244 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



it nevertheless called for remarkable nerve and 

 great knowledge of woodcraft. 



The woodcraft is discounted in these days, 

 when, what with long-range rifles and powerful 

 telescopes, big game shooting suggests the 

 conditions of a naval duel, with the difference 

 that, in the majority of cases, the enemy does 

 not return your fire. 



Fortunately there is still a considerable 

 element of risk. Otherwise, the shooting of 

 big game would be less a sport than an exact 

 science, and as such would lose much of its 

 charm, for, as Lindsay Gordon wrote : 



" No game was ever yet worth a rap 



For an Englishman to play, 

 Into which no danger, no mishap, 

 Could possibly find a way." 



The Australian poet's verse may not rank very 

 high, but the sentiment is the right one any- 

 way. When arm-chair critics of sport quote 

 pigeon-shooting they give us a hard nut to 

 crack, but so long as men like pig-sticking and 

 go on foot after tigers there is not much wrong 

 with either sport or sportsmen. That the 

 chances of disaster were greater in the days of 

 more primitive firearms than those in use to-day 

 cannot, of course, be denied. Even forty years 

 ago Selous had to get so close for the shot 

 that he was knocked down by an elephant and 



