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. One, an absolutely immense black-maned male, was the biggest lion I have ever seen, certainly over ten feet in length. You may blow a hole in his heart big enough to accommodate a navel orange, but in his condition of hyperadrenia, there will still be enough oxygen in his brain to carry his charge for a surprising distance and enough moxie left over to turn you into something that would give a hyena the dry heaves. The Man-eater of Chabunkwa, thirsty from his ninth kill, padded from the thicket to drink at the nearby river.The safari season was over and I was puttering around camp, taking care of the last-minute details of tagging trophies and sorting and packing equipment when I heard from the district commissioner of the area, who had sent a runner with a note wedged in a cleft stick asking me to come on my SSB radio as soon as I got it. Showing 4 featured editions. Nielssen later told me he heard a slight sound behind him, but as he spun to fire, the lion was on him and knocked him flat.The infuriated cat grabbed Paul by the shoulder and sank his fangs through meat and bone, while shaking the puny human like a jackal with a mouse. It's been written by someone who knows more than most about the subject having spent decades there. Peter Hathaway Capstick (1940-1996), a former Wall Street stockbroker turned professional adventurer, was critically acclaimed as the successor to Hemingway and Ruark in African hunting literature. As the title says, this book is all about dying and in particular, how Africa tries to do that to you. 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. , a wraparound loincloth. ""Yes, Dad, I'm all right," answered a pain-tight voice. In this case the price of the binge wasn't a headache, but death.The headman pointed to the north when I asked him in Fanagalo where the lion had carried his kill. I was wishing I had listened to mother and become an accountant or a haberdasher as I slipped into a duck-walk and inched ahead. In addition to writing about hunting, he was also featured in an award-winning safari video and audio tapes. One of the lions had a shot which had broken its tail--a testimony to my marksmanship. As the thousand grains of lead tore through the roof (happily without setting fire to it withmuzzle blast), there was a tremendous roar that blended with the twin crash of the shots. kick into the long grass phrase. The death of Peter Hankin in the Luangwa Valley came to me as more than a news item; I had worked for him as a professional hunter in the area quite near where he was killed. Except for a very small percentage of the acreage that the buffalo herds had knocked down, it was practically impenetrable. My side was starting to turn a lovely black and blue where the lion had hit me, but whether it was from a paw stroke or just the 450 pounds of impact, I didn't know. Although I was tired, sleep came fitfully; possibly the ever-nearing roar of those lions helped keep my mind occupied. Grabbed a young man sleeping off a beer bust with two others, but neither of his pals awoke. Hook-and-bullet adventures had by tough guys such as Teddy Roosevelt and Papa Hemingway may be out of favor in these times of eco-awareness, but Peter Hathaway Capstick's account of big-game hunting in Africa remains a classic. As Johnnie Cox tells it:"We would miss him, but, after all, we were well ensconced at our water hole. . Older people like me will remember him from Outdoor Life and Field and Stream. Excellent from start to finish. It grabbed the boy by the skull from between the unarmed mother and father and dragged him out of the Land Rover, severely mauling him until, somehow, the father was able to reclaim his son. As I left in the hunting car to take Silent to the small dispensary some seventy-five miles away, I warned the headman that if anyone so much as disturbed a whisker of the lion for. 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. The banks of the river in this area are perhaps forty to fifty feet high, and below them is one of the niftiest collections of large crocodiles and hippos you would ever want to see. To see our price, add these items to your cart. Places Africa. Actually, before Cornon left, a group of nomads came to camp adjacent to us, so we had quite a gathering. Shooting a lion in the tail in high grass with a rifle in the dark of night is difficult. Botswana lions are generally among the largest in Africa. His writing style remains undated, as readable as a tabloid newspaper and as exciting as any Forsyth thriller. His wit, metaphors, descriptions all resonate--British. Death in the Long Grass - , Peter Hathaway Capstick, 9781466803923 His head was already past the muzzles, too close to shoot, looking like a hairy pickle barrel full of teeth. I couldn't share his enthusiasm. The big cat runs off into the bush where Joubert takes up the blood spoor.Over the next hour the lioness inscribes a large circle through the heavy riverine cover and incredibly, despite her wounds and the men following her, returns to the man she has killed and resumes feeding. The hackles were crawling around on my neck like a nest of maggots, and my palms were slippery cold on the Circassian walnut stock of the rifle. One night they nearly caught up with me, too. These incredibly brazen killers finally had their hash settled by a pith-helmeted paladin working for the railway, a Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Patterson, DSO, but only after a period of several months of frustrating hunting, during which time the colonel very nearly got the chop himself on several occasions. The lion lay under a bush, after doubling back on his track in a short loop, and watched Paul track past. Yet. Over. That night, back in my own camp, I took a long bath and sat smoking in the tub, with a tall glass of man's best friend at my elbow. The Death of Grass (US title No Blade of Grass) is a 1956 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel written by the English author Sam Youd under the pen name John Christopher. From the time of the interglacial Pleistocene, the period in which, incidentally, Africa still finds itself zoologically, man has had a direct relationship with the lion. However, if you spend the best part of eleven years, as I did, living with big, live, genuine lions all around, you might discover that your balding head never hits your pillow without that little niggling of doubt. It seemed obvious that these lions were regrouping for another raid on the camp. Wounded lions' scores for homicide are probably about as high as genuine man-eaters, but obviously the moral considerations are quite different. In 1969 on the Luangwa I was sharing a hut with Brian Smith, a young professional hunter, in Mwangwalala camp, which was located about 150 yards from the main camp used by the clients. In the two years of hard hunting he needed to wipe out the pride, the lions added an additional 249 human kills to their record. If I had let it eat maybe a leg or two before shooting it, all would have been well. Apparently, the pride had left, so I went back to my cot and fell asleep, lions or no lions. Operating in a photographic safari area, professional hunter Peter Hankin has had to leave it at his hunting camp, Chitangulu, forty miles downstream. The slug fortunately caught him below the ribs and bulled through his lower guts at a shallow but damaging angle, the muzzle blast scorching his shoulder.I was flattened, rolling in the dirt, the rifle spinning away. Convinced he never really knew his uncle, Alex continues to try to find out why someone would kill him. Corners and cover may show wear. He was still giving the same, meaningless shout as I shook off my numbness and scrambled to my feet, ripping away branches like a mad man searching for the gun. Everything was in the lion's favor in this growth, and I hadn't kidded myself that the man-eater had left it. Over. I just read it again, and loved it just as much as when it was first published in the late 1970s. . I had hunted man-eating cats twice before this experience: the Okavango man-eater, a famous killer-leopard, and a lioness who had developed a sweet-tooth for Ethiopians. Lions may or may not eat people killed under these circumstances, but if they do, they don't seem to forget how easily the meal was obtained and. television series, it's understandable that most Americans don't regard the average lion as much tougher or more dangerous than Rima the Bird Girl.And speaking of the Adamson lions, you might be interested to know that one of those cuddly creatures sprang upon an open car driven by one of Kenya's top game officers, who was riding with his wife and young son in a game reserve a year or so ago. Both men, still in their underwear, ran for the Harvey hut. His knee may someday support his weight once more, but that won't be determined until years of grafting operations have been completed. 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. I had just poured a sun-downer and, armed with nothing more formidable than a fly switch, walked through the half-light down the path along the river separating the camps. Reaching their campsite, Cornonhad some mechanical difficulty with the truck that hauled provisions, tentage, and such. Of course, a pharaonic lion hunt must have made a duke's Scottish grouse drive look like a girl scout outing. A Spanish client, Armando Bassi of Barcelona, a fine hunter, had wounded a good-maned lion, but it had escapedinto the thick, before Paul could get in a finishing shot. It was so dark that he could hardly see, but he heard the short Chuff! ""In the security of camp fires and lanterns which had been lit, I just happened to check the shotgun in case those lions did return. His jaws opened and the long, white canines drove into the unsuspecting victim's temples, piercing the thin bone past the eye sockets, and sank into the brain like driven spikes. It worked in my case. and bearing the cartouche of Amenhotep III, progenitor of Ikhnaton, or Amenhotep IV, which records his killing 102"fierce-looking" lions during the first decade of his phar-aohship. Five times he worked the bolt of his .338 custom Mauser, but the lion did not fall. "Before De Beer could answer, Matthews gave another scream, which mixed with a grunt from the dying lioness. Over the years, my clients have probably killed 25 percent of their lions off dead elephant carcasses or nearby, where the lion has gone to sleep off his meal.Although many harassed lions will charge unwounded, the vast majority of human maulings and deaths under hunting circumstances are, logically, from wounded lions. At ten feet he put his .458 bullet into the center of a growing, dark shape that seemed to float up at him and was fortunate to remove the top of the lion's skull.As they built a fire to skin the cat, two men had to stand guard against the other several lions and lionesses who came practically up to the fire. Preview and download books by Peter Hathaway Capstick, including Death in the Long Grass, Death in the Dark Continent and many more. View flipping ebook version of (PDF BOOK) Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush full published by chanler.romar on 2021-06-11. My dear, dumb friend, who had never fired a gun in his life, Marcel, had unloaded it without my knowledge. But, I've had plenty of friends who are firsthand experts on the subject. I had refilled the magazine but was afraid to shoot since I did not know where the other lion was and dared not risk a zero-range charge while working the bolt. Whatever may be left falls to the African Sanitary Department and, after even a few days, it's difficult to examine a piece of skullcap the size of a demitasse saucer and state unequivocally that the cause of death was a lion. A large male lion had been stalking him from cover and charged, grabbing him, presumably in the chest, with its teeth. Shall I give you a radio sched at eight tonight to see if anything's new? I was shaving at first light when I heard a muffled curse from Daryll, who was sitting up in his camp bed, staring at the powdery dirt of the floor. With humor, grace, and supreme tension, Capstick takes the reader . I've read "Death in the Dark Continent" and "Death in the Tall Grass," myself and loved them.Thanks to this thread,I too am inspired to "dig" them out again!It's been years since I read them one cold,snow filled winter. I used to watch nature shows and cringe when the lion caught the little antelope. 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. Knowing the reputation of the man who told me this, I do not personally doubt the information offered, but cannot prove it.There are several very good reasons why, despite the surprising number of maneating incidents that occur today in Africa, most are hushed up like an epidemic of social disease at a bible school. And of the few who have known this dangerous way of life, fewer still can . By the sounds, the lioness was standing over Colin's body. If you're remotely interested in wildlife, Africa or adventure, you simply MUST read this book. , I would personally shoot him. Her impact hurls the man from his bed and onto the ground. Dilated wide to gather the pale light, two hard, amber eyes flicker across the broken ground and lock on the indistinct form of the man sleeping behind the netting. Hardcover. I don't really remember when I began being interested in big game hunters and the "big five". The damp, soft soil muffled our stealthy walking on the outsides of our feet, the quietest way to stalk, as we slid through the mottled murk with pounding hearts, ringing ears, and stomachs full of bats.My mind went over the lion charges I had met before: the quick jerking of the tail tuft, the paralyzing roar, and the low, incredibly fast rush, bringing the white teeth in the center of bristling mane closer in a blur of speed. Charging lions have been known to cover a hundred yards in just over three seconds. Colin could have easily shot the man-eater, but he did not. In East Africa there are several cases recorded of a lion eating his victim within the sight of paralyzed onlookers.I still get the old flutter-guts when I recall the night in Ngamiland, Botswana, in 1970 when I was sharing a tent with Daryll Dandridge, a fellow professional hunter at the time with Ker, Downey, and Selby Safaris, Ltd. Our campwas pitched hard on the edges of the Okavango Swamp, and, the night being warm, we had not zipped the ends of the tent closed. 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.Few men can say they have known Africa as Capstick has known itleading safaris through lion country; Behind its bleached cloth and netting walls, a slender white man sleeps fitfully, tossing in the humid spring silence as greasy sweat darkens the sheets of his camp bed. In researching this book among many hundreds of previous works that date as far back as the first decade of the eighteenth century, I have noticed one conclusion as to the cause of man-eating that seems to recur. Today (April 17) coincides with Lexin. Except for the arm and some claw marks on his chest, he seemed to be unhurt. But the rifle, as bush-scarred as the face of its owner, is not leaning in its usual place beside the bed. Seconds later, as the woman sat mourning her husband, she was terrified to hear the lion scratching at the hut. I had heard lions roaring in the distance but thought nothing of it at the time. May be missing dust jacket. Yet, the lions paid them no appreciable interest. To treat your dead grass, run a lawn tiller over the grass and water it every day for a week to help it . What if Len wasn't dead but only unconscious? "The young men thought it was too hot to sleep inside their, , Bwana," he replied. Capstick has also served in that most perilous of trades-- Elephant and Buffalo Cropping Officer.Peter Capstick has long made his home in Africa, the source of his inspiration. "Sorry to bugger your holiday," he told me, "but something's come up . In a flash of dark motion she is in the air, claws extended like naked linoleum knives, the light mosquito netting shredding before her charge. Author: Peter Hathaway Capstick: Publsiher: St. Martin's Press: Total Pages: 320: Release: 1978-01-15: Genre: Sports & Recreation: Then, somehow, with prehistoric certainty I. he was there, very close. Good, old Silent, trying to draw the lion off me, armed with nothing but a spear. I asked him what was up. One of the worst is Central Africa, especially near the Great Rift Fault that crosses the continent perpendicularly. Please try again. As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view the Africa that few people have ever seen. With my heightened senses, I could now hear the animal padding through the soft dirt outside the hut, looking for a weak point. I sent one of the tribesmen to fetch the headman, who came over to my fire. As the lioness lay chewing on his head, she may have thought that the crushing sounds she heard beneath her teeth were the breaking of the skull bone instead of those of the man's hands and fingers. A low, incredibly sinister rumble welled up through the dark, and the hut shook under a heavy shock. He treated all within earshot to a tirade on the lack of government protection from the horrors of the bush. As most men who have written about the hunting of man-eaters have confirmed, the majority of really high-scoring lions have been hunted badly by an amateur or clumsy professional before. My client was doing everything right except for one minor item: he had forgotten to pull the trigger. It is normal between a hunter and his gunbearer/tracker that the first spoors while the other covers the possibility of an ambush charge. 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. Silent hammered the lion one in the nose twice again until, probably confused by my torch and shouting, it ran off into the darkness. ofcentral Africa, where eyebell-to-eyeball confrontations are as common as not. The nobleman joined a double carload of other defunct sportsmen who learned the hard way that you only make one mistake with a lion: your last.Modern lion-hunting techniques are somewhat diverse, dependent upon terrain and other physical considerations. 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