78 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



shot on chance is almost invariably followed by disappointment ; the beginner 

 is then so mortified at the result that it will probably be a long time before he 

 will again try such a shot. 



It is so seldom that the bush-hunter is able to obtain more than one trophy in a 

 day that he can never become a great killer of game. He cannot return, as does the 

 hunter from the plains, with half a dozen or so of heads as the result of a day's work. 

 In Central Africa I reckoned that it took anything from three days to a week's hard 

 hunting to obtain one good bull sable, whilst every elephant shot meant at least 

 a hundred miles of walking, and more often as much as two hundred, sometimes more. 



When such work is done for one trophy it is not often that a hunter will take a 

 risky shot and chance losing his trophy. Nor will he take a shot at an animal the 

 head of which he is not certain is a good specimen. 



Of course, something must be left to chance in the way of shooting. Some- 

 times the huntsman may have every reason to believe that an animal only partly 

 visible is the one which he has spoored up, and the size of the track of which 

 has shown it to be an adult bull. If he shoots and afterwards finds that it is some 

 other and smaller specimen which must have crossed the path of the first, he cannot 

 be blamed for taking the shot, for the chances were all in favour of its being the 

 animal desired, and he had, moreover, but a fraction of a second in which to decide 

 whether to take the shot or let go the opportunity for which all his spooring up 

 had been but a preliminary. 



Even the oldest and most tried hunters make mistakes. I have had proofs 

 of two of the most celebrated elephant-hunters in Africa shooting female elephants 

 by mistake. Such shooting is considered by the framers of game-laws as one of the 

 most heinous offences it is possible to commit. Yet that such a mistake can be made 

 by a famous elephant-hunter only shows how impossible it is to entirely avoid making 

 mistakes. 



Much may be forgiven the young and keen beginner, for without experience 

 many mistakes are easy to make. There are some people, though, who never seem to 

 learn, however much experience they may have gained, for with them the sporting 

 instinct is not, and they just kill for killing's sake. These are the real enemies 

 of game, for they cannot resist a shot at anything they see moving, and so are 

 constantly obtaining females and immature animals. 



The pleasure derived from hunting in the bush and forest is mostly obtained 

 in the successful outcome of the tracking and bushcraft so necessary to success. 

 The actual shooting and killing is but the climax. It may be likened to checkmate 

 in a game of chess, which is the result of manoeuvres successfully thought out. 



