CH. IV FIRST ELEPHANT SEEN 49 



About mid-day, while crossing an open place in 

 the forest, we came upon the fresh spoor of an old 

 bull, which of course we followed. Erom the 

 condition of the bruised leaves scattered along his 

 track we soon found that he was not fir ahead of us, 

 and my heart beat hard with joy at the near prospect 

 of at last beholding an African bull elephant, and 

 perhaps managing to shoot him. Well, we had been 

 following on his spoor for about an hour, when, all 

 at once, I, who was walking behind Cigar, was 

 the first to see him, standing in pretty thick bush, 

 like an enormous ant-heap, fanning himself with 

 his gigantic ears. The mighty beast was quite 

 unconscious of our near proximity. 



We then went to the foot of a large tree, and 

 taking off our trousers, stood just in cotton shirts, 

 hats, and shoes — nice light running order. Then we 

 advanced quietly upon our victim, who stood, broad- 

 side to us, perfectly still, until we were within sixty 

 yards of him, when he must have noticed us, for he 

 wheeled round, spread his huge ears, and then, with 

 raised head, advanced a few paces towards us. We 

 stood motionless, and the suspicious brute, after 

 staring hard for a few seconds, was just in the act of 

 turning, when Cigar whispered to me to fire, so, 

 aiming for his shoulder, I pressed the trigger. He 

 gave a sort of loud roar, and rushed off, we following 

 at our best pace, I myself with an empty gun, for I 

 was afraid of losing sight of him if I stopped to load. 



Upon Cigar giving him a shot, he turned and 

 came walking towards us, with his ears up and the 

 end of his trunk raised. I now loaded with all 

 expedition, and, advancing stealthily to within twenty 

 yards of him, again fired, and striking him upon the 

 point of the shoulder, brought him down with a crash. 



