186 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



ditions a number of each kind may be killed with the mini- 

 mum of risk. They are the only kinds of African game the 

 chase of which can ever be properly described as dangerous. 

 A hippopotamus, however, will sometimes charge a boat, 

 both unprovoked and when it has been wounded; and of 

 course many other animals in Africa, as elsewhere, will show 

 fight if cornered and rashly approached too close. The 

 roan antelope when wounded will charge savagely from 

 some little distance, and is then more dangerous than any 

 American animal except the grizzly bear, and more dan- 

 gerous than any European animal whatever, with the 

 possible exception of the brown bear; the sable is almost 

 as dangerous; then comes the oryx; then the wildebeest 

 or gnu. Probably none of the deer of northern lands are 

 as dangerous as any of these. The bushbuck, in spite 

 of its small size, and the koodoo, waterbuck, hartebeest, 

 and also the zebra and wart-hog, will turn at bay, but we 

 consider them as formidable only in the sense that a bull 

 moose or wapiti is formidable; that is, under all normal con- 

 ditions the element of danger in their chase is entirely neg- 

 ligible. Eland and giraffe are exceptionally mild- tempered; 

 yet the giraffe will drive both the big zebra and the oryx 

 from a water-hole, although giving way to rhinoceros and 

 elephants. 



The chase of the lion, if fairly followed, is an enthralling, 

 but certainly a dangerous pastime. Of course, a few lions 

 may be killed under such circumstances that the hunter is 

 practically in no danger whatever; and in certain forms of 

 hunting lions, such as sitting in a tree or a high thorn zariba 

 and waiting for them to approach a carcass or a tethered 

 domestic animal, the element of danger is eliminated. 



