FIRING LOW BY NIGHT. 285 



general be found too, unless the water is drawn from 

 a deep well, and above all unless the arborescent 

 vegetation is destroyed by bush-feeding animals among 

 which we may mention the camel and the goat as 

 two of perhaps the very worst destroyers of natural 

 bush; indeed we believe a very strong case might be 

 made which would go far to prove that the constantly 

 increasing extent of treeless deserts in many parts ot 

 the world is due to the destruction of all tree-life by 

 these and other tree-feeding creatures. That however 

 is beyond the scope of our present subject. We are 

 however free to admit that night-shooting is necessarily 

 a very uncertain sport, as many animals fired at are 

 merely wounded, and finally effect their escape alto- 

 gether. That however is a matter which cannot be 

 helped. All the advice we can give our readers on 

 the subject is Always fire low, ridiculously low; 

 because at night a man, in trying to get a clear sight 

 of his gun on an animal, is sure to fire high in doing 

 so, unless he purposely aims apparently much too low ; 

 this we can say, as we have fired many shots, under 

 all sorts of conditions, at night. Various were the 

 dodges that were tried in former days, to try and see 

 the sights of guns on game during darkness; such as 

 bands of white paper tied round the muzzle, and other 

 such plans ; probably now-a-days better could be done 

 by luminous compositions then unknown, * but person- 

 ally we have no experience of such matters in the field, 



* Luminous paint has been suggested for this purpose by the late 

 Sir Samuel Baker in his last book, published shortly before his death. 

 "Nothing is so effective," he thinks, "and it can be purchased in 

 stoppered bottles and will last for years. A small supply will be very 

 useful in an outfit" (Wild Beasts and Their Ways, by Sir Samuel 

 W. Baker, 1891, Vol. i., p. 154). 



