CHAPTER VII 



MAULED BY AN ELEPHANT 



AL day the sun had been beating down 

 upon us, one hundred and ten degrees 

 strong. As I sat in my tent on the 

 shore of that wonderful Lake Albert which Sir 

 Samuel W. Baker discovered on March 14, 1864, 

 there was naught in the climate or the coun- 

 try to remind me of the winter they were having 

 back in York State save the gentle tinkling noise, 

 made by the myriads of frogs or toads, that 

 sounded like distant sleigh-bells. 



We were due at Butiaba the day before but 

 were detained a day by waiting at the last camp 

 to secure the tusks and feet of an ugly old 

 "rogue" elephant that Colonel Roosevelt had 

 killed at the earnest solicitation of the natives. 



The hunters had come upon the brute in the 

 tall grass, and, true to the chief's warning, it 

 charged the instant that it saw them and before 

 a shot had been fired. 



As we marched into Butiaba we were met 

 by Captain Hutchison, who congratulated the 



89 



