INEFFICIENCY OF LARGE-BORE RIFLES. 223 
received over a hundred bullets, a dozen of them being 
from my .577 express; but still he walked on, until my boys 
abandoned the chase. I was thoroughly disgusted at the 
result of this elephant hunt. Two fine beasts had been 
wounded, both of them with large tusks, and must surely 
die; but it was doubtful if I should ever see them again. 
I was so disappointed at the effects of the bullets from my 
eight-bore, planted at close quarters, directly over the 
region of the heart, that I determined to use this rifle 
only as a reserve weapon in future, and to depend entirely 
on shooting elephants in the brain with my .577. 
Taking out the thick wads from my .577 cartridges, I 
loaded the cases up with seven anda half drams of powder, 
just managing to clasp the base of the hardened bullet so 
that it would not fall out. This, I thought, would be a 
more sportsmanlike way of shooting elephants, at any rate, 
even though I might not kill so many; for if I hit them in 
the head and did not reach the brain, I should at least not 
give them such a wound that they would go away and 
die afterwards. There was much rain in the afternoon, 
and the valley of the Galana was converted into a swamp. 
This valley, called the “ Budessa Galana,” is ten to twelve 
miles wide and thirty miles long,and bounded on the north 
by the high Konso range of mountains, while on the south 
the Tertala Mountains continue eastward all the way to 
the Amara and the Jan Jams. 
Clouds of mosquitoes make life almost unendurable for 
human beings, while the gendi fly soon puts an end to the 
lives of all domestic animals. To avoid the fly, I had the 
camp pitched as high up on the mountains as possible, 
and five miles from the river. But still, in spite of this 
precaution, the animals suffered greatly, as my narrative 
will show later. On the morning of April 28 I sent out 
men in different directions, and went myself, in search of 
