116 LARGE GAME. CHAP. n. 



lesser degree, hippopotami and buffaloes, by a single bullet, 

 a moral certainty. 



In my own experience I have found that the bullet 

 which to-day has proved all but instantaneously fatal, has 

 to-morrow, though seemingly entering at precisely the 

 same spot, and at exactly the same angle, had no effect ; 

 and while this has been my own personal experience, not 

 of once, but of many times, any hunter, white or black, 

 will bear witness to the times without number where he 

 has planted his bullet in the exact spot he desired without 

 the slightest immediate result. 



A hippopotamus (most of which are shot in the water) 

 presents a small mark in the head, the penetration of 

 which by ever so small a ball causes instant death, while 

 a buffalo, when hit exactly in a well-known spot in the 

 forehead, drops to the shot ; and therefore, when the 

 hippopotamus is in the water, and when the buffalo's fore- 

 head is turned to you, a small-bored weapon is of equal 

 use with a larger one, but when these conditions are not 

 attainable, as in nine cases out of ten they are not with 

 the latter animal, the lighter gun becomes in comparison 

 useless, as, like an over-hardened bullet, it will but pierce 

 the bone, and not break it, while it produces no shock 

 whatever to the system, and, though very possibly mor- 

 tally wounding the animal, renders the chances exceedingly 

 small that the hunter will get it, thus inflicting more pain, 

 as death from such a tiny ball may not take place for a 

 week, or even a month, afterwards. In the case of ele- 

 phants and rhinoceros, there is, on the contrary, no place 

 at which the entrance of a ball is certain to be at once 

 fatal ; and though there are spots in the ear and shoulder 



