NOVEMBER 391 



but incautiously, exposed himself by climbing on to an ant 

 heap. 



Presently Mr. Jackson was aware of a bullet striking before his 

 face and of a disturbance in his clothes. Thinking, naturally, that 

 the shot had been discharged from in front, he lifted himself a 

 little to search for the firer, when suddenly he felt a most frightful 

 blow under the armpit, as though a very powerful man had 

 kicked him with all his strength, and knew that blood was 

 pouring from his mouth. The facts were that the first 

 bullet also had come from behind and passed through his coat 

 without touching his body, whereas the second, which was better 

 aimed, struck him somewhere below the right shoulder-blade, 

 flattened on the ribs and passed through him, piercing the lung, 

 and falling out into his shirt, where it was found. This bullet he 

 showed me ; it came from a Snider, weighs an ounce and a 

 quarter, and in its flattened condition is of the size of a two 

 shilling piece ; indeed, it seems a mystery how a man through 

 whose lung it had passed could be sitting before me alive and well. 

 He tells me, however, that in his own opinion he owes his life to a 

 curious circumstance which, to my mind, is a strange instance of 

 the triumph of the reason of man under conditions of unusual 

 difficulty. 



Mr. Jackson is a great sportsman and has killed large quantities 

 of big game, from elephants down. Many of these animals were, 

 of course, shot through the lungs, and he had noticed that when 

 this happened, death frequently occurred through the creature 

 trying to cough up its blood and choking in the effort. From 

 the moment that he was struck at Lubwa, he was convinced that 

 the bullet had pierced his lung, and remembering the example 

 furnished by the game, he determined not to cough until the 

 severed blood vessels had been given a time to close. This 

 resolve, by agonising efforts, he succeeded more or less in putting 

 into practice. The result was, that after lying in grave danger for 

 some days, his wound healed, and in about two months he 

 recovered. 



