THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



at some seven yards' distance from where we stood, which, 

 fired in quick succession, had entered the center of his 

 head. 



Not quite so lucky was a German Heutenant, who in the 

 fall of 1909 was out elephant shooting in the vicinity of 

 the Kivu Lake, to the southwest of the Ruwenzori Moun- 

 tains. He had, with a few black followers, run into a 

 small herd of elephants, among which was one large bull, 

 which he stalked for a few minutes. Suddenly the ele- 

 phant got a whiff of his wind, and, without even being 

 shot at, whirled around and charged down on his pursuer 

 through the grass. Although the lieutenant fired not less 

 than five shots into the big elephant's head, emptying his 

 whole magazine, he failed to reach the deadly spot, the 

 center of its brain. In the next instant the infuriated bull 

 caught him up with his trunk and threw him high in the 

 air. As soon as he fell to the ground the elephant rushed 

 at him again, putting one of its big tusks right through 

 the unfortunate hunter, who was subsequently crushed into 

 an unrecognizable mass under its forefeet, while this whole 

 tragedy was witnessed by his cowardly black trackers and 

 hunters from nearby trees ! 



One of the most marvelous escapes ever recorded was 

 experienced by the famous elephant hunter, F. C. Selous. 

 It was in the early days, some thirty years ago, when Mr. 

 Selous was elephant hunting south of the Zambezi River. 

 He had shot several elephants one day, when on horseback, 

 and was just returning toward camp, when he espied an- 

 other big " tusker," which he wanted to bag. At this time 

 Mr. Selous used a single-barreled breech-loading gun of 

 very large bore. He jumped from his horse and fired at 



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