xvi BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 163 



and ungainly creature, he is by no means so awk- 

 ward as his size might lead one to believe. For a 

 short distance, he can run at a great pace, while 

 jumping ditches is for him a matter of comparative 

 ease. In short, his strength is in proportion to his 

 bulk, and he is admirably adapted to the nature of 

 the country in which he lives. 



With regard to the risk attendant on hunting 

 various kinds of big game, (a subject on which 

 many famous hunters hold very diverse views,) all 

 my experience tends to confirm me in the opinion 

 that the pursuit of the elephant is, without doubt, the 

 most dangerous. Second, and on a par, I would 

 classify buffaloes and lions ; third, leopards. In 

 comparison with these, very little risk attaches to 

 the hunting of the rhinoceros. However, in any 

 such classification, so much depends on the manner 

 of hunting ; for it is obvious that to hunt alone, with 

 one or two natives as trackers, is accompanied by 

 considerably more danger, than to form one of a 

 party armed to the teeth with powerful modern 

 rifles. And when an old hunter chances, in his 

 reading, to come across an account of three white 

 men all helping each other to kill one poor lion, he 

 feels his gorge rise and, after making every possible 

 allowance for the state of modern civilized nerves, is 

 disgusted to think that such a wretched farce should 

 masquerade under the name of sport. Nor can that 



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