66 LARGE GAME. CHAP. i. 



had merely passed through the hind-leg about half an inch 

 above the hoof, causing the animal to limp a little, but in 

 no way disabling it, a fact about which the hunter had 

 to stand a considerable amount of chaff before the day 

 was over. 



It is most difficult to ascertain to what age buffalo 

 live, though, as old solitaries have been known as such 

 for twelve years, it is probable that, unless cut off by 

 some of the numerous accidents that they are liable to, 

 thirty years would be under the mark. At the same 

 time, it is impossible for me to do more than guess, as 

 among the many hundreds that I have seen dead, there 

 was not one that had come to its end through natural 

 causes ; and lions alone are a sufficient explanation of this, 

 as any sick, disabled, or weak animal becomes their cer- 

 tain prey. Gradually and by degrees they are decreasing 

 in numbers, and retiring further and further back, deci- 

 mated by the hunters' guns, until, in a few years I expect 

 that a buffalo will be as scarce as an elephant now is. 

 They have only two enemies, man and lions ; but as the 

 former follows them through the live-long day, often 

 wounding when he does not kill, and the latter takes up 

 the chase at nightfall, and unless he catches one does not 

 retire till daybreak, while both occasionally change their 

 times, the lion, pressed by hunger, following them during 

 the day-time, while the hunter spends the night in am- 

 bush near their drinking-hole, it is not to be wondered 

 at that in places where, even in my own day, herds vary- 

 ing from ten to a hundred were common, there are not 

 now ten head in all to be found. 



Their habits are in general much the same as those of 



