ee ee oo" aC Ss ~~ = ey Pe. = 
aa ae 
NEE See ee eer ee ere 
THE AFRICAN BUFFALO — 217 
of the base of the trunk, if it does not penetrate to the brain, 
will knock it down, or at all events turn it. The chest is a better 
mark in the open, but when in thick covert cannot often be 
taken advantage of. Even if this shot should not be fatal, it 
would nine times out of ten stop or turn the beast. A lion 
being a much smaller beast than either, and being more active, 
is naturally more difficult to hit, but when hit is more easily 
disabled, and not so tenacious of life. 
_ Should a buffalo charge and miss the sportsman, it will hunt 
him as a terrier does a rabbit, and will rarely leave him as 
long as it can see or smell him. An elephant has poorer eye- 
sight than a buffalo, and there is a better chance of escaping 
observation in covert after being missed, as an elephant, being 
less active, cannot turn so quickly and would overrun itself. 
It will, however, also hunt him and beat about the covert to 
try and catch sight of him or scent him. A lion would be less 
easy to dodge than either, but, as it is possessed of less pluck, 
would be more easily cowed and less likely to renew the attack. 
Buffaloes were at one time exceedingly plentiful throughout 
British East Africa, and in some districts, where the country 
was best suited to their habits, were to be found in enormous 
herds. Towards the end of the year 1890, and in the early 
part of 1891, they unfortunately contracted a kind of anthrax, 
the same disease which carried off nearly al] the native cattle, 
and they were almost destroyed by it. On my way down 
from Uganda in July 1890, between Lakes Baringo and 
Naivasha, I saw in one day’s march as many as six herds of 
buffaloes, varying in number from 100 to 600 head in a herd. 
In this same district in the following March, my friend 
Mr. Gedge, on his way down to the coast, saw nothing but 
_ €arcases, and in one day counted as many as fifteen lying 
rotting in the grass, close to the footpath. In 1892 the officers 
of the Mombasa and Victoria Nyanza Railway Survey only 
saw on two different occasions the spoor of a single beast, 
although they traversed a great part of the country where 
buffaloes were once so plentiful. Amongst other places where 
