THE PRESERVATION OF GAME. 227 



The vital parts of an animal are so very small in comparison to the rest of the 

 body that a shot roughly aimed at an animal stands about a ten to one chance of 

 missing a vital spot. Therefore, aim should only be taken at some vital spot, and at 

 a range close enough to make one fairly certain of hitting it. 



After a first shot which misses, young sportsmen are apt to lose their heads 

 or tempers, and pour in a succession of rapidly aimed, unsteady shots in the 

 hopes that one will strike home. Some men are so lazy and callous that they 

 will not take the trouble to follow a wounded animal ; w'hilst other men, owing 

 to their long range and erratic shooting, do not know how many animals they 

 have hit and wounded. Some, after wounding an animal, if they are anxious to 

 obtain a head of its kind, give a native a rifle and tell him to go and secure the 

 animal for them, promising him a reward. The native naturally comes back 

 if possible with a head of the same species rather than miss his reward, and the 

 sportsman fondly imagines that he has shot the animal. Why people who 

 are content to obtain heads like this ever go out shooting I cannot imagine, it 

 would save them a deal of trouble if they paid someone to make their whole 

 bag for them. 



Some sportsmen (generally foreigners, I am glad to say) think it just as 

 good fun to shoot a lion in a trap as outside of one. This trapping and also the 

 poisoning of big game seems to me a most unworthy practice. I have heard it 

 urged that it is excusable with settlers who have their cattle to look after, and I 

 have been told that I should change my views if I was a settler. All I can say 

 is that I have been in the position of a settler, that is in an isolated station or 

 on trek with stock. The conclusion that I have come to is that to build proper 

 kraals and take ordinary precautions is all that is necessary for tlu- security of 

 stock. The Masai, who have neither rifles nor poison, seldom lose an animal ; 

 and, moreover, the lions of East Africa usually prefer game. 



Most settlers who have anything in them welcome the chance of a day 

 after lions as a pleasant change from their other duties. Others are great hunters 

 where plain-dwelling buck are concerned, l)ut they are not interested in shooting lions. 



You will alwavs lind plenty of men looking for lions in East Alrica, who 

 would be only too glad to get the tip that the animals had been seen or located 

 in any particular place, so there is really no excuse for anyone who does not 

 want to shoot them himself indulging instead the evil practice of poisoning on his 

 land. It is a bit sickening to hear that someone within easy reach has found a 

 lion's kill, and that instead of sitting up over ii or visiting it at dawn, or asking 

 somebody «>lse to do so for him, In; has injected strychnine into the carcase and 



