i88 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



will serve the same purpose if struck and blown out im- 

 mediately. The smell of the tobacco smoke is in no way likely 

 to frighten game, as, if a beast is able to detect it, it is equally 

 certain that he will be able to wind the stalker. Personally, I 

 use a pipe as a wind-finder more than anything else, and I have 

 had a lighted pipe in my mouth at the time of firing at more 

 than half of the game I have killed. 



Before commencing a stalk up to dangerous game, the 

 stalker should always put two or three cartridges for his big 

 rifles into his pocket in order to have them handy and to render 

 him perfectly independent of his gun-bearers. Even the best 

 gun-bearers might fail him one day when in a critical position, 

 and the want of a cartridge might be the cause of a very 

 serious accident. 



As elsewhere, so in Africa, one of the great secrets of 

 success in big game shooting is to be up early and on the 

 feeding grounds at daylight, when everything is in favour of 

 the stalker. In the early morning most game will be found 

 feeding, and will be more easily seen when so occupied than 

 later on in the day when lying down in the shade of a tree or 

 bush, with only one of the herd standing up. This beast, if it 

 is the sentinel of a herd, will in all probability be a female, or 

 a male with an inferior head, as the old bulls and bucks rarely 

 act sentry ; or it may be a solitary individual not worth 

 stalking. The stalker, being possibly a long way off at the 

 time of sighting it, and unable to see whether there is a herd 

 lying concealed near it in the grass or not, may miss a good 

 chance at a beast with a first-rate head through a pardonable 

 dislike to going a long way out of his track on an off-chance. 

 But when feeding the stalker has a good chance of examining 

 with his binoculars each individual beast in the herd, he can 

 compare one with another, and mark those with the best heads. 



Then, again, in the early morning the air is fresh and the 

 ground cool, and a long stalk is not nearly so fatiguing then as 

 later on ; whilst in the cool hours of the early morning it is 

 much easier to judge distances, as the air is clear and there is 



