92 ELEPHANT AND BISON 



reputed to have killed three men during the last 

 two years. He had repeatedly chased natives 

 and had done a good deal of destruction in the way 

 of damaging their crops and their huts. About 

 the middle of the marsh and only some 40 yards 

 from him, immovable owing to the mud, stood 

 an old gentleman full of fever and rheumatism, 

 with large gold spectacles on his nose and a too 

 light rifle in his hands. As I have said, I felt an 

 irresistible desire to laugh, the whole thing seemed 

 so comical. 



I took the steadiest aim I could, and my direc- 

 tion was perfectly correct, but I shot a bit too 

 high. I knew I was doing so, but I could not help 

 it owing to the elephant standing so much above 

 me. To have fired lower would have been to hit 

 him in the trunk, and I dared not take any risks. 

 Vernede told me afterward that I had hit him in 

 what is known as the brain-box, the spongy, bony 

 case which holds the brain, but I think I must have 

 scraped his brain as well, because he stood as 

 though suddenly paralysed. I gave him a second 

 shot very near the first with my second barrel, 

 again unavoidably firing a bit too high, but it 

 was sufficient for him. The elephant turned 

 round and with difficulty climbed the bank behind 

 him. I frankly confess to feeling a sense of relief 

 when I saw that he had given up the idea of 

 charging, for with the light rifle I had, nothing 

 could have stopped him. As he lifted his fore-leg 

 on to the higher ground I let him have a bullet 

 behind the shoulder. Up to then no one had fired 

 but myself, but I called out to Vernede to give him 

 a shot from my heavy -8 bore rifle, as I was so 



