Shooting by Moonlight. 145 



large elephant, when a branch of hooked thorn caught 

 W. by the clothes ; the noise that he made in extricat- 

 ing himself immediately attracted the attention of the 

 elephant, and she turned quickly round, receiving at 

 the same moment an ineffectual shot from W. B. at 

 the same time fired without effect at one of the small 

 elephants. The mother, hearing a roar from the small 

 elephant that B. had wounded, immediately rushed up 

 to it, and they stood side by side in the water about fif- 

 teen yards from the bank. The large elephant now 

 cocked her ears and turned her head from side to side with 

 great quickness to discover an enemy. I ran close to 

 the water's edge, and the mother perceiving me imme- 

 diately came forward. I could hardly distinguish the 

 sights of my rifle, and I was, therefore, obliged to wait 

 till she was within four or five paces before I fired. She 

 gave me a good shot and dropped dead. The young 

 one was rushing about and roaring in a tremendous 

 manner, having again been fired at and wounded by B 

 and W. By this time I had got a spare gun, and, wad 

 ing into the tank, I soon came to such close quarters 

 that I could not miss, and one shot killed him. The 

 other small elephant escaped unseen in the confusion 

 caused by the firing. 



The following evening we again watched the pool, 

 and once more a mother and her young one came to 

 drink. W. and B. extinguished the young one while I 

 killed the mother. 



This watching by moonlight is a kind of sport that 

 I do not admire ; it is a sort of midnight murder ; and 

 many a poor brute who comes to the silent pool to cool 

 his parched tongue finds only a cup of bitterness, and 

 retires again to his jungle haunts to die a lingering 

 13 E 



