The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1910-04-30
pERHS OFAFRICAN
RUFFALO HUNTING
Copyright. 1909, by BENZ. B. Hampton,)

was then only 16 yards from me. At
last saw his grand head, which he
held high, come through the bush, but
was unable to get good view of his
chest, as directly his head was clear
of the bush he lowered it, and my only
chance was at his head. Drawing a
bead on his forehead, pulled the trig-
ger, but the cartridge missed fire. He,
however. did not hear the click of the
hammer, and before he was clear of
the bush I dropped him dead in his
tracks with the left barrel at a dis
lance of exactly IA yards, the bullet
entering the center of his forehead
about an inch below the frontlet of the
horns.
After stalk 2nd a successful shot
every sportsman should avoid firing
at the retreating herd, on the chance
of bagging another by fuke, unless
he is prepared to follow up all the
beasts that are wounded. Apart from
the cruelty of MS practice, The fact
of several wounded buffaloes being in
the vicinity of shooting ground, and
the uncertainty Of their whereabouts,
is source of great danger not only
to the sportsman himself and his men,
but to other men, sportsmen or other
wise, who come after him. When a
buffalo is down, it should always be
approached with the utmost caution
Should a buffalo after being
wounded enter thick bush or other
covert, it is good plan (and one l
always adopt myselfl to wait for
quarter or half an hour before taking
up the spoor, as the beast will be al
most certain to lie down, and will not
only become weak and stiff from the
effects of the wound, more especially
if a leg is damaged or broken, but its
suspicious will be to certain extent
allayed,
The following account of a hunt I
once had in the ArushaWa-chini dis
trict will serve as an illustration Of
a buffalo's cunning, ferocity and vital
ity.
was encamped on the river Weri-
weri, a short distance above the ma
tive village, but as the people were
afraid to prowl far from their homes
on account of the Nasal and other
enemies, game was not only very plen-
tiful but less wild than elsewhere.
Buffaloes were very numerous, in
large herds, besides a good many old
bulls, either solitary or in small bands
of two or three.
AS walked over the plain on the
left bank of the river. I passed great
quantities Of game including. water
buck, inpala and Nnpen of Is os-
triohes f1hiez.I has aIss1sines
to circumvent, but always unsnecess-
fully until I drove them, when I got
a fine old cock Bird, besides the ever
lasting zebra and kongoni" (Harte-
beest) 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
isloated patch of bush which stood
some little distance from the main
belt out in the plain. AS buffa1oes
have rather poor sight, and as there
were two or three big trees between
the beasts and myself, about 400
yards from them, told my men, some
% in number, to follow me in single
file, and we all got up to a tree with
out the least trouble. At the moment
a herd of zebras, which had hitherto
taken no notice of us, suddenly took
fright on getting our wind and gal
loped round between us and the buff
faloes. The latter, being thus dis
turbed, numbered off into the isolated
clump Of thick bush close by. After
giving them time to fett1e down and
forget fears l proceeded more eau
tiously with my two gun bearers, leav-
ing the rest of the men under the
tree with orders to come on when they
heard a shot or a signal. The buffa- |
loes, however, were evider , 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 bo8ed out on |
the opposite side, making for the main |
bush. Running around the clump to |
IAS ana hSSp LuGIu Iii Sight, L WAS Just |
in time to see them enter the open |
bush and disappear from view.
This made it necessary for as to
take UP their spoorA and while tiny gun
bearers were so engaged l kept |
lookout ahead. After going a short |
distance I saw one of the brutes trot-
ting back toward us, and when about |
100 yards off it dived into as small |
dense clump of bush some 20 yards /
square, followed almost Immediately |
afterwards by the other one. This pro-
ceeding on the part of buffaloes | have |
read of, though it was the first and |
only instance in my own experience,
and as my suspicious We're aroused /
instead of making straight for them
along their spoor, made detour
along the low struggling hush and
stalked up to a small tree within so
Yards of the clump they were in. At
first I could see nothing of them, the
,l1ImD heine too thick hut with tho