ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH 
55 
I rarely had to take the trouble to stalk anything; the 
shooting was necessarily at rather long range, but by ma¬ 
noeuvring a little, and never walking straight toward a beast, 
I was usually able to get whatever the naturalists wished. 
Sometimes I shot fairly well, and sometimes badly. On 
one day, for instance, the entry in my diary ran: ‘‘Missed 
steinbuck, pig, impalla and Grant; awful.’’ On another 
day it ran in part as follows: “Out with Heller. Harte- 
beest, 250 yards, facing me; shot through face, broke neck. 
Zebra, very large, quartering, 160 yards, between neck 
and shoulder. Buck Grant, 220 yards, walking, behind 
shoulder. Steinbuck, 180 yards, standing, behind shoulder.” 
Generally each head of game bagged cost me a goodly 
number of bullets; but only twice did I wound animals 
which I failed to get; in the other cases the extra cartridges 
represented either misses at animals which got clean away 
untouched, or else a running fusillade at wounded animals 
which I eventually got. I am a very strong believer in 
making sure, and, therefore, in shooting at a wounded ani¬ 
mal as long as there is the least chance of its getting off. 
The expenditure of a few cartridges is of no consequence 
whatever compared to the escape of a single head of game 
which should have been bagged. Shooting at long range 
necessitates much running. Some of my successful shots at 
Grant’s gazelle and kongoni were made at 300, 350, and 
400 yards; but at such distances my proportion of misses 
was very large indeed—and there were altogether too many 
even at shorter ranges. 
The so-called grass antelopes, the steinbuck and duiker, 
were the ones at which I shot worst; they were quite plen¬ 
tiful, and they got up close, seeking to escape observation 
