Neumann the Elephant Hunte-r. 85 



more fine bulls with the same rifle. This accident was 

 entirely due to the faulty construction of the early 

 303 rifles, for had he been able to load he would have 

 doubtless killed, or at least have turned, this elephant. 

 He mentions using a lo-bore and a '577 Express with 

 solid bullets, with good effect, and I believe during the 

 latter part of his life that he used a -450 cordite rifle, and 

 found that it killed elephants better than any rifle he 

 had ever previously used. Neumann has left a great 

 reputation in British East Africa, both among the whites 

 and natives. I met a man who knew him intimately, 

 and he told me that Neumann was a strange, silent man 

 who had a great love of loneliness and the wilderness. 

 He left one volume of his adventures entitled " Elephant 

 Hunting in East Equatorial Africa," and those who have 

 not read it should do so, as it is a book well worth perusal. 

 Like most good hunters, Neumann did not embellish his 

 writing with fanciful matter, and all he wrote is solid fact ; 

 so it is a lasting pity that he did not leave big-game shooters 

 further accounts of his adventures, as they would have been 

 most interesting reading. 



Neumann was, I believe, an excellent game shot, and it 

 was his custom to get pretty close to the animal he wished 

 to shoot ; and it is really safer to do this than to fire long 

 uncertain shots, which are likely to wound, with the result 

 that the elephant has to be followed up in thick cover, for 

 all wounded animals take to the thickest cover they can 

 find, which is infinitely more dangerous than going to 

 within, say, twenty yards of an unwounded beast. For the 

 brain shot it is absolutely essential to get close, or one will 

 not be able to see exactly where to shoot, or the true 

 angle at which the beast is standing. For the heart shot, 

 much the best, really, sixty yards is a good distance. 

 When elephants are in herds it is a mistake to go closer 

 than this, as in their fright they run all over the place, and, 

 unless there were some large trees about, it would be 

 difficult to escape being trampled on. As I think I have 

 mentioned, an elephant's brain is very small, considering 



