30 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
Africa. I took the greatest care of this gun, and entrusted it 
to a very dependable follower throughout my expedition of 
more than four years. Although I returned the gun in good 
condition, the ramrod was lost during a great emergency. My 
man (a native) was attacked, and being mobbed during the act 
of loading, he was obliged to fire at the most prominent assailant 
before he had time to withdraw his ramrod. This passed 
through the attacker’s body, and was gone beyond hope of 
recovery. 
There could not have been a better form of muzzle-loader 
than this No. 10 double-barrel smooth-bore. It was very 
accurate at fifty yards, and the recoil was trifling with the con- 
siderable charge of six drams of powder. This could be in- 
creased if necessary, but Oswell always remained satisfied, and 
condemned himself, but not his gun, whenever a shot was un- 
satisfactory. He frequently assured me that, although he seldom 
fired at a female elephant, one bullet was sufficient to kill, and 
generally two bullets for a large bull of the same species. 
Unlike Gordon Cumming, who was accustomed to fire at 
seventy and eighty yards, Oswell invariably strove to obtain 
the closest quarters with elephants, and all other game. To this 
system he owed his great success, as he could make certain 
of a mortal point. At the same time the personal risk was 
much increased, as the margin for escape was extremely limited 
when attacking dangerous game at so short a distance as ten 
or fifteen paces. When Oswell hunted in South Africa, the 
sound of a rifle had never disturbed the solitudes in districts 
which are now occupied by settlers. The wild animals have 
now yielded up their territory to domestic sheep and cattle ; 
such are the rapid transitions within half a century! In those 
days the multitudes of living creatures at certain seasons and 
localities surpassed the bounds of imagination ; they stretched _ 
in countless masses from point to point of the horizon, and 
devoured the pasturage like a devastating flight of locusts. 
Whether they have been destroyed, or whether they have 
migrated to far distant sanctuaries, it is impossible to determine ; 
