124 In the Heart of Africa 



stalks getting gradually nearer, and expected every moment to 

 see the elephants appear in the clearing, but in vain. During 

 the night, however, one of them burst noisily past the camp not 

 a hundred paces away. 



I determined to try my luck the next morning. Setting out, 

 clad in a thick hunting jacket, I found the grass again frosted, 

 and it required a very short search to locate the fresh tracks 

 of the elephants in the long meadow grass below the camp. 



What contrasts life offers us ! An elephant hunt on frozen 

 ground ! My mind carried me back to a day, almost to the 

 exact time of the year, when I had hunted a fine rutting stag 

 amidst the September scenery of Hungarian mountains, accom- 

 panied by similar cold. 



We now picked up the trail on the frosted, crackling meadow, 

 and it led us, without perceptibly rising, to the southern slope 

 of Mgahinga through a glorious leafy wood where the morning 

 sun's rays played on the tree tops, and the long drooping 

 creepers lost themselves in the underwood. 



From a little distance away we heard the chewing of the 

 browsing beasts. The brushwood where the herd had passed 

 was trampled down in broad tracks. This served as a sure sign 

 that the elephants, who were still busy feeding, moved along 

 but slowly. We crept on now with hearts beating some- 

 what higher and with extreme caution, avoiding every thorn 

 and sprig and clambering noiselessly over broken boughs and 

 twigs. The elephants could scarcely have been fifty paces away 

 from us. Suddenly something crackled at my side, and step- 

 ping out from behind a bush I almost knocked up against an 

 elephant, but alas ! going straight away from my gun. He 

 must have noticed something, for turning sharply round he fled. 

 My eye was soon searching for a good place to hit him and for 

 rear and fore-sight of my rifle, and as the colossus, with his 

 tremendous ears flapping, trotted across a small glade, I fired 

 a ball obliquely, just behind the ear. He fell without uttering 

 a sound, and hurrying up I found that he was dead. 



Whilst still lost in contemplation of the mighty creature, 



