ADVANTAGE OF A BREECHLOADER. 59 



head high, and his nose raised almost to the level of 

 his forehead, no shot at the head could be of any use. 

 After looking at them for an instant, I ran straight 

 at them, slanting as I went. With one consent they 

 turned to fly, but as the old bull wheeled a bullet 

 from Rigby 10 caught him a slight astonisher just be- 

 hind tlie shoulder — distance twenty-seven yards — and 

 the second barrel luckily hit a young bull in the neck, 

 killing him dead on the spot. TJie old bull fell on 

 his knees, then, recovering himself, rose and followed 

 the herd, very much crippled. Here I found the 

 great advantage of a breechloader, for having no ne- 

 cessity to stand to load, 1 was enabled to keep close 

 to the bull. He soon began to lag behind the rest, 

 and I saw it was all up with him. At last he pulled 

 up altogether, and stood crippled under a large bao- 

 bab-tree. Getting this tree, which measured fifty- 

 seven feet in circumference round the trunk, between 

 us, I crept up to it, the wind being favourable. I 

 was now within some five yards of him, but the great 

 baobab concealed him from sight. Peering quietly 

 round the tree, I saw him standing three parts away 

 from me, his tail almost within reach of my hand. 

 In another instant a bullet had dislocated the verte- 

 brse of the neck, where the spine joins the head, and 

 the bull lay lifeless before me. 



It was now quite dusk, and as I had already had a 

 long day's march, and was rather tired, I took the tails 

 of the bulls, and having retraced my steps to where 

 the cow lay, performed the same operation on her. 

 As the men were anxious to have the meat home at 

 once, one of them remained on the scene of action, 



