344 TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 



her knees ; and then we all fired. The heavy rifles 

 were too much even for such big beasts, and round they 

 spun and rushed off. As they turned I dropped the 

 second cow I had wounded with a shot in the brain, 

 and the cow that had started to charge also fell, though 

 it needed two or three more shots to keep it down as it 

 struggled to rise. The cow at which I had flrst flred 

 kept on with the rest of the herd, but fell dead before 

 going a hundred yards. After we had turned the herd 

 Kermit with his Winchester killed a bull calf, necessary 

 to complete the Museum group ; we had been unable to 

 kill it before because we were too busy stopping the 

 charge of the cows. I was sorry to have to shoot the 

 third cow, but with elephant starting to charge at 

 twenty-five yards the risk is too great, and the need 

 of instant action too imperative, to allow of any 

 hesitation. 



We pitched camp a hundred yards from the elephants, 

 and Akeley, working like a demon, and assisted by 

 Tarlton, had the skins off the two biggest cows and the 

 calf by the time night fell. I walked out and shot an 

 oribi for supper. Soon after dark the hyenas began to 

 gather at the carcasses and to quarrel among themselves 

 as they gorged. Toward morning a lion came near and 

 uttered a kind of booming, long-drawn moan, an ominous 

 and menacing sound. The hyenas answered with an 

 extraordinary chorus of yelling, howling, laughing, and 

 chuckling, as weird a volume of noise as any to which 

 I ever listened. At dawn we stole down to the carcasses 

 in the faint hope of a shot at the lion. However, he 

 was not there ; but as we came toward one carcass a 

 hyena raised its head seemingly from beside the elephant's 

 belly, and I brained it with the little Springfleld. On 

 walking up it appeared that 1 need not have shot at all. 



