ii6 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



let him pass me broadside on within thirty yards. 

 Taking a good sight for the middle of his shoulder, 

 I pulled the trigger. This time the gun went off — 

 it was a four-bore elephant gun, loaded twice over, 

 and the powder thrown in each time by a Kafir with 

 his hands — and I went off too ! I was lifted clean 

 from the ground, and turning round in the air, fell 

 with my face in the sand, whilst the gun was carried 

 yards away over my shoulder. At first I was almost 

 stunned with the shock, and I soon found that I could 

 not lift my right arm. Besides this, I was covered 

 with blood, which spurted from a deep wound under 

 the right cheek-bone, caused by the stock of the gun 

 as it flew upwards from the violence of the recoil. 

 The stock itself — though it had been bound round, 

 as are all elephant guns, with the inside skin of an 

 elephant's ear put on green, which when dry holds it 

 as firmly as iron — was shattered to pieces, and the 

 only wonder was that the barrel did not burst. 

 Whether the two bullets hit the elephant or not I 

 cannot say ; but I think they must have done so, 

 for he only went a few yards after I fired, and then 

 stood still, raising his trunk every now and then, 

 and dashing water tinged with blood over his 

 chest. I went cautiously up to within forty yards or 

 so of him, and sat down. Though I could not hold 

 my arm out, I could raise my forearm so as to 

 get hold of the trigger ; but the shock had so told 

 on me, that I found I could not keep the sight within 

 a yard of the right place. The elephant remained 

 perfectly still ; so I got Nuta to work my arm about 

 gently, in order to restore its power, and hoped that 

 in the meantime the Kafir, whose shouting had 

 originally brought the elephant to me, would come 

 up and be able to go and fetch W. No doubt, if I 



