HUNTING THE KUDU AND SABLE. 71 



showed that they were kudu ; so I went after them, telling the carriers to wait for me. 

 The country here was very hilly and rough, and the animals were soon out of sight. 

 The spoor was easy to follow, as the ground was soft with rain, so we began to track 

 them at once. On topping a rise I saw the herd going over the next rise, about 

 70 yards in front. I let the females go, and watched for the male, which usually 

 brings up the rear of a herd. In a few seconds he trotted into view, and I saw he 

 was accompanied by another male. Not knowing which was the better head of the 

 two, and having to shoot quickly or not at all, I took the nearest as he trotted past. 

 As it was the quickest of snapshots, I was very pleased to see the kudu rear up and 

 fall. The other male was out of sight immediately, and, as I had got a very nice 

 head and plenty of good meat, I did not go after him. 



Unfortunately I was out of films for my camera, so was unable to get a photograph 

 of this fine beast. 



Whenever I have shot a good male kudu, I seem to be without the means of 

 photographing him, having either no films or bad ones. 



On examining the bullet wound, which had hit the beast high behind the shoulder, 

 r saw that it was as big as a 12 bore, so I looked round and found the "303 soft nose 

 bullet had first gone through a sapling about four inches in diameter before it hit 

 the kudu. If the sapling had been bigger I would probably have lost that kudu. 

 Although kudu are exceedingly abundant all over Northern Rhodesia, comparatively 

 few are killed, and for every kudu there must be quite twenty sable antelope killed 

 annually in this country. 



To spoor up and shoot a kudu bull in the dry season takes some trouble and 

 time, for he does not tread heavily, and his hoofs will leave a very slight impression 

 on the hard and stony ground. In the wet season the task is easier, for then the 

 spoor will show well on the damp ground. 



I will now describe a few lucky days with the sable antelope. As I have related 

 before, I shot my first bull sable near Fort Manning, in Nyasaland. Since then I 

 have shot niany others, but none of them exceptional in the way of horn measurement, 

 for the simple reason that in the central portion of the eastern part of Northern 

 Rhodesia the sable do not grow the large horns they do in the west and north. 



However, I have bagged a number over 4oin. One evening when I was camped 

 at a village called Malelembos I went out to shoot game, and had gone some way 

 when I saw a single bull sable standing in some scrubby bush. He was wandering 

 about feeding, so I made the men sit down and crawled up to a pretty thick bush 

 where I sat and watched him. He was moving in my direction so I waited. It was 

 a beautiful sight watching this fine animal in his native haunts, and I could not but 



