HONAMA AND HIS MEN. 75 



hours, the leopard would have made his 

 way back. He was driven a third time 

 towards the nets, near my post, and was 

 again doubling back when I caught 

 sight of an orange-coloured mass glid- 

 ing through the underwood. Just in 

 front of him was a little open space 

 which he must cross, and there I 

 dropped him dead with a bullet aimed 

 high up behind the shoulder, just below 

 the spine. 



A considerable experience in shoot- 

 ing large game has convinced me that 

 this is par excellence the vital point, 

 and that a wound here is more instan- 

 taneously fatal than one low down 

 behind the shoulder. Three times elk, 

 which I have wounded low down behind 

 the shoulder, have run from fifty to a 



