AN EXPLORATION IN THE FAR EAST. 449 



little eminence. It was a splendid stag sambar, who 

 had, very unusually, ventured down to that silent valley 

 in the midday heat to drink at a little stream. He 

 seemed to be dazed by the sunlight as he came out 

 on the pathway, and failed to notice a cortege of three 

 or four horses with their riders, an elephant, and ten or 

 a dozen men on foot. I fired at about a hundred and 

 seventy yards, and heard the little bullet strike against 

 his brawny shoulder. But he galloped away up a little 

 glade, leaving no blood, and I felt inclined to throw 

 down the little rifle in diso;ust. Less than a hundred 

 yards from the pathway, however, the great stag lay 

 perfectly dead, shot through the middle of the shoulder. 

 I afterwards acquired complete confidence in this weapon, 

 and killed a far larger percentage of the animals I fired 

 at than I had ever accomplished with any other. On 

 one occasion I shot three out of a herd of five Chikara 

 antelopes running across me, the nearest being over a 

 hundred yards. This little creature oS"ers an extremely 

 small mark to fire at, and these were fairly struck in 

 the shoulder. I could not have done such work as this 

 with any other rifle of my acquaintance. 



These small bores, however, have not been found so 

 efi"ective for destroying the larger animals, such as tigers, 

 bufl"aloes, bison, etc., the small fragments into which the 

 bullets are broken up not possessing sufiicient penetrative 

 power to reach the vitals. It is a great object, too, with 

 these large and dang^erous animals to break the large 

 bones, so as to cripple them at once and prevent acci- 

 dents ; and this the small Express, with its very hollow 

 bullet, is quite unable to eflect. The bone-breaking and 

 penetrative power of these bullets can, however, be 

 much increased by diminishing, or altogether omitting, 

 the hollow in the point. A good many elephants have 



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