UNCERTAINTY OF THE SPORT. 209 



not to fire at a singfle kara-sulta or at a dzeren 

 above 200 yards ; for nine out of ten shots you fire 

 beyond that range will to a certainty be wasted. 

 In practice, however, this rule is difficult to ob- 

 serve. Assuming that you have been walking for 

 an hour or two, climbing from the top of one 

 hillock to another, sinking knee-deep in the loose 

 sands with the perspiration pouring from your face, 

 and that all of a sudden you see the coveted animal 

 before you, but above 200 yards off. You are well 

 aware that you cannot approach any closer ; that if 

 you are not very careful you may never see it again ; 

 that every minute is of value ; and lastly, that you 

 hold a rifle in your hands which will carry a long 

 distance and hit the smallest object ; with all this, 

 can you resist the temptation of a shot ? You raise 

 the sight on your rifle, lie down, take a steady aim ; 

 the gunpowder flashes fire, and the bullet buries 

 itself in the sand, having either fallen short of or 

 gone beyond the antelope, which is out of sight the 

 next moment. Provoked and disgusted with your 

 ill luck, you examine the spot where it stood, and 

 on measuring the distance, you find that you are 

 forty paces or more out of your reckoning. This is 

 a great mistake to make, but it is unavoidable when 

 you have to estimate your distance suddenly, often 

 in a recumbent position, with your head only j'ust 

 raised above the hillock and when it is impossible 

 to see any intermediate objects. Doubtless a rifle 

 with a long point-blank range in this instance is the 



VOL. I. p 



