It Is
Remarkably Easy To Make A Wrong Guess, And The Remaining Daylight
Is Rarely Sufficient To Repair A Mistake.
And also, in the case
of a herd ranging a wide country with much tall grass and several
drinking holes, it is rather difficult, without very good luck,
to locate them on any given night or morning.
A few herds, a very
few, may have fixed habits, and so prove easy hunting.
These difficulties, while in no way formidable, are real enough
in their small way; but they are immensely increased when the
herds have been often disturbed. Disturbance need not necessarily
mean shooting. In countries unvisited by white men often the
pastoral natives will so annoy the buffalo by shoutings and other
means, whenever they appear near the tame cattle, that the huge
beasts will come practically nocturnal. In that case only the
rankest luck will avail to get a man a chance in the open. The
herds cling to cover until after sundown and just at dusk; and
they return again very soon after the first streaks of dawn. If
the hunter just happens to be at the exact spot, he may get a
twilight shot when the glimmering ivory of his front sight is
barely visible. Otherwise he must go into the thicket.
As an illustration of the first condition might be instanced an
afternoon on the Tana. The weather was very hot. We had sent
three lots of men out in different directions, each under the
leadership of one of the gunbearers, to scout, while we took it
easy in the shade of our banda, or grass shelter, on the bank of
the river.
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