VIII ELEPHANTS AND BUFFALOES 147 



seeing an animal standing motionless in the shade 

 of dense bush as soon as it is physically possible 

 to do so, and who cannot walk noiselessly on the 

 tracks of wounded game. 



It has often been stated that on the approach of 

 a herd of elephants to drink at a pool of water, all 

 other animals will at once retire and make way for 

 them. Very likely this may be true as a general 

 rule, but I remember one occasion upon which a 

 herd of some thirty elephants coming down to drink 

 at a vley early in the night, and finding a large 

 herd of buffaloes at the water before them, waited 

 until these latter animals had quenched their thirst 

 and fed slowly off into the forest before themselves 

 going down to the pool. 



This happened on a night in November 1873, 

 when the moon, nearly at the full, was shining in 

 a cloudless sky. 



I was camped near a fine vley of fresh rain- 

 water in the country to the west of the river Gwai, 

 in Matabeleland, and had just finished my evening 

 meal, when a large herd of buffaloes came to drink, 

 and had hardly reached the water when we saw a 

 troop of elephants approaching. These latter passed 

 very near to my encampment, and must have seen 

 our fires, as one after another they faced towards us, 

 and stood looking in our direction with outspread 

 ears. They did not, however, get our wind, and 

 though they must have been suspicious, they were, 

 I suppose, very thirsty. But as long as the buffaloes 

 remained on the open ground round the pool of 

 water, the elephants did not advance, remaining 

 about a hundred yards away, just within the edge of 

 a thin forest of mopani trees. Directly, however, 

 the buffaloes had fed away into the forest on the 

 other side of the vley, the greater beasts advanced 

 very quickly to the water's edge, and, arranging 

 themselves in a row, stood for a long time sucking 



