98 ON SAFARI 



with my record impala/ Still, the incident possessed 

 a moral which may be worth relating. I had "jumped" 

 this animal in open forest, and crippled him so severely 

 with a straightaway stern-shot that I walked up within 

 twenty yards of where he stood disabled, with head 

 down and hind-legs straddled apart. My gun-bearer 

 kept urging, " Shoot, shoot," but I thought it unneces- 

 sary, till the buck staggered a few yards into some 

 thicker scrub, when I fired carelessly with the single 

 carbine and missed. Even then the sick beast stood 

 gazing towards us within thirty yards. I covered his 

 shoulder with the double "303, but that rifle was on 

 " safety " (note, that the carbine has no safety), and 

 before I could remedy that bungle, the impala, with a 

 loud cough, disappeared over a ridge. I never saw him 

 again, though I stuck to his spoor all that day and the 

 next, and kept men watching the vultures till we left 

 that camp. Such is the vitality of African antelopes. 

 The moral is, never spare a cartridge while game remains 

 on its legs. While busy puzzling out spoor that night, 

 hearing the same "cough," or sneeze, I approached the 

 spot and got another impala with fine, strong head, but 

 he appeared a bagatelle by comparison. I have seen 

 hundreds of impala, both in South and East Africa, but 

 never a head like the one my folly threw away that day. 

 We had now secured one out of the two main objects 

 of our trip to Baringo — a pair of oryx apiece. But in the 

 other we had been disappointed. Not a single eland 

 had I personally seen, for certain, in all the beautiful 

 park-like plains of Baringo, where, only a few weeks 

 before, these magnificent antelopes had abounded. This 

 we knew from Mr. Archer, at Baringo Fort, and his 

 assurance was amply corroborated by old spoor. But 



^ From experience, I deduce this result — that the apparent 

 magnitude of a head seen in the field is dispi-oportionately affected 

 by the span of horns as distinguished from their length. Thus, for 

 example, of two impala, each, say, 25 ins., the one with bi'oad head 

 of 20 ins. span will appear double the size of the other which only 

 spans 1 2 ins. or less. 



