92 HUNTING TRIPS IN NORTHERN RHODESIA. 



escaped the annual fires and there were other similar ones about, behind which I got, 

 up to within about sixty yards. I now saw that the game was a warthog, and 

 a movement in the grass showed there were two, and very likely the couple I had 

 seen before. 



Taking a rest against a small tree, I fired and the pigs ran ofi^, but I could 

 see blood on the shoulder of the one I fired at, and he fell after running about 

 a hundred paces. Covering him up for removal on the morrow, I made for a path 

 which took me home, where a good bath and dinner refreshed me. 



It was in this dambo and near the spot where I shot the warthog that I had seen 

 a wary old bull hartebeest several times, but he always either got the wind or saw 

 me and went off. One evening I went out by myself and approached his haunt very 

 carefully and saw him feeding, every now and again looking up and gazing in the 

 direction he had seen me before ; but this time I was in another place. I was then 

 about two hundred yards from him, so I crawled nearer, keeping a thick clump of 

 bush and grass between us. On getting there, I saw him still in the same place, 

 and as he was now only about one hundred yards off I put up the 256 and hit him 

 through the shoulder which killed him, though he managed to run about fifty yards. 

 Pulling down a few branches, I covered him up and hung my handkerchief over him, 

 and he was found untouched next day when I sent out men for the meat. 



While resting at a friend's house after a hard trip after elephants, I needed some 

 meat to give my carriers ; so I went out to look for something, and had not been 

 walking long before I saw a nice herd of zebra, which I did not harm, although I 

 spent ten minutes admiring them. My reason for leaving them alone was that I 

 wanted some better meat for my friend and myself, as well as for the men, and I 

 hoped to see either roan or sable antelope ; for I knew there were a lot about, judging 

 from the abundant spoor to be seen all over the ground. As my natives and I 

 walked along the edge of the bush, I thought I heard the sound of tapping — just the 

 sound a large buck makes by hitting and rubbing his horns on a tree. I told the men 

 to keep a good look out, and went on, when one of them said " Nyama, Bwana " 

 (game, master). 



I have found that it is not the rule that natives see game before the white man, 

 when the European has shot much and knows what to look for, although, at times, 

 such as on the present occasion, the natives may see the game first. 



Seeing game is more a matter of knowing what game looks like than exceptional 

 eyesight, though one has to be very quick-sighted to catch a sight of an animal before 

 it has become aware of danger. 



On this occasion the roan antelopes, for there were three, had not seen us, so I 



