193 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



as high and wide come towering forward into the open 

 space that surrounded the fountain. 



Nor did I watch long in vain, for very soon three 

 princely bull elephants appeared exactly where the first 

 came on, and holding exactly the same course. They 

 approached just as the first had done. When the lead- 

 ing elephant came within ten yards of us, he got our 

 wind and tossed up his trunk, and was wheeling round 

 to retreat, when we fired together, and sent our bullets 

 somewhere about his heart. He ran two hundred yards 

 and then stood, being evidently dying. His comrades 

 halted likewise, but one of them, the finest of the three, 

 almost immediately turned his head once more to the 

 fountain, and very slowly and warily came on. We 

 now heard the wounded elephant utter the cry of death, 

 and fall heavily on the earth. Carey, whose ears were 

 damaged by the bursting of the big rifle, did not catch 

 this sound, but swore that the elephant which now so 

 stealthily approached the water was the one at which 

 we had fired. 



It was interesting to observe this grand old bull ap- 

 proach the fountain : he seemed to mistrust the very 

 earth on which he stood, and smelt and examined with 

 his trunk every yard of the ground before he trod on 

 it, and sometimes stood five minutes on one spot with- 

 out moving. At length, having gone round three sides 

 of the fountain, and being apparently satisfied as to the 

 correctness of every thing, he stepped boldly forward 

 on to the rock on the west, and, walking up within si.Kt 

 or seven yards of the muzzles of our rifles, turned his 

 broadside, and, lowering his trunk into the water, drew 

 up a volume of water, which he threw over his back 

 and shoulders to cool his person. This operation he re- 

 peated two or three times, after which he commenced 



