410 IMJMING ADVENTURES. 



spooring ; we, however, threaded it out for a considerable distance, 

 when it joined the spoor of other bulls. The natives now requested 

 rae to halt, while men went off in different directions to reconnoitre. 



In the mean time a tremenduous conflagration was roaring and 

 crackling close to windward of us. It was caused by the Bakalahari 

 burning the old dry'grass to enable the young to spring up with 

 greater facility, whereby they retained the game within their domi- 

 nions. The fire stretched away for many miles on either side of us 

 darkening the forest far to leeward with a dense and impenetrable 

 canopy of smoke. Here we remained for about half an hour, when 

 one of the men returned, reporting that he had discovered elephants. 

 This I could scarcely credit, for I fancied that the extensive fire 

 which raged so fearfully must have driven, not only elephants, but 

 every living creature out of the district. The native, however, pointed 

 to his eye, repeating the word " Klow," and signed to me to follow 

 him. My guide led me about a mile through dense forest, when wo 

 reached a little well wooded hill, to whose summit we ascended, whence 

 a view might have been obtained of the surrounding country, had 

 not volumes of smoke obscured the scenery far and wide, as though 

 issuing from the funnels of a thousand steamboats. Here, to my as- 

 tonishment, my guide halted, and pointed to the thicket close beneath 

 me, when I instantly perceived the collossal backs of a herd of bull 

 elephants. There they stood quietly browsing on the lee side of tho 

 hill, while the fire in its might was raging to windward within two 

 hundred yards of them. 



I directed Johannus to choose an elephant, and promised to reward 

 him should he prove successful. Galloping furiously down the hill, 

 I started the elephants with an unearthly yell, and instantly selected 

 the finest in the herd. Placing myself alongside, I fired both barrels 

 behind the shoulder, when he instantly turned upon rae, and in his 

 impetuous career charged head foremost against a large bushy tree, 

 which he sent flying before him high in the air with tremenduous 

 force, coming down at the same moment violently on his knees. He 

 then met the raging fire, when, altering his course, he wheeled to 

 the right-about. As I galloped after him I perceived another noble 

 elephant meeting us in an opposite direction, and presently the gallant 



