44 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



Kahmat's hawk-like vision was to me very in- 

 teresting. Spotting game is a knack which to 

 some extent may be acquired by practice. A man 

 with normally good eyesight, who knows exactly 

 what to look for this is important will pick up 

 distant game on the limited area of hill or plain 

 at which he is looking that is, on which he has 

 focussed his eyes for the time being. The best 

 shikaris, natives of "the hills," see beasts that are 

 outside this area. Their eyes seem to be wide- 

 angled like an insect's, looking in all directions at 

 once, and in a flash the presence of game in this 

 angle of vision is telegraphed to the brain. Most 

 big-game sportsmen know how the appearance of 

 animals on a distant sky-line is conveyed to one's 

 intelligence without having consciously looked at 

 the spot. The triumph of eyesight lies in picking 

 up such beasts when they are not on the sky-line. 

 In some respects such sight as this is superior 

 to that of animals, as it is backed by superior 

 intelligence. An animal's concept of " man- 

 danger," for instance, seems only to be stimulated 

 by a moving or an upright figure. It is a 

 common experience among sportsmen for an 

 animal to stare unalarmed at a man lying motion- 

 less, even at a range where every detail of his 

 features must be visible. But the human mind- 

 picture of "beasts" is not limited in this way; 



