478 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



of very thick bush, a splendid cover for either 

 elephants or buffaloes, upon a tract of open forest, 

 devoid of underwood ; here every blade of grass 

 had been burnt off by a recent fire, and the stunted 

 trees, denuded of leaves, had their trunks scorched 

 black by the flames, the whole landscape presenting 

 a picture of dreary desolation. My gun-carrier, 

 April, was leading, I being just behind him, and 

 Jameson behind me. Suddenly I heard Jameson 

 say excitedly, " Look, man ! look ! elephants, by 

 God ! " and upon looking where he pointed, straight 

 ahead, I saw two elephant bulls coming towards us 

 at a quick walk. Hastily throwing up a little sand 

 to see that the wind was right, we knelt down and 

 prepared to receive them. Unfortunately, the Kafir 

 who carried Jameson's heavy rifle was right behind, 

 so that he had to trust to his Express, which, though 

 a splendid weapon of its kind, is not the sort of 

 rifle one would choose for elephant-shooting. How- 

 ever, there was nothing else to be done ; the two 

 mighty beasts were fast approaching, one behind 

 the other, at a quick pace, bringing their huge ears 

 forward with a twitch at every step. We had a 

 splendid view of them : the sight was nothing new 

 to me, but yet my heart beat fast with excitement, 

 and what my friend's feelings must have been — for 

 it was the first wild elephant his eyes had ever 

 beheld wanderino- free and unfettered in its native 

 wilds — I leave to any lover of the wilder sports to 

 imagine. 



The elephants were now almost abreast of us, 

 and about sixty yards off. The first was a big full- 

 grown bull, but the tusk on our side, which was all 

 we could see, was broken short off, not far beyond 

 the lip ; the other was a younger and smaller animal, 



