180 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
having a hard time to get a look at them. Finally, I 
had recourse to the somewhat hazardous experiment 
of beating on the tree trunks with sticks in the hope 
of scaring them into the open. This was successful. 
I followed them, but the grass was so high that I 
couldn’t see over it. I was in the act of climbing a 
tree for better observation when they came rolling 
along, grunting and squealing, back to the forest. 
They passed me within twenty-five yards. They 
were irritated sufficiently to convince me that it was 
time to let them alone and go to camp. I started 
along the edge of the forest. As I was pushing along 
through the high grass a few minutes later I heard 
another band coming out of the forest. As I couldn’t 
see over the grass I ran to an ant-hill. This ant-hill 
was six or seven feet high. As I got on top it I saw, 
about one hundred yards away, eleven great animals 
pass one by one over a little rise. I had as good a 
view of this majestic march as a man will ever get. 
When they had gone two or three hundred yards, they 
suddenly stopped. They had got down wind and 
had smelt me. Then they began to talk. There was 
grumbling and rumbling. Conversation of this kind 
meant trouble. It was an old story to me. And 
trouble came. They came back squealing and roar- 
ing. I had to wait the first two hundred yards of the 
charge without shooting for they were behind the 
ridge. Then they loomed up over it, led by an old 
cow with her trunk up and her great ears cocked. 
As the leader lost the scent and slowed a little, they 
jammed into a solid mass. Then the old cow saw me 
