HUNTING THE AFRICAN BUFFALO 89 
ing into a herd of buffaloes, evidently only in play. 
They chased about squealing and stampeding the 
buffaloes, who kept at a safe distance but did not 
actually take alarm. Occasionally an old cow whose 
calf was being hard-pressed by the young elephants 
would turn, apparently with the intention of having 
it out, but would always bolt before the elephant 
could actually reach her. Despite the fact that the 
record head, fifty-four inches in spread, was shot by 
Mr. Knowles in Uganda, from our general observa- 
tion the heads in Uganda run smaller than those of 
British East Africa while the animals are perhaps 
heavier. 
Although in our buffalo-hunting we have never 
had any actually serious encounters, I fully appreciate 
that the buffalo deserves his reputation as one of 
the most dangerous of big-game animals. His eye- 
sight is good, he has keen scent, and is vigilant and 
vindictive. While the lion is usually satisfied with 
giving his victim a knock-out blow or bite, the buffalo, 
when once on the trail of man, will not only persist 
in his efforts to find him but, when he has once come 
up with him, will not leave while there is a vestige 
of life remaining in the victim. In some cases he 
will not leave while there is a fragment of the man 
remaining large enough to form a target for a buffalo’s 
stamping hoofs. 
A hunter I met once told me of an experience he 
had with a buffalo which shows in rather a terrible 
way these characteristics of the animal. He anda 
companion wounded a buffalo and followed it into 
