244 ELEPHANT-HUNTING [ch. x 



Then I came, clad in khaki-coloured flannel shirt and 

 khaki trousers buttoning down the legs, with hobnailed 

 shoes, and a thick slouch hat. 1 had intended to wear 

 rubber-soled shoes, but the soaked ground was too 

 slippery. My two gun- bearers followed, carrying the 

 Holland and the Springfield. Then came Heller, at 

 the head of a dozen porters and skinners ; he and they 

 were to fall behind when we actually struck fresh 

 elephant spoor, but to follow our trail by the help of a 

 Dorobo who was left with them. 



For three hours our route lay along the edge of the 

 woods. We climbed into and out of deep ravines in 

 which groves of tree-ferns clustered. We waded through 

 streams of swift water, whose course was broken by 

 cataract and rapid. We passed through shambas and 

 by the doors of little hamlets of thatched beehive huts. 

 We met flocks of goats and hairy, fat-tailed sheep 

 guarded by boys ; strings of burden-bearing women 

 stood meekly to one side to let us pass ; parties of 

 young men sauntered by, spear in hand. 



Then we struck into the great forest, and in an 

 instant the sun w^as shut from sight by the thick screen 

 of wet foliage. It was a riot of twisted vines, inter- 

 lacing the trees and bushes. Only the elephant paths, 

 which, of every age, crossed and recrossed it hither and 

 thither, made it passable. One of the chief difliculties 

 in hunting elephants in the forest is that it is impossible 

 to travel, except very slowly and with much noise, olf 

 these trails, so that it is sometimes very difficult to 

 take advantage of the wind ; and altliough the sight of 

 the elephant is dull, both its sense of hearing and its 

 sense of smell are exceedingly acute. 



Hour after hour we worked our way onward through 

 tangled forest and matted jungle. There was little sign 



