TO THE UASIN GISHU 



349 



were smaller, but better shaped. The latter stood half 

 facing me, and I put the bullet from the right barrel of the 

 Holland through her lungs, and fired the left barrel for the 

 heart of the other. Tarlton, and then Akeley and Kermit, 

 followed suit. At once the herd started diagonally past us, 

 but half halted and faced toward us when only twenty-five 

 yards distant, an unwounded cow beginning to advance 

 with her great ears cocked at right angles to her head; and 

 Tarlton called "Look out; they are coming for us." At 

 such a distance a charge from half a dozen elephant is a 

 serious thing; I put a bullet into the forehead of the ad- 

 vancing cow, causing her to lurch heavily forward to her 

 knees; and then we all fired. The heavy rifles were too 

 much even for such big beasts, and round they spun and 

 rushed off. As they turned I dropped the second cow I had 

 wounded with a shot in the brain, and the cow that had start- 

 ed to charge also fell, though it needed two or three more 

 shots to keep it down as it struggled to rise. The cow at 

 which I had first fired kept on with the rest of the herd, 

 but fell dead before going a hundred yards. After we had 

 turned the herd Kermit with his Winchester killed a bull 

 calf, necessary to complete the museum group; we had 

 been unable to kill it before because we were too busy 

 stopping the charge of the cows. I was sorry to have to 

 shoot the third cow, but with elephant starting to charge 

 at twenty-five yards the risk is too great, and the need of 

 instant action too imperative, to allow of any hesitation. 



We pitched camp a hundred yards from the elephants, 

 and Akeley, working like a demon, and assisted by Tarlton, 

 had the skins off the two biggest cows and the calf by the 

 time night fell; I walked out and shot an oribi for supper. 



