POACHERS AND NUISANCES 



in his power, and utterly regardless of both sex and 

 age. any animals, the flesh of which may command 

 a ready sale in his vicinity. The injury done to 

 the head of game by both is incalculable ; but, 

 inasmuch as the native is always at work, quietly 

 and unostentatiously, slaying, without, as a rule, 

 driving the game out of the sphere of his operations, 

 while the terror which is inspired by a pack of wild 

 dogs, hunting in any particular tract of forest, is 

 such as to denude that tract temporarily of all its 

 ferce nature? and so to necessarily limit the opera- 

 tions of the canine poachers to an occasional visit, 

 I am inclined to think that the human poachers are 

 even greater curses to the sportsman than are the 

 dogs. I will therefore deal first with the poaching 

 native. Generally he possesses a gun an anti- 

 quated, long-barrelled weapon as a rule, but one 

 which, when loaded with several irregularly-shaped 

 chunks of lead, a handful of slugs, or two bullets, 

 does terrible execution at close quarters and a 

 native has far too keen an eye to the retention 

 of what he possesses to risk even a charge of powder 

 and lead unless he is morally certain of scoring. 

 With his bare feet he can walk almost as noise- 

 lessly as a cat ; practice has rendered both his 

 eyesight and his sense of hearing exceedingly 

 acute ; he knows every water-hole, salt-lick, and 

 glade in the jungles near his home (and his opera- 

 tions do not usually take him far afield) ; and this 

 knowledge, together with his intimate acquaintance 

 with the habits of the game, added to an unlimited 

 store of patience, and a total disregard of the value 



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