SHOOTING FROM HORSEBACK. 2 29 



decided opinion that, " recklessly riding after game, 

 although highly exhilarating, is not the way to fill the 

 bag " in "hunting on this system an immense amount 

 of ammunition is expended with little profit." * 



Let anyone try a few shots, fired from a galloping 

 horse, and he will see how impossible accuracy of fire 

 becomes without an enormous amount of practice in 

 the art. Therefore even though a man range right up 

 alongside of an animal, he may miss the fairest shots, 

 or if he hits in most cases will only inflict a wound, 

 without securing his quarry. Probably there was no 

 class of game better suited for running than the American 

 buffalo, but had this system alone been tried against 

 them, it is probable that many herds of them would 

 still exist. The buffalo was exterminated not by the 

 horse and rider, but by the still-hunter ; the murderous 

 Yankee skin-hunter, taking advantage of the stupidity 

 of these great animals when attacked by hidden foes, 

 used to crawl up to within easy range of a herd, and 

 then taking what was called a " stand, " at some suitable 

 point, he shot down buffalo after buffalo before the 

 remainder of the herd, which stood stupidly staring in 

 the direction of the noise, took fright and galloped off. 



Most species of game, as we know, are greatly 

 alarmed at the sound of firearms; buffalo however, 

 probably mistaking the report for some of the electrical 

 phenomena so common on the prairies, did not take 

 fright unless they saw or smelt their crafty enemy 

 and instances are on record of large numbers being 

 thus killed, from one stand by a single man. Colonel 

 Dodge for instance mentions several such cases, in one 



* Five Years of a Hunter's Life in South Africa, by R. Gordon 

 Cumming, 1850, Vol. L, p. 63. 



