DIFFICULTY IN KILLING SOME WILD 
ANIMALS. 
In reading the endless accounts given by sportsmen of 
their successes and failures in hunting wild animals, it is 
often a matter of surprise that a powerful animal should 
drop dead on receiving the first bullet; it also seems 
absurd to read of an enormous expenditure of ammunition 
without any fatal consequences. It is not difficult to 
understand the cause of these different results, if we con- 
sider how frequently the bull’s-eye is missed by a very 
good shot, although he takes a deliberate aim at an im- 
movable target. In shooting wild animals no dependence 
can be placed upon the movements of the beast, no time 
must be lost, and what may be termed the bull’s-eye in 
the animal is concealed inside the body. It becomes a 
matter of chance that the exact vital spot is hit, therefore 
it is only by a lucky accident should the animal fall to the 
first bullet. Of course much depends upon the knowledge 
and skill of the sportsman who knows the most vulnerable 
. part, hence we find a powerful beast sometimes killed by 
a single shot, while, on the other hand, an equally fine 
animal is riddled with bullets without being at once dis- 
abled ; although it generally gets away and most assuredly 
dies a lingering and miserable death. 
I give here an illustration of how a round hole can 
