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CHAPTER VII. 



ELEPHANT-SHOOTING AT NIGHT AMBUSHING FOR GAME THE 

 AUTHOR'S EXPERIENCES AT THE " SCREEN" DANGERS ATTEND- 

 ANT ON NIGHT-SHOOTING PERSONAL ADVENTURES A CRITICAL 

 POSITION A SUCCESSFUL NIGHT'S SHOOTING AN EVENTFUL 

 EPOCH OF MY LIFE. 



MANY elephants are also shot during the hours 

 of darkness, on coming to the water to slake 

 their thirst; which sport, I am free to confess, has 

 always had more charms for me than even that of 

 stalking those animals by broad daylight. Others, 

 however, entertain a very different view of the matter. 

 A great sportsman and a great traveller,* whose 

 name I am not at liberty to mention, once told me 

 (prefacing his pleasant remark with a " saving your 

 presence") that he considered ambushing for game 

 at night nothing better than " dirty poaching." 

 But I must beg leave to differ from my friend, to 

 whose superior judgment in most sporting matters I 

 respectively bow, for I am quite sure he has had little 

 or no experience in this kind of shooting ; and, proba- 

 bly, for this simple reason, that he is always richly 



* On asking the same gentleman what he thought of Dr. Living- 

 stone, he returned me the following characteristic reply, " Well ! to 

 look at the man you would think nothing of him ; but he is a plucky 

 little devil/' 



