THE GAME COUNTRY AND GAME HUNTER. 5 



Perhaps the most difficult clause to observe is No. 4, for at certain times of the 

 year it is almost impossible to walk quietly, as everything is very dry and brittle, 

 especially a kind of pod which goes off like a pistol when trodden on. Many a good 

 head of game has been lost by treading on these vegetable crackers. Of course, 

 when actually stalking up to game, one would take care not to tread on sticks, pods, 

 or anything ; but after a long, tiring walk one gets careless, and it is generally at 

 this time that some animal gets up and bolts. Besides the impediments mentioned, 

 there will be stones, stumps, thorns, branches, leaves, and holes about ; so the hunter 

 will need all his wits about him to see the game before it has heard or seen him. 



When an animal is sighted before it has become aware of danger there is a 

 much better chance of getting close up and killing it. 



The time when game are least on their guard is at early morning and late in 

 the evening, when they are engaged in feeding. If an animal or a herd is disturbed 

 in a dambo (a dambo is an open patch of grass surrounded by bush) and runs, it will 

 be a good plan to wait, for they will usually stand and look back before entering 

 the bush. Although this is not an invariable rule it is a usual one, and is worth 

 remembering, for hurried running shots generally mean only wounding and losing an 

 animal unless it is very close. 



Game has little chance nowadays against modern firearms, and the odds are 

 always greatly in favour of the hunter, if he knows what he is about. If Mr. W. C. 

 Oswell, for example, had been armed with a modern rifle in the early days when he 

 hunted in Southern Africa, there is no saying what huge bags he might have 

 made, although he did a lot of execution with his old-fashioned lo-bore Purdey 

 smooth bore. 



If he, Mr. Gordon Gumming, and others could rise from their graves and see 

 men killing elephants and other big game with rifles such as the ■256-bore Mannlicher 

 and 303 Lee- Enfield, they would be astonished, for the rifles we use at the present 

 day are less in the bore than men used then for shooting rabbits and rooks. 



In all the protectorates of Africa we are now hampered by game regulations, 

 so we can only shoot a limited number of the larger and more valuable game. This, 

 of course, is right and proper, or the game would be exterminated ; but at times we 

 all feel that we ought to be allowed more, as we are the first people in the country, 

 and are smoothing the way for those who will follow. 



Big game shooting is a common sport at the present day, and the gentle sex 

 even go in for it and write interesting accounts of their experiences. 



Most of the expeditions that leave home every year make for British East Africa, 

 and shoot in the vicinity of the Uganda railway, where I should imagine the game 



