XVII TWENTY-TWO ELEPHANTS SHOT 369 



found our Kafirs already there, and so made breakfast 

 on the spot, and then proceeded to count the shiin. 

 We found altogether twenty-one dead elephants, two 

 of them having but one tusk each. We afterwards 

 picked up another which had gone away and died 

 near the Umsengaisi, so that twenty-two in all had 

 fallen to our rifles. I then sent two Kafirs to the 

 waggons with my wounded horse, telling them to 

 bring the one I had left there lame, back with them 

 as quickly as possible. The Mashunas now com- 

 menced to arrive in large parties, eager for the meat, 

 which we gave them on condition that they should 

 chop out all the tusks, and carry them to the waggons 

 at the Umbila river. The following day by noon all 

 the tusks were out, and every elephant cut up. 

 There had been no big bulls amongst this herd, but 

 there were three whose tusks weighed from 35 lbs. 

 to 45 lbs. each, and the forty teeth together must 

 have scaled about 700 lbs. The last elephant which 

 I had shot under the impression that it was the one 

 which had caught me and struck my horse, turned 

 out to be a cow that Cross had wounded just above 

 the eye ; seeing her so near the horse, and so near to 

 where I had left my elephant only a minute or so 

 before, I naturally made the mistake. 



Thus the elephant that had so signally discomfited 

 me had gone off", though only to die, I am afraid, at 

 no great distance, for the two shots I gave her were 

 both good ones, which she could not long survive. 

 I would have followed her spoor, as I should much 

 have liked to possess myself of her tusks as a 

 memento of the day's hunt ; but as we had driven 

 the elephants all round about in every direction, it 

 was impossible to pick out the tracks of any particular 

 one. 



2 B 



