HUNTING THE ELEPHANT. 273 



observed the fire ; he at once walked up to it, and, smelling ;U if. 

 with his trunk, seemed extremely amused, and in a gamboling 

 humor threw his trunk about, as if not knowing what to think of. 

 it. The larger bull now came up, and exposed a fine broadside : 

 we took h ; m behind the shoulder and fired together: on receiving 

 the shots, he wheeled about and held west with droo. ing ears, 

 evidently mortally wounded. 



Some time after this I detected an enormous old bull elephant 

 approaching from the west. If we lay still where we were, he 

 must in a few minutes get our wind, so we jumped up and ran 

 forward out of his line of march. Here a borele opposed our fur- 

 ther progress, and we had to stone him out of our way. The 

 elephant came on, and presently got the wind of where we had 

 been lying. This at once seemed to awake his suspicions, for he 

 stood still among the trees, stretching his trunk from side to side 

 to catch the scent, and doubtful whether he should advance or 

 retreat. We then ran toward him, and stalked in within forty 

 yards of where he stood, and, taking up a position behind a bush, 

 awaited his forward movement. The elephant came slowly for- 

 ward, and I thought would pass to windward of us, when he sud- 

 denly altered his course," and walked boldly forward right for 

 where we stood. He came on until within seven or eight yards, 

 when I coughed loudly to turn him. He tossed up his trunk and 

 turned quickly round to fly ; as he turned, however, we fired 

 together, when the elephant uttered a shrill cry of distress, and 

 crashed away, evidently hard hit. When this bull was standing 

 before us, we both remarked that he was the finest we had seen 

 that night : his tusks were extremely long, thick, and very un- 

 usually wide set. 



We now returned to the fountain, and once more lay down to 

 watch. Rhinoceroses, both black and white, were parading 

 around us all night in every direction. We had lain but a short 

 titne when I detected a single old bull elephant approaching from 

 the south by the same path which all the others had held. This 

 elephant must have been very thirsty, for he came boldly on with- 

 out any hesitation ; and, keeping to windward, walked pist within 

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