THE FOREST. 175 



you will sooner or later come up with it, if it is lying some distance off you will 

 not. But if you do not come up with it nothing is lost, for you have not disturbed 

 it, and so are just as likely to find it or another of its kind on the morrow. If you 

 push on rashly so as to make sure of reaching it the same day, you will succeed in 

 disturbing not only the animal sought after but the whole countryside. If you do this 

 you will most certainly fail to get anything at all in the locality or anywhere near it. 

 If you do not come up with the animal sought for one day, you return to camp and 

 look for its fresh spoor on the morrow, and hope for better luck or an easier stretch of 

 country to traverse. 



Having succeeded in following up the track step by step, the long expected 

 at last happens. There is a noise just ahead of you, you have been heard, and 

 the quarry is just preparing to bolt. Be ready for this, and directly it happens 

 rush forward as hard as you can in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the animal 

 as it clears; or you may succeed, if there are several animals, in seeing one which 

 has not been so quick to rise as its companions. Your shot will be but a snapshot, 

 and in any case must be fired through thick undergrowth. You must be always 

 ready and on the alert for the critical moment to arrive. There is one thing in its 

 favour, and that is that it is never a long shot, but more usually at thirty or forty 

 yards, for the simple reason that in the forest you are lucky if you can see ahead even 

 this distance. 



So much for the forest-hog, bushbuck, and bongo. The duikers and dikdik 

 may be found grazing in the morning and late afternoon, or lying up in the 

 middle of the day. Even when lying up they may be bagged with a snapshot, for 

 they do not, as a rule, take alarm from a distance like the other animals. They rely 

 for protection more on their small size and in the taking of cover, and you may pass 

 within twenty yards or so of many in a day's hunting without being aware of their 

 proximity, for they give no sign. However, if they think that you are approaching 

 too near they will spring up and make a dash for it; then, if you do not secure a 

 snapshot at once, watch carefully as they go and see if they do not stop for 

 another look at you before finally going of? ; for these little buck are very inquisitive 

 and almost always stop for just one more look. If you follow their spoor you will 

 see where they have done this, and it is more often than not just where they were 

 out of your sight, but could still see you through the undergrowth. 



One of the greatest difficulties met with in forest hunting is the treachery of the 

 wind. There is never any steady breeze blowing from any one quarter. Usually 

 a stillness prevails, whilst if any breeze gets up, it comes puffily from contrary 

 directions. However carefully you may move, you cannot count on being right 



