Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, March 2, 1880, by Various

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Title: Harper's Young People, March 2, 1880
An Illustrated Weekly

Author: Various

Release Date: March 24, 2009 [EBook #28395]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, MAR 2, 1880 ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

[Illustration: HARPER'S

YOUNG PEOPLE

AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]

* * * * *

VOL. I.--NO. 18. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.

Tuesday, March 2, 1880. Copyright, 1880, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50 per
Year, in Advance.

* * * * *

[Illustration: PASSING THE BATTERIES.]

A HUNTING ADVENTURE.

I had been travelling in the interior of Africa, in company with a
Portuguese ivory trader, for several weeks, greatly enjoying the wild
and exciting life we were compelled to lead. The exercise had steadied
and braced my nerves, which before setting out were in a shattered
condition from the effects of a severe and long attack of fever.
Constant practice had also made me an expert shot and a successful
hunter. Indeed, if one only knew how to handle a gun, and went to work
with proper precaution, the amazing abundance of animal life everywhere
to be met with could not fail in making him more or less of a sportsman.

In hunting the large game, such as the lion, the elephant, and the
rhinoceros, there was always a spice of danger, and I had in two or
three several instances found myself in positions of extreme peril, from
which nothing but presence of mind or good fortune brought me safely
out. But the danger incurred only lent additional charms to the pursuit;
while a proud feeling of exultation would steal over the heart when,
thinking that an insignificant and feeble man should be more than a
match for such huge creatures in spite of their gigantic strength.

One day, in our several canoes, we were paddling up a broad river; on
either bank stretched an apparently impenetrable forest, many of the
trees of which approached to the very water's edge, while the ends of
creepers fell i