BIG GAME 



AS we have nothing bigger than a red deer in a state of 

 nature, all the big game has to be looked for abroad. 

 There is really no country which can easily and quickly be 

 reached where big game is to be shot. Somaliland and British 

 East Africa probably afford the best chances for African species, 

 Wyoming the best for wapiti in the United States. India 

 and the adjoining countries is now, as it always has been, the 

 greatest big -game shooting arena in the world. It might 

 have been challenged by South Africa in the days of Gordon 

 Gumming, but that district was soon shot out by the Boers. 

 However, South Africa at that time will for ever remain a 

 lesson to game preservers. It swarmed with an enormous 

 variety of big game, against the increase of which the un- 

 molested lions and other beasts of prey were powerless for 

 harm. They had no effect whatever in restricting the increase 

 of buffalo, antelopes, and zebra. Yet the fashion inclines to 

 believe that a few peregrine falcons would seriously damage the 

 stocks of grouse in Scotland and Yorkshire. Probably, if the 

 truth were known, there were as many grouse in Scotland before 

 anyone ever thought of killing vermin as there are now. It is 

 very often forgotten that vermin eat vermin as well as other 

 creatures. 



The question of rifles for big game would occupy more space 

 than the whole of these pages to treat of it adequately. Briefly, 

 it may be said that for each animal there is a best rifle, and for 

 hardly any two species is the same weapon the best. A com- 

 promise is effected by using different bullets for the same rifle, 

 and the principle on which to choose weapons is to go for a 



