With I'lashlight and Ritic -^ 



that elephants, es[)eciaU\ when they have been excited, 

 are incited to attack by the sioht of a fire. 



I niyseh' had in mind a case ot this kind. A niin"il)er 

 of large elephants had made lor a camp-fire, and tor 

 nearly a quarter of an hour trampled over it, and over 

 everything they found near it belonging to the black 

 hunters. The six men who were encamped beside it 

 found safisty in fiight. 



Naturallv we spent some minutes of keen anxiety 

 as the elephants passed — anxiety due in large measure 

 to the strange circumstance that the elephants should 

 have chosen a route so near our camp. Hut the danger 

 passed, and the siU-nt, illimitable velt lay steeped in 

 the moonlight. I took the first hours of the watch, 

 and then, after my men had rested, took m\' turn of 

 sleep. When 1 woke up suddenly at dawn. I foLmd the 

 camp-fire almtjst extinguished and the watch snoring ; 

 it was their snoring that had awakened me. So com- 

 plettd\- do the results of extreme physical exertion prevail 

 over all thought or fear ot wild animals ! 



Now came a ver\- tlifficult and wearying seven-hours' 

 march over broken ground full of holes made by rodents, 

 to our distant camp, in scorching sunlight. I am doul)ttul 

 whether we should ever have reached it but lor our 

 good fortune in coming u\)on some water after long digging 

 in a dried-up river-bed. It is not easy to gixc an idea 

 of the efiect such experiences have upon th.c men who 

 live through them. 



.\rri\-ed safely in camp, I dt;sj)atched some men next 

 day to bring back the teeth ot" both the cow elephants last 



ICS4 



