110 
HIPPO AND LEOPARD 
[CH. V 
African game is very tough and succumbs less easily 
to wounds than is the case with animals of the northern 
temperate zone; but in my own experience, I several 
times saw African antelopes succumb to wounds quicker 
than the average northern animal would have succumbed 
to a similar wound. One was this impalla. Another 
was the cow eland I first shot; her hind-leg was broken 
high up, and the wound, though crippling, was not such 
as would have prevented a moose or wapiti from hob¬ 
bling away on three legs ; yet in spite of hard struggles 
the eland was wholly unable to regain her feet. 
The impalla thus shot, by the way, although in fine 
condition and with a coat of glossy beauty, was infested 
by ticks ; around the horns the horrid little insects were 
clustered in thick masses for a space of a diameter of 
some inches. It was to me marvellous that they had 
not set up inflammation or caused great sores, for they 
were so thick that at a distance of a few feet they gave 
the appearance of there being some big gland or bare 
place at the root of each horn. 
The other impalla buck also showed an unexpected 
softness, succumbing to a wound which I do not believe 
would have given me either a white-tailed or a black-tailed 
deer. I had been vainly endeavouring to get a water- 
buck bull, and as the day was growing hot I was riding 
homeward, scanning the edge of the plain where it 
merged into the trees that extended out from the steep 
bank that hemmed in one side of the river bottom. 
From time to time we would see an impalla or a water- 
buck making its way from the plain back to the river 
bottom, to spend the day in the shade. One of these I 
stalked, and after a good deal of long-range shooting 
broke a hind-leg high up. It got out of sight, and we 
rode along the edge of the steep descent which led 
