280 MY SOMALI BOOK 



resistance met with by a bullet in its course. Every 

 projectile in motion has a tendency to take the line of 

 least resistance, when opportunity offers ; so that 

 when a bullet strikes a bone obliq^uely, or in any other 

 way meets with a greater resistance on one side, it 

 tends to be deflected in the opposite direction where 

 resistance is less. 



The extent of liability to deflection depends partl}^ 

 on momentum, partly on the form of the bullet. As 

 Mr. Hicks correctly points out, the spherical ball is 

 least liable to deflection, while the longer the axis of a 

 projectile in proportion to its diameter, the greater 

 its liability to deflection. Hence the more elongated 

 the form of a bullet the less its reliability in this respect. 

 Increase in momentum (which is compounded of weight 

 and velocity) decreases the liability to deflection. 



The resistance to a bullet is always more or less 

 uneven in character, and experience shows that the 

 oblique resistance of not only bone, but even muscle 

 will sometimes avail to turn the course of a bullet. 

 The spherical bullet is least easily deflected, but it 

 is a mistake to conclude that it cannot be deflected 

 at all. I remember shooting a tiger (with a '577) 

 which, after going some forty yards, fell among some 

 high reeds, and was not at first visible. When dis- 

 covered only a patch of striped skin six inches square 

 (on what part of the body was uncertain) could be seen, 

 and though I believed the beast to be dead, I was not 

 sure. I fired at the visible patch from a distance of 

 ten paces with a spherical ball from a twelve bore. 

 Fortunately the tiger was already defunct, for this 

 shot hit him on the hind quarter, and the bullet, 



