Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
General
Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)
Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
Game and game-birds; Hunting
As I walked over the plain on the left bank of the river I passed great
quantities of game--including eland, waterbuck, impala, and a troop
of thirteen ostriches (which I had tried many times to circumvent,
but always unsuccessfully until I drove them, when I got a fine old
cock bird), besides the everlasting zebra and ‘kongoni’ (hartebeest).
After going about three miles up the river, I at last saw two old bull
buffaloes on the opposite side of the plain, quietly feeding close to
an isolated patch of bush which stood some little distance from the
main belt out in the plain. As buffaloes have rather poor sight, and as
there were two or three big trees between the beasts and myself, about
400 yards from them, I told my men, some twenty-five in number, to
follow me in single file, and we all got up to a tree without the least
trouble. At that moment a herd of zebras, which had hitherto taken no
notice of us, suddenly took fright on getting our wind, and galloped
round between us and the buffaloes. The latter, being thus disturbed,
lumbered off into the isolated clump of thick bush close by. After
giving them time to settle down and forget their fears, I proceeded
more cautiously with my two gun-bearers, leaving the rest of the men
under the tree with orders to come on when they heard a shot or other
signal. The buffaloes, however, were evidently on the alert, and as
they were standing in the shade, they discovered us when we were still
100 yards off as we crossed the open, and bolted out on the opposite
side, making for the main bush. Running round the clump to try and keep
them in sight, I was just in time to see them enter the open bush and
disappear from view.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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