A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI 137 



This was a piece of huge good luck. Kermit put his first 

 barrel into the second bull, and I my second barrel into one 

 of the others, after which it became impossible to say which 

 bullet struck which animal, as the firing became general. 

 They ran a quarter of a mile into the open, and then the 

 big bull I had first shot, and which had no other bullet in 

 him, dropped dead, while the other three, all of which were 

 wounded, halted beside him. We walked toward them, 

 rather expecting a charge; but when we were still over two 

 hundred yards away they started back for the swamp, 

 and we began firing. The distance being long, I used 

 my Winchester. Aiming well before one bull, he dropped 

 to the shot as if poleaxed, falling straight on his back with 

 his legs kicking; but in a moment he was up again and 

 after the others. Later I found that the bullet, a full- 

 metal patch, had struck him in the head but did not pene- 

 trate to the brain, and merely stunned him for the moment. 

 All the time we kept running diagonally to their line of flight. 

 They were all three badly wounded, and when they reached 

 the tall rank grass, high as a man's head, which fringed 

 the papyrus swamp, the two foremost lay down, while 

 the last one, the one I had floored with the Winchester, 

 turned, and with nose outstretched began to come toward 

 us. He was badly crippled, however, and with a soft- 

 nosed bullet from my heavy Holland I knocked him down, 

 this time for good. The other two then rose, and though 

 each was again hit they reached the swamp, one of them 

 to our right, the other to the left where the papyrus came 

 out in a point. 



We decided to go after the latter, and advancing very 

 cautiously toward the edge of the swamp, put in the three 



