GAME ON THE BUN ARORI 
173 
of the rarest and shyest antelopes in Africa, killing three, 
two of which had fine heads. One old buck, which had not 
seen me, stood flicking his ears, and allowed me to empty 
the magazine at him, when he dropped stone-dead at the 
last cartridge. He was a long way out, and could see no 
smoke, and the report was hardly audible. 
After a little practice with the Marmlicher, I utterly 
discarded my *450 Express for the smaller bore. I consider 
the Mannlicher the most accurate weapon (as sighted by 
Gibbs of Bristol) made. This is not an advertisement, but 
a fact ! I shot antelopes with the *256 Mannlicher over 
and over again stone-dead at distances at which I should 
never have even dreamed of firing with the *450 Express. 
Whilst encamped at Bally Maroli, I made an expedition 
to Bun Arori (the Arori Plain), which was a very long ride 
north-east. This plain resembled the Jiggiga, Toyo and 
Saylah plains I had crossed on my last expedition. From it 
I got a magnificent view of the Wagar Mountains in the 
Gulis range, over 6,000 feet high. Here we saw the usual 
herds of ‘ owl ’ gazelle, and after several unsuccessful 
attempts I hit a fine buck, which soon lay down, but 
bolted again on my approach. I sent the pony after him, 
when they both disappeared in the haze. 
After following the tracks for half an hour, I saw the 
pony grazing a long way oft) and the syce stooping over 
something. So we walked up, and found him skinning the 
gazelle, which he said had collapsed at once on being 
pressed by the pony. 
The enormous value of a pony for retrieving wounded 
game was over and over again demonstrated in my last 
expedition ; in fact, it would be impossible to bag half the 
antelope one hits at such long ranges without the aid of 
this useful animal. 
After the skinning operation, we lighted a fire and had 
breakfast. After an hours attempt at a rest under the 
boiling sun, I followed eight hartebeest behind the stalking 
camel, and shot one at 200 yards, and shortly after another 
