42 SPORT IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 



alternative shot is the broadside one through the 

 heart. This is the shot that I should prefer in the 

 case of any other animal of which I have actual 

 experience, except the hippopotamus. However, I 

 was told that the elephant has this peculiarity, that 

 shots through the lungs, liver, and other vital organs 

 seem to have very little effect upon it, so that the 

 heart-shot requires as careful aiming as the brain- 

 shot, and that the heart lies one-third up the thick- 

 ness of the body, exactly where the edge of the ear 

 at rest touches the side. 



Elephants are, I believe, always scarce upon the 

 Rahad ; but on the Binder and Blue Nile I was told 

 that they were fairly numerous at certain seasons, that 

 is to say mainly in the early part of the cold weather, 

 when they had not been much harried since the rains. 

 I was also told that in those parts they travelled im- 

 mense distances after drinking, fully twenty miles in 

 some cases, and that it was essential that the sports- 

 man and his retinue should be mounted. This was 

 the more necessary as the entire herd might charge en 

 masse on detecting danger, when the only chance of 

 escape would be to ride one's hardest. 



The rhinoceros is, I believe, only found upon the 

 portion of the Binder above the Galegu junction, 

 which I did not visit, and as it may not be shot at all 

 in the Eastern Sudan, I will say no more on the 

 subject. 



