Hartebeest Shot through a Tree 61 



finding a fresh track. We decide on the following 

 day to go farther afield, and while the baggage is 

 being packed I go out to try to kill an antelope, 

 because Bertrand and I do not like too much elephant 

 flesh. I find some bartebeest, and kill one of 

 them amid rather curious circumstances. Having 

 been wounded, it runs a long distance, and stops 

 exactly behind a big tree. As I cannot move round 

 it without again frightening the animal, I try to shoot 



Ax ANT-HILL. 



it through the tree with a solid 303 bullet. The pro- 

 jectile passes through the trunk, which is a foot and / 

 a half in diameter, and breaks the withers of the 

 bubalis, which falls dead. It was the same experiment 

 which, for the first time, I saw tried in Dahomey with 

 the Lebel rifle. The Dahomians hid themselves behind 

 palm-trees, and the same projectile passed through 

 tree and man. 



