no HIPPO AND LEOPAKD [ch. v 



African game is very tough and succumbs less easily 

 to wounds than is the case with animals of the northern 

 temperate zone ; but in my own experience, I sev^eral 

 times saw African antelopes succumb to wounds quicker 

 than the average northern animal would have succumbed 

 to a similar wound. One was this impalla. Another 

 was the cow eland I first shot : her hind-ie"- was broken 

 high up, and the wound, though crippling, was not such 

 as would have prevented a moose or wapiti from hob- 

 bling away on three legs ; yet in spite of hard struggles 

 the eland was wholly unable to regain her feet. 



The impalla thus shot, by the Avay, although in fine 

 condition and with a coat of glossy beauty, was infested 

 by ticks ; around the horns the horrid little insects were 

 clustered in thick masses for a space of a diameter of 

 some inches. It was to me marvellous that they had 

 not set up inflammation or caused great sores, for they 

 were so thick that at a distance of a few feet they gave 

 the appearance of there being some big gland or bare 

 place at the root of each horn. 



The other impalla buck also showed an unexpected 

 softness, succumbing to a wound which I do not believe 

 would have given me either a white-tailed or a black-tailed 

 deer. I had been vainly endeavouring to get a water- 

 buck bull, and as the day was growing hot I was riding 

 homeward, scanning the edge of the plain where it 

 merged into the trees that extended out from the steep 

 bank that hemmed in one side of the river bottom. 

 From time to time we would see an impalla or a water- 

 buck making its way from the plain back to the river 

 bottom, to spend the day in the shade. One of these I 

 stalked, and after a good deal of long-range shooting;- 

 broke a hind-leg high up. It got out of sight, and we 

 rode along the edge of the steep descent which led 



