174 DRIVING JUNGLES WITH BEATERS. 



But of course this species of shooting necessitates the 

 employment of a small army of beaters, and becomes 

 impracticable where the services of such assistants are 

 not obtainable. Sometimes, in Africa, we have been 

 lucky enough to obtain good sport of this kind, by 

 utilizing the services of Arab villagers, after securing 

 the good offices of the local Sheik. 



The jungle is so very dense in some of these loca- 

 lities, and of so thorny a nature, that it is difficult to 

 find a suitable stand where the expectant sportsman can 

 obtain a space clear enough for shooting. Under such 

 circumstances, the only alternative may be to climb 

 into a tree, and take one's chance from there, at some 

 point where a view can be had of some one or more 

 well-beaten game paths, along which the game will 

 very often endeavour to steal away when they hear 

 the noise of beaters. 



Another device is to watch the cultivated lands near 

 the margins of the forest by night when they are 

 subject to predatory visits from the forest game animals ; 

 this is however a matter more properly dealt with in 

 our next chapter. 



We may however just remind the reader, that as 

 such places are in general only raided by wild animals 

 under the cover of darkness, little sport is therefore 

 to be expected during brilliant moonlight. The native 

 farmers can however generally tell the usual directions 

 of exit of these creatures from the forest, and the 

 most common time of night when their depredations 

 are made; and guided by them, sport may often be 

 obtained which could not otherwise be had. It is 

 mostly their practice to wait till all is quiet, so that it is 

 generally some considerable time after the closing in 



