2 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



likes to take his shot at between 100 and 200 yards to get 

 as close as that without much trouble. 



With modern high velocity small bores, some of which 

 shoot point-blank to about 300 yards, there is not a 

 great difficulty in hitting a large animal like a zebra or 

 wildebeest at that range, but it is more difficult to make 

 good shooting on medium or small-sized animals, such as 

 Grant's and Thomson's gazelles, and I, personally, think 

 it a great shame that this long-range shooting should be 

 practised, for many men who could not hit an i8in. bull at 

 400 or 500 yards think nothing of pumping several clips of 

 cartridges into herds of animals at these absurd ranges. 

 After killing a great quantity of African game, I have found 

 that if an animal is much over 150 yards off it is a very 

 difficult matter to discern the true angle at which it is 

 standing, and if this cannot be ascertained it is nearly 

 impossible to place the bullet in a vital spot, and so kill 

 it neatly and humanely. 



The eyesight of mankind is not capable of seeing true 

 angles much over 150 yards, especially when using the 

 ordinary open or peep sights usually fitted to sporting 

 rifles, although a telescopic sight might be a help in doing 

 so ; but these sights are too bulky, and too easily damaged, 

 and very few practical men with average eyesight use 

 them. 



In a later chapter I intend to write fully on sporting 

 rifles, as I consider the subject one of great interest to 

 all sportsmen. I also intend to treat of the natives further 

 on, but I will mention here that I found the natives of 

 British East Africa very poor hunters and trackers. The 

 Somalis have proved themselves useful to sportsmen, and 

 some of them are very plucky ; but so are many races 

 of African natives, and bravery in danger is not the pre- 

 rogative of any single race of mankind. Personally, I 

 found the Somalis a veritable nuisance, as they do not get 

 on well with the natives, and they are perpetually grumbling 

 and wanting something. In fact, they have been so spoilt 

 by kind and generous treatment that they expect to be 



