ON BIG GAME SHOOTING GENERALLY 21 



had taken a snap shot at the grey thing which you saw moving 

 in the bushes. But, on the other hand, instead of killing a bear 

 or a buck, it is much more likely that your snap shot will wound 

 some poor devil of a hind, who will sneak away to die in 

 anguish somewhere in the thick covert where none but the 

 jackal will benefit by her death ; or else you may do as I once 

 actually did hit a bear in the seat of his dignity, thereby 

 arousing his very righteous indignation in a way that is dangerous 

 to the offending party ; or, worse still, you may (as I nearly did) 

 fire upon your own gillie or friend, whose moccasined footfall 

 is very like a bear's tread, and whose sin in wandering across 

 your beat would be too severely punished by death. 



In all seriousness, it has always seemed to me that any man 

 who, whilst out shooting, kills another in mistake for game de- 

 serves to be tried for his life, unless he be a very young beginner 

 and young beginners should hunt by themselves. There is no 

 excuse for shooting a man. If the shooter could not tell that 

 that at which he fired was a human being, much less could he 

 tell at what part of his beast he was shooting, and a random 

 shot ' into the brown ' of a beast is unsafe, unsportsmanlike, 

 and brutally cruel. 



Finally, do not be tempted to use complicated sights in still 

 hunting. When you have followed deer under pines heavy 

 with snow, through sal-lal bush which looks like deep billows 

 of the same, only to find, the first time, that your Lyman sight 

 is down, and the second time that though erect the peephole is 

 full of ice, you will recognise the merits of a Paradox with the 

 simplest sights for wood shooting in any weather as thoroughly 

 as the writer does, and whilst admitting the merits of the 

 Lyman sight for long-range shooting in the open, eschew all 

 but such simple sights in timber. 



There are, of course, other ways of hunting big game 

 besides those already dealt with. Almost any game may be 

 driven, from lions in Somaliland and tigers in the Terai to 

 chamois in the Alps and sheep in North America, and there is 

 no doubt that sufficient excitement and a good deal of sport 



