338 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



as their habit is, the recurrence of intestinal rumblings 

 betrays their whereabouts. In the bamboo jungles, 

 whither they appear to resort at any and every hour 

 of the twenty-four to browse, the disturbance among 

 the feathery bamboo crowns caused by busy trunk 

 tips shows you where they are if you do not first hear 

 the thrash, thrash, as they break the thicker bamboos 

 against their knees. The trunk writhing and playing 

 among the concealing bamboo foliage is oddly 

 suggestive of a monkey's gambols : long after I 

 ought to have known better I mistook one for the 

 other. Needless to say, the big beasts themselves are 

 completely hidden by the thick cane brake, and you 

 must creep very close indeed to see them. Given a 

 favourable wind and a pair of tennis shoes, you can 

 do this, but it is throwing more responsibility on 

 your guardian angel than that officer should be asked 

 to sustain, as the elephants, if they fail to locate 

 the enemy as they wind him, rush hither and thither, 

 smashing their way through the bamboos like dogs 

 through corn, and the adventurous sportsman is more 

 liable to be run down by accident than to get a shot 

 at all likely to kill. 



I am rather of the opinion that to take up and 

 follow on foot the freshest elephant spoor is not 

 worth the trouble. You may follow the beast for 

 hours together, encouraged by occasional glimpses of 

 his hind-quarters, often, it may be, within fifty yards ; 

 and he may consider it desirable to stop and rest for a 

 while, but the chances of getting round him through 

 the heavy jungle and creeping near enough to put in 



