94 HUNTING TRIPS IN NORTHERN RHODESIA. 



away. I shot a large number of impala while living on the west bank of the 

 Luangwa river. Opposite, on the east side, there was a great amount of game, as 

 there were no villages near. This was part of the Luangwa Game Reserve, which 

 had been made so as to protect a herd or two of giraffes which exist there. I had 

 permission from the late Mr. Codrington, who was Administrator of North-Eastern 

 Rhodesia at that time, to shoot in the reserve as long as I did not interfere with the 

 giraffes. I saw the fresh spoor of these animals on several occasions, but never 

 followed them or interfered with them in any way. Often I would cross to the east 

 side in a leaky old dugout which I had, and I hardly ever returned without bagging 

 game of some description, generally waterbuck or impala. In the early mornings or 

 late in the evenings 1 used to see game feeding along the bank, and I can recollect 

 shooting a waterbuck, two impalas, and a bushbuck across the river, which was about 

 three hundred yards wide at that place. Now, to vary things, I will give a sample of 

 hard luck. 



One evening, while living on the Kapundi stream, my cook came to me and said 

 the fowls were finished, so I thought a nice steak from some buck would be a good 

 substitute for tough fowl, or, rather, no fowl at all, so I went out, taking a 256 

 Mannlicher rifle by Gibbs, of Bristol, which I had just got from a friend in exchange 

 for a '400 Jeffery single rifle. 



Walking up the Kapundi dambo for some distance without seeing anything, I was 

 thinking of returning, as the sun was near the horizon. However, there was a good 

 moon, so instead of going back I sat down on the side of an ant-hill which commanded 

 a good view of the dambo. While smoking and watching, I saw an animal move in 

 the thick scrub on the other side of the dambo, and soon afterwards I made out others 

 which 1 saw were sable antelopes. They were apparently coming down to drink at a 

 pool in the stream, so I moved my position to get out of sight, and watched them 

 feeding and gradually working their way to the water. Sable and roan antelopes, 

 when undisturbed, have rather a slouching appearance, and they do not look their 

 best until they move with their fine heads thrown back or held high. 



The bull, as is often the case, was in the rear of the herd, but when he saw 

 the others drinking he came on faster. 



Firing at him as he stood nearly broadside on, I hit him in the shoulder, as 

 I thought. On getting the bullet he lifted his forelegs off the ground and gave 

 a jump forward, and went after the herd, which were disappearing in the bush. 

 I may here say that most of the larger antelopes, such as eland, roan, and sable, 

 often raise their forelegs ofT the ground and spring forward when a bullet hits them. 

 This particularly applies to eland, which nearly always act in this way when hit in 

 the forward part of the body. 



