136 A BUFFALO HUNT [ch. vi 



we covered him with our rifles, his plan being to run 

 right across our front if the bull charged. The bull was 

 past charging, lying just within the reeds, but he was 

 still able to do damage, for in another minute one of the 

 dogs came out by us and ran straight back to the farm- 

 house, where we found him dead on our return. He 

 had been caught by the buffalo's horns when he went in 

 too close. Heatley, a daring fellow, with great confi- 

 dence in both his horse and his rifle, pushed forward as 

 we came up, and saw the bull lying on the ground 

 while the two other dogs bit and worried it, and he put 

 a bullet through its head. 



The remaining bull got off* into the swamp, where a 

 week later Heatley found his dead body. Fortunately 

 the head proved to be in less good condition than any of 

 the others, as one horn was broken off about halfway 

 up ; so that if any of the four had to escape, it was well 

 that this should have been the one. 



Our three bulls were fine trophies. The largest, with 

 the largest horns, was the first killed, being the one that 

 fell to my first bullet, yet it was the youngest of the 

 three. The other two were old bulls. The second one 

 killed had smaller horns than the other, but the bosses 

 met in the middle of the forehead for a space of several 

 inches, making a solid shield. I had just been reading 

 a pamphlet by a German specialist who had divided the 

 African buffiilo into fifteen or twenty different species, 

 based upon differences in various pairs of horns. The 

 worth of such fine distinctions, when made on in- 

 sufficient data, can be gathered from the fact that on the 

 principles of specific division adopted in the pamplilet in 

 question, the three bulls we had shot would have repre- 

 sented certainly two, and possibly three, different 

 species. 



