USE OF GLASSES IN NIGHT-SHOOTING. 289 



such glasses are a great help in making out indistinct 

 forms seen by the eye looming through the darkness. 

 The most profound quiet must of course be observed ; 

 the hunter should remain as far as possible perfectly 

 motionless, as in the deathlike stillness of the desert 

 nights the slightest sound of rustling or movement of 

 any kind is distinctly audible a long way oif by sharp- 

 eared beasts ; and unless it is quite dark anything 

 moving is at once seen also. It has been observed 

 by Andersen, Chapman, and other experienced hunters, 

 that the first to arrive at the water are always the 

 smaller and less wary birds and animals, whereas the 

 heavy game visit it much later on in the night. 



The sound of shots may however prevent anything 

 more arriving, at all events for a considerable time 

 afterwards; but sometimes night-shooting is extraor- 

 dinaril}'' successful. Mr. James Chapman for example, 

 mentions having got eight elephants on a single night 

 in this way. Such successes are however of course 

 altogether unusual, and more often not more than one 

 or two beasts may be killed, and sometimes none at 

 all. We may here just mention that great care should 

 be taken to prevent accidents in shooting men instead 

 of game. Thus the late Mr. St. John, among others, 

 relates how two men were killed (one instantly, the 

 other being mortally wounded) by a companion, while 

 watching for deer that were destroying a corn-field in 

 Scotland. * Colonel Hawker also mentions quite a number 

 of shooting accidents, occurring to persons out with punt 

 guns at night, in consequence of people mistaking the 



* See Wild Sports and Natural History in the Scottish Highlands, 

 by Charles St. John, new edit. 1880, pp. 30 and 31. (Originally pub- 

 lished 1846). 



VOL. III. 19 





