiously, breathing heavily, trying to sniff out some suspicious smell. Suddenly, Morcum uttered a strange cry.The three hounds immediately barked and rushed out of the bushes to the elephants.Meanwhile Morcombe, after telling his companions to stand still, galloped through the jungle in an attempt to bar the bull's retreat. However, this splendid animal is in no rush to escape.Lord John put his finger on the trigger and watched it.The male elephant slapped the tree with its trunk and frantically wagged its tail. It no longer looked anxious, but angry.Until then, it is not aware of the enemy.At this moment, it saw the enemy and swooped towards him. His Excellency Moray was waiting sixty paces from the bull, and he waited for it to come within forty paces of him, and shot him in the side.But the horse's movement affected the accuracy of the shot, and the bullet only passed through the bull's soft flesh without encountering enough resistance to explode. The angry elephant picked up his pace, but it was only a gallop, not a run, but this gallop was fast enough to outrun a horse. Lord John's mount didn't wait for its master to control it, it stood upright, and ran out of the bushes.The male followed closely behind, his ears pricked up, and the roar from his trunk was like a trumpet being blown.The English hunter rushed out with the horse, clamped his powerful legs around the horse's belly, and tried to shoot a bullet from the breech of his gun. At this time, the male elephant caught up with him.Here is already a plain, away from the edge of the forest.Lord John cut the horse in the side with his spurs, and the horse galloped, and the two dogs followed, barking and running out of breath.The bull elephant was a step behind, and His Excellency John felt the loud panting and heard the whistling of the trunk beating the air.Every moment he felt that he was going to be pulled from the saddle by the looper rope. Suddenly, the horse's hindquarters couldn't support it.The elephant's trunk fell and hit the horse's rump, and the horse let out a long hiss in pain, then dodged and rushed aside.This eclipse saved His Excellency John from certain death.The male elephant was carried out by the inertia generated by the high speed and passed them.But its proboscis swept the ground, reeling in a hound and shaking it violently in the air. Sir John had no choice but to return to the woods.The horse's instinct also carried him to run there, and soon, it rushed across the edge of the forest with incredible momentum. The bull reined in himself and turned back in pursuit, shaking the poor hound.As it sprinted into the woods, the male elephant smashed the hound's head against a fig tree.The horse came to a halt after rushing into a dense forest tangled in thorny vines. His Excellency John was scratched and covered in blood, but he did not lose his composure for a moment.He turned, slung his carbine over his shoulder, and aimed through the vines at the elephant.The bullet hit one of the bull's bones and it exploded.The bull staggered, and almost immediately a bullet from the edge of the woods hit him in the left side.The male elephant knelt down on the ground beside a small pond half hidden in the grass. It scooped up water with its proboscis and began to wash its wounds while making mournful calls. Then Morcum appeared, and cried, It's ours, it's ours! In fact, the behemoth was mortally wounded.It moaned mournfully, its breathing hissed, and its tail could only wag feebly.With its proboscis, it scooped up the pond water, stained red with its blood, and sprinkled a red rain on the nearby undergrowth.Soon, it fell powerlessly and died like this. At this moment, His Excellency John came out from the bushes, half naked, and only a few rags of his hunting clothes remained.But he thought he had traded his life for an athletic victory. Amazing animals!Bushmen.he exclaimed, looking at the carcass of the elephant, what an animal!However, it's a little too heavy for a hunter's small hunting bag. Well, sir.Morcum said, We divided it up on the spot, and took only what was useful.See what beautiful tusks Nature has, weighing at least twenty-five pounds each, and five shillings a pound of ivory, which is no small sum. As he spoke, Morcum began to carve up the animal carcass.He cut off the tusk with the axe, and then only the foot and the trunk, the essence of which he was going to take home to share with the committee.It took Morcomb a long time to do this, and they did not return to camp until noon. Morcum roasts the elephant's feet the African way, burying them in a preheated hole, as in an oven heated with glowing coals. This delicious meal was well-deservedly praised, even by the indifferent Ballandre.As for Sir John, he has won the admiration of all scientists.