io6 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



ascertained in this way, and such study increases the 

 pleasure of shooting a hundredfold. 



Naturally the easiest animals to track are the heaviest in 

 body, though if the ground should be stony or baked very 

 hard with the heat of the sun, even they may leave very 

 slight impressions behind them. But besides the footprints, 

 there are the droppings to go by, and they are generally a 

 greater index to the age of the spoor than the tracks 

 themselves. 



Again, all animals feed as they move about unmolested, 

 and the nibbled grass or the branches and leaves torn 

 from trees and bushes by elephant, rhino, and eland are 

 also a silent guide to the observing sportsman. 



Before going further, I may mention that the word 

 u spoor " is a South African term for the tracks of game, 

 and it may also mean the droppings or other traces of 

 game as well as the footprints. 



The time when a knowledge of spooring becomes most 

 useful is when some animal is wounded and escapes for 

 the time being. 



In such an event there is the blood trail, as well as the 

 tracks and droppings, as a guide to the path the animal 

 has taken. Sometimes, if a beast is very hard hit, it will 

 leave the herd and go off by itself, and in this case it is, of 

 course, much easier to follow. 



The high-velocity rifles used at the present time do not 

 cause an animal to drop so much blood as was formerly the 

 case with Express rifles shooting soft lead bullets, or big 

 bore rifles or smooth bores. 



It is not usual for a modern expanding bullet to pass 

 through a large animal, and the small entrance hole soon 

 gets blocked up with coagulated blood, and there may be 

 very little blood spilt. If a bullet goes right through there 

 is a better chance of the beast bleeding considerably, so 

 a bullet like the " Dum-Dum " (with lead just exposed at 

 the point) is a good type of projectile to use on animals 

 like buffalo, eland, roan, kudu, hartebeest, and sable 

 antelope. 



