The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-05-13

TO have the animal you are hunt
Ing turn on you and hunt you by the
hour with quite as much persistency
as you hunted him, and If he gets you
at disadvantage to have him kill you
as certainly as you would kill him If
you could, Is certainly a novel thing
to the, average big-game hunter. Such
devil in the form of best is the
African buffalo. the most dangerous
OF all big game. The following stories
give but an inkling Of the endless
dangers that attend this sport.
think there can be little doubt that
very old bulls v hich are air st 1nvcri-
ably solitary, become Early If not
quite deaf, and it is partly owing to
this infirmity that many accidents
have happend to u1armeG na.ives, and
occasionally to caravan porters prowl-
ing in the bush in search of frewood,
etc.
The buffalo being deaf is rot aware
of the approach of the enemy, and
when he perceives one close to Him
is so startled that he charges in SELF
defense, his onslaught be.lC so quick
and furious that the man equally
taken b. surprise) is unable to get
out Of the way.
In support of this theory az to deaf
ness l remember when in Turkwel, in
the Suk country, the arr had been
pitched at least two hours and some
400 porters had been roaming about
collecting fire wood and writer shou.-
ing and yelling, as their cus on is,
when man came into camp to say
that a buffalo was lying under tree
within 200 yards of us. The mans
story appeared so improbable, al
though he pointed out the ex G. tree,
which / could see as I sat in my tent,
that l did not credit it in spite of his
earnest prOtestatiOn5 ~ "CCeli, bwana,
queli" (True master, true), so sent
my gun bearer to verify 1t. In q few
minutes he returned and reported that
bull buffalo was certainly there ap-
carently lying asleep at the foot of an
ant heap under the tree immedi-
ately went out, and walked straight up
to the ant heap, on the top CT which
there was large leafess bush, end on
crawling up the side of the heap l saw
the buffalo within five yards Of me.
Just at that moment he turned his
head and seeing me stood up. had a
look at me, and turned to bolt, but tc-
fore he had got many yards knocked
him over all in heap with an eight
bore bullet, which raked him from
stem to stern.
To kill a buffalo the shoulder shot
is best. This should be rather low
down, If anything, below TIE central
lateral line on the body.
Although have killed a good many
buffaloes. and under all sorts Of con-
ditions, I have only once had recourse
to the head shot. This was in the dis
trict lying between Kahe and Taveta,
where l was shooting In February,
1887. The country was here fairly
open, with numerous patches of bush
dotted about, and few small isolated
rocky hills, appropriately called by one
writer "earth boils." On climbing up
one of these to get a better view of
Iu0 Gull SOuAAIA op1Cu oil
old bull buffalo about mile off, quiet
ly feeding close to a patch of bush,
which was about $50 yards long and
about 50 yards wide, and, as the wind
was favorable, l felt pre-. sure of
getting him without much difficulty.
On arriving at the bush, l found a
small low ant-heap just opposite the
falo, and stepped on to it to try and
see exactly where he was on the other
side Of the bush, but could see nothing
of him. AS | stood Oh the ant-heap
consulting with my gun bearer in a
low whisper, | heard the well-known
kissing cry of rhinoceros bird, and
saw it fly up out of the bush on the
farther side of it, a little to the left
of me. The buffalo, though disturbed
by the warning cry Of the bird, was
evidently not much alarmed, as he be-
gan to move across my frCn, at slow
walk, and I could follow his move
ments by the shaking Of the bush as
he passed through it. but could not
see him. When he was just about
OuDOSlL0 W "uSlc SIOOu AS CLdIlSCu
his course and came straight towards
me, still at slow walk. and when he
arrived within few yards o" the edge
Immediately opposite g me l slipped
uot of sight behind the ant-heap and
waited for him to appear. He came to
the yery edge of the bush, stopped for
about half minute, and I then began
to fear that he had either seen me,
as was quite out in the or n, or had
heard a slight noise I made in ex-
changing the 500 Express (always
loaded on such OCCASIONS with solid
bullets) for the eight-bore, when the
barrels struck together. Whilst l lay
on the side on the ant-heap, peeping
over the top, he moved fc ard, and
I covered the place whe~ I saw the
bush move, in readiness 20 fire, as he
was then only 16 yards from me. At