Trespassing in our neighbor’s backyard

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Trespassing in our neighbor’s backyard
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 6 (Issue No.6) June 1926
Year: 1926
Rights
Fulltext: June, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL of getting the animal here will be govern ment charges in some form or other; you will find that these charges amount to 9.66'/< of the gross receipts for the animal, and in this there is not included two char ges of the merchants tax at 1%7< each, paid by wholesaler and retailer of the beef after the beef has left the hands of the grower. The grower does not pay tho merchants tax on his sales. It is safe to say that on every kilo of Philippine grown fresh beef bought by the consumer he pays not less than 12 centavos per kilo to the government in some form of taxation. This is too much of a charge for government to make, as it is a direct attack upon the energy of the people who need the beef to meet the harder work of today; a direct attack upon the industry which will furnish work animals to increase the wealth of the country. Trespassing in Our Neighbor’s Backyard After Big Game in the Indochina Wilderness The interior country to the north and east of Saigon is sandy and as the rain water rapidly disappears below the surface of the ground cultivation is limited to a few favor ed spots. There is a sparse vegetation of palms and second growth covering most of the area but here and there immense grassy plains interperse. Apparently at some pre historic date the country was favored with a more uniform rainfall and was more thoroughly cultivated. This guess is cor roborated by the extensive Buddhist temple rums completely hidden by jungle and but recently discovered. The country now lies practically uninha bited except by wild game. Great herds of deer, pigs, bison and elephants find food and refuge in the areas too unproductive for humans to occupy, and along with these (Photo bq J. L. mqert. Author) Qood Biq CJam« Counlrq. Indochina: Inael, Camp on River Bank. grass eaters, and feeding upon them, are tigers and leopards. There are in addition many other animals more or less rare, such as goats, bear and rhinoceros, and also a wonderful variety of birds, including pea cocks, pheasants, quails, ducks and pigeons. Strange to say there is one crop that seems to do fairly well in this semiarid region, and that is rubber. We have been led to believe that rubber requires a fairly uniform rainfall but the beautiful and thrifty groves along the railroad north of The industry should be absolutely free, in order to create a greater interest in it and thus a greater production of the neces sary work animals to wrest greater wealth out of the vacant lands now absolutely idle. It is my idea that an Animal Standard ization Board should be provided for by legislation; this board to consist of men actually engaged in the business of grow ing and developing cattle, the Director of Agriculture to be its Chairman. The funds received from the registration and transfer of animals should go to the board as a fund with which to work out through importa tion of high grade sires a type of animal suitable to the climatic conditions govern ing here which will in the end give the quota of animals necessary to perform the work of the country and give the people a plentiful supply of cheap beef. H. L. Heath. Saigon seem to contradict this. The rubber trees so completely shade the ground that little moisture is lost by evaporation, and rubber can be grown where apparently no other crop can. There is tremendous expansion in the in dustry there. New clearings and plantings are seen by the hundreds of square miles. Although personally I am not too optimistic about rubber in the Philippines, still I am sure that it would grow very well and be a wonderful help toward reforesting our co gon hills. Cattle and rice boats running between Manila and Saigon make the trip in five days and charge about sixty pesos passage. This puts a hunt in that country within the means of most any enthusiast who will save his pennies for the purpose. Some provinces require hunting licenses but in only one, Dalat, the mountain summer re sort, is the license expensive. Better hunt ing, I believe, is to be had in many other sections. On March 14 of this year Roy Dixon and I left for Saigon via Hongkong. It was warm and stuffy aboard the President Grant, but it was not like that in Hongkong. I had neglected to provide heavy clothing, and believe that I had the distinction of being the only person in Hongkong that day dressed in white drill. Saigon is always a little warmer than Manila. We expected to join Mr. C. D. Squires in Saigon and hunt with him. We found his brother Roy in the hospital suffering from sun stroke. A mild form of sun stroke seems to be of common occurence there. Roy di rected us to Annum, along the coast, to find “C. D.” and Dr. Meisch, from Fort McKin ley, as they were hunting with a profes sional guide, a Frenchman ly the name of F. J. de Fosse. We were fortunate in meeting a former employe of the customs service who had helped us in Phnom Penh two years before. He put our baggage through and got out our firearms permits for us before offices closed, on the day of our arrival. It is ad visable to take on an assistant for these duties, as a stranger is so badly handicaped in language; although all officials were friendly and helpful. We gave our man ten pesos and a box of Manila cigars. He seem ed pleased. At Gia Huynh, 120 kilometers up the railroad, we found “C. D.” and the doctor. Each had a good bag. The doctor had killed a fine tiger as it w'as stalking a deer, which he himself was stalking. He also had several fine specimens of bison, water buf falo and an elephant. “C. D.” had a very fine large tiger and several water buffaloes. Many of you who read this have had the pleasure of seeing his trophies in SquiresBingham Company’s windows recently. It now developed that both Squires bro thers and Dixon preferred to move on to Cambodia, where we had hunted two years ago. It seemed to me that a fourth member would make the party too large, so I em ployed de Fosse for a hunt in his territory. 1 did not regret my decision, as de Fosse knows his stuff and is a capital hunting companion. One immediately forgets the relation of employer and employe and is only conscious of a new friend. He has guid ed and hunted for market in that locality for many years, and he is undoubtedly an authority on the habits and haunts of na tive game. March 20, the day of our arrival at de Fosse’s house, he and I walked out a short distance from the house to see what we could see. To the left of the trail I saw through the bush what looked like one of the old cast-iron lions that were in vogue years ago as lawn ornaments. As I stopped to look closer it dropped its head to the ground, which relieved me of the doubt as to whether or not it was something to shoot. After the shot it rolled off the ant hill where it had been crouching, and with a deep growl made for the grass. Now even a house cat is no slouch ir. a hand to hand encounter, and as this was no house cat I was perfectly willing to accept de Fosse’s suggestion that we come back after it next morning. With a double-barrel shotgun and two trackers I went out next morning, and found the leopard dead. I was well pleased with the first day’s hunt. The next few days we hunted without success for a bison cow, for tiger bait. A cow was needed, as a bull would be too heavy to haul on a cart. The system used in getting a tiger is to select a place where tigers frequently pass, build a blind of grass and leaves and bring a dead animal as bait to the blind. A certain ripeness must be attained before the tiger can locate the bait; his sense of smell is not more keen than a man’s. The bait is inspected twice daily. When it is found to have been partially eaten, the hunter crawls into the blind to await the tiger’s return for a se cond helping. A screen is also built, and a trail cleaned to the rear, to enable the hunter to approach the bait silently, in THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL June, 1926 order to surprise the tiger if he is caught in the act. C. D. Squires got his tiger from the screen. April 1 we moved to the Lagna river, twenty-five kilometers north of the railroad. This river is a fine swift stream which flows through immense plains. Innumerable deer and buffalo graze on these plains, and here, in the edge of the forest, is where we planned to build blinds for tigers. Fortune favored me during the next few days; I got a young bison, a young buffalo and a large deer that served for baits for two blinds. One of the baits was eaten in such a man ner that it indicated the work of a young tiger. I sat in the blind, or bantu, as they call it in Africa, several times, as the tiger (Photo bi] J. L mi]ere, Author) Ineel: Tiger Killed as Text Describee: Right, Boma from Which Author Fired: Left Below Insol: Tail Used to Attract Tiger. came every night, and on the morning of April 7, as I was sitting in my boma twid dling my thumbs, stripes appeared unan nounced in front of the peep hole. There was no wind, almost perfect silence in the forest, but Stripes had come to the bait ever dry leaves to within twelve yards of me and I had heard no sound. My respect for Stripes grows. I moved a half dry leaf covering part of the peep hole and at the slight sound Stripes looked up so quickly that I caught my breath. I dared not move until Stripes started to eat, and I could tell immediately that this was not the small tiger I had expected. I feared she would break the bait loose and wasted no time in putting a bullet through her head. This was a tigress, weight 239 pounds, height at shoulder two feet eight inches, and eight feet two inches tip to tip. The beauti ful soft skin and graceful form made me almost regret the kill but the look in the eyes as I moved that leaf makes me think 1 have saved the lives of many deer and pos sibly some men. April 9 we discovered a herd of buffaloes (our Philippine carabao) and took an im mense bull and two largo cows. These are much larger animals than our local domestic carabaos, and are never domesticated. I believe the big bull would weigh 2500 pounds. These animals are very hard to kill and de Fosse and I both fired until all wounded animals were down. We found his full metal patched eight milimeter Label ammunition far the best for the big stuff. All my American bullets broke up too soon to give reliable penetration. Almost every night at the river camp we were disturbed by elephants squealing and trumpeting along the river, but tracks show ed only cows and calves, so we did not molest them. I believe the ivory hunters work on the males until they are rare. Deer, pigs, peacocks and crocodiles were seen daily; we kept our table supplied easily. April 11 we moved back to the house and found plentiful signs of bison. These are the very largest species of cattle and are supposed most nearly to represent the ori ginal breed from which our present cattle are descended. The National Geographic Magazine for December, 1925, has some ex eelent illustrations of them. The Seladang is the largest and is dark brown in color with shaggy gray forehead and white stock ings. The Banting is smaller, reddish brown to yellow in color, also with white stockings. The Banting is smaller, reddish brown to yellow in color also with white stockings. These wild cattle have been considered by sportsmen as the finest trophies to be had in Asia, surpassing in courage and fighting instinct even the tiger and elephant. It was in hunting the Seladang that de Fosse’s remarkable ability to track animals was demonstrated. We would leave camp at daylight and ap parently, to me, wander aimlessly through the woods and clearings. Occasionally tracks needed close examination to determine whe (Photo bi] J. L. mqori. Author) Topical Jungle, Indochina: Tiger Trap (Ineel) ther they were yesterday’s or today’s. All were indistinct, as the ground was hard and dry. Finally de Fosse would pause, lean on his gun, call for his canteen and remark, “Weil, they are in that patch of brush, lc is too dry and noisy in there to get up to them. We will come back here tonight and wait tor them to come out.” And 1 would realize that we had circled the patch of brush where he had said the herd was. (Photo bl] J. L. mqeri, Author) Indochina Wild Cattle-a Seladanq. April 16 de Fosse was away, so his boy, Cheong, was with me. We heard a big bunch of Seladang in the brush, and Cheong led me to where they passed, but I could not see them to shoot. I already had two cows and wanted nothing but a big bull. Cheong was impatient, but we went back to camp and in the evening returned to that vicinity. Cheong’s sharp eyes discovered a suspicious brown spot in the edge of the brush and soon a switch of the tail confirmed his hiss of Seladang! The big bull moved around from behind a palm and looked squarely at us. Steadying myself on one knee, as the distance was 137 paces, I added the trophy most prized of all to my collection. This bull measured 72 inches at the shoulders, the hump at the middle of the back being six inches higher; girth 98 inches and neck in front of shoul der 82 inches; nose to root of tail, 105 in ches. Not a large bull at that. Although taller than the buffalo, they are not so thick through the shoulders. This was the last of the trophies taken but I had one more piece of good luck await ing me. On my return to Saigon I found C. D. Squires with arrangements made to board the good ship Helen C. at Phnom Penh, loaded with cattle direct for Manila. J. L. Myers
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