FASCICULA 
279 
in almost every case, an appreciable degree of danger 
in taking on either elephant, rhino, buffalo or lion. 
Occasionally, of course, a '‘soft job” may be enjoyed; 
but such, with these four, cannot be relied upon. So 
absolutely dominant, moreover, at the crucial moment, 
is the hunter —or hunting instinct; so concentrated 
must thought and action be on success alone, that every 
other idea is eliminated. There is no time to consider 
those. Therefore when all is over, and the beast lies 
dead before you, one’s mind, occupied with success 
achieved, is apt to ignore those preceding moments of 
crucial, vital import that are past, and which, even at the 
time, received no thought. For all that, those moments 
may have been critical, dangerous to the last degree. 
The rifle has triumphed, but the event might well have 
resulted otherwise—one turn of ill-luck, a second’s delay 
or loss of nerve, an ill-judged movement or false 
manoeuvre, and the case might have been reversed. 
Some of those who have fully realised this latter 
alternative may not live to record it. But it is scarcely 
wise entirely to ignore it; nor to give too wide a scope 
to the admirable British trait of depreciating danger by 
denying its existence. The point of these remarks is to 
insist that none should undertake the pursuit of the four 
animals named, without first realising that it may, in all 
probability, involve a certain degree of risk. 
That degree appears greatest in the case of elephants, 
since these are quite apt to assume the offensive without 
notice, and before being molested at all. So, it is true, 
may rhino; but in their case, the lack of intelligence 
(and equally of vice) coupled with very defective eye¬ 
sight, reduces the danger. With buffalo and lion the 
chief risk only begins after the animal is wounded, 
though it may then become acute enough. 
The lion again is possessed of high progressive in¬ 
telligence, quite capable of adapting itself to changing 
circumstance. Thus the new system of “riding lions” 
to a stand, which is briefly referred to above (p. 216), 
appears to be developing in the lions of those regions 
