128 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA VS 
CHAP. 
if the bullet is well placed very low, almost in the 
base of the trunk. Should this shot succeed in turn¬ 
ing the animal, the left-hand barrel would be ready 
for a shot in the exact centre of the shoulder; after 
which, time must be allowed for the elephant to fall 
from internal haemorrhage. 
There is no more fatal policy in hunting danger¬ 
ous game than a contempt of the animal, exhibited 
by a selection of weapons of inferior calibre. Gun- 
makers in London of no practical experience, but 
who can only trust to the descriptions of those who 
have travelled in wild countries, cannot possibly be 
trusted as advisers. Common sense should be the 
guide, and surely it requires no extraordinary in¬ 
telligence to understand that a big animal requires 
a big bullet, and that a big bullet requires a cor¬ 
responding charge of powder, which necessitates a 
heavy rifle. If the hunter is not a Hercules, he 
cannot wield his club ; but do not permit him to 
imagine that he can deliver the same knock-down 
blow with a lighter weapon, simply because he can¬ 
not use the heavier. 
We lost only last year one of the most daring 
and excellent men, who was an excellent represent¬ 
ative of the type which is embraced in the proud 
word “ Englishman ” — Mr. Ingram — who was 
killed by a wild female elephant in Somali-land, 
simply because he attacked the animal with a *450 
rifle. Although he was mounted, the horse would 
not face some prickly aloes which surrounded it, 
and the elephant, badly but not really seriously 
