Difficult Shooting Ground. 1^47 



Two appeared to have fair heads, and there was little 

 time to pick and choose so I fired at the nearest, and then 

 fired again, and it ran a short distance and dropped. Then 

 I hit two others, both of which ran back into the thick 

 reeds, and one I heard bellow soon afterwards. The fourth, 

 which I thought seemed the best, had run along the edge of 

 the swampy ground where the vegetation was not so rank ; 

 I climbed an anthill and hit it twice, then went to find 

 the two which had taken cover, and soon came on the 

 carcase of the one I had heard bellow, which was lying 

 in the mud and water. The other I heard near so I 

 climbed another handy anthill and gave it a shot which 

 seemed to drop it. I waited about a quarter of an hour and 

 then went into the reeds, and on getting to within twenty 

 yards the buffalo, which had been lying down, stood up, 

 and I gave it a good shot between the neck and shoulder 

 which killed it. 



It was nasty work following buffalo in this kind of 

 country as the odds were mostly in favour of the game, for 

 it was quite impossible to see anything until one got to 

 close quarters, and the soil was sticky and muddy, quite 

 preventing quick movement. 



I now went off to look for the animal that had gone 

 along the edge of the dambo, and we soon found the 

 footprints leading into the swamp. I took one man with 

 rne carrying a -400 cordite rifle, and carried my little 

 y-gmm., as I always feel safer with a rifle I know well, 

 even although it is a small bore. We went slow r ly, and 

 stopped every now and again to listen for the breathing 

 of the wounded animal. Suddenly a black object caught 

 my eye, and this was the buffalo's head, which was all 

 that was visible. However, I knew he was standing 

 almost head-on, so I fired at an imaginary mark about a 

 foot below his nose. He got the bullet, as I heard the 

 " phut," and he turned round and bolted. This was getting 

 a bit too exciting, for I could not lift my feet out of the 

 mud and water without some trouble, and every step 

 made a noise in the rustling reeds and water. However, 



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