20 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



with the herd, but took a line of his own, which was the 

 reason we had failed to notice his spoor in the grey light of 

 the previous evening. This was satisfactory, as I knew 

 that I had not lost a wounded beast, although if he had 

 gone off I would have spent the whole of the day in trying 

 to find him. The worst feature about shooting is wounding 

 and losing a fine animal, as its sufferings must be great. 

 The other herd animals shun it, because, I think, the smell 

 of fresh blood is disliked by them ; so it has to lead a 

 solitary existence until it dies from its wound, or death 

 in some other shape or form puts a termination to its 

 sufferings. This eland had been hit through the large 

 arteries leading into the heart, and this is quite as good a 

 shot as the heart one. In some ways it is better, for if 

 the bullet strikes a little back the lungs will probably be 

 punctured. Game shot in the heart, or in the big arteries 

 above that organ, usually give a shiver and draw them- 

 selves together, and dash off at a quick pace and fall dead 

 within a short distance. 



If struck in the lungs they may go farther and leave a 

 more plentiful blood spoor, and this blood will be light- 

 coloured and frothy. A shot in the kidneys usually kills 

 game pretty quickly, as such a wound has a sickening 

 effect and it causes severe internal haemorrhage. Shots in 

 the brain, centre of neck, and in the spine usually drop 

 game where they stand, and, of course, animals often drop 

 with shots in other parts ; but they will probable get up 

 again and run off. If an animal is found lying stretched 

 out on its side it is usually done for, and on the point of 

 death ; but if sitting up, it will likely have the strength to 

 get on its legs and bolt. Sometimes a wound seems to 

 paralyse a beast's nervous system, and it is then able to 

 stand several subsequent wounds in deadly parts of its 

 body without showing much distress for some time. It is 

 wonderful how tenacious of life wild animals are, and the 

 small duiker, considering its diminutive size, is an example 

 of this. It is difficult to say what is the toughest species, 

 but the kob family is probably the most tenacious of life ; 



