176 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



with the wind, and time after time you are betrayed through no misjudgment of 

 your own. 



Now, lastly, let me touch on the most magnificent sport which Africa, or, 

 for that matter, any country in the world, has to offer, namely, elephant-hunting. 

 Any sportsman who has ever shot elephants admits this to be undeniably the case, 

 though what the exact reasons are for its being so would perhaps be difficult 

 to state. To start with, it is distinctly a dangerous pursuit, and becomes more 

 so as time goes on and elephants grow less unsophisticated and take to thicker 

 and thicker country. In some places in East Africa where they have been 

 much peppered, it is as much as a man's life is worth to venture near a herd of 

 females and young. In other parts where the hunter is still little known elephants 

 are harder to move to anger, and the old bull, which it is the hunter's particular 

 desire to bag, is generally an easy-going old fellow. Wherever an old bull is met 

 with there are always females, some of which are subject to sudden fits of rage on 

 getting one's wind at close quarters. Even the old bull, when wounded, may show a 

 burst of anger, and, from the many bullet wounds and native missiles often found in 

 his hide, it is small wonder that he gets rather bored with being shot at. 



The few elephants I shot in Uganda I found covered with wounds, and the 

 natives who cut up the carcasses extracted a number of iron native bullets. 



However, in spite of the way that the bull is in some parts molested, it is 

 still the female which is always the more dangerous. Though one's desire may be 

 only to meet the bull, it is not always possible to find him apart from females and 

 young ; or, to be more accurate, it is not always possible to miss running into 

 females and young when in pursuit of a bull. It is the same with most animals, the 

 females are usually the worse-tempered. If from a couple of lions the lion is shot, 

 it is the lioness's charge one has to fear, whereas, if one shoots the lioness first, the 

 lion is unlikely to charge. The cow buffalo is a more dangerous customer when she 

 gets wild than is the bull. The reason for this is that with her lighter head and 

 horns she is more agile than the bull. The bull's massive horns and blind charge 

 appear to be especially designed for strife inter se. It is the female which protects 

 the young, and so it is the female that is quicker at seeing and turning upon an 

 adversary. The bull, on the other hand, would possibly go and toss an imaginary 

 victim before he discovered that it had escaped, and would then look round to see 

 where it had gone. 



Some people seem to be grossly lacking in a sense of humour concerning the 

 attacks of dangerous game. They will shoot hundreds of inoffensive and harmless 

 animals, and a sprinkling of dangerous animals. When one of the latter suddenly 



