Fine Impala Seen. 45 



tired, and this was one of the black days in my diary 

 and one of the hardest. 



Just after this experience I was shooting near the 

 Shire River, and one day I saw the largest horned impala 

 I have ever seen in Central Africa. His head more 

 resembled the size of the British East African type, though 

 I cannot say what it measured, as I missed a fairly easy 

 chance at him at about seventy yards range. 



Again, in North-Eastern Rhodesia I wounded and lost a 

 very fine bull sable antelope, whose horns were much 

 better than a 43in. head I had bagged about a month 

 before. I knocked this sable down and had walked up to 

 within twenty yards of him, and then turned my back 

 to pull my Kodak from its case to get a snapshot. While 

 I was doing this I heard the thud of his feet and 

 turned round to see him disappearing into the thick bush 

 near. I followed this sable for two days and never 

 saw him again, and I believe my bullet grazed his spine, 

 which dropped him and caused paralysis for a few moments. 

 The loss of this beast was, of course, due to my own 

 carelessness, although if the boy who was carrying the 

 camera had been a sharp-witted lad he would have told me 

 the sable was getting up and running off, as he was looking 

 at it. Then I would likely have had time to get in another 

 shot with the chance of killing or crippling it. Anyhow, 

 1 lost the best pair of horns I have seen on a living 

 sable antelope, and I am sure they were not much less 

 than 46in. 



Every incident such as this is a fine lesson, and it is 

 generally remembered when a similar incident arises ; 

 and of course there would not be much interest in game 

 shooting unless there was a certain amount of uncertainty. 



The lucky days are not perhaps so common as the 

 unlucky ones, but the luck is sure to change if one keeps 

 hard at it. The best hunter, if not always the best shot, is 

 the man who is hard-working and persevering. 



Before closing this chapter I will give a few of my articles 

 which have appeared in the Field newspaper at different 



