254 ELEPHANT-HUNTING [ch. x 



motionless, and up went the biggest elephant's trunk, 

 feeling for the wind. The watcher coughed again, and 

 then the bushes and saplings swayed and parted as three 

 black bulks came toward us. The cover was so high 

 that we could not see their tusks, only the tops of their 

 heads and their backs being visible. The leader was 

 the biggest, and at it 1 fired when it was sixty yards I 

 away, and nearly broadside on, but heading slightly 

 toward me. I had previously warned everyone to I 

 kneel. The recoil of the heavy rifle made me rock, as 

 I stood unsteadily on my perch, and I failed to hit the 

 brain. But the bullet, only missing the brain by an 

 inch or two, brought the elephant to its knees ; as it 

 rose I floored it with the second barrel. The blast ot 

 the big rifle, by the way, was none too pleasant for the 

 other men on the log, and made Cuninghame's nose 

 bleed. Reloading, I fired twice at the next animal, 

 which was now turning. It stumbled and nearly fell, 

 but at the same moment the first one rose again, and I 

 fired both barrels into its head, bringing it once more 

 to the ground. Once again it rose — an elephant's brain 

 is not an easy mark to hit under such conditions — but 

 as it moved slowly off, half-stunned, I snatched the 

 little Springfield rifle, and this time shot true, sending 

 the bullet into its brain. As it fell I took another shot 

 at the wounded elephant, now disappearing in the 

 forest, but without eflect. 



On walkin.g up to our prize it proved to be not a 

 cow, but a good-sized adult (but not old) herd bull, 

 with thick, short tusks, weighing about forty pounds 

 apiece. Ordinarily, of course, a bull, and not a cow, is 

 what one desires, although on this occasion I needed a 

 cow to complete the group for the National Museum. 

 However, Heller and Cuninghame spent the next few 



