JUJA FARM; HIPPO AND LEOPARD 



129 



a big hole. The bullet had gone too far back, in front of 

 the hips. I should not have wondered at all if the animal 

 had failed to get up after falling, but I did not understand 

 why, as it recovered enough from the shock to be able to 

 get up, it had not continued to travel, instead of falling 

 after going one hundred yards. Indeed, I am inclined to 

 think that a deer or prongbuck, hit in the same fashion, 

 would have gone off and would 

 have given a long chase before 

 being overtaken. Judging from 

 what others have said, I have 

 no doubt that African game 

 is very tough and succumbs 

 less easily to wounds than is 

 the case with animals of the 

 northern temperate zone; but 

 in my own experience, I several 

 times saw African antelopes 

 succumb to wounds quicker 

 than the average northern ani- 

 mal would have succumbed to 

 a similar wound. One was this 

 impalla. Another was the cow 

 eland I first shot; her hind leg 

 was broken high up, and the 

 wound, though crippling, was 

 not such as would have pre- 

 vented a moose or wapiti from 

 hobbling away on three legs; yet in spite of hard struggles 

 the eland was wholly unable to regain her feet. 



The impalla thus shot, by the way, although in fine 

 condition and the coat of glossy beauty, was infested by 

 ticks; around the horns the horrid little insects were clus- 

 tered in thick masses for a space of a diameter of some 

 inches. It was to me marvellous that they had not set 

 up inflammation or caused great sores, for they were so 

 thick that at a distance of a few feet they gave the appear- 



>- 



Head of a waterbuck bull shot by 



Kermit Roosevelt 

 F>-f>i a plwtograph l>y Etimuttd Heller 



