With Flashlight and Rifle ♦ 



The young animal, with its o-reatt-r strength, was a1)le 

 to drag me about all over the place ; but I clung tight to 

 him, and, with my considerable weight of 180 pounds, I 

 succeeded in holding on to him tor over ten minutes. 

 My men seized hold ot his tail ; but I could not get them 

 to hold on to his other ear, and it only now came home to 

 me that all the ropes had been left behind, and that there 

 was no possibility therefore of tying the animal's legs, as 

 I had done with another young elephant in the year 1900. 

 After about a quarter of an hour my strength gave w^ay 

 and I let go, and I literally sank clown on the ground 

 in a state of hopeless collapse, utterly blown and unable 

 to utter a sound, mv tongue cleaving to the root ot my 

 mouth. 



My men also lay all round me, panting. One is glad 

 to have such moments over and done with ! All our 

 trouble and exertions were in vain. We made efforts to 

 tie his leers with bits ot our clothintj, but this did not 

 succeed, as he got excited in the process, changing his 

 mood suddenly as elephants do, and assuming the offensive 

 vigorously. My men were not to be induced to go near 

 him now, so, as n(Jthing would have induced me to shoot 

 him, 1 was relieved presently when he took flight in the 

 direction in which the herd had (lisap[jeared. 



Not to weary the reader further, I will just add that, 

 tir(;<l to death and utterly tliscouraged, we now lit a tire 

 in the neighbourhood, and got together some- drv wood in 

 the dust to keep it burning. 



But our torturing thirst W(juld not let us sleep. it 

 became so terril:)]e that at last we had to make our way 



182 



