The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter

by W.D.M. Bell

The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter is the story of Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell, a famous big game hunter in East Africa at the turn of the century. 'Karamojo Bell, ' as he became known, devised many original techniques to seek out and capture his quarry, including a difficult rifle shot from a diagonal angle, later dubbed the Bell Shot. 'Wanderings' details Bell's ingenious ivory-hunting methodology, as well as his many memorable encounters on safari. This revised digital edition of Bell's bestselling book includes footnotes and images showing the ivory trade in East Africa. *Annotated edition with footnotes. *Includes images.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Africa

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell known as Karamojo Bell, was a Scottish adventurer, big game hunter in East Africa, soldier, decorated fighter pilot, sailor, writer, and painter.

Famous for being one of the most successful ivory hunters of his time, Bell was an advocate of the importance of shooting accuracy and shot placement with smaller calibre rifles, over the use of heavy large-bore rifles for big African game. He improved his shooting skills by careful dissection and study of the anatomy of the skulls of the elephants he shot. He even perfected the clean shooting of elephants from the extremely difficult position of being diagonally behind the target; this shot became known as the Bell Shot.

Although chiefly known for his exploits in Africa, Bell also traveled to North America and New Zealand, sailed windjammers, and saw service in South Africa during the Boer War, and flew in the Royal Flying Corps in East Africa, Greece and France during World War I.

After a period of time recuperating from illnesses contracted during the war, he returned to elephant hunting, shooting in Liberia and the Ivory Coast and traveling by canoe, making a trip of 3000 miles in 1921. On this expedition he was joined by his comrade from the Royal Flying Corps, R. M. Wynne-Eayten. His last safari was an automobile expedition through the Sudan and Chad with Americans Gerrit and Malcolm Forbes, of which he remarked that 'little hunting was done'. Rather the aim was to travel as far and as fast as possible with the vehicles. After this expedition Bell did not return to Africa. Although he intended to travel by air to Uganda for a last elephant hunt in 1939, his plans were interrupted by the start of World War Two.

Bell retired to his 1,000 acre highland estate at Garve in Ross-shire, Scotland, named "Corriemoillie", with his wife Katie (daughter of Sir Ernest and Lady Soares) to whom he had become engaged during World War I.He wrote three books about his exploits in Africa, illustrated with his own sketches and paintings, and several articles about aspects of shooting and firearms, published in Country Life' magazine in Britain and 'American Rifleman' in the USA.

Bell and his wife Katie spent their later years sailing competitively. They commissioned the first steel hulled racing yacht Trenchmere (37 tons) in Scotland in 1934 and sailed her in transatlantic ocean racing until the outbreak of World War Two. He also stalked red stags in the Scottish hills with a Winchester Model 54 chambered in the .220 Swift cartridge, of which he wrote articles describing its superior effect on deer due to its high velocity.

After suffering from a heart attack in 1947 which limited his activities, Bell spent his last years on his estate. Only a few days after posting the manuscript for his last book, Walter Bell died of heart failure on the 30th of June 1954

Reviews

[Checkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account by a professional African big-game hunter in the years between the Boer War (1899-1902) and World War One (1914-1918). Incidentally Bell served in both of those wars so he was much more than the stereotypical Great White Hunter;he was a man who went into battle for real. Often anti-hunters will sneer that if hunters want real danger they should go to war - well Mr. Bell did just that. Incidentally, Bell was one of the many British civilians who sailed their private vessels across the English Channel between May 27 - June 4, 1940 to help evacuate thousands of British and French soldiers from Dunkirk, while under German fire. Bell was sixty years old at the time. His African days behind him, but there he was nevertheless.

Bell was a professional elephant hunter who made a tidy fortune thanks to the ivory of the 1,000 (plus) elephants that he killed. A number that shocks our modern sensibilities, but in the first part of the 20th century Elephants were considered to be numerous and renewable (I think). Bell was renowned for his hunting ability (he was careful, smart and precise) and the fact that he did not stride across Africa like so many of his fellow Europeans. He was sensitive to Africans and he lacked the arrogance of his peers. He was able to convince many Africans to work with him on his expeditions and evidently he treated them as partners. "The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter" is a surprisingly even handed work. This is not the writing of an arrogant, blustery cocky man (i.e. Theodore Roosevelt). However there is no escaping the fact that Bell killed literally thousands of animals in his lifetime. It's an odd experience trying to make that statistic balance with the sophisticated and intelligent man that he obviously was. All I can offer up is that people are complicated.

This is not a book for the sensitive soul, but it is a well written and level-headed book. Bell did not write a swaggering blood & thunder account of big game hunting. It is very matter of fact with no melodrama added. I am not a hunter and I don't have the desire to kill for fun or profit, but I am still fascinated by those men (and they were almost always men) like Bell. They existed in a brief time when we thought that nature was ours for the taking and that we could keep taking from it without any consequences. We know differently now, but they still left a mark.

[SBW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part psychologist, part adventurer Bell is a remarkable character. 'wanderings' reads like a series of blog posts or short articles (it's rumoured the chapters are taken from a long defunct Scottish outdoor magazine).

EDIT: The stories first appeared in Country Life which is still published

Bell is from a different time, when ivory was a common(ish) luxury material and he made a fortune out of the 1,100+ elephants he shot. In one (exceptional) day he tracked and shot nine elephants. He estimated that he had just earned £877 from the ivory the days work brought him. Not a bad wage today - this was in the 1920's!

The style of the day was to try to take as much of the Edwardian world with you as possible. Eating tinned food brought from home, off tableware from the English midlands, accompanied by fine French wines from Irish crystal glasses. Even having a 'gun-bearer' to carry your rifle, while there's another servant who draws your fold-up bath as you get plastered on 'sun-downers'. More glamping than bushwhacking. As the twentieth century was getting going, this reaches new levels of absurdity with 'motor safari's' becoming fashionable amongst the western elite. Newly rich industrialists positioning themselves as 'sportsman' by shooting wildlife from the safety of the motor car, and their debutante daughters re-branding themselves as fearless 'safari chicks'. Wounded game died unrecovered, and the locals were treated as semi-cognate.

Then there was Bell. As is usually the case with the people who get truly remarkable results Bell approaches the whole enterprise in a totally different way to his contemporaries. Carrying his own rifle, living entirely on local foods, and importing a pair of Canadian canoes to explore uncharted river courses. While his fellow Europeans stride across the continent with the arrogance of pseudo-gods, Bell and his companions tread a lot lighter, with a mixture of humility and cunning, he's courting the local support he needs as a matter of great urgency. Calling himself by the name the locals have for him Longelly-nyung (Red Man). Seeking to present himself as someone benign, who just happens to be passing through, and if anyone would be good enough to point him in the right direction, as an almost endless source of free food for those that help. Bell is part adventurer and part psychologist. With balls of steel and an eye to the main chance.

'And so we became friends I was not going through the blood-brotherhood business, with it's eating of bits of toasted meat smeared with each others blood, sawing in two living dogs or nonsense of that kind. I took his hand and wrung it hard, and had it explained to him that amongst us that was an extraordinarily potent way of doing it. That seemed to satisfy the old boy, for the act of shaking hands was as strange to him as the act of eating each others blood is to us.'

When an opportunity to defend the underdog (and serve his own interests) presents itself he delights in disrupting the activities of slavers.

'A chance to assert ourselves occurred on the first day of our arrival among the Lakkas, for no sooner had the camp been fixed up than our merry band had a Lakka youth caught and bound and heavily guarded . On enquiring into this affair it transpired that this youth had been taken in a previous raid, but had escaped and returned to his country. We had this lad straight away before us, asked him if he wished to go back to Buba Gida, and, on his saying this was the last thing he desired, at once liberated him. He did not wait to see what else might happen; he bolted. Of course the kings people were furious with us. We, on our part were thoroughly disgusted with Buba Gida for having designed to carry on his dirty work under the cloak of respectability afforded by two Englishmen on a shooting trip...'

In short Bell was not as I expected to find him: he wasn't as racist, or apart from the odd incident as keen to enforce his morality on others, most of the time he was the only white dude for miles (not that would have meant anything to the Belgians), he understood that his reputation would be travelling a lot faster than he was, and was even quicker with his wits than he was with his Mauser.

A good read

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great historical account. I enjoy firsthand descriptions of events from different time periods. The book is basically split into three themes. The hunting philosophy and recommendations. Really interesting if you are acquainted with such things, as I am. This includes firearm selection, shot selection, etc. Some things in these sections might be lost on a reader who does have a frame of reference for rifle cartridges. Then, there is the actual elephant hunting. It's not super descriptive of the parts that might make a person not accustomed to such thing squeamish, outside of a couple of descriptions of the butchering process and a brief dissection of an elephant early on. Mostly describes tracking, stalking, and positions of the shot. Lastly, there is a lot of great accounts of encounters with the vastly different peoples that were in Africa at the time. There is a great deal about governments, customs, the influence of the governments on the natives, how he interprets these things. He explains his philosophy of using body language and dramatic actions to communicate with natives, due to mistrust of outsiders and language/customs barriers.

[Cory Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, know this book is NOT for everyone. I grew up with a Dad that was an outdoors-man who took me camping, hiking, hunting and fishing throughout my childhood, so for me, I had an appreciation for this more than most. This book follows an English big-game hunter through his African travels hunting (mostly) bull elephant in the early 1900's. He would be vilified for his adventures today, but understanding the difference a century makes, this guy lived a life of HUGE adventure. I particularly liked his critique of rifles and their calibers and the problems and successes he had with a wide variety of their use. I also appreciated the finesse in which he took his aim to the greatest effect. An interesting look at an interesting man at an interesting time on the wondrous wild continent of Africa.

[Kirk Arndt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting historical accounts of hunting Africa

Mostly about elephant hunting methods and trips in Africa in the era around ww1. Lacking much detail about hunting episodes, except a few exceptional situations, lots of outdated political stuff, written mostly as advice for travellers of the era. Interesting observations on African game animals, hunting methods shooting techniques, guns and ammo for big game

[David Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book might appeal to people who grew up hunting more than the average person. It talks of a very different time. I enjoyed the dealings with the natives and the chiefs the most. One cannot bring their 21st sensibilities with them as they read this tale from another time. Similar to when reading of the American Bison, the reader is told of a time when animals were thicker than we can imagine easily today.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very early hunting

As a child I dreamed of an African safari after reading this book that dream is gone. The wasting
of so many animals seems immoral. I have been there years ago and saw fewer animals than describe in the book.

[Steve Van Rooy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter by Bell

I enjoyed the book—albeit a type of hunting this is of an entirely different era and no longer possible today.

[Tim]

Excellent work with a great deal of keen observation of nature.

[Craig Schlossin · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of Bells books are classic Africa hunting.

[gregory c smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it if interested

A rare glimpse at an Africa that is impossible to find today. Compared with the North American first nations people, tribes in Africa share many similarities.

[robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

A good story about Africa from not so long ago. I especially liked his observations and dealings with local tribes and governments.