144 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



camped at Muona's village and had spent several days 

 looking for a good buffalo bull. There were plenty of 

 buffaloes about, but up to this time I had not come on a very 

 good bull, and often the tracks were hardly fresh enough to 

 be worth following. 



On the morning of that day I determined to get away 

 very early, so got up before sunrise and dressed and 

 breakfasted by candle light. As the darkness of night gave 

 place to a soft grey light we left camp and went to some 

 big maize fields to see whether game had been feeding on 

 the dried stalks. All game is very fond of these stalks 

 and come long distances to feed on them, and fresh spoor 

 can usually be found in these places. In less than an hour 

 we found the night tracks of three buffalo bulls, which, 

 judging by their steaming dung, had just left the spot. We 

 were soon going behind them, and had not got more than 

 300 yards into the thick bush and grass when a man who 

 had climbed a large anthill said he saw them. 



I was soon alongside him, and following his directions I 

 looked ahead and saw the head and horns of a buffalo, 

 which was evidently standing and listening, as he doubtless 

 had heard us in the bush. I had a '404 magazine rifle 

 which had a drag pull, and as I had not used this rifle much 

 I made a mistake in not shooting with my ygmm. Mauser 

 which I knew well. I forgot the drag pull of the '404, as 

 my ygmrn. has an ordinary pull, so I made a bad shot and 

 missed the bone of the neck. However, there was no 

 doubt that I had struck the buffalo somewhere, for he 

 grunted in an angry manner as he ran off with the other 

 two. Then began one of the most exciting days that I have 

 spent in Central Africa. 



On reaching the tracks, there was a lot of blood scattered 

 on the leaves and grass. About 8 a.m. we disturbed the 

 buffaloes, which ran off again before I had time to get the 

 rifle to my shoulder. After this we found the wounded bull 

 had taken a line of his own, and on comparing the tracks I 

 was glad to sed that his were much larger than those of his 

 companions. 



