66 SPORT BY THE RIVER world's big game. It is stated that he has been known to double back parallel with his spoor in order to take his hunter in the rear as the latter followed the trail, and both he and the elephant are prone, more particularly when wounded, to indulge in a systematic search for their enemy, by circling to catch his wind.

The hide is exceedingly tough, and solid bullets are essential ; cordite and nickel-cased bullets render Sos Caffer less formidable than in the days when Baker shot with black powder and a muzzle-loader, but in a buffalo killed on the White Nile one of my bullets was found hanging outside, with its nose just bedded in the hide.

There is an amount of uncertainty in the dispositions of buffalo, and the way they are likely to behave when approached by the hunter, which adds greatly to the interest of following them.

Some will bolt on the instant that their acute senses make them aware of danger ; individuals may charge on sight, or the whole herd come down in a mighty rush. I remember, on one occasion, the crossing of a swamp, knee-deep and full of bent and tangled reeds and the pit-holes formed by hippo feet, with the herd I was stalking on the dry land just before me ; I recall the eerie sensation that, should the herd employ concerted action, they would take seconds to cover that swamp where I could only painfully struggle along. But as the black heads turned to gaze at my companion and myself our rifles spoke ; two wounded ones, hard