108 CURIOUS SPORTSMEN. 



sometimes were seen about the Natal bush, armed with 

 an old gun, and clothed in cast-off garments that smacked 

 more of Whitechapel than of African build ; they would 

 prowl about the roads in lots of two or three, shooting 

 from their one gun by turns, at the small birds that had 

 hitherto been left in peace. I once saw a couple of men 

 watching in intense excitement for a shot at some poor 

 monkeys, and utterly unconscious that half a dozen wild 

 elephants were smashing the bush in rage, from a wound 

 given to one of the herd by my bullet, not a couple of 

 hundred yards from them. 



