MY SOMALI BOOK 299 



adequate degree. But when, as in the -400, the bore 

 is sufficiently large to admit of a fair amount of weight 

 and striking surface, high velocity will add to its 

 efficiency, if an expanding bullet of sufficient stabilit}- 

 is obtainable. 



Mr. Hicks maintains the impossibility of construct- 

 ing a bullet which, fired from a high velocity rifle, will 

 expand satisfactorily and not go to pieces. But, as 

 we have seen, there are such bullets. This writer appears 

 to judge of the -450 H.V. rifle by the inadequacy on 

 several occasions of a '450 black powder Express which 

 he sometimes used. The futility of this will be seen 

 at once by a comparison of the striking energy of the 

 bullets in each case. He quotes, however, an instance 

 in which a tiger was shot by Mr. C. Batten, through 

 the brain, with a -450 H.V. bullet, " the brains being 

 spattered on the ground, and yet this tigress travelled 

 over a mile after receiving this wound, and was still 

 alive when found twelve hours afterwards." I do not 

 know what the make of bullet was, but in any case 

 such an extraordinary instance of tenacity of life 

 on the part of the tiger is of no value as an example 

 of the typical effect of a H.V. bullet. 



Unrivalled as is Mr. Hicks' experience of tiger 

 shooting with the old style of weapon, this alone does 

 not qualify him to condemn so absolutely as he would 

 do the larger H.V. rifles of whose capabilities he has 

 evidently had no experience, and the increased weight 

 and stability of whose bullets he appears not to 

 appreciate ; while the value of his conclusions on the 

 subject of velocity are somewhat discounted by the 

 repeated clashing of the two opposite views which 



