THE AFRICAN OR CAPE BUFFALO 



open space and entered the dense forest, where the buffa- 

 loes had been standing only a few seconds before. With 

 the safety catch of the big gun pushed forward, and strain- 

 ing my eyes and ears to the utmost to be fully on my 

 guard, and ready for any emergency, we went into the 

 bush. We had gone but a few paces, when we suddenly 

 heard a loud groan and, expecting a charge at any mo- 

 ment, we held our breath and stopped to listen and look 

 around. Another drawn-out, bellowing-like groan fol- 

 lowed close to our right, and turning in that direction, I 

 had only gone a few steps, when I saw that the magnificent 

 buffalo had breathed his last! After skinning the beast 

 I wanted to see where he had been hit, and discovered now 

 that the large, steel- jacketed bullet had gone clean through 

 the very center of the heart and penetrated to the other 

 side until it had almost protruded through the skin. And 

 yet with such a wound the buffalo had been able to run 

 for over fifty yards! 



In Uganda, where buffaloes are more plentiful than in 

 British East Africa, they often become so daring that they 

 run at night into the plantations of the natives, which they 

 destroy in a most thorough manner, often killing the sav- 

 ages who try to chase them away. The government, there- 

 fore, has recently taken the buffalo off the list of protected 

 animals and declared it, together with hippos and croco- 

 diles, to be " vermin." In Uganda anyone can now shoot 

 as many buffaloes as he wishes and has a chance to, if he 

 thinks that this is " sport." In British East Africa, how- 

 ever, where the buffalo is not quite so plentiful — one of 

 the results of the terrible rinderpest — he was altogether 

 protected until two years ago; up to that time the sports- 



III 



