317 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII, 
to them ; they are so quick in getting to ground, We had a shocking long night 
march after that, 40 miles, to our main camp. The want of water is the curse 
of the country ; one has to march 20 to 40 miles often without water ; where 
I am going to next week I shall have to send camels daily for water for the 
camp ; my camp consists of three shikaris, eight camelmen, a syce, a cook, a 
boy, a native policeman from Government, and a man to look after and drive 
my donkeys for lion tie-ups. Ihave 16 camels, all of which I had to buy ; they 
cost me between Rs. 600 and Rs.700. You see I have to carry rice and dates with 
tins of ghee for all those men ; it is a very expensive trip ; I like what I have 
seen of the natives very much ; they are a cheery sporting lot, but the greatest 
liars I have ever met ; it is no use trying to get the truth out of them, We 
hurried up to the hills as fast as we could. When we got on the first pass, we 
got into quite a different climate—rain and two blankets at night. We were 
very unfortunate in not getting any lions on our way up, but they are very 
scarce there. We also just missed the main body of elephants as they passed up 
to the Abyssinian hills, but we managed by good luck to shoot five ; three of 
them were very fair bulls, but the last one we got was a grand beast and had 
very good ivory for this country, 60 Ibs, the pair. I always took them behind 
the shoulders ; they never go far with a big bullet behind the shoulders ; your 
rifle (D.-B. 8-bore nominal by Greener, 12 to 14 dram E. F. B.) was just the 
thing for them, butit is certainly a bit heavy to run with, and I had some cruel 
runs after wounded ones; they are very hard to kill ; they will drop to the shot 
but are up again in a twinkle. We killed every one we fired at except one . 
T have seen them knocked over twice, and yet get up and go fora mile ; I gota 
big koodoo on my way up, horns 36 inches. Lalso got two good Gazella walleri, 
also some Oryx, and since A. . . left me I got three more elephants and a 
fine lion. I have done nothing but march for the last fortnight across the foot 
of the hills and must have come over 200 miles. Icould not go where I first 
intended, as there was an intertribal row and the next hill tribe was in arms 
because one of them had been shot by a policeman, and I have just heard that 
the Sultan of the place, where I have been looking forward to getting some 
sport, is also up in arms against the English,so Iam done all round 
If I cannot get into Kansan, where I want to go, I have a bad chance of any 
more lions . . . ‘The whole of the central part of the country has been so 
shot over that there are no lions left . . . From what I see and hear they 
are a great deal bolder than tigers, but not so quick, At every water you get 
lots of guinea-fowl and partridge ; so I had some capital partridge shoots 
round the camp of an evening—twenty brace in an hour, There are two 
sorts. There are lots of florican and bustard, the latter smaller than the big 
Indian ones. I could shoot any number of them.” 
There is a popular delusion that a tiger once shot at from a machan is 
frightened away and will never come back. Personally this has been my own 
experience, but I will quote extracts from three letters, direct testimony 
