THE VENGEANCE OF THE WILD 247 



remembered afterwards was a sensation of 

 acute curiosity as to what might be going to 

 happen next ! 



Reference has been made to the fact of 

 modern rifles precluding the necessity of 

 coming to close grips with dangerous game. 

 As a matter of fact, the unexpected is always 

 happening. Big game hunting is full of un- 

 rehearsed effects, and thus it is that, in spite of 

 all the resources of the gunmakers, lions and 

 tigers still get their own back. Yet some of 

 the cordite rifles now in use do amazing work at 

 long range, and in the right hands (this condi- 

 tion is commonly overlooked, but it is of first 

 importance in determining the result) they are 

 safe to stop even the most desperate charges at 

 the last moment. Mr. Roosevelt, using one 

 of Holland's small-bore cordite rifles, killed 

 charging buffalo and rhinoceros with a single 

 shot ; and, with one bullet from a still smaller 

 weapon, the Maharaja of Kooch Behar killed 

 a bull bison at eighty yards, an extraordinary 

 performance when one remembers the thick- 

 ness of the animal's hide. These modern rifles 

 and bullets make the old tales of rhinoceros 

 hide being able to withstand shooting at even 

 short range look very foolish. 



I have already suggested that the fact of 

 their wisely running less risk by using modern 

 weapons than their predecessors did with the 



