BIG GAME 75 



bucks were fighting for the possession of a small herd 

 of does who looked calmly on. Selecting the one 

 who was having the best of it, as likely to carry the 

 finest head, I fired. He redoubled his attack on his 

 opponent, and I fired again. The excitement of firing 

 at the first really big head — it was under thirty inches, 

 so not so very big — and the dim light caused me to 

 fire too far back at my first shot, while my second 

 struck the heart. 



I wonder has any one ever done justice to the 

 description of the feeling that possesses one when 

 approaching big game. The hopes, fears, and neces- 

 sary quick decisions of a stalk are worth anything. 

 Add to these the spice of danger in following elephant, 

 lion, &c., with the proviso that nothing unpleasant 

 occurs, and it is one of the most glorious sensations 

 in life. The forbidden climb or surreptitious cigarette, 

 both unpleasant, are they not the joys of boyhood ? 



I left the sailors cutting up my kill, and continued 

 the hunt. That morning I put up ostriches, roan 

 antelope, and a panther, but did not see them. I 

 stalked some white-eared cob and more waterbuck. 

 The latter I approached after a long creep through 

 a swamp and found to be all does. Something drove 

 them my way, and I had a lovely view of them as they 

 passed me at some twenty yards' distance. 



I had been at Renk a week or ten days when a wire 

 came ordering me to Taufikia (near the junction of 

 the Sobat and the Nile). I did not waste any time 

 in getting ready. With a few clothes and a fortnight's 

 provisions I was waiting, on the morning following 



