CH. XIII] SMELL OF BIG GAME 381 



the carcass. He was full grown, and was ten feet nine 

 inches higli. The tusks were rather short, but thick, 

 and weighed a hmidred and ten pounds the pair. Out 

 of the trunk we made excellent soup. 



Several times while following the trail of this big bull 

 we could tell he was close by the strong elephant smell. 

 Most game animals have a peculiar scent, often strong 

 enough for the species to be readily recognizable before 

 it is seen, if in forest or jungle. On the open plains, of 

 course, one rarely gets close enough to an animal to 

 smell it before seeing it ; but I once smelt a herd of 

 hartebeest, when the wind was blowing strongly from 

 them, although they were out of sight over a gentle 

 rise. ^V^aterbuck have a very strong smell. Buffalo 

 smell very much like domestic cattle, but old bulls are 

 rank. More than once, in forest, my nostrils have 

 warned me before my eyes that I was getting near the 

 quarry whose spoor I was on. 



After leaving the elephant camp we journeyed through 

 country for the most part covered with an open forest 

 growth. The trees were chiefly acacias. Among them 

 were interspersed huge candelabra euphorbias, all in 

 bloom, and now and then one of the brilliant red- 

 flowering trees, which never seem to carry many leaves 

 at the same time with their gaudy blossoms. At one 

 place for miles the open forest was composed of the 

 pod-bearing, thick-leafed trees on which we had found 

 the elephants feeding ; their bark and manner of growth 

 gave them somewhat the look of jack-oaks ; where they 

 made up the forest, growing well apart from one another, 

 it reminded us of the cross-timbers of Texas and Okla- 

 homa. The grass was everywhere three or four feet 

 high ; here and there were patches of the cane-like 

 elephant-grass, fifteen feet high. 



