CHAE TER XX I. 
Four SPORTING ADVENTURES : NARROW ESCAPE FROM AN ENRAGED 
ELEPHANT — THE RHINOCEROSES’ PROMENADE —CHARGED BY AN ELE— 
PHANT — SHOOTING A JUMBO. 
WILL here mention four sporting incidents which 
happened on the journey. 
NARROW ESCAPE FROM AN ENRAGED ELEPHANT. 
There were elephants in the neighborhood, so I deter- 
mined to avail myself of the opportunity to hunt them. 
Starting off with Dodson and an escort of ten rifles, we 
tramped for a long time through the bushes, passing many 
fresh tracks of elephants, but not seeing the beasts them- 
selves until we reached a large forest of sycamores. I 
began to despair of finding the beasts, and was walking 
along rather carelessly when I saw a pair of ears flapping 
above a bush only a few yards away; but luckily the beast 
was asleep and did not hear us. 
Motioning for my Somalis to get out of the way, I took 
my position with Dodson behind some brush only twenty 
yards away. I knew that from that distance I could place a 
bullet from my eight-bore where I wished, — that is, just a 
little behind the shoulder; but alas! a shot from an eight- 
bore, even in the right spot, is only occasionally effective 
when you have to deal witha large bull elephant. As soon 
as I fired, the elephant screamed and walked away, receiving 
in his side a second charge from the eight-bore, and two 
bullets from the .577 express, which Dodson was using. 
