BEST WEAPONS FOR THE BUSH. 319 



tion to shoot or dine with him. It is better than residing 

 in civilized countries, where your most intimate friend will 

 only sometimes know you, near corners, because, perhaps, 

 you don't wear peg-top breeches or Noah's ark coats. I 

 know I am wrong in thinking so ; but it all results from 

 having lived with savages. 



In the sketches I have written, and the different sporting 

 events that I have recorded, I have endeavoured to give 

 to a novice some information that may be useful to him 

 when he commences his career of sport in South Africa. 

 It has always appeared to me that there was more detail 

 required by people generally than is found in many of the 

 high sporting works already written on South Africa. To 

 fill in this detail has been my endeavour. 



I must impress upon all those who purpose a campaign 

 against the ferce of Africa the necessity there is for using 

 weapons of a large calibre ; a gun with the common sixteen 

 or fourteen bore is a disheartening weapon when used 

 against large game. 



It is difficult to say what causes instantaneous death 

 whether the hole that the bullet makes and the vessels it 

 cuts in its course, or the shock that is given to the stricken 

 animal by its momentum. I am disposed to think it is as 

 much the latter cause as the former, having so frequently 

 witnessed cases in which an ounce-ball striking an 

 animal has merely served to increase its pace, while a two- 

 ounce bullet striking in the same part a similar animal 

 would drop it dead. With elephants the size of the 

 bullet is even more essential the small ones as Gordon 

 Gumming describes it, " merely telling on their consti- 



