ARE LARGE OR SMALL BORES BEST ? 159 



bull buffalo in his prime can, on rough and broken ground, 

 beat a very good horse with only ten and a half stone up. 

 The extreme heat of the day may have had some injurious 

 effect on both horse and rider, but I was not conscious of 

 it at the time and doubt it now, believing that we were fairly 

 beaten on ground unfavourable to us but not to the bull. In 

 the comparatively open country we had caught him up with- 

 out difficulty. Perhaps had my mare and I had the same 

 weighty inducements to do our very best as the bull had, 

 the result might have been different ; but I doubt it, and 

 think that if we did pretty well the bull did better, and 

 deserved to live to race another day for life and liberty. 



I suppose that question of great and small bores is not 

 one likely to arise at the present day, but it was one much 

 discussed formerly round the mess-table and the camp fire, 

 when many men insisted that small bullets driven home with 

 a sufficient charge of powder ought to be as effective as 

 much larger ones, though propelled by proportionately heavy 

 charges ; and therefore, that they were so, q.e.d. disregarding 

 the fact that gun and rifle barrels as then manufactured for 

 general use could not take the large charges necessary to 

 give the force and velocity they required, the notion, how- 

 ever, had in it the germs from which have sprung the modern 

 "Express" rifles. 



I have myself driven a spherical half -ounce bullet com- 

 pletely through a buffalo's shoulder from a long American 

 rifle of the true " Path-finder " type, and have cut it out 

 from under the skin on the further side ; but the animal was 

 not killed by that shot, nor, indeed, do I believe that it 

 was very much the worse for it, but of course, had the little 

 pellet cut through any large blood-vessel it would have 

 caused the bull's death within a certain time, but his head 

 would not have proved a trophy in camp that evening, as was 

 the case. I may be wrong, but the opinion is held by me 

 that for bison, buffalo, and rhinoceros, a 10-bore rifle is su- 

 perior to the heaviest " Expresses " made at present. 



We read of the extraordinary tenacity of life exhibited 



