2 8o BIG GAME SHOOTING 



degree of skill required, there is more sport to be had in out- 

 witting the ever-watchful oryx or wildebeest or eland than in 

 killing either a rhinoceros or buffalo beasts peculiarly easy to 

 stalk unless accompanied by birds, as already described. In 

 antelope stalking, from the beginning to the end of the business 

 the greatest care has to be exercised, lest an incautious move- 

 ment, either of the stalker or the gun-bearer who crawls behind 

 him, should alarm the watchful game ; and the anxiety lest 

 something of this kind should occur, coupled with the physical 

 strain in crawling on the hands and knees or flat upon the 

 stomach during a long stalk, intensifies the satisfaction when 

 the hunter does succeed in outwitting them. 



At certain seasons of the year, when the grass has grown 

 1 8 ins. or 2 ft. high, stalking is comparatively easy even in 

 the open plains, and requires then nothing but endurance on 

 the stalker's part to enable him to succeed. But stalking is a 

 very different business when the grass has been burnt and there 

 is no covert except a few skeleton bushes and small ant-heaps, 

 or a few patches of grass which have escaped the fire. 



But perhaps the accompanying diagrams of three stalks 

 which I made myself will give a better idea of the way to take 

 advantage of very scanty covert than any written advice. 



In the alluvial plains, which extend for a considerable 

 distance on each side of the banks of a perennial river, the 

 country is often interspersed with large shady trees which give 

 it a park-like appearance. In such places, among scattered 

 mimosa- trees, occasional bushes, and a few ant-heaps, stalking 

 is not difficult, and it is in such places that elands, water- 

 bucks, impalas, and buffaloes are often found. In open bush, 

 where game is frequently seen by the sportsman within a couple 

 of hundred yards, a stalk, though sometimes rather difficult, is 

 generally short. To approach within range of antelopes in 

 thick bush is not nearly so much a test of skill in stalking as 

 of quick sight and ability to walk quietly and to pass through 

 bush without making a noise. Quick shooting is also necessary, 

 and the rest depends a good deal on whether one's lucky star 



