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THE HUNTER'S ARCADIA. 



growling audibly at any one being barbarous enough 

 to shoot at a leopard with buckshot, and to be 

 brazen enough to tell of the exploit afterwards ; but 

 then he must remember under what circumstances 

 the affair took place. India has unquestionably 

 produced many of the finest " all-round sportsmen " 

 known, but in some points I think they display an 

 excess of punctiliousness as to the mode in which 

 field sports should be conducted, and the above might 

 possibly be a case to which they would take exception. 

 For my own part, when in search of dangerous 

 animals, I think a man is perfectly justified in using 

 what missiles he deems to be the most certain to 

 guarantee success ; and certainly the effect of a 

 charge of buckshot out of a ten-bore gun, with five 

 drachms of powder behind it, at ten to fifteen paces, 

 is most terrible. It is generally acknowledged in 

 Africa that there is no animal so dangerous and 

 difficult to stop as the buffalo (Bos caffir). In this 

 I entirely agree ; yet I have known a charge of 

 buckshot, at short range, save a hunter's life, and 

 bag the assailant. It occurred in this way. I and 

 some acquaintances had gone down from the 

 Transvaal gold-fields to a district of country situate 



