SPORTING RIFLES AND THEIR USE 365 



head, is no doubt a chastening discipline ; but to 

 wound and lose him is a painful and unpleasant 

 experience, both for animal and hunter ; while to kill 

 wild game, carrying no trophy and whose meat is not 

 required, merely for the sake of killing, is a wanton 

 and unpardonable act of vandalism. Let him kill, 

 then, in moderation and sweet reasonableness, and as 

 far as possible cleanly and quickly. He owes it to 

 himself and to his class to see that all unnecessary 

 wounding is avoided, and that, when sight is taken and 

 trigger pressed, there is a fair chance of a fatal shot. 



It is well, from this point of view, to know some- 

 thing of the general anatomy of deer and other big- 

 game. With the powerful and accurate arms of pre- 

 cision now in use, it is sufficient to be sure of putting 

 an expanding bullet into the hollow of the body in 

 front of the diaphragm in the case of any wild 

 animal constructed on ordinary principles in order to 

 effect an immediate and a clean kill. 



There are certain exceptional individual species 

 among the wild fauna of the world where some 

 special knowledge of anatomy is advisable. One or 

 two examples to illustrate my meaning will suffice. 

 The exact position of an elephant's brain, for instance, 

 requires to be carefully studied, in order that the 

 hunter may know how to kill him cleanly and quickly. 

 The most vulnerable portions of a rhino's hide may 

 also be studied with advantage, with the same lethal 

 object in view. 



The American bison is now, as we know, extinct, 

 but I well remember, a quarter of a century ago, being 

 much puzzled at first by his structure. A '500 bore 

 bullet placed accurately behind the shoulder and 

 about halfway up his great body did not, as I found 



