THE AFRICAN BUFFALO 217 



of the base of the trunk, if it does not penetrate to the brain, 

 will knock it down, or at all events turn it. The chest is a better 

 mark in the open, but when in thick covert cannot often be 

 taken advantage of. Even if this shot should not be fatal, it 

 would nine times out of ten stop or turn the beast. A lion 

 being a much smaller beast than either, and being more active, 

 is naturally more difficult to hit, but when hit is more easily 

 disabled, and not so tenacious of life. 



Should a buffalo charge and miss the sportsman, it will hunt 

 him as a terrier does a rabbit, and will rarely leave him as 

 long as it can see or smell him. An elephant has poorer eye- 

 sight than a buffalo, and there is a better chance of escaping 

 observation in covert after being missed, as an elephant, being 

 less active, cannot turn so quickly and would overrun itself. 

 It will, however, also hunt him and beat about the covert to 

 try and catch sight of him or scent him. A lion would be less 

 easy to dodge than either, but, as it is possessed of less pluck, 

 would be more easily cowed and less likely to renew the attack. 



Buffaloes were at one time exceedingly plentiful throughout 

 British East Africa, and in some districts, where the country 

 was best suited to their habits, were to be found in enormous 

 herds. Towards the end of the year 1890, and in the early 

 part of 1891, they unfortunately contracted a kind of anthrax, 

 the same disease which carried off nearly all the native cattle, 

 and they were almost destroyed by it. On my way down 

 from Uganda in July 1890, between Lakes Baringo and 

 Naivasha, I saw in one day's march as many as six herds of 

 buffaloes, varying in number from 100 to 600 head in a herd. 

 In this same district in the following March, my friend 

 Mr. Gedge, on his way down to the coast, saw nothing but 

 carcases, and in one day counted as many as fifteen lying 

 rotting in the grass, close to the footpath. In 1892 the officers 

 of the Mombasa and Victoria Nyanza Railway Survey only 

 saw on two different occasions the spoor of a single beast, 

 although they traversed a great part of the country where 

 buffaloes were once so plentiful. Amongst other places where 



