Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



that a very small-bore weapon Mannlicher, 

 Lee-Metford, and such like, may be very excellent 

 in its effects on a large thick-hided beast, but 

 wastes its energy beyond any other, nor can any 

 "faking" of the bullet make sure of preventing 

 this. Of course I speak generally, not of par- 

 ticular cases, as no one knows better than I the 

 surprising effect a well-" faked " Mauser bullet 

 may have if it hits full on the bone of even one 

 of the lesser, thin-skinned animals. But this, I 

 maintain, is the exception. 



We should have had more filters, as the water 

 was always dirty, and we had only one large 

 "Berkfelt," and two rather useless pocket ones, 

 so we had to boil our water and drink tea. 



We had too many cartridges, a fault on the 

 right side ; but my two hundred No. 4 for the shot- 

 gun were unnecessary. I didn't fire thirty, as one 

 is very chary about letting off a shot-gun in a 

 game country, and the only things to use it on 

 were bustard and dik-dik, both of which afford 

 better sport with a rook-rifle. Our bag included 

 lion, oryx, koodoo (strepsiceros), koodoo (imberbis), 

 aoul, Spekes gazelle, wart-hog, gerenuk, leopard, 

 dik-dik, hyena, dibatag, wild ass, hartebeest, and 

 Somali foxes. 



