eH. v] AN IMPALLA 109 



hitting it at a considerable distance and by a lucky 

 Huke, after a good deal of bad sliooting. Wg started 

 tlie porters in with the waterbuck, and then rode west 

 through an open country, dotted liere and there with 

 trees and with occasional ant-hills. In a few minutes w^e 

 saw an impaUa l)uck, and I crept up behind an ant-hill 

 and obtained a shot at about two hundred and fifty 

 yards. The buck dropped, and as I was putting in 

 another cartridge I said to .Judd that T didn't like to 

 see an animal drop like that, so instantaneously, as 

 there was always the possibility that it might only be 

 creased, and that if an animal so hurt got up, it always 

 went off' exactly as if unhurt. When we raised om- 

 eyes again to look for the impalla, it had vanished. I 

 was sure that we would never see it again, and Judd felt 

 much the same w ay ; but we walked in the direction 

 toward which its head had been pointed, and Judd 

 ascended an ant-hill to scan the surrounding country 

 with his glasses. He did so, and after a minute remarked 

 that he could not see the wounded impalla ; when a 

 sudden movement caused us to look down, and there it 

 was, lying at our very feet, on the side of the ant-hill, 

 unable to rise. I had been using a sharp-pointed bullet 

 in the Springfield, and this makes a big hole. The 

 bullet had gone too far back, in front of the hips. 

 I should not have wondered at all if the animal had 

 failed to get up after falling, but I did not understand 

 why, as it recovered enough from the shock to be 

 able to get up, it had not continued to travel, instead 

 of falling after going one hundred yards. Indeed, I am 

 inclined to think that a deer or prong-buck, hit in the 

 same fashion, would have gone off and would have 

 given a long chase before being overtaken. Judging 

 from what others have said, 1 have no doubt that 



