chap. i. BUFFALO. 41 



of his chest, and I aimed the first two shots at his fore- 

 head, producing no effect, except to make it slightly 

 shake it, as if bitten by a fly. No less than seven shots 

 did I fire, the last five striking it fair on the chest, with- 

 out its taking any more notice of it than if it had been 

 inanimate, and then at the eighth shot, which struck 

 it just in the same place as the others, he sank down with 

 a low moan, but without kick or struggle, and was borne 

 away by the stream. This is a trait of wild game that 

 I have noticed in buffaloes, elephants, and rhinoceros, most 

 generally with females ; after getting into a certain state, 

 generally, I think, produced by lung-shots, sometimes 

 standing up and sometimes lying down, they will not die, 

 and no amount of shooting seems to hurt them, at least 

 they give no outward sign of its doing so, nor does it seem 

 to at all hasten their end. I have found from experience 

 that, with an animal in such a state, it is best to sit down 

 quietly and have a rest, or a pipe, for half an hour, and 

 before the end of that time it will probably be dead. 



Numbers of natives had now come up, attracted by 

 my repeated shots, and, calling my hunter back, I left 

 them to do the skinning and to carry the hides with my 

 share of the meat to camp, as payment for the remainder. 

 On taking up the spoor of the herd, a little examination 

 showed three distinct blood-marks ; but as they were all 

 going together we followed the broad trail, one on each 

 side of it, so as to notice if any of the wounded separated. 

 There was scattered thorn all about ; but the nearest 

 cover sufficiently strong to hold buffalo was nearly a mile 

 away, and for this they were evidently heading ; however, 

 before we had gone half that distance, we saw one lying 



