VIII A FEARFUL WOUND 141 



intention of waylaying its pursuers, might be just 

 about to cross its own tracks at the very point 

 these latter had reached when following on its 

 spoor. Then it would almost certainly charge, with 

 a good chance of scoring a success. 



My own experience has been that in thick cover 

 wounded buffaloes usually stood behind a bush at 

 right angles to their tracks. In such a position, 

 standing quite motionless, they were very difficult to 

 see, whilst they had every chance of hearing or 

 seeing anything approaching on their spoor before 

 being themselves observed. In such cases they 

 would nearly always be broadside on to the hunter, 

 and if one's eyes were trained to pick up game 

 quickly in all kinds of surroundings, there would be 

 time to get a shot in before the wounded animals 

 swung round and started on their charge. Struck 

 in this way with a heavy bullet somewhere near the 

 junction of the neck and the shoulder before the 

 charge had actually commenced, a wounded buffalo 

 would run off again. Once, however, a buffalo is 

 actually charging, no bullet will turn or stop it, 

 unless its brain is pierced or its neck or one of its 

 legs broken. A charging buffalo comes on grunt- 

 ing loudly, with outstretched nose and horns laid 

 back on its neck, and does not lower its head to 

 strike until close up to its enemy. The outstretched 

 nose of the buffalo which killed my horse was 

 within a few inches of my leg before it dipped its 

 head, and, with a sweeping blow, inflicted a fearful 

 wound in the poor animal's flank. 



I once hit a charging buffalo at a distance of 

 perhaps thirty yards, right in the chest, with a 

 round bullet fired from an old four-bore elephant 

 gun. This bullet just grazed this old bull's heart, 

 cutting a groove through one side of it, and then, 

 after traversing the whole length of its body, lodged 

 under the skin of one of its hind-legs ; yet this 



