148 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



I decided that I must see the matter through as I had 

 wounded a fine animal which it was my duty to try my 

 best to finish, so I followed slowly. We had gone about 

 a hundred yards at a slow pace, when I heard a loud 

 grunt almost under my feet, and I saw the buffalo, which 

 seemed very stiff, begin to rise like a cow by putting up its 

 hindquarters first. Through weakness it could not rise 

 quickly in the soft ground, so I took a most careful aim 

 between neck and shoulder and fired with the small rifle, 

 and I was both pleased and relieved to see it sink down 

 and fall over on its side and begin the death bellow. 



This buffalo was less than three paces from where I stood, 

 which is a little too close, in my opinion ; but " all's well that 

 ends well." If it had not been severely wounded and 

 weak, it is likely that it would have got me, as it would have 

 been absolutely impossible to escape it in such ground. 

 Therefore, for such work there can be no doubt that a man 

 requires the heaviest rifle he can handle ; and a '470 

 would be a much more reliable weapon than a ygmm., 

 which is '311 bore. As all African sportsmen know, the 

 buffalo is the hardest beast to stop once it has started a 

 charge, so a weapon with great striking energy is the best 

 tool for such work. 



These buffaloes consisted of two bulls and two cows. 

 The horns of the bulls were nothing to speak of, but one of 

 the cows had the best head I have yet seen on a cow buffalo ; 

 and I took her complete skin off for mounting in a museum. 

 She had an ojd bullet wound in one of her front legs, and 

 she and the others were covered profusely with ticks, 

 especially on the softer parts of the bellies, and the soft 

 skin inside the thighs. Buffaloes are lumbering looking 

 beasts, but they can go at a great pace, and being very 

 heavy they break through thick cover, just like elephants 

 and rhinos. Their colour when young is brownish ; but 

 when they get old their hides turn a greyish black, and in 

 thick cover they are not easy to make out. 



A few days after this I came on a small herd of elephants, 

 but not having taken out an elephant licence, had to leave 



