138 SPORT IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 



For a quarter of a mile it was plain sailing through 

 the cotton-fields ; but after this the trail led into 

 the grass and thorn, and it became very hard to 

 follow. Whilst A. was prospecting for it, he started 

 pointing and signalled me up, and on arrival I 

 found that a leopard had just walked past him about 

 15 yards off. At last A. picked up a straight trail, 

 and following it for not more than 50 yards, round 

 a corner we saw our friend the buffalo standing 

 sideways-on 20 yards off, looking at us round a 

 tree. We all knelt down, and as the shikaris obviously 

 intended to fire a volley, I stopped A., who carried 

 my 8-bore, and gave the buffalo a broadside shot with 

 a soft-nosed bullet from the 470, whilst at the same 

 time, without any orders, M. fired off a solid from my 

 350. The buffalo moved off to the left, and at the same 

 time M. said a second buffalo went off behind it, 

 though this I did not see. We kept quite still after the 

 shot, and after some minutes distinctly heard a heavily 

 shod animal breaking branches in front, and a grunt 

 or two say 50 yards off. Judging this to be the 

 second buffalo come back to look for his friend, 

 I decided to sit still and wait developments, as we 

 had a very fair view in front. This we did for over 

 two hours, during which my headache got no better. 

 At last I thought it time to move, and very cautiously 

 took up the trail. For some time we could make very 

 little of it, but at last I saw a little blood, and we 



