SPORTING 85 



ing the amount of large game then in the country. Two 

 other gentlemen hunting in the same region destroyed in 

 one season no fewer than seventy-eight rhinoceroses alone. 

 Sportsmen, however, would not now find an equal numhei ; 

 for, as guns are introduced among the tribes, all these fine 

 animals melt away like snow in spring. In the more 

 remote districts, where fire-arms have not yet been intro- 

 duced, with the single exception of the rhinoceros, the 

 game is to be found in numbers much greater than Mr. 

 Cumming ever saw. The tsetse is, however, an insuper- 

 able barrier to hunting with horses there, and Europeans 

 can do nothing on foot. The step of the elephant when 

 charging the hunter, though apparently not quick, is so 

 long that the pace equals the speed of a good horse at a 

 canter. A young sportsman, no matter how great among 

 pheasants, foxes, and hounds, would do well to pause before 

 resolving; to brave fever for the excitement of risking such 

 a terrific charge; the scream or trumpeting of this enor- 

 mous brute when infuriated is more like what the shriek 

 of a French steam-whistle would be to a man standing on 

 the dangerous part of a railroad than any other earthly 

 sound : a horse unused to it will sometimes stand shivering 

 instead of taking his rider out of danger. It has happened 

 often that the poor animal's legs do their duty so badly 

 that he falls and causes his rider to be trodden into a 

 mummy; or, losing his presence of mind, the rider may 

 allow the horse to dash under a tree and crack his cranium 

 against a branch. As one charge from an elephant has 

 made embryo Nimrods bid a final adieu to the chase, inci- 

 pient Gordon Cummings might try their nerves by stand- 

 ing on railways till the engines were within a few yards 

 of them. Hunting elephants on foot would be not less 

 dangerous,* unless the Ceylon mode of killing them by 



* Since writing the above statement, it has received confirmation in 

 the reported death of Mr. Walhberg while hunting elephants on foot at 

 Lake Ngami. 



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