356 
THE ELEPHANT. 
When shooting elephants, or other large game, in 
the night season, it may be proper to add, the 
sportsman will do well to affix a piece of white 
paper, or fine rag, to the muzzle of his gun, and 
secure it with a thin white thread behind the 
“ sight.” He should then raise the paper, or 
the rag, as the case may be, slightly in front; 
that is, nearest to the muzzle, in which position 
it is to be kept by introducing a small twig, 
or thick straw, beneath and on either side of the 
“ sight.” If the paper lies flat on the barrel, 
nothing is gained. When levelling the gun, let the 
muzzle be sufficiently raised to enable you to catch 
a full view of the paper, and then gradually lower it 
until the paper is lost to view ; having thus got the 
elevation of the object, pull the trigger. It requires, 
however, some practice before a person can become 
a tolerable night-shot. 
The dangers attendant on night-shooting are, as 
we have seen, not slight; but, independent of the 
chance of being impaled on the tusk of the elephant 
or the horn of the rhinoceros, the risk one incurs 
from the lion is, as I have elsewhere said, not in¬ 
considerable. To say nothing of the two occasions 
when, as has been mentioned, those beasts stealthily 
approached to within a few paces of my place of 
concealment, with the intention, as I firmly believe, 
of making a meal of me, numbers of men, when lying 
in waif for large game during the hours of darkness, 
are carried off by those animals. An instance of the 
kind came under the immediate notice of my friend 
Green, who, in a letter to me, says 
