ATTACKED BY A BUFFALO.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 50, 12 December 1891, Page 690

ATTACKED BY A BUFFALO.

Sir Samuel W. Baker gin his latest book, ‘Wild Beasts and Their Ways,’ narrates an adventure which shows that a hunter’s life may depend upon bis attention to small details. Sir Samuel and Mr Dick were shooting in Africa, when they saw a solitary bull buffalo on the opposite side of a small creek. The bull was evidently in a state of great excitement, for as the hunters drew near the creek, he faced them, tore up the turf with his horns, and looked nown the perpendicular bank, twelve feet high, as though meditating a descent. ' " Dick, who carried a little ride, a single barrel, which shot a small spherical ball, had, by Sir Samuel’s advice, doubled his charge of powder. ‘ Aim at the back of the neck, if the buffalo lowers his head,’ said Sir Samuel to his companion, throwing a hard clod of earth so that it fell into the water at the loot of the bank. The splash caused the animal to look down, exposing his neck. Dick fired. The bull convulsively turned round, and fell upon his side. The two men waded across the cieek at a shallow place, and ranto where the prostrate animal was lying, apparently dead. Dick, standing in front of the bull’s head, revelled in the delight of bis first buffalo. ‘ Never stand at the head of a buffalo, whether dead or alive I’ exclaimed Sir Samuel, whose experience had taught him to be cautious. ‘ Stand upon the side facing the back of the animal well away from its legs, as I am standing now. ’

Scarcely had he uttered the words when the bull sprang to his feet, and blundered forward straight at the astonished Dick, not three feet distant. He jumped backwards to avoid the horns, but tripped and fell upon his back right in the path of the savage bull.

As quick as lightning Sir Samuel drew his long huntingknife, and plunged it behind the buffalo’s shoulder. The animal fell to the blow. He had received his death-stroke. If the hunting-knife had not been tempered steel, with a keen edge and a sharp point, the story would have had a tragical ending. The blade, a part of an old ‘ Andrea Ferrara ’ Highland claymore, was eighteen inches long, two inches in breadth, double-edged, ahd as sharp as it was possible to make it.

Sir Samuel saw to it that it was always in the condition of a surgeon’s lancet. He never left the camp for a day’s shooting without first examining its point and edge. No servant was allowed to handle it, and when it needed sharpening, he himself honed it. When he struck the buffalo, the sharp double edge of the long knife divided the great artery of the heart.