112 LARGE GAME. chap. ii. 



sidered at a proper state of firmness when the teeth will just 

 slightly indent it, and one invariably sees native hunters 

 applying this test to the first ball of a fresh casting. It 

 not unusually happens, particularly in the more remote 

 districts, that all hardening matter becomes exhausted, and 

 one hears stories of canteens, tin cups, etc., being melted 

 down as a makeshift ; in such an extremity resort is had to 

 fat — generally the hard tallow found about the intestines 

 of a buffalo, or a water- antelope — a quantity of which 

 is mixed with the liquid lead, and, further to harden 

 them, each bullet as it is cast is immersed in cold water. 

 The result of this is tolerably satisfactory, the firmness 

 attained nearly equalling that of a mixture of pewter and 

 lead. 



It may be interesting to see what experience shows is 

 the effect produced by bullets in different states of harden- 

 ing. The object desired — and which is attained when 

 exactly correct proportions are used — is that the ball, in 

 striking a bone, should flatten sufficiently to prevent its 

 boring through, should smash the obstacle sufficiently, 

 while at the same time it must retain enough of the round 

 form to obviate any chance of the increased resistance 

 offered to the larger surface stopping its way, and thereby 

 preventing its penetrating far enough. Such a bullet will 

 often smash — I vise the word in contradistinction to merely 

 break — both the shoulders of a buffalo, and remain in the 

 skin on the further side, or will penetrate a couple of 

 inches into the enormous mass of bone which protects that 

 animal's brain. 



When no hardening, or an insufficient quantity, has 

 been put in, the effect is that the whole force of the ball 



