ELEPHANT HUNTING 263 



the shambas, abutilon tips, and bark, and especially the 

 twigs, leaves, and white blossoms of a smaller shrub. The 

 tusks weighed a little over a hundred pounds the pair. 



We still needed a cow for the museum; and a couple 

 of days later, at noon, a party of natives brought in word 

 that they had seen two cows in a spot five miles away. 

 Piloted by a naked spearman, whose hair was done into a 

 cue, we rode toward the place. For most of the distance 

 we followed old elephant trails, in some places mere tracks 

 beaten down through stiff grass which stood above the 

 head of a man on horseback, in other places paths rutted 

 deep into the earth. We crossed a river, where monkeys 

 chattered among the tree tops. On an open plain we saw 

 a rhinoceros cow trotting off with her calf. At last we came 

 to a hill-top with, on the summit, a noble fig-tree, whose 

 giant limbs were stretched over the palms that clustered 

 beneath. Here we left our horses and went forward on 

 foot, crossing a palm-fringed stream in a little valley. From 

 the next rise we saw the backs of the elephants as they 

 stood in a slight valley, where the rank grass grew ten or 

 twelve feet high. It was some time before we could see the 

 ivory so as to be sure of exactly what we were shooting. 

 Then the biggest cow began to move slowly forward, and 

 we walked nearly parallel to her, along an elephant trail, 

 until from a slight knoll I got a clear view of her at a dis- 

 tance of eighty yards. As she walked leisurely along, almost 

 broadside to me, I fired the right barrel of the Holland 

 into her head, knocking her flat down with the shock; and 

 when she rose I put a bullet from the left barrel through 

 her heart, again knocking her completely off her feet; 

 and this time she fell permanently. She was a very old 



7* 



