418 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



herd, and followed him accordingly. Cantering alongside, 1 wan 

 about to fire, when he instantly turned, and, uttering a trumpet so 

 strong and shrill that the earth seemed to vibrate beneath my feet, 

 b* charged furiously after me for several hundred yards in a direct 

 line, not altering his course in the slightest degree for the trees of 

 the forest, which he snapped and overthrew like reeds in his headlong 

 career. 



When he pulled up in his charge, I also halted ; and as he slowly 

 turned to retreat, I let fly at his shoulder, " Sunday" capering and 

 prancing, and giving me much trouble. On receiving the ball the 

 elephant shrugged his shoulder, and made off at a free majestic walk. 

 This shot brought several of the dogs to my assistance which had 

 been following the other elephants, and on their coming up and 

 barking another headlong charge was the result, accompanied by the 

 never-failing trumpet as before. In his charge he passed close to me, 

 when I saluted him with a second bullet in the shoulder, of which 

 he did not take the slightest notice. I now determined not to fire 

 again until I could make a steady shot; but, although the elephant 

 turned repeatedly, " Sunday" invariably disappointed me, capering 

 so that it was impossible to fire. 



At length, exasperated, I became reckless of the danger, and, 

 springing from the saddle, approached the elephant under cover of 

 a tree, and gave him a bullet in the side of the head, when, trum- 

 peting so shrilly that the forest trembled, he charged among the 

 dogs, from whom he seemed to fancy that the blow had come ; after 

 which he took up a position in a grove of thorns, with his head to- 

 wards me. I walked up very near, and, as he was in the act of 

 charging (being in those days under wrong impressions as to the im- 

 practicability of bringing down an elephant with a shot in the fore- 

 head,) stood coolly in his path until he was within fifteec paces of 

 me, and let drive at the hollow of his forehead, in the vain expecta- 

 tion that by so doing I should end his career. The shot only served 

 to increase his fury an effect which, I had remarked, shots in the 

 head invariably produced; and, continuing his charge with incredible 

 quickness and impetuosity, he all but terminated my elephant-hunting 

 for ever. A large party of the Bechuanas who had come up yelled 



