Long Shots at Game. 47 



and attack the first native canoe that passes near, probably drowning the 

 poor native, or, at least, causing him the loss of his canoe and its contents. 

 Some people who go after buck, when asked if they got anything, will say, 

 " No, but I hit several," apparently very proud of the performance. If he 

 had said, " No, but I wounded one, and followed it until I lost the spoor, or 

 darkness came on," he might be called a sportsman, for even the best of 

 hunters will have the bad luck to wound and lose an animal at times. 



In the hands of a man who knows what he is doing a magazine rifle is a 

 great advantage, but in the hands of a tyro who loses his head and gets 

 excited it becomes a curse. I really think that the administration of the 

 different protectorates in Africa should make it unlawful for a man who 

 knows nothing of big-game shooting to use a magazine rifle until he is 

 accomplished enough to use it properly. A single loader or double is not 

 only better for him, but for the game. If he had a single loader he 

 would naturally take more trouble to get closer, and fire with greater care. 

 A man once said to me : " I never try to get close, for I have five shots in 

 my magazine, and surely I can hit a beast with five shots ! " 



He may have hit some of them, but he did not bag many, unless he 

 counted the wounded as "bagged." Men who go in for big-game shooting 

 and are well up in their subject are generally humane and kind-hearted men, 

 and all of them deplore the loss of a wounded animal, for they know the 

 sufferings that it has to undergo,, and in hourly terror from carnivorous 

 beasts, which can take it at a disadvantage. 



A modern expanding bullet makes a fearful wound, for the diameter 

 increases as the bullet penetrates. In some cases the exit hole in a small 

 antelope will be as large as a saucer. Such a wound in the body of a large 

 antelope like a roan, kudu, sable, or waterbuck will almost invariably cause 

 its death. I have shot a great number of antelopes, and I have seldom 

 found other bullets than my own in the animals, so I presume that nearly 

 all wounded beasts die sooner or later. 



I quite agree with " Canities Adest," and his letter applies to Central 

 Africa just as much as it does to deerstalking at home, for the amount of 

 rash -hooting that goes on out here is appalling. 



Field, October 8, 1910. D. P. L. 



I now give two letters from tne same newspaper about 

 photographing big game and the dangers incurred while 

 doing so, and I have the permission of " Mannlicher " to 

 give his ideas on the same subject. 



PHOTOGRAPHING BIG GAME. 



SIR, In your issue of January 20 I notice a paragraph entitled " Mr. 

 Kearton's Cinematograph." I quote the last sentence: "Mr. Kearton and 

 his brother, who has helped him, have done wonders, and when we 

 remembe that a photographer has to approach very much nearer to his 

 subject than a sportsman does to his game, we cannot but admire the 



